Landis and Company are back in Taiwan on their third visit to perform a series of fairy tales that Landis Smith, the group's artistic director, says goes beyond children's theater.
"I don't like the label Ochildren's theater' because in the US it is often seen as being something very amateurish," Smith said. "We want children's first contact with theater to be with something really good."
Back in 1985 the company staged The Symphony and the Sorcerer with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as a way of introducing young people to symphonic music. Since then, they have developed a number of "family entertainments"
that combine puppetry, mask, magic and physical theater. The reason Landis
and Company chose to blend these old theatrical traditions is largely a
response to the world of modern entertainment.
"If you want to be realistic, film and television can do that so much
better," Smith said. "The cleverness of a live performance is something that
you cannot get [from film and TV]." For Smith and executive producer
Jennifer Blatchley Smith, theater is about involving the audience in the
storytelling process. "We don't need to compete. We don't want to."
Shifting between shadow puppet theater to mime, and incorporating illusion
and magic tricks, the Smiths aim to create a sense of wonder. "The stories
we tell [mostly traditional fairly tales] are often stories about
transformation," Smith said. "And the transformations created by magic are
also a metaphor for these transformation in the characters."
Landis and Company will perform at Taipei's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 7:30pm
April 4 to April 6 and 2:30pm April 6 before touring in Kaohsiung, Taichung,
Tainan and Hsinchu. Tickets for Taipei shows are NT$400 to NT$800. Check
url: http://www.parisint.com.tw for more information.
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