Theater's healing power
To spread the seeds of theater, says Jen, "We've arranged annual performances on the outlying islands and in other remote locales. Even though our meager salaries cannot really support this work, we all undertake these trips gladly. This is because in so many of these places the children have long looked forward to our coming."
After the September 21, 1999 earthquake, PWT members took their own vacation time to visit the hardest-hit area, Puli in Nantou County, which led to three years of theatrical therapy, teaching local mothers to use storytelling to calm their children's spirits.
"When we first started," says Jen, "The mothers would bite their lips and laugh awkwardly at our performances. When it was their turn to step onto the stage, some would become so nervous that they would stutter, while others would not know what to do with their hands and feet or remain silent." Patient instruction from theater coaches allowed these originally wary and introverted mothers to tell stirring stories full of expression and feeling. They were also eventually able to express their own inner feelings and begin to tell their own stories. Through their tears and their laughter, the mothers related the hurt and terror experienced during the disaster, slowly giving expression to their inward emotions.
PWT has traveled through countless schools, villages and towns in Taiwan. In recent years, its itineraries have also include trips abroad, including Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Macao, and locales in mainland China. PWT, originally founded to create theater for Taiwanese children, now pledges to bring that theater to all the children of the world.
Laying a Foundation for the Performing Arts:
The Paper Windmill Foundation
After founding the Paper Windmill Theatre in 1992, the creative and energetic Lee Yung-feng went on to found the Green Ray Theatre, focusing on musical theater for grown-ups, and the Wind Flyers Dance Laboratory, focusing on modern dance. In order to facilitate the three artistic groups' efficient utilization of common resources and provide a better creative environment, the Paper Windmill Foundation was founded in 1998. It was also the hope that further editing, directing, administrative and technical talent could thereby be cultivated.
At present the Paper Windmill Foundation oversees nine organizations. Aside from the aforementioned three groups, these also include the Creativity Workshop for Children, focusing on children's theater education; the Green Ray Performance Workshop, focusing on education in bodily motion for performance; the Red Playhouse, which manages the historic Red Playhouse on behalf of the Taipei City Government's Department of Cultural Affairs; the Paper Windmill Kids Mall, which sells a variety of related merchandise and children's educational material; and the Wind Art Working Group, focusing on environmental sculpture, public art and stage set design. The foundation's vision is far-sighted and its plans ambitious, as it seeks to grow in a variety of ways to realize a comprehensive vision for theater.
Aside from coordinating the performances of its constituent groups, cultivating new talent, and promoting the theater, the foundation has also sponsored or supported public and private activities and performances such as the Office of the President's New Year's show in 2000, national sports day in 2001, the Happy Ilan Year, and the large-scale lantern show at festivities commemorating Mazu's vanquishing of the demons, all performed to enthusiastic public acclaim.
The Paper Windmill Theatre uses dazzling New Year's lanterns to render the folk tale Erlang and Xiao Tianfu Battle Sun Wukong, transforming a clamorous battle scene into a lively and beautiful display of light and dance.
Even thought Wu Song Fights the Tiger is a comedy, the Paper Windmill Theatre has fused current social concerns into their performance, hoping that children will learn to communicate more and forgive more, rather than perpetuating misunderstandings and carrying grudges.