Youth groups, turbocharged creativity
Since 2013, the OISTAT headquarters has been recruiting interns to participate in daily activities. Wei hopes to enable young Taiwanese both to engage in international exchange without needing to go abroad and to gain an understanding of how an international organization’s headquarters works.
There are only four formal professional staffers at the headquarters, but with an average age of 30, they are skilled at making use of the latest trends, and they have injected youthful energy into an organization that is nearly 50 years old.
Meanwhile, Wei, who has a background in foreign affairs and art, is adept at using the vocabulary of different disciplines, and she has helped OISTAT attain greater efficiency in its communications and operations.
Furthermore, young Taiwanese have been making their mark in the theater community, says Wei. In 2011, the first year of OISTAT’s Technical Invention Prize, the top award went to Hu Hao-en for his Improved T-Joist Backdrop Stretcher. In 2013 at the World Stage Design competition in Britain, the cutting-edge director Chou Tung-yen won the Interactive and New Media Award for Emptied Memories. Wei repeatedly emphasizes that the work being done in Taiwan is “quite good enough” to garner greater international visibility. With OISTAT providing international connections, there will only be greater opportunities for Taiwanese in the field.
OISTAT’s World Scenography 1990–2005 includes ten works of outstanding stage design by Taiwanese theater artists—among them Lai Xuan-wu’s design for a Golden Bough Theatre production of Troy, Troy… Taiwan. (courtesy of Lai Xuan-wu)