Wu Hsiao-hsien (吳效賢), founder of Guts Improv Theater (勇氣即興劇場), says improvisational actors have a saying that one in five performances flop.
But this is where the genre’s excitement lies.
Improvisers have to act, sing or play musical instruments impromptu, which can lead to surprising, hilarious and downright bizarre dialogues and scenes — but also awkward silences and jokes that miss the mark.
“The audience will be adventuring with the improvisers,” says Wu. “They will feel fearful if performers find themselves on the verge of a blunder.”
Established four years ago as Taiwan’s first Mandarin improvisational theater group, Guts Improv Theater presents three forms of unscripted drama for audiences at Taipei’s Comedy Club this weekend.
In Improv Games actors solicit suggestions from the audience for a story to use in five- to 10-minute dramas. In Unscripted Love Story actors stage an hour-long romantic narrative, double the length of the group’s previous long-form dramas, with members of the audience contributing story suggestions. And in Improv Jam those in the audience who are bold enough have the chance to try their luck on stage.
Though actors will be on hand to offer guidance during Improv Jam, short-form improv is no easy task.
“Having to give a sense of the segment’s ending in a 10-minute skit is challenging,” says Wu. “With a longer drama, you have more time to establish your characters and their relationships.”
For Unscripted Love Story musician Jane Lin (林伊真) will compose songs extemporaneously while performers Strawberry Kao (高琇慧), Chang I-hui (張亦暉), Renee Wang (王思為) and Lamen Wang (王志龍) join in with lyrics on the fly.
To make this kind of cooperation possible, improvisers have to spend a great deal of time rehearsing together as a team.
Wu likens improv theater to playing tennis. “You have no idea whatsoever of the playing style your opponent will have, but you still have to work on your returns, serves and other basic skills. It’s the same with improv. We don’t know what our story line will be beforehand, yet we can practice our techniques in improvisation and storytelling.”
This is the year that the demographic crisis will begin to impact people’s lives. This will create pressures on treatment and hiring of foreigners. Regardless of whatever technological breakthroughs happen, the real value will come from digesting and productively applying existing technologies in new and creative ways. INTRODUCING BASIC SERVICES BREAKDOWNS At some point soon, we will begin to witness a breakdown in basic services. Initially, it will be limited and sporadic, but the frequency and newsworthiness of the incidents will only continue to accelerate dramatically in the coming years. Here in central Taiwan, many basic services are severely understaffed, and
Jan. 5 to Jan. 11 Of the more than 3,000km of sugar railway that once criss-crossed central and southern Taiwan, just 16.1km remain in operation today. By the time Dafydd Fell began photographing the network in earnest in 1994, it was already well past its heyday. The system had been significantly cut back, leaving behind abandoned stations, rusting rolling stock and crumbling facilities. This reduction continued during the five years of his documentation, adding urgency to his task. As passenger services had already ceased by then, Fell had to wait for the sugarcane harvest season each year, which typically ran from
It is a soulful folk song, filled with feeling and history: A love-stricken young man tells God about his hopes and dreams of happiness. Generations of Uighurs, the Turkic ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang region, have played it at parties and weddings. But today, if they download it, play it or share it online, they risk ending up in prison. Besh pede, a popular Uighur folk ballad, is among dozens of Uighur-language songs that have been deemed “problematic” by Xinjiang authorities, according to a recording of a meeting held by police and other local officials in the historic city of Kashgar in
It’s a good thing that 2025 is over. Yes, I fully expect we will look back on the year with nostalgia, once we have experienced this year and 2027. Traditionally at New Years much discourse is devoted to discussing what happened the previous year. Let’s have a look at what didn’t happen. Many bad things did not happen. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not attack Taiwan. We didn’t have a massive, destructive earthquake or drought. We didn’t have a major human pandemic. No widespread unemployment or other destructive social events. Nothing serious was done about Taiwan’s swelling birth rate catastrophe.
RSS