PRODUCTION King Lear [Lier zai ci]
Data Type：production background
Title：About the Contemporary Legend Theatre
Source：King Lear Premiere Program
Place：Taipei
Publisher：Contemporary Legend Theatre [Dangdai chuanqi juchang]
Date：2001/7
Language：English
Abstract：company information
Contemporary Legend Theatre (CLT) was established in 1986, by a group of Chinese Opera actors and artists. The establishment of CLT is due to that this group of actors and artists got together to discuss the ancient, traditional Chinese Opera in 1984. Saddened by its gradual disappearance in Taiwan’s modern society, they felt they had a deep responsibility to rejuvenate the traditional art by giving it a fresh life. After two years of working, the Contemporary Legend Theatre was established.
Since its establishment the Contemporary Legend Theatre has continuously tried to absorb expressive forms of singing, chanting, acting, stage combat from the traditional Chinese theatre in order to define a new weaning for modern Chinese theatre. CLT planned its major goals in three stages to stimulate interest and search for originality and uniqueness in the theory of expression. In the first stage the company sought to adapt western plays to absorb the essence of Western theory, its structure and the strength of its expression. The second stage involved a search for materials from ancient Chinese legends, and the third stage was designed to use modern world experience as a unique, original creative expression.
In 1986, CLT staged its first play The Kingdom of Desire, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Its creation and performance was made possible by a group of young, enthusiastic theatre artists. The play, which was performed at Taipei Municipal Social Education Hall in Taipei for three nights, played to full houses and had a great impact on the culture and art cycles of Taiwan. The play was well-received by London audiences in 1990 and has since toured to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, France, and Netherlands.
In 1990 the second play, War and Eternity , adapted from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet; attracted an audience of seven thousand people. The audience and the critics alike have gradually recognized and acknowledged CLT’s efforts and its unique artistic style.
Wu Hsing-Kuo, the Artistic Director of Contemporary Legend Theatre, believes that to make traditional topics more meaningful they must be given, in addition to a change of style, a new spirit, new thinking and new attitudes reflecting contemporary society. In 1991 the company performed their first traditional Chinese opera, Yin Yang River. In staging this traditional opera, beside preserving its original essence and creating a new meaning of time, the group also created a new form of expression by giving the opera a more powerful theoretical structure and music.
Wu, a master of traditional Chinese Opera and well-versed in modern dance forms, is clearly able to interpret the Chinese voice, color, costume and body movements in the contemporary theatre. The extra-ordinary achievement of Miss Wei Hai-min, the distinguished actress, in retaining the elegance of the traditional art while incorporating it with modern dance movements, has received much praise from the general public. Audiences have recognized and acknowledged the successful collaboration of Wu Hsing-Kuo and Wei Hai-Min in The Kingdom of Desire and War and Eternity.
In 1992, after several years devoted to thinking and searching for new talents, new voices, new aesthetics and a new spirit, CLT has chosen to mount an original production based on Li Hou-Chu’s work The Last Days of Emperor Li Yu (Wu Hsien Chang Shan). In using this work they have created a new form of “Chinese Theatre” which is neither a “stage play” nor a “new Chinese Opera.” This is not a departure from tradition, but is part of their search for a creative space which is free, more open and without pressure or psychological burdens.
In 1993, CLT took a new direction in modernizing Peking Opera. Lo Lan Nu, was based on the ancient Greek Tragedy Medea by Euripides. In this production, CLT went further in shedding the traditional opera basics and embracing a more modern, Western-oriented theatrical style. This play sets the background at Tunhuang, with the feeling of Tibet religious meditation and turbulent anxiety from our inner cave. Stunning music and spectacular costume empowered the play. The audience was awed and at the same time admired the leading actress Wei Hai-Min’s breath-taking performance.
Oresteia, premiered in 1995, was directed by the innovative environmental theatre master Richard Schechner. Again, this production generated great interests in the theatre community. Purposely selected an outside park as the performance stage, this production brought the theatre to the audience, instead of the other way around. This experiment took departure from the traditional Chinese Opera in its form of language, its style of acting and singing. The characters mixed the original Greeks with the modern Taiwanese, and the audience’s response played an important part at this production. Some critics claimed that Oresteia is the best inter-culture work they had ever seen.
The Contemporary Legend Theatre continues to look ahead seeking to create something new while at the same time preserving the eloquent character of Chinese singing, dancing, and theatre and infusing the vocabulary of the contemporary theatre of the west with the glorious culture of the east.
In 2001, Contemporary Legend Theatre presents its latest production, King Lear, adapted from William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and King Lear refers to CLT’s new begin.
Since its establishment the Contemporary Legend Theatre has continuously tried to absorb expressive forms of singing, chanting, acting, stage combat from the traditional Chinese theatre in order to define a new weaning for modern Chinese theatre. CLT planned its major goals in three stages to stimulate interest and search for originality and uniqueness in the theory of expression. In the first stage the company sought to adapt western plays to absorb the essence of Western theory, its structure and the strength of its expression. The second stage involved a search for materials from ancient Chinese legends, and the third stage was designed to use modern world experience as a unique, original creative expression.
In 1986, CLT staged its first play The Kingdom of Desire, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Its creation and performance was made possible by a group of young, enthusiastic theatre artists. The play, which was performed at Taipei Municipal Social Education Hall in Taipei for three nights, played to full houses and had a great impact on the culture and art cycles of Taiwan. The play was well-received by London audiences in 1990 and has since toured to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, France, and Netherlands.
In 1990 the second play, War and Eternity , adapted from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet; attracted an audience of seven thousand people. The audience and the critics alike have gradually recognized and acknowledged CLT’s efforts and its unique artistic style.
Wu Hsing-Kuo, the Artistic Director of Contemporary Legend Theatre, believes that to make traditional topics more meaningful they must be given, in addition to a change of style, a new spirit, new thinking and new attitudes reflecting contemporary society. In 1991 the company performed their first traditional Chinese opera, Yin Yang River. In staging this traditional opera, beside preserving its original essence and creating a new meaning of time, the group also created a new form of expression by giving the opera a more powerful theoretical structure and music.
Wu, a master of traditional Chinese Opera and well-versed in modern dance forms, is clearly able to interpret the Chinese voice, color, costume and body movements in the contemporary theatre. The extra-ordinary achievement of Miss Wei Hai-min, the distinguished actress, in retaining the elegance of the traditional art while incorporating it with modern dance movements, has received much praise from the general public. Audiences have recognized and acknowledged the successful collaboration of Wu Hsing-Kuo and Wei Hai-Min in The Kingdom of Desire and War and Eternity.
In 1992, after several years devoted to thinking and searching for new talents, new voices, new aesthetics and a new spirit, CLT has chosen to mount an original production based on Li Hou-Chu’s work The Last Days of Emperor Li Yu (Wu Hsien Chang Shan). In using this work they have created a new form of “Chinese Theatre” which is neither a “stage play” nor a “new Chinese Opera.” This is not a departure from tradition, but is part of their search for a creative space which is free, more open and without pressure or psychological burdens.
In 1993, CLT took a new direction in modernizing Peking Opera. Lo Lan Nu, was based on the ancient Greek Tragedy Medea by Euripides. In this production, CLT went further in shedding the traditional opera basics and embracing a more modern, Western-oriented theatrical style. This play sets the background at Tunhuang, with the feeling of Tibet religious meditation and turbulent anxiety from our inner cave. Stunning music and spectacular costume empowered the play. The audience was awed and at the same time admired the leading actress Wei Hai-Min’s breath-taking performance.
Oresteia, premiered in 1995, was directed by the innovative environmental theatre master Richard Schechner. Again, this production generated great interests in the theatre community. Purposely selected an outside park as the performance stage, this production brought the theatre to the audience, instead of the other way around. This experiment took departure from the traditional Chinese Opera in its form of language, its style of acting and singing. The characters mixed the original Greeks with the modern Taiwanese, and the audience’s response played an important part at this production. Some critics claimed that Oresteia is the best inter-culture work they had ever seen.
The Contemporary Legend Theatre continues to look ahead seeking to create something new while at the same time preserving the eloquent character of Chinese singing, dancing, and theatre and infusing the vocabulary of the contemporary theatre of the west with the glorious culture of the east.
In 2001, Contemporary Legend Theatre presents its latest production, King Lear, adapted from William Shakespeare’s King Lear, and King Lear refers to CLT’s new begin.
