Website:http://tifa.ntch.edu.tw/
The Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA) will feature 18 productions from Taiwan and abroad this year, including a musical theater piece honoring the renowned Chinese writer Eileen Chang, the organizer said.
The annual festival, now in its fifth year, will run from Feb. 15 to March 31 at the National Theater and Concert Hall (NTCH) in Taipei and will feature 18 theater, dance and musical pieces during 49 performances by artists from Germany, Japan, Greece, France, Georgia, Chile and other countries.
Each year, the NTCH invites celebrated composers, choreographers or artists to take charge of its flagship production with the intention of injecting new life and ideas into the local arts scene.
This year it has invited German composer Christian Jost and Taiwanese composer Chung Yiu-Kwong to collaborate with Taiwanese theater director Li Huan-hsiung for the production of a musical theater piece entitled 'Fall for Eileen Chang.'
The production will be based on the poem 'Love of the Fluttering Autumn Leaf' and short stories 'The Heart Sutra' and 'Love in a Fallen City' written by Chang, whose works often focus on conflicts in male-female romantic relationships.
Also among the productions is Japanese choreographer Hiroaki Umeda's new modern dance piece 'Temporal Pattern,' which will showcase body languages across different cultures, the organizer said.
Other international productions include classical tragedy 'Prometheus Bound' by the Attis Theatre from Greece, 'Voyages' by percussion duet 'Salamandrum' from Israel and National Symphony Orchestra from Taiwan, and 'Songs of the Wanderers' by Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and Ensemble Rustavi of Georgia, as well as other performances.
Meanwhile, local productions include 'Flowing Sleeves and Rouge' by the Guoguang Opera Company that will blend elements of Western theater, Kunqu opera and Peking opera, and the puppet theater show 'La Disparition - reverie sous l'arbre de mille' by the Flying-Group Theatre.