As I leave the theater or concert hall after a performance by a time-tested and venerable group, even as the cheers of “Bravo!” and “Encore!” are still ringing through the hall, I am amazed as I walk past the framed posters and think to myself: Thirty years! How have they done it, show after show, always coming up with ingenious creative ideas, always maintaining a magnificent level of performance, always eliciting thunderous applause? It remains a mystery to me.

There must be some kind of enthralling chemical rush that performers get, which, once it takes effect, causes them—whether their medium be live theater, classical music, Peking Opera, percussion—to transform themselves under the stage lights and to produce art so great that it is worth devoting their whole lives to.

Meanwhile, we in the audience find ourselves entranced, absorbed, intoxicated—sometimes spellbound, sometimes roaring with laughter, sometimes cheering, sometimes weeping. With their voices, movements, gestures, notes, and expressions, within the confined space of a performance hall, they raise us to emotional highs, to extremes of mood, they stir us up, and sometimes push us over the edge.

And for each of those moments, behind the scenes there are months and years of intensive rehearsals and learning. It is to this behind-the-scenes heroism that we should offer a bow of respect. Our cover story this month looks at several of Taiwan’s oldest continuously operating and most outstanding performing troupes: the Ju Percussion Group, Contemporary Legend Theatre, the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, and Performance Workshop, whose breakthrough work Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land is celebrating its 30th year.

There are other forms of art than those that appear on stage. The term “art” also means a skill, a craft, a field of knowledge. There is an ancient Chinese saying that names the seven necessities of life as charcoal, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. The master craftsmen who make them are truly “art-isans.” Starting this month and over the six months to come, we will run a special series of multifaceted features about these seven necessities of life, and discover the extraordinary within the ordinary. The first installment (comprising three articles) is on charcoal.

Other noteworthy themes this month are “color” and “orchids.” We have stories on a foundation that promotes color education, on a Taipei City Government project to introduce color-coordinated schemes within neighborhoods, on the wild orchids of Taiwan, and on modern laboratory orchids.

Returning to the performance hall, I sneak up onto the stage and stand under the lights. They say light has no weight, but I feel the weight—of responsibility, of strength, of purpose. I turn and look around the hall, feeling the sounds, tones of voice, expressions, the subtle resonances of visual juxtapositions, the interplay of applause and shouts of “Encore!” The performance companies featured in our cover story have been playing under these lights for three decades, and there is no sign that the curtain will come down on their brilliance any time soon.