But while many viewers watch the shows with a smile, they also harbor doubts about their method of performance-flirtatious expressions and seductive voices; thick, glittering makeup, and raucous, farcical antics calculated to provoke a laugh. The question is, why are teenagers so passionate about them? And do they themselves have any opportunities to perform?
The bell has just rung letting out class. A great tide of people rushes out the gate of Hsisung High School.
At this time, drama teacher Kao Chao-cheng slips stealthily in through the school gate. But the drama students see their instructor approaching from afar. Chattering loudly, they flood into the empty classroom, finding it difficult to conceal their excitement.
Theater is great fun!
"Come on, form a circle."
"Move your toes and your knees. . . ."
After the students have loosened up, the teacher picks two of them, one to play the part of a mouse, the other a cat, and he asks the rest of the students to link hands and form a circle. The cat and the mouse race around in pursuit, inside and outside the circle. The students that make up the circle protect the mouse and obstruct the cat.
Everyone takes their turn playing the cat and the mouse, running around until their backs are dripping with sweat. Afterward, the teacher grabs a newspaper and rolls it up into a ball. He asks the students to take a rest and concentrate on the balled-up newspaper.
The students gradually quieten down. Under their gaze, the ball of newspaper opens up, at some moments quickly, at others slowly. After being silent for a while, one person finally can bear it no longer and blurts out:
"Can we eat it?"
"Does anyone have a match?"
"Look at its eyes, so full of emotion." The students invent their own means to amuse themselves, letting their imaginations run wild.
At this point, the teacher says, "Okay, everybody squat down. Imagine that you're that newspaper that was just bunched up into a ball." The students do their best to scrunch up as small as they can.
"Open up, just like the newspaper that you saw." With quick spurts and slow motions, the students open themselves up in imitation of the newspaper that was suddenly released. . . .
Promoting youth theater
These exercises are all part of drama class. When Kao Chao-cheng has the students play the game of cat-and-mouse, he gets them to interact with each other and move based on their observations of the cat, the mouse and their classmates linked in a circle. Imitating the newspaper was an exercise to strengthen their bodies by observing its fluid motion and rhythm. After class, Kao sometimes assigns homework-for instance, asking the students to describe some scene close around them-in order to begin developing their ability to write scripts.
In order to study drama, the students in the Hsisung High School Drama Club first had to look long and hard for instructors. They finally found one at the Green Ray Theater Troupe. In comparison, the students at Luotung High School were far more fortunate.
Three years ago, Luotung High School principal Hsu Wen-shong received a letter from the Paper Windmill Theater Troupe, saying that the Council for Cultural Affairs had commissioned them to implement a "Youth Theatre Project." They were accepting invitations from schools for professional theatrical personnel to guide school theater programs, and the troupe was planning to put on instructional performances in schools. The project would also include other events such as talks by famous actors like Hugh Lee and Liang Tzu-yun, and camps designed to help teachers practice writing and directing.
The Luotung High School drama club had had a history of more than ten years, but had been discontinued because there weren't enough teachers or participants. The school quickly applied with Paper Windmill and brought their program back to life. They have now been growing for three years. "Before, students would sign up with the club only when none of the groups they wanted to be in had openings. Today, not only do students sign up on their own initiative, the teachers are planning to let them write and direct as well as act," says drama club instructor You Shu-chen.
The Council for Cultural Affairs has sponsored the Youth Theatre Project for three successive years. The project's budget of more than NT$10 million per year provides a powerful impetus, so that more than 100 schools are now participating. Wu Ching-chi, a creative consultant to the Paper Windmill Theater Troupe and a PhD in psychology, proposed the plan to the Council for Cultural Affairs. He says, "People used to have a negative impression about getting involved in theater. Actually, theatrical skills are not only a natural talent, but can also build up the collective cultural experience of this generation of youth."
Youth don't go to plays?
Teenagers have typically shown little interest in attending the theater. Paper Windmill director Jen Chien-cheng recalls that when he was a high school student, he completely memorized the first-run movies in all Taipei's major cinemas and the television programming schedules, but he was entirely unaware of Performance Workshop's "That Night, We Had a Dialogue," which was a very big event at the time.
Ping-Fong Acting Troupe artistic director Hugh Lee notes that, according to records of the "Friends of Ping-Fong," youth have for the last 12 years made up only one percent of the troupe's audience. "Why is it that pop star concerts are bursting with teenagers, but most of these teens never enter a theater?" asks Lee.
In fact, it's not that young people don't like the theater, but that drama is nearly absent from our educational system. They rarely watch it or participate in it, and very few in society at large act or attend theater either.
When they do come in contact with theatrical performances, the students often get very excited: "When they hit somebody in a play, it's actually fake!" When Jen Chien-cheng led the Paper Windmill Troupe to perform at one school, he pulled one of the troupe members along the stage by the hair, but Jen's hand had actually let go of the actor's hair. How could his head be dragged headlong to the floor? "By controlling the motion of one's body, one can create the effect, and also avoid hurting the actor. Otherwise, by the time a play's over with, the actors would be beaten half to death." When Jen Chien-cheng demonstrated this and offered this explanation, the students laughed their heads off.
Nevertheless, such opportunities are few and far between. Often students would like to see a play but have no play to watch.
Former Luotung High School Drama Club director Chang Han-ying and club member Chen Ya-chi are both very interested in theater. They often surf the Internet for information on the latest plays. Yet "these new plays rarely show in Ilan, and we don't have the time or money to go to Taipei to see them," Chang Han-yin says with regret.
Without a doubt, Taipei offers greater opportunities. Most art schools, performance troupes and artistic or cultural events are in the capital. But Hugh Lee points out an additional factor: Over the last 20 years, the theatrical environment in Taiwan has polarized-the events are either for adults or for children. Teenagers, who are too old to watch children's plays yet unable to digest the satirical criticism of adult theater, seem truly to have no plays to watch.
A shared cultural experience
Besides entertainment and fun, does theatergoing have any meaning for youth?
Liu Hsin-yi, director of the Crunch Troupe, who has served as drama club instructor for both Sungshan and Tachih High Schools, recalls that when she was a girl growing up at her old home in the countryside of Tainan, she loved to hunt out adventures in the neighborhood with her friends. Sometimes in the alleyways they would put on extemporaneous plays. Five-and-dime stores and telephone poles were their backdrops and stage props. Many people have similar memories of directing and acting out all kinds of musical operas and swashbuckling dramas with their playmates.
"Actually, all children imitate adults. They play all sorts of roles in their games," observes Wu Ching-chi. This role-playing increases their understanding of themselves and the world of adults. But they do not think of it in these terms; it is purely play. "In Great Britain and the US, this kind of imitation has been extended. They have a deep and broad theatrical education, which allows children to discover what they want, and don't want, for themselves. In their lives, theater is a shared cultural experience," says Wu Ching-chi.
In Taiwan's traditional educational system, there is very little of this.
Hugh Lee says that many facets of Taiwan make people feel that the lives they live are melancholy, rotten and disorderly. And when teenagers imitate adult society-dressing up in name-brand apparel, behaving violently or squandering their youth with their friends-no matter what they do, "they won't be walking into the theater," says Li.
Out into the community
Actually, drama encompasses a broad spectrum. Jen Chien-cheng observes that drama incorporates various elements, including music, literature, and stage and clothing design. It can allow students to find their own place, to flourish and gain a sense of achievement.
In 1980, when Liu Hsin-yi was still a student at the Chia-Nan College of Pharmacy, she traveled to Taipei to take part in Public Television's nationwide university and technical college short drama contest. Amid intense competition, she snatched the grand prize, as well as the awards for best director and best actress, all in one fell swoop. "I didn't have a formal background in the subject, but at that moment, it was as if I had a green light to enter the world of the theater." Liu Hsin-yi deeply feels that it is essential to hold more theatrical activities for young people.
Last year a tour de force was held as part of the Youth Theatre Project-the play "KKK," an end-of-semester performance by the affiliated senior high school of National Taiwan Normal University. A crowd of more than 200 drama club members from over 30 high schools and technical colleges throughout northern Taiwan were in attendance-an unprecedented event.
Luotung High School even moved their stage into a neighborhood park. The students asked local merchants for contributions to help cover their expenses. "Just as in the open-air operas of former days, the whole community took part in the performance," says You Shu-chen.
Chang Li-ming, director of Taichung's StageNet Theater, who had a tendency toward violence when he was a youth, says thoughtfully, "Young people need the affirmation of the applause the get on stage."
Limitless creative space
In addition to self-affirmation, drama can be a means to exploring oneself and interacting with others. In Liu Hsin-yi's class, Tachih High School students play a game of limitless transformation. Groups of seven or eight students each use the motion of their own bodies to act out different shapes, which the other students must guess. One group links hands and slowly changes from a round shape to a crescent shape. The other kids instantly guess, "The moon!"
Wu Ching-chi emphasizes, "Theater is a collective creation. Collective creativity is a Gordian knot; it's extremely difficult. From it young people can learn how to work with others." National Institute of the Arts professor Chen Chi-nan believes that among all the art courses and special activities available in school, only contemporary drama activities foster a true understanding of group interaction.
Liu Hsin-yi says that although many teenagers are quite independent, they lack self-confidence, and are unused to acting autonomously. Therefore, she has students do their own scriptwriting, directing and acting. When students encounter a problem, she gives them hints from the sidelines. "They still have to find the answer themselves," Liu says.
One time a student acted out a scene of his mother and himself quarreling. In his script, this student dreamt of two puppets that were also fighting about the same thing. They argued until this onlooker could sleep no longer, and stood up, shouting, "Stop fighting!" Suddenly, the puppets disappeared, and he awoke from his dream. But the play had not ended-the main actor stood in the middle of the stage, crying.
Releasing the pressure
A lot of pressure can build up inside children. Jen Chien-Cheng believes that schools' counseling resources are limited, and students resist authoritative educational direction; drama is perfect for relieving pressure and allowing them to speak the words that are in their hearts. Chuo Ming, who serves as creative director for three different troupes in southern Taiwan and has been involved in drama education for a long time, believes that adolescents are very self-absorbed and emotional; they have something to say but no channel through which to speak. This is the impetus behind such modes of expression as illegal motorcycle racing, disco dancing and even suicide.
"The impact of theater is deep inside the heart. We don't introduce students to drama in order to treat their illnesses or to prevent crime, but only to let young people try to feel life, and speak forth to a greater degree," says Jen Chien-cheng.
Theater provides teenagers with a catharsis and a means to express their emotions to the fullest extent. Even more important, it allows them to have fun doing it.
Chuo Ming, who is now in his second year of directing drama classes at the Kaohsiung Municipal Cheng-kung Developmental Disabilities School, notes that mentally handicapped or autistic students have the most direct reactions. Their minds don't have the capacity for any theatrical theory, so they are most inclined to express themselves directly. And because the teachers don't have the preconceptions they have about ordinary adolescents, students in fact receive greater space for expression.
Cheng-kung Developmental Disabilities School principal Lin Ling-chun recalls one instance during the public performance of "The Crystal Ball Princess's Dream" at the end of last year's term. In one scene the king was supposed to personally present a cake to the princess, the cake was to be knocked over, and the princess was to cry bitterly. To everyone's surprise, before the scene, the cake was thrown onto the girl playing the princess, who really did weep bitterly, and hid behind the stage, refusing to act her part.
Sowing the seed of theater
Even if it seemed to be a big blunder, no one, from the principal to the instructor, cast blame on anyone else. This year, Chuo Ming plans to direct the students without any set script. The students will use themselves as a starting point, without any preset theme. The teacher and the students will collectively create a play. During the process, each student will be able to express himself fully. In the end, the performance that results "is not all that important," Chuo Ming says. "The important thing is what the students feel, and what they say."
In recent years, many theater groups have gradually been putting down roots in central and southern Taiwan, and many theater troupe personnel have taken part in the Council for Cultural Affairs' project, separately directing student groups in their local areas. The seeds of theater are slowly beginning to sprout. These young people are slowly cultivating an ability to appreciate theater, and they are gaining a collective cultural experience.
During the middle of this year, the Council for Cultural Affairs will hold a young people's creative short play competition. Council for Cultural Affairs vice chairman Wu Chung-li says that in the future, traditional theater will be incorporated into the overall project. In the future, will Taiwan produce a true celebrity of the theater? And will young people become avid fans of theatrical stars? Though these questions are impossible to answer, many students have already discovered the bountiful universe that is the theater.
p.92
The classroom cannot lock in limitless imagination. During the second Youth Theatre Project united performance, Shihlin Commercial High School students moved the classroom onto the stage, shedding the restraints of their uniforms and proclaiming the feelings that lay hidden in their heart. (by Li Hung-yuan)
p.94
The Hsisung High School drama class curriculum: newspaper observation. Watching it gradually straighten out, the students can't hold back a host of comments: "Can we eat it?" "Look at its eyes, so full of emotion." Actually, none of the above-the teacher had a different purpose in mind.
p.95
In acting class, everyone expresses themselves to their heart's content. Without even noticing it, the living organism of theater slowly gains consciousness. The picture shows the Kaohsiung Municipal Cheng-kung Developmental Disabilities School's acting class.
p.96
Michael Jackson, king of pop, in concert. The audience is full of teenagers, alive with energy. How many of them have been inside a theater hall?
p.97
Theater holds limitless possibilities for dramatic expression. When this Australian theater troupe came to perform in Taiwan, they used elastic cloth as a prop to create a scene at once like dance and like moving sculpture.
p.98
Donning costumes and walking onto the set, many young people are experiencing the allure of theater. Pictured is a presentation of "The Crystal Ball Princess's Dream" by students of the Cheng-kung Developmental Disabilities School. (courtesy of Kaohsiung Municipal Cheng-kung Developmental Disabilities School)
Michael Jackson, king of pop, in concert. The audience is full of teenagers, alive with energy. How many of them have been inside a theater hall?
Theater holds limitless possibilities for dramatic expression. When this Australian theater troupe came to perform in Taiwan, they used elastic cloth as a prop to create a scene at once like dance and like moving sculpture.
Donning costumes and walking onto the set, many young people are experiencing the allure of theater. Pictured is a presentation of "The Crystal Ball Princess's Dream" by students of the Cheng-kung Developmental Disabilities School. （courtesy of Kaohsiung Municipal Cheng-kung Developmental Disabilities School）
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