Tien Arts Festival (
To make the event a showcase of local talent, Huang has never followed the strategy of other theater events -- such as the recent Little Asia Theater/Dance Exchange Network -- of inviting international performance groups to attract media attention. Originality is the keyword of the festival. "It's common for young groups to adopt theater classics in producing their works, but we have always insisted that groups show their creativity by writing original scripts," said Huang.
Courtesy of Tien Cultural Foundation
Due in part to the current economic recession, this year's event, unlike in previous years, received no government subsidy from the Bureau for Culture Affairs. However, Huang decided to push through with the event, acting on the principle of promoting performance arts among young people. Financial difficulties aside, this year has seen changes in the recruited groups and their works.
Photo Courtesy of Tien Cultural Foundation
"This year's participants are markedly more `honest,'" Huang said. This refers to the groups' decision to produce relatively realistic works when most other alternative theater performances tend to go over one's head.
The festival, which includes five performances, will begin tonight with Where Are You Going (
Its three parts are about decision-making. The first story tells of the strained relationships between two sisters and their father and focuses on the decision the sisters have to make about whether to accept a dinner their father has cooked for them.
The next story bears some incidental similarities to Nobel laureate Gao Xinjian's novel Soul Mountain (靈山). Dealing with existentialism, the story has an actor conversing with God and trying to decide what to do with his spiritual life. The serious part of the performance is followed by a lighthearted love story between a eucalyptus tree and a panda. The dialogues between the two express the various choices lovers have to make in a relationship.
The group taking the stage next week will be the Tien Experimental Theater Group (
The story starts with six girls going camping. Their chat beside the bonfire reveals the embarrassing secrets and romantic hangups most everyone has encountered in their lives, drawing sympathy from the audience. Meanwhile, three bank robbers rush to the campsite to retrieve their plunder which has been buried at the same place the girls are camped.
Supernatural elements, like ghost characters, frequently appear on stage, sending chills through the audience. Even more mysterious happenings lead ultimately to the death of all the characters. "Death is the inevitable end for everyone, no matter if one's life has been smooth or rough. Our play is trying to show that, with death in sight, no problem is so bad as to weigh you down," said Huang, the work's director and playwright.
After Tien's performance, GPP Playground(GPP
Sounds of Death (
The storyline focuses on two people; one is a terminally ill young boy in desperate need of a heart transplant, but unwilling to take the heart of a felon, and other of the criminal's wife who can never forgive her husband. "The play is about forgiveness. I try to present people's attitude toward organs donated by deathrow prisoners through the characters. The plot shows how hard it is for us to forgive a criminal," Tang said.
The Elfs Dance Group's (
Shanbala Theater Workshop (
Performance Notes:
Where Are You Going, by the SGB Club, 7:30pm Oct. 19 and 2:30pm and 7:30pm Oct 20 and 21; Camping, by Tien Experimental Theater Group, 7:30pm Oct. 26 and at 2:30pm and 7:30pm, Oct. 27 and 28; Sounds of Death, by GPP Playground, at 7:30pm on Nov. 2 and at 2:30pm and 7:30 on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4; Jenny Lang's Formula of Desire, by the Elfs Dance Group, 7:30pm Nov. 9 and at 2:30pm and 7:30pm Nov. 10 and Nov. 11. Women, by Shanbala Theater Workshop, 7:30pm Nov. 16 and at 2:30pm and 7:30pm Nov. 17 and 18. All performances are at the Tien Experimental Theater, B2, 24, Hsinhai Rd. Tickets are NT$300 and are available at Acer ticket outlets.
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