Website:http://www.hlaf.com.tw/
The 2013 Huashan Living Arts Festival, a series of interactive performances showcasing local theatre troupes, is slated for Oct. 11 through Nov. 11 at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park.
Organized by the Ministry of Culture for the fourth year, the living art festival will stage six plays, including "Alive and Kicking - A Real Children's Play,” "Dinner for One,” "Happy Daijoubu,” "Portrait of Love,” "Le Jour de Grandir (The Day When We Grow Up)” and "Rhyme for You -LoveSongs.”
Explaining that theatre-watching is a family activity, Culture Minister Lung Ying-tai urged young people and parents to bring their grandparents and children to enjoy the plays together. During the festival, international arts festival curators will also be among the audience to help spread word of Taiwan's theatrical achievements in Singapore, New York and Beijing.
The public can celebrate the glorious October in a different way, said the Minister, by "getting tickets to see the plays together.” Lung also urged parents in southern regions such as Pingtung, Taitung, Kinmen and Matsu to take their families up to Taipei to see the performances at Huashan 1914 Creative Park.
The Minister then commended the Performing Arts Alliance (PAA) for its efforts over the years to make the festival a window on Taiwan's performing arts. "If international curators who come to see local plays are moved by these performances, it will give Taiwanese groups opportunities to perform around the world.” Lung also expressed her appreciation for the theaters' collective hard work, which she said "has nurtured Taiwan's public aesthetics step by step.”
The festival drew a record audience of 150,000 last year, with all the shows being nearly sold out, said Wen Huei-wen, head of the PAA. She expressed the hope that this year's box office will again set a new record. The audience will be able to see the "fresh trials and courageous breakthroughs” by local performing arts troupes at October's "Focus Theater” and "Creative Little Theater.” The festival will even reach out to audiences outside the Greater Taipei Area to increase the ticket-buying population.
The "Focus Theater,” one of the major events at the festival, will feature comedies by Creative Society and Golden Bough Theatre. In the meantime, the little theater's theme is girls' secret plays, including "Le Jour de Grandir” co-produced by Flying-group Theatre and Theatre Massalia from France. The other three plays will be presented by 1/2 Q Theatre, TheatreDe LaSardine, and Dark Eyes Performance Lab.
Tickets to the festival's programs are now available at http://www.artsticket.com.tw/CKSCC2005/home/home00/index.aspx