Taiwan Week 2023, a biannual conference held by the National Theater & Concert Hall (NTCH), began on April 9, featuring a week of performances by Taiwanese performing arts troupes while playing host to 44 international curators representing prominent performing arts theaters of 14 countries/regions. The event, which runs until April 15, is the largest international gathering of its kind in Taiwan.
This year, NTCH in collaboration with five institutions, namely, the Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center (國立台灣戲曲中心), Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre (牯嶺街小劇場), Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (臺灣當代文化實驗場), the Hakka Music and Theater Center (客家音樂戲劇中心), and Cloud Gate Theater (雲門劇場) arranged 19 performances such as "Dreams and Shadows (夢與陰影)," "Gazing, In the Mist (霧中．凝視)," "tiaen tiamen Episode 1 (「我．我們」第一部曲)," "Stone (石．洞)," "Beings (捺撇)." In addition, two forum sessions on current issues relevant to performing arts venues and festivals around the world were also held.
After the show, Magda Bizarro, co-director of the artistic program of the Festival d'Avignon in France, expressed her admiration for the performance "Man of the Theatre (藝術之子)" by Taiwanese director Huang Yu-ching (黃郁晴).
NTCH general and artistic director Liu Yi-ruu (劉怡汝) expressed her hope for Taiwan Week to become a platform that serves as both an artists' network and a cultural window and to increase the chances of Taiwanese artists engaging in future exchanges by introducing Taiwan's cultural background to international curators. Through experiencing Taiwan's cuisine and scenic beauty, foreign curators can observe the current state of Taiwan and recognize the power of Taiwanese performing programs, Director Liu added.
Taiwan Week was conceived in 2020 to showcase Taiwanese performing artists and their work, with the goal of helping them bring their productions to stages abroad as well as encourage international collaborations and co-productions with Taiwanese artists.
(Photo courtesy of NTCH. Photo credit: Chou Chia-huei)