- Duration is 90 minutes without intermission.
- Performed in Mandarin and Taiwanese with Mandarin subtitles.
- Suitable for age 15+.
- Please do not video-record during the performance.
Weiwuying Theater 6 - 《Don't Cry, Dancing Girls》Special Edition
After the great reception of our premiere at Weiwuying's Recital Hall in April, 2021, our additional performance in Taipei in May has quickly sold out!
Fortunately, Don't Cry, Dancing Girls made it in time to reach audiences before the pandemic outbreak. During the disciplined day-to-day life of the level 3 epidemic alert, the music video for Don't Cry, Dancing Girls' amassed 300,000 views within just 2 days, after which it continued to grow in popularity by way of the online news media and word of mouth. As a result, this work opened a completely new and unknown terrain for the production team.
Subsequently, the team took on the challenge of accepting new perspectives, and through the brainstorming of the playwright, artistic director, image director, and other related personnel, the Don't Cry, Dancing Girls Special Edition was born. We hope that this new presentation that was made through great efforts can help to deliver the team's unwavering love for the motherland to the audience.
Succeeding the major work Reed Unbroken, VMTheatre Company's Don't Cry, Dancing Girls again attempts to pit humans on stage with ghosts. The characters of Don't Cry, Dancing Girls, derived from Russian playwright Anton CHEKHOV's famous work Three Sisters, are reinfused with Taiwanese elements, which include Taoist priests, the spirit-escorting ceremony, professional mourners, and Si-So-Mi. The traditional Taiwanese funeral is thus transformed into a local carnival of life and death, reaching a fervor where ghosts are propelled to come out to cry and dance along with humans.
When three sisters returned after many years to their old family home in Huwei, Yunlin, they found that their uncle, aunt, third great-uncle, and second great-aunt had hardly aged a day; only the passage of time had left its mark on the derelict house. The sisters, initially falling over each other to waive their right to inheritance, in an unexpected series of events were drawn into their second great-uncle's dying wish—the Song family member that performs in the soul-guiding song troupe may receive the family's multimillion-dollar inheritance. The three sisters took on the challenge; with aim of splitting the inheritance, they started from scratch and retrained themselves in the art of the soul-guiding song. As they searched through the small town, they unexpectedly evoked memories of their long-lost father—a gambler and Taoist priest, and their mother, a professional mourner, and the estranged family ties, at long last, emerged one after another
This time, the worldly and sophisticated oldest daughter Kuo-Chen not only has to attend to the problems of her chubby, super self-conscious sister Kuo-Mei and drag queen younger brother Kuo-Hao (pseudonym Angela), but also her own intricate and fruitless love life. However, the biggest challenge for her is to witness the departure of mother Mei-Ling's spirit, allowing life and death to separate the two once again. Kuo-Chen, the sibling who had matured extremely early, thus cannot help but question God, “In this merciless world, why is my life filled with only back luck?”
Lastly, the three siblings will together present a dance of youth, dancing for all of life's regrets and commemorating the challenges, large and small, brought about by fate, as well as those perpetually absent parents, cha cha, cha cha cha. Don't Cry, Dancing Girls, created through the collaboration between middle-generation director TSENG Hui-Cheng, emerging composer Robert KANG, and Golden Bell Award-winning playwright ZHAN Jie, is a love letter written and dedicated to this land and the people living on it.
Creative and Production Team
Artistic Director｜TSENG Hui-cheng
Film Director, Cinematographer｜CHU Lo-cheng
Librettist｜ZHAN Jie
Music Director, Composer｜Robert KANG
Lighting Designer｜HO Ting-tsung
Key Visual Design｜Haospring Design．Peggy CHEN
Inscription｜HUANG Chung-keng
Film Editor ｜HUANG Yu-ren, LEE Yuan, CHU Lo-cheng (final song)
Mixing Engineer｜WENG Wei-han @ Rocket88 Music Productions
Film Assistant｜HSIEH Tai-ting
Production Manager｜LIN Yi-heng
Company Staff｜HSIEH Chia-hui, YEH Hsiang-ya
Cast｜TSENG Chih-yuan, CHANG Ching-chia, CHANG Fang-yu, CHANG Wei-zuo, CHANG Li-dan, HUANG Ju-dong, LU Cheng-you, LI Min-chieh, TSENG Ssu-yu, JENG Mu-tsen, ZHOU Wan-yi, CHANG Wan-jung, ZHOU Zhen-yu, HUANG Yi-hao, HUANG Hui-sen, HU Ya-jie, HU Rui-jie, KUNG Neng-an
Instrumental Performer｜Robert KANG, WU Kang-chiu, LIN Hong-yu
Acknowledgement｜風中燈牽亡歌團、日月一團、麗玲歌劇團、福祥牽引團、尚和歌仔戲劇團、LIN Tsung-fan, KUO Chih-hao, YEH Li-ching, LI Jung-tsai, WEI Chun-feng, Su-chen, LIU Chin-yeh, HSIEH Li-ling, LIN Hsueh-feng, CHIEN Ching-hui, LIN Yueh-hsia, CHOU Li-hua, WU Pi-hui, LIN Chang-cheng, PENG Cha-cha, Vilian Nangavulan, LI Chih-jou, TENG Yi-feng
Production Team
The VMTheatre Company
The VMTheatre Company, founded in 2007, is based on the performance concepts and creative structure of New York's musicals and feeds on local culture. The Company looks for realistic themes which are close to contemporary life from a humanistic point of view. It is especially interested in working and developing with young artists in music, dance, literature and theater in the hope of helping to contribute to the evolution of Taiwan's own musical culture through exchanging views and crossover collaborations.
The company expects the audience to witness a piece of genuine human life, not merely a performance. As the actors experience aspects of life through structured speech, dance and music, the productions aim to become an experience that is not only emotionally shared between the performers and the audience, but actually co-created by performer and audience member.
VMTheatre Company is selected as NCAF 2021 TAIWAN TOP Performing Arts Group.
Weiwuying Theater 6 - 《Don't Cry, Dancing Girls》Special Edition
After the great reception of our premiere at Weiwuying's Recital Hall in April, 2021, our additional performance in Taipei in May has quickly sold out!
Fortunately, Don't Cry, Dancing Girls made it in time to reach audiences before the pandemic outbreak. During the disciplined day-to-day life of the level 3 epidemic alert, the music video for Don't Cry, Dancing Girls' amassed 300,000 views within just 2 days, after which it continued to grow in popularity by way of the online news media and word of mouth. As a result, this work opened a completely new and unknown terrain for the production team.
Subsequently, the team took on the challenge of accepting new perspectives, and through the brainstorming of the playwright, artistic director, image director, and other related personnel, the Don't Cry, Dancing Girls Special Edition was born. We hope that this new presentation that was made through great efforts can help to deliver the team's unwavering love for the motherland to the audience.
Succeeding the major work Reed Unbroken, VMTheatre Company's Don't Cry, Dancing Girls again attempts to pit humans on stage with ghosts. The characters of Don't Cry, Dancing Girls, derived from Russian playwright Anton CHEKHOV's famous work Three Sisters, are reinfused with Taiwanese elements, which include Taoist priests, the spirit-escorting ceremony, professional mourners, and Si-So-Mi. The traditional Taiwanese funeral is thus transformed into a local carnival of life and death, reaching a fervor where ghosts are propelled to come out to cry and dance along with humans.
When three sisters returned after many years to their old family home in Huwei, Yunlin, they found that their uncle, aunt, third great-uncle, and second great-aunt had hardly aged a day; only the passage of time had left its mark on the derelict house. The sisters, initially falling over each other to waive their right to inheritance, in an unexpected series of events were drawn into their second great-uncle's dying wish—the Song family member that performs in the soul-guiding song troupe may receive the family's multimillion-dollar inheritance. The three sisters took on the challenge; with aim of splitting the inheritance, they started from scratch and retrained themselves in the art of the soul-guiding song. As they searched through the small town, they unexpectedly evoked memories of their long-lost father—a gambler and Taoist priest, and their mother, a professional mourner, and the estranged family ties, at long last, emerged one after another
This time, the worldly and sophisticated oldest daughter Kuo-Chen not only has to attend to the problems of her chubby, super self-conscious sister Kuo-Mei and drag queen younger brother Kuo-Hao (pseudonym Angela), but also her own intricate and fruitless love life. However, the biggest challenge for her is to witness the departure of mother Mei-Ling's spirit, allowing life and death to separate the two once again. Kuo-Chen, the sibling who had matured extremely early, thus cannot help but question God, “In this merciless world, why is my life filled with only back luck?”
Lastly, the three siblings will together present a dance of youth, dancing for all of life's regrets and commemorating the challenges, large and small, brought about by fate, as well as those perpetually absent parents, cha cha, cha cha cha. Don't Cry, Dancing Girls, created through the collaboration between middle-generation director TSENG Hui-Cheng, emerging composer Robert KANG, and Golden Bell Award-winning playwright ZHAN Jie, is a love letter written and dedicated to this land and the people living on it.
Creative and Production Team
Artistic Director｜TSENG Hui-cheng
Film Director, Cinematographer｜CHU Lo-cheng
Librettist｜ZHAN Jie
Music Director, Composer｜Robert KANG
Lighting Designer｜HO Ting-tsung
Key Visual Design｜Haospring Design．Peggy CHEN
Inscription｜HUANG Chung-keng
Film Editor ｜HUANG Yu-ren, LEE Yuan, CHU Lo-cheng (final song)
Mixing Engineer｜WENG Wei-han @ Rocket88 Music Productions
Film Assistant｜HSIEH Tai-ting
Production Manager｜LIN Yi-heng
Company Staff｜HSIEH Chia-hui, YEH Hsiang-ya
Cast｜TSENG Chih-yuan, CHANG Ching-chia, CHANG Fang-yu, CHANG Wei-zuo, CHANG Li-dan, HUANG Ju-dong, LU Cheng-you, LI Min-chieh, TSENG Ssu-yu, JENG Mu-tsen, ZHOU Wan-yi, CHANG Wan-jung, ZHOU Zhen-yu, HUANG Yi-hao, HUANG Hui-sen, HU Ya-jie, HU Rui-jie, KUNG Neng-an
Instrumental Performer｜Robert KANG, WU Kang-chiu, LIN Hong-yu
Acknowledgement｜風中燈牽亡歌團、日月一團、麗玲歌劇團、福祥牽引團、尚和歌仔戲劇團、LIN Tsung-fan, KUO Chih-hao, YEH Li-ching, LI Jung-tsai, WEI Chun-feng, Su-chen, LIU Chin-yeh, HSIEH Li-ling, LIN Hsueh-feng, CHIEN Ching-hui, LIN Yueh-hsia, CHOU Li-hua, WU Pi-hui, LIN Chang-cheng, PENG Cha-cha, Vilian Nangavulan, LI Chih-jou, TENG Yi-feng
Production Team
The VMTheatre Company
The VMTheatre Company, founded in 2007, is based on the performance concepts and creative structure of New York's musicals and feeds on local culture. The Company looks for realistic themes which are close to contemporary life from a humanistic point of view. It is especially interested in working and developing with young artists in music, dance, literature and theater in the hope of helping to contribute to the evolution of Taiwan's own musical culture through exchanging views and crossover collaborations.
The company expects the audience to witness a piece of genuine human life, not merely a performance. As the actors experience aspects of life through structured speech, dance and music, the productions aim to become an experience that is not only emotionally shared between the performers and the audience, but actually co-created by performer and audience member.
VMTheatre Company is selected as NCAF 2021 TAIWAN TOP Performing Arts Group.
- Duration is 90 minutes without intermission.
- Performed in Mandarin and Taiwanese with Mandarin subtitles.
- Suitable for age 15+.
- Please do not video-record during the performance.
