At an intimate little press conference Wednesday, the Spring Wind Art Theater announced that their performance venue in Kaohsiung would be closing at the end of this year. The closure of one of the only alternative performance spaces available in the southern city will be a sad loss, but as Spring Wind's director Chen Chi-yang (陳姿仰) emphasized, this will not affect the continued existence of the performance group, who will relocate to their rehearsal hall.
In order to give the venue a suitable farewell, Spring Wind has invited four of Taipei's most dynamic experimental groups down to Kaohsiung for a final performance under the umbrella of the Small Theater New Wave Exposition (
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPRING WIND
Spring Wind has been active in Kaohsiung on many fronts, helping to foster new talent and also providing a steady diet of experimental and children's theater. Chen said it has always been very difficult to get Taipei-based groups to visit, so this event has a particular importance for her. She added that with the relocation of the group, they would turn their energies more exclusively to the development of original works.
Spring Wind's mini theater festival will open on Dec. 28 with Shakespeare's Sisters (
Riverbed Theater will be putting on Gasoline Smiles by Craig Quintero from Jan. 4, Rivegauche will play From Today (
While most of these works have been performed before, some such as Gasoline Smiles and Night Bus, Good Morning have undergone some level of reworking. "The play is developing, and we are constantly working on it so that it stays alive," Quintero of Riverbed Theater said.
Keeping alive the dynamism that is the foundation of experimental theater is also what Small Theater New Wave Exposition is about, and for people living in the south, this is a fantastic chance to catch groups which are pushing the boundaries of theater in Taiwan. Tickets are NT$300 and are available through Acer ticketing outlets.
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