Shan Puppet × Hong Puppet Inside Out: A Tale of Allure and Enchantment
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World Premiere
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Nationality
Taiwan
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When
3/21-23(Fri.-Sun.) 19:30
3/22-23(Sat.-Sun.) 14:30
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Where
Experimental Theater
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Production
Hong Puppet Theatre & Shan Puppet Theatre
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Ticket Price
600
Breaking the traditional framework and creating a new world
Opening the black box and revealing evil spirits to bewilder human senses
Inside Out: A Tale of Allure and Enchantment is a breakthrough for the puppet theater. Under the instructions of National Treasure Master CHEN Xi-huang, Shan Puppet and Hong Puppet invite director WANG Chia-ming and scriptwriter LIN Jian-hua to create a brand-new puppet theater that is both bewildering and enchanting with the techniques of modern theater. It does not only break the traditional window frame to allow screens and pillars to run on the stage, but also bring the puppet-players and musicians up to the front for all the audiences to see. Drums, gongs and string instruments make every element of the puppet theater even more lively and vigorous.
Surrounding human emotions and desires, six stories from Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio) feature ghosts, deities, evil spirits and foxes that disturb human beings’ six senses, namely, eyes, ears, noses, tongues, bodies and minds. Within the black box, all the imaginations and fantasies play to the extreme.
Artists
Hong Puppet Theatre
Hong Puppet Theatre has been dedicated in preserving, performing and passing down the legacy of traditional glove puppetry for the past 17 years. Hong Puppet Theatre keeps on performing with classic elements including traditional miniature decorated archway and live music. Their works gathered numerous talented artists in order to inherit the tradition, regardless the booming market of innovative puppetry. The traditional glove puppetry in Taiwan is the most iconic figure for puppetry in South China, and Hong Puppet Theatre with their pioneering spirit links the past with the future.
Hong Puppet Theatre leader WU Rong-chang learned under the puppetmaster LEE Tien-lu’s system with puppeteer CHEN Xi-huang. WU, like his master CHEN Xi-huang, is a dedicated educator in puppetry; he has been the instructor for several elementary schools, junior high schools and other institutes for the past 12 years.
Shan Puppet Theatre
Shan Puppet Theatre was founded by HUANG Wu-shan in 2002. When he was only ten, Huang has become a pupil of Puppet Master LEE Tien-lu until now. And because of his Hakka background, he has also learned Hakka folk music and opera from Master LAI Bi-xia. After he completed his M.F.A. in Theatre at Taipei University of the Arts in 2003, he starts to realize his masters and teachers’ efforts of passing on the tradition. Therefore, he decides to combine the traditional puppetry and Hakka music with the modern theories of theatre. He not only creates a new style of performing art, but also brings new blood to this withering cultural activity.
The performance of Shan Puppet Theatre is based on the traditional Hakka opera. In the future, we plan to tour in every town and village in Taiwan in order to be close to our audience and to achieve our goal – “Theatre is everywhere.”
The main focus of Shan Puppet Theatre is to pass on Hakka culture to the public and the younger generation. We produce new performances for children and adults and participate various cultural events and festivals. We also design a series of courses and workshops to introduce Hakka music, culture and puppetry to school children and communities. We wish to help both Hakka and non-Hakka people to understand the spirit of Hakka culture and recognize their identity.
- Approx. 90 minutes without intermission.
- Performed in Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka and Chinese surtitles for poetry.
- Post-talk: 3/22-23 (Sat.-Sun.) after the matinees