In the ballet practice room at the National Theater, the stagehands have set out a table and two chairs for rehearsing a triangle love scene in Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring.

The play debuted way back in 1986 and is being rehearsed according to the script this time around, but the actors still try to improvise and revise some of the details as they go along.

Li Li-chun stands up and recites, "The moon is covered with dark clouds. . . " Stan Lai listens and groans. Take two. Li Li-chun spontaneously improvises this time, conjuring up a moonlit scene, as Ku Pao-ming and Ting Nai-cheng chime in on the side. It's funny, and Stan Lai laughs like a playgoer caught up in the show. But the scene's not ready yet. The actors drink some water or take a few puffs on a cigarette, wait for their cue and try again, putting on the finishing touches. In the end, though, the scene is dropped.

Go with the Flow: This is one small sample of "group improvisation," the main method of acting the Performance Workshop has used over the past seven years. It originated with an idea Stan Lai received from the Amsterdam Werkteater that he applied to the theater in Taiwan. "Where are Taiwan's playwrights?" he asked himself. If there aren't any to speak of, then let's everyone have a go.

Returning to Taiwan in 1983 after finishing his studies abroad, he brought out two plays using this method, This Is How We All Grew Up and Reaching for the Stars. In Reaching for the Stars he and actors from the Lan Ling troupe based their theme on mentally retarded children, adopting a rather free approach to their work. During the day they visited homes for mentally retarded children, and in the evening they improvised situations in rehearsal, cobbling them together into a series of scenes. "I intentionally avoided drawing up an outline or an overall plan. We created just what we encountered. A structural principle like that is poetry. It was alive, avant-garde and completely correct."

The play touched many people at the time and gave rise to a flurry of improvisational rehearsals in the theater world. But Lai feels that group improvisation is very difficult and easily misunderstood. It's not just faking it or making it up as you go along, as most people imagine. Nonetheless, his work methods have become more settled in recent years. He pays greater attention to planning and structure and isn't so free and unconstrained as before. Does he feel that's a pity? "It's like a child growing up. It's that simple. There are a lot of things you can't do as an adult that you did when you were small, but there are a whole bunch of things that are even better," Lai says with a warm smile.

Regulated Free Expression: "Big people's stuff," simply put, is free self-expression under strict regulation. There's a knack to it. Before rehearsal, the play's outline, structure and rate of progress are carefully mapped out, and the roles and mood of the scene are determined. Then the actors are allowed to express themselves spontaneously. The sparks given off in improvisation may have a major effect on the original plan, which may be expanded or cut down accordingly. Actors and crew from each department are together from the first rehearsal, and they interact and spur each other on as they give the play birth.

Stage designer Nieh Kuang-yen likes the challenge: "The design constantly changes as the play develops, and new ideas constantly come up. It's very possible that something will work today and not tomorrow." As a result, he has to be on the scene all the time or keep sending faxes back and forth to keep the design and the play fused together organically, without leaving any seams. "That's the life of the stage!" he laughs. Nieh is white haired and calls himself this young company's old friend.

Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring, for example, is built on a mixture of ancient and modern, of comedy and tragedy, which Stan Lai has always been interested in. His doctoral dissertation was on Greek theater and Japanese Noh drama. In the drama festivals of ancient Athens, three tragedies were put on each day, followed by a satyr play that more or less parodied them. Similarly Japanese Noh plays have a farcical interlude between the first and second halves called kyo-gen, or wild talk.

As for the mistaken rehearsal by two different companies on the same stage in Secret Love, that idea originated in a true story: A certain company arrived at the theater on time for rehearsal and was surprised to find a class of kindergarteners there before them raucously rehearsing their graduation ceremony!

Expanding and Contracting: A mixture of tragedy and comedy and two companies acting on the sa stage--these two ideas are coupled with the theme of the "war-torn couple" and a take-off on the traditional tale of the Peach Blossom Spring to make up the main story of Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring. But a lot of changes took place during rehearsal. In the Peach Blossom Spring part, for instance, there were originally a number of roles for the villagers, but some actors failed to show up for rehearsal, and Lai found that only two of them were really essential, Old Tao's wife and her lover--that implied the rest. His brain clicking fast, he cut out the other roles and made other arrangements, making the utopian village of Peach Blossom Spring even more abstract and symbolic.

With its expansion and contraction, this method, to use an analogy of Li Li-chun's, is like a city that has grown up in the wilderness, with buildings constantly being put up or torn down, constantly changing. What it will turn out like depends on the planner's perception and ability. "Stan is world class as a planner," he says. It's noteworthy that the products of their improvisation have all been printed up as scripts and published. Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring is the most popular and is practically a staple of drama competitions.

The Scene Came Back Before Him: For actors, creating a script goes beyond just "acting" one. Everyone has to use their heads and find their own materials. In The Island and the Other Shore, for instance, they had to study the Cultural Revolution and kung-fu novels, and in Circle Story they had to delve into the history of the small eateries at the Nanking W. Rd. traffic circle. Lead actor Li Li-chun got a lot out of it: "It forces you to constantly ask why, to establish the motives that make up a character and to go through a lot of buffeting and reflection." Expanding a performer's room for thought is the greatest fruit of Stan Lai's teaching, he feels.

Li also believes that since most of the material comes from their own creation, the actors' feelings are more real and natural. There's no need to simulate or pretend. The Other Evening, We Performed Hsiang-sheng, for instance, included elements of his childhood in a military dependents' village, and the scene of "Szu-lang Visits His Mother" was based on a visit to his relatives in his family hometown in Honan Province. "When I spoke the dialogue, the whole scene came right back before me."

Yet improvisation has its drawbacks, too. "We play around with the spirit and structure of the piece and come up with all kinds of jokes in rehearsal, but there's not much time for polishing," Li says. "So I'm always anxious to spend more time on my techniques and get rid of old habits that are starting to stiffen up."

As for its effect on the whole company, some people wonder whether using the method for so long will result in burnout, in habitual horsing around or in a lack of the intellectual depth offered by a script.

Lack of Depth? "I don't think they intentionally try play to the groundlings or ingratiate themselves with the audience. It's just that they always keep in high spirits during rehearsal, so the work that comes out is naturally pleasant," explains film critic Huang Chien-yeh, who worked with the company in Come On, Everybody, Let's Dance.

Huang says that Stan Lai is super efficient at moving the work along. He constantly revises the plot that developed out of rehearsal from the day before and constantly inspires the actors with fresh interest. He's adept at encouraging them and giving them hope when they're stuck. But since rehearsal goes so smoothly, they inevitably lack the inner strength of a playwright who struggles with the material until overcoming it.

As for Stan Lai, "There's a real art to letting inspiration fly free as a bird and then reining it back in again." He feels that he has gradually acquired the hang of it and plans to keep on with group improvisation, but he doesn't reject the possibility of directing with scripts either.

Whatever Works: Perhaps it ultimately comes down to what Huang Chien-yeh says, that each theatrical company has to find a method that works for it. Stan Lai, the heart and soul of the Performance Workshop, has always loved jazz and watching the way basketball coaches direct their players during a game. He hopes that his fellow workers can be his friends. They come up with a lot of ideas by chatting and horsing around, and they pick things up quickly because they interact well and have good chemistry. All these features go together in making group improvisation work.

"If you ever wonder why the clown in Shakespeare's plays was cheerful in his early years but somber in his later plays, it's because the actors in his company changed," Lai says with feeling. "Creating all on your own is too lonely. The mutual influence between the playwright and the actors is what brings out the best in both of them." And creating a kaleidoscope of characters like Shakespeare's is the dream of every director.

　(Liu Yun-fang/photos by Pu Hua-chih/ tr. by Peter Eberly)

[Picture Caption]

Actors and crew are together from the first rehearsal, and they interact and spur each other on as they give the play birth.

Group improvisation, which relies on the smooth chemistry and tacit understanding of friends, is like a game played by expert professionals, and when they decide they can "play for keeps," the scene is ready.

Group improvisation, which relies on the smooth chemistry and tacit understanding of friends, is like a game played by expert professionals, and when they decide they can "play for keeps," the scene is ready.