The National Theater and Concert Hall (NTCH) in Taipei “needs to move with the times to maintain its significance in society,” its Artistic Director Liu Yi-ruu (劉怡汝) said in a recent interview.
Liu added it is not enough for appreciation of the performing arts to be limited always to the same group of people.
“The industry needs to venture outside its realm and find a place among the general public,” said Liu, who returned to the NTCH in April 2018 as its artistic director after a four-year break.
Photo: CNA
She said one initiative to attract wider patronage was the renovation of the Performing Arts Library, which is scheduled to reopen on Jan. 20. It will offer better access for people with disabilities and accommodation for the average person.
“Regular folks may be intimidated by the idea of going to a live performance, but they can easily go to the library to watch videos or listen to the audio of a performance,” Liu said.
The new library, which has seen a decline in visitors that averaged 1,000 per year over the past three years, has meeting spaces and is designed to serve as a window on the NTCH, Liu said.
Photo: CNA
In an effort to attract more people, the NTCH has introduced audio guides of its performances, subtitles during performances and child-care services for theater and concert-goers, she said.
There is also a more relaxed approach during certain performances, which allows people in the audience to enter and leave at anytime, Liu said.
Nonetheless, Liu said, performances remain central to the NTCH, which is now also producing shows instead of just hosting them.
At the Taiwan International Festival of Arts, which will be held March 2 to May 2, the NTCH will produce A Thousand Stages, Yet I Have Never Quite Lived, a solo performance by Peking opera star Wei Hai-min (魏海敏) that looks back on the past six decades of Taiwan’s history through the eyes of six iconic characters.
Liu said she is also working to bring the NTCH into the modern age of digitization, by updating its Internet infrastructure and ticketing system, as well as using 5G technology to stream performances to audiences outside the venue.
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the NTCH has also been experimenting with technology to see if it could host virtual presentations, she said.
In a series of talks held on Dec. 26, the NTCH reviewed three online productions it had commissioned and presented in the second half of last year, as well as an online show and a live streamed one, and said it would continue to explore such presentations.
The challenge facing the performing arts, however, remains attracting and retaining a sustainable audience, said Liu, who has worked for 30 years as an administrator in the field.
She said people should pay attention to how their tax dollars are spent by the state-run NTCH, as it seeks to help bring about the sector’s evolution.
Benjamin Chen (陳昱安) didn’t know how intense a hackathon could be. “You literally work non-stop. You don’t eat breakfast, you don’t eat lunch because you really need to finish the product,” the 10th-grader from Taipei American School says. “You feel the adrenaline rushing… It’s refreshing, I was like a new person.” Chen became fascinated by these round-the-clock competitions to create technology or software products, and participated in 10 more before he decided to start one that focused on his twin passions of economics and technology. He says there are many hackathons that delve into social and environmental issues, but few have
The town of Baolai (寶來) is located along the Southern Cross-Island Highway in the upper reaches of Kaohsiung City. After suffering a devastating setback at the hands of Typhoon Morakot, the town’s tourism industry is finally showing signs of recovery. While the town itself has many commercial hot spring offerings for tourists, the adjacent Baolai River also has at least five different wild hot springs available to those with a more adventurous spirit. SHIDONG AND WUKENG Just before entering the town of Baolai, make two right turns to reach the bridge across the Baolai River. Immediately after crossing this bridge, there is
Jan. 25 to Jan. 30 It was the beginning of the end when Dutch sergeant Hans Jurgen Radis walked out of Fort Zeelandia and surrendered to the besieging army of Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功, also known as Koxinga). The Dutch had already been trapped in the fort for nine months, and they were sick, hungry and in despair. After one defection during the early days of the siege, Dutch commander Frederick Coyett set up checkpoints around the fort’s perimeter, in what is today’s Tainan. Radis told his bunkmate he was going hunting, but by the time they realized where
“Well, if it cannot happen this year because of the pandemic,” Tourism Bureau Director General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰) says at the end of his interview with Cycling Shorts last week, “at least we’ll be ready to promote it next year.” Chang is discussing the Year of Cycling Tourism (自行車旅遊年) that has long been planned for this year. He has spent the previous 30 minutes introducing the various infrastructure projects undertaken over recent years and those proposed for the next few. Essentially, the Bureau, under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), has been pulling together resources from a wide range of
RSS