At a small theater on Taipei's west side, Taiwan's foremost puppeteer Chen Xi-huang (陳錫煌) adds a few finishing touches to his glove puppets while the Turkish shadow puppet master Cengiz Ozek discusses how to present the show with stagehands and Robin Ruizendaal, art director of Taiyuan Puppet Theater Company (台原偶戲團).
Fittingly, the international collaboration is about an adventure on the silk road, the ancient cultural highway linking Asia and Europe, as artists and musicians from Taiwan, Turkey and the US contribute their inspiration to the interdisciplinary production combining Taiwan's glove puppet and Turkish shadow puppet theaters, live performances and large shadow screen performances directed by Larry Reed, founder of the Shadowlights Company of San Francisco. (see story below.)
Silk Road (絲戀) tells of the story of two sisters traveling through the silk road from China to Istanbul to find a magical harp that charms silkworms to produce the most beautiful colored silk in the world. From mountain, desert to oasis and spice fair, the girls encounter all kinds of exotic animals, magicians, human traffickers, belly dancers, poets, sages and hobgoblins on their journey.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TAIYUAN PUPPET THEATER COMPANY
To Ruizendaal and Ozek, the show is a theatrical celebration and exploration of the ancient cultural exchanges that have left an indelible imprint on today's world. "One of my key interests for the play is to see the shared affinity of puppetry traditions in China, Turkey, Egypt and Taiwan," said Ozek, art director of Istanbul International Puppet Festival.
A unique and innovative experiment, the production is presented on three stages, one designed for actors, the other two for glove and shadow puppetry. Reed builds on this with his light show, that creates a world of amazing shadows, overlapping images and the illusion of depth.
As for the music, Taiwan's award-winning composer Li Che-i (李哲藝) will team up with Turkish musicians Binnaz Celik and Gunay Celik to stage live performances of the original score mixing Turkish folk songs and traditional Chinese music.
"Our biggest challenge is to integrate all the diverse elements into one coherent play," said Ruizendaal, adding that the production is a first-time attempt to every one involved.
Also new is the ensemble's attempt to offer a lively introduction to the ancient theatrical tradition in Turkey, its exquisite marionettes made out of camel skin and the beloved puppet figure Karagoz, a playful jester who undergoes different transformations in different stories that come from the grassroots culture as a manifestation of the people's voices, ideas and lives.
Having studied shadow puppet theater since age 11 and played Karagoz for the past 30 years, Ozek is excited to bring life to his favorite character not only through his accomplished puppetry art but as a real human performance on the stage. "I always feel myself as Karagoz. In the shadow puppet theater, I am connected with Karagoz with two sticks, but now for the first time, I am Karagoz," said Ozek, who will bring this creative production to Istanbul International Puppet Festival in May.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS