- Presenter: Weiwuying
- Duration is 140 minutes with a 20-minute intermission.
- Performed in Taiwanese with both English and Mandarin surtitles.
- Age guidance 12+
- Latecomers must follow staff instructions for entry and re-entry.
- For Group Purchase Discounts, please contact 07-262-6666.
- More Offers
※Discounts are not applicable for tickets tier at NT$300 and lower.
- 10% off for Weiwuying Lifestyle member
- 25% off for Weiwuying Youth member
- Weiwuying Unlimited member: 30% ticket discount for your first purchase. The additional ticket discount same as Lifestyle members.
- For details, please see Weiwuying Members Benefit
La Cie MaxMind & Puppet and Its Double & SHIH Ju-fang - Whale Island
A whale appears, starting the cosmos;
A whale calls, silencing the ocean;
A whale falls, triggering the force of life.
The Strange Drifting Adventure of Whale Island Sets Sail
A tsunami swallowed an island; the sole survivor was a girl named Nana, who huddled adrift upon a deadly quiet garbage pile with her doll Booboo. Kuro, the spirit of the Black Stream ocean current in the western Pacific, dropped in to tell the two friends an ancient story...
Once upon a time, there was a verdant, rich island, blessed by the gods with crisscrossing mountains, plains and valleys. Kuro met Bixi, deity of a volcanic island off of the island's eastern shore, who received an oracle to foster Kun and Ni, twin sisters born of the spiritual energies between heaven and earth. Just as the way the two halves of a whale's brain function in alternating turns, the twins are complementary opposites of each other: one quiet, one active, always in harmony. That is, until one day a faraway whale call awakened the longing for the ocean within the sisters. Faced with the breaking down of what she believed to be her predestined path, Bixi decided to risk it all...
Inspired by and based around the geological imagery of Taiwan, Whale Island incorporates scientific intrigue as part of its narrative, to create a mythical epic akin to the Book of Mountains and Seas, but specific to Taiwan.
The production team, comprised of members from various disciplines called out by La Cie Maxmind and Puppet and Its Double, has worked over these three years to not only expand the realms of Nanguan, Beiguan and puppetry, but also create a whole new approach to storytelling through the dramatic central throughline of land and environment. Taking an intriguing geological perspective, the project hopes to entice the audience to sing along with the sounds of Nanguan and Beiguan, and enjoy this time-and-space-traveling island fantasy.
Pre-talk
2023/6/17(Sat)19:00 Opera House 2nd Floor
2023/6/18(Sun)14:00 Opera House 2nd Floor
Post-talk
2023/6/18(Sun)16:50 Opera House
Creative and Production Team
Director｜LEE Yi-hsiu
Composer of Nanguan and Beiguan music｜HSU Shu-hui
Playwright｜SHIH Ju-fang
Co-playwright｜WEI Yu-chia
Puppetry Director｜CHENG Chia-yin
Dramaturg｜CHANG Chi-feng
Performers｜CHU An-li, LIU Yu-jane, CHEN Hsin, Datian, TSUEI Tai-hao, CHIU Mi-chen, LU You-tien, FENG Wen-hsing, HUANG Ssu-wei, YANG Bo-wei
Musicians｜HSU Shu-hui, LIAO Han-yu, LIU Xin-long, YANG Ching-yi
Producer｜TSAI Ching-fang
Assistant Director & Movement Coach｜Eddie chun-hui LIN
Lighting Designer｜KAO I-hua
Scenic Designer｜HSIEH Chun-an
Costume Designer｜LIN Yu-yuan
Puppet Design｜YU Meng-ju
Sound Designer｜WU Siou-ming
Executive Producer｜HSU Pei-ching
Publicity Manager｜TIEN Chia-yu
Language Coach - Spoken Taiwanese｜TĒNN Sūn-tshong
Translator｜Wei-ming Liu Egelman
Stage Manager｜HUANG Kuo-feng
Assistant to Director｜CHIU Mi-chen
Rehearsal Assistant｜LIN Yu-shiuan
Trailer Maker｜TshioTiô Studio
Graphic Design｜Onion Design
Photographor｜Sapere aude Photography
Co-production｜National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), National Taichung Theater, National Theater & Concert Hall
Special Thanks: Trend Education Foundation
Team Introduction
Co-Production Team｜La Cie MaxMind
Artistic Director LEE Yi-hsiu and Nanguan/Beiguan composer HSU Shu-hui are the central creative forces of La Cie MaxMind. It is the company’s mission to inject diverse sources of creative energy into traditional Nanguan and Beiguan music with material garnered from the rich multicultural grounds of Taiwan; and through this process, to establish an affecting new paradigm of theatrical form. The company’s work is often inspired by Taiwanese culture and merging of traditional and contemporary artistic forms and elements to demonstrate the Taiwanese artistic characteristics and humanistic thinking.
Co-Production Team｜Puppet & Its Double
Since its establishment in 1999, Puppet & Its Double strongly believes that “everything can be a puppet,” as it makes great effort to expand the theatrical potentiality of puppetry in contemporary performing arts and to welcome every possible interdisciplinary experiment. It is particularly known for its exquisite puppet-making and design. By bringing actors and puppets together on stage and adopting a poetic theatrical language, it visualizes a world of imagination beyond what humans can do and fascinates us with its thought-provoking fantasy and transformative identities.
Playwright｜SHIH Ju-fang
SHIH Ju-fang works full-time as a playwright and part-time as Assistant Professor at National Taiwan University's Department of Drama and Theatre.
With a knack for tailoring the play to its subjects, SHIH is uniquely open to writing inspirations from all corners. That said, she is especially intrigued by historical events, and is wide-ranging in her genre-crossing interdisciplinary forays. Her plays, melding diverse creative textures and cultural profundity all at once, often become nurturing grounds for innovative theatrical forms. SHIH's works have repeatedly received commissioning and publication grants from the National Culture and Arts Foundation; and have been nominated for the Taishin Arts Awards, the Golden Bell Awards, and the Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music. In recent years, she has been obsessed with writing about Taiwan. Her 2019 play "Me, Myself and I" brought Taiwanese politician and activist LIN Xian-tang's story to the traditional opera stage, breaking through the narrative limitations of theatrical genres. She was then invited to curate the 2022 Taiwan Traditional Theatre Festival.
WANG Anqi, Artistic Director of GuoGuang Opera Company, praised SHIH for expanding the scope of her work beyond traditional opera; and cultural critic David Der-wei Wang called SHIH "The best interpreter of contemporary Taiwanese traditional opera".
 |
 |
Photo © Sapere aude Photography
Co-producation: National Kaoshiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), National Taichung Theatre, National Theater & Concert Hall
Tour：
Taipei｜2023/5/5-5/7 National Theater & Concert Hall
Taichung｜2023/10/21-10/22 National Taichung Theatre
La Cie MaxMind & Puppet and Its Double & SHIH Ju-fang - Whale Island
A whale appears, starting the cosmos;
A whale calls, silencing the ocean;
A whale falls, triggering the force of life.
The Strange Drifting Adventure of Whale Island Sets Sail
A tsunami swallowed an island; the sole survivor was a girl named Nana, who huddled adrift upon a deadly quiet garbage pile with her doll Booboo. Kuro, the spirit of the Black Stream ocean current in the western Pacific, dropped in to tell the two friends an ancient story...
Once upon a time, there was a verdant, rich island, blessed by the gods with crisscrossing mountains, plains and valleys. Kuro met Bixi, deity of a volcanic island off of the island's eastern shore, who received an oracle to foster Kun and Ni, twin sisters born of the spiritual energies between heaven and earth. Just as the way the two halves of a whale's brain function in alternating turns, the twins are complementary opposites of each other: one quiet, one active, always in harmony. That is, until one day a faraway whale call awakened the longing for the ocean within the sisters. Faced with the breaking down of what she believed to be her predestined path, Bixi decided to risk it all...
Inspired by and based around the geological imagery of Taiwan, Whale Island incorporates scientific intrigue as part of its narrative, to create a mythical epic akin to the Book of Mountains and Seas, but specific to Taiwan.
The production team, comprised of members from various disciplines called out by La Cie Maxmind and Puppet and Its Double, has worked over these three years to not only expand the realms of Nanguan, Beiguan and puppetry, but also create a whole new approach to storytelling through the dramatic central throughline of land and environment. Taking an intriguing geological perspective, the project hopes to entice the audience to sing along with the sounds of Nanguan and Beiguan, and enjoy this time-and-space-traveling island fantasy.
Pre-talk
2023/6/17(Sat)19:00 Opera House 2nd Floor
2023/6/18(Sun)14:00 Opera House 2nd Floor
Post-talk
2023/6/18(Sun)16:50 Opera House
Creative and Production Team
Director｜LEE Yi-hsiu
Composer of Nanguan and Beiguan music｜HSU Shu-hui
Playwright｜SHIH Ju-fang
Co-playwright｜WEI Yu-chia
Puppetry Director｜CHENG Chia-yin
Dramaturg｜CHANG Chi-feng
Performers｜CHU An-li, LIU Yu-jane, CHEN Hsin, Datian, TSUEI Tai-hao, CHIU Mi-chen, LU You-tien, FENG Wen-hsing, HUANG Ssu-wei, YANG Bo-wei
Musicians｜HSU Shu-hui, LIAO Han-yu, LIU Xin-long, YANG Ching-yi
Producer｜TSAI Ching-fang
Assistant Director & Movement Coach｜Eddie chun-hui LIN
Lighting Designer｜KAO I-hua
Scenic Designer｜HSIEH Chun-an
Costume Designer｜LIN Yu-yuan
Puppet Design｜YU Meng-ju
Sound Designer｜WU Siou-ming
Executive Producer｜HSU Pei-ching
Publicity Manager｜TIEN Chia-yu
Language Coach - Spoken Taiwanese｜TĒNN Sūn-tshong
Translator｜Wei-ming Liu Egelman
Stage Manager｜HUANG Kuo-feng
Assistant to Director｜CHIU Mi-chen
Rehearsal Assistant｜LIN Yu-shiuan
Trailer Maker｜TshioTiô Studio
Graphic Design｜Onion Design
Photographor｜Sapere aude Photography
Co-production｜National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), National Taichung Theater, National Theater & Concert Hall
Special Thanks: Trend Education Foundation
Team Introduction
Co-Production Team｜La Cie MaxMind
Artistic Director LEE Yi-hsiu and Nanguan/Beiguan composer HSU Shu-hui are the central creative forces of La Cie MaxMind. It is the company’s mission to inject diverse sources of creative energy into traditional Nanguan and Beiguan music with material garnered from the rich multicultural grounds of Taiwan; and through this process, to establish an affecting new paradigm of theatrical form. The company’s work is often inspired by Taiwanese culture and merging of traditional and contemporary artistic forms and elements to demonstrate the Taiwanese artistic characteristics and humanistic thinking.
Co-Production Team｜Puppet & Its Double
Since its establishment in 1999, Puppet & Its Double strongly believes that “everything can be a puppet,” as it makes great effort to expand the theatrical potentiality of puppetry in contemporary performing arts and to welcome every possible interdisciplinary experiment. It is particularly known for its exquisite puppet-making and design. By bringing actors and puppets together on stage and adopting a poetic theatrical language, it visualizes a world of imagination beyond what humans can do and fascinates us with its thought-provoking fantasy and transformative identities.
Playwright｜SHIH Ju-fang
SHIH Ju-fang works full-time as a playwright and part-time as Assistant Professor at National Taiwan University's Department of Drama and Theatre.
With a knack for tailoring the play to its subjects, SHIH is uniquely open to writing inspirations from all corners. That said, she is especially intrigued by historical events, and is wide-ranging in her genre-crossing interdisciplinary forays. Her plays, melding diverse creative textures and cultural profundity all at once, often become nurturing grounds for innovative theatrical forms. SHIH's works have repeatedly received commissioning and publication grants from the National Culture and Arts Foundation; and have been nominated for the Taishin Arts Awards, the Golden Bell Awards, and the Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music. In recent years, she has been obsessed with writing about Taiwan. Her 2019 play "Me, Myself and I" brought Taiwanese politician and activist LIN Xian-tang's story to the traditional opera stage, breaking through the narrative limitations of theatrical genres. She was then invited to curate the 2022 Taiwan Traditional Theatre Festival.
WANG Anqi, Artistic Director of GuoGuang Opera Company, praised SHIH for expanding the scope of her work beyond traditional opera; and cultural critic David Der-wei Wang called SHIH "The best interpreter of contemporary Taiwanese traditional opera".
|
|
Photo © Sapere aude Photography
Co-producation: National Kaoshiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), National Taichung Theatre, National Theater & Concert Hall
Tour：
Taipei｜2023/5/5-5/7 National Theater & Concert Hall
Taichung｜2023/10/21-10/22 National Taichung Theatre
- Presenter: Weiwuying
- Duration is 140 minutes with a 20-minute intermission.
- Performed in Taiwanese with both English and Mandarin surtitles.
- Age guidance 12+
- Latecomers must follow staff instructions for entry and re-entry.
- For Group Purchase Discounts, please contact 07-262-6666.
- More Offers
※Discounts are not applicable for tickets tier at NT$300 and lower.
- 10% off for Weiwuying Lifestyle member
- 25% off for Weiwuying Youth member
- Weiwuying Unlimited member: 30% ticket discount for your first purchase. The additional ticket discount same as Lifestyle members.
- For details, please see Weiwuying Members Benefit
