San Francisco International Arts Festival and the National Queer Arts Festival Present... from Taiwan, the US Premiere of Pao-Chang Tsai in Solo Date
San Francisco, CA, April 04, 2018 --(PR.com)-- Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Pao Chang Tsai
What: Solo Date
Where: San Francisco International Arts Festival
Southside Theater, Building D Third Floor
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture
When: Thursday, May 31 8:30pm, Friday, June 1 at 7:00pm,
Saturday, June 2 at 3:00pm.
Tickets: $25 General Admission
Box Office & Information: www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554
Website URL: http://www.sfiaf.org/2018_pao_chang_tsai
Photo Images Available On Request
San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) and the National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF) are very pleased to present the US Premiere of Solo Date a one-man theatre play written and performed by Pao-Chang Tsai, the co-founder of the Tainaner Ensemble from the city of Tainan in Taiwan.
From the outset in Solo Date the audience is posed the question, is this quest for love a surreal duet, or a solitary monologue? The play tells the story of Ho-Nien, a successful international businessman from Taiwan whose long-time lover and partner Alan is killed in an air crash.
Stricken with grief Ho-Nien attempts to reunite with Alan, but after a failed attempt to visit hell via an ancient Taoist ritual, Ho-Nien endeavours to reconstruct his deceased lover utilizing artificial intelligence and by accessing Alan’s encrypted online data and social media records.
What follows is a surreal journey through a virtual underworld where Ho-Nien encounters digital gatekeepers, confronts social taboos and uncovers secrets from the past that tarnish the reunion and risk robbing Ho-Nien of his perceived memories and reality.
Innovative, elegant and moving, Solo Date uses new media to explore loneliness and longing, desire and death, artificial intelligence and human loss and need. It also asks unsettling questions about online privacy, the ethics of re-inventing the dead and several other as-yet-to-be-articulated aspects of the digital frontier.
Festival Director Andrew Wood said of the performance, “We are very pleased to be presenting the US Premiere of Solo Date with our colleagues from the National Queer Arts Festival. Solo Date deals with pressing issues that speak very much to multiple Bay Area audiences. It questions the ethical and moral choices that confront designers in the tech industry as the lines between virtual personas and real people become ever more blurred.”
Solo Data is performed in three languages (English, French and Mandarin) with live super-title translations.
Pao-Chang Tsai Biography
Pao-Chang graduated from the department of drama and theatre, National Taiwan University and had his master in music theatre from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. He is the co- artistic director at Tainaner Ensemble.
The CommonWealth Magazine selected Pao-Chang Tsai as the Future Young Leader in Performing arts. He also attended the America Repertory Theater at Harvard University for further study in Voice and Speech sponsored by Asian Cultural Council, and spent three months studying at the Moscow Art Theatre. Pao-Chang just completed his residency at Cité internationale des Arts in Paris. Solo Date is his first one-man theatre production. It premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016 and has since been performed in.
The Tainaner Ensemble
Founded in 1987 as Hwa Deng Theatre Troupe, Tainaner Ensemble made significant contributions to the development of the performing arts in Tainan, southern Taiwan. Having built a reputation for producing plays reflecting a local perspective, it began to look more outwardly while still using Holo dialect, or Taiwanese (as well as Mandarin and other languages) in adaptations of Western drama. In early 2012, Tainaner Ensemble moved to Taipei City, signalling a new phase in its evolution. As the company has grown, so have the opportunities it provides for cultivating new acting and playwriting talent. It is now a leading light in Taiwan’s theatrical vanguard.
Funding Credits
The production in San Francisco was funded in part by Taiwan Academy and the Western Arts Federation Tourwest Program (WESTAF)
Who: Pao Chang Tsai
What: Solo Date
Where: San Francisco International Arts Festival
Southside Theater, Building D Third Floor
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture
When: Thursday, May 31 8:30pm, Friday, June 1 at 7:00pm,
Saturday, June 2 at 3:00pm.
Tickets: $25 General Admission
Box Office & Information: www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554
Website URL: http://www.sfiaf.org/2018_pao_chang_tsai
Photo Images Available On Request
San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) and the National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF) are very pleased to present the US Premiere of Solo Date a one-man theatre play written and performed by Pao-Chang Tsai, the co-founder of the Tainaner Ensemble from the city of Tainan in Taiwan.
From the outset in Solo Date the audience is posed the question, is this quest for love a surreal duet, or a solitary monologue? The play tells the story of Ho-Nien, a successful international businessman from Taiwan whose long-time lover and partner Alan is killed in an air crash.
Stricken with grief Ho-Nien attempts to reunite with Alan, but after a failed attempt to visit hell via an ancient Taoist ritual, Ho-Nien endeavours to reconstruct his deceased lover utilizing artificial intelligence and by accessing Alan’s encrypted online data and social media records.
What follows is a surreal journey through a virtual underworld where Ho-Nien encounters digital gatekeepers, confronts social taboos and uncovers secrets from the past that tarnish the reunion and risk robbing Ho-Nien of his perceived memories and reality.
Innovative, elegant and moving, Solo Date uses new media to explore loneliness and longing, desire and death, artificial intelligence and human loss and need. It also asks unsettling questions about online privacy, the ethics of re-inventing the dead and several other as-yet-to-be-articulated aspects of the digital frontier.
Festival Director Andrew Wood said of the performance, “We are very pleased to be presenting the US Premiere of Solo Date with our colleagues from the National Queer Arts Festival. Solo Date deals with pressing issues that speak very much to multiple Bay Area audiences. It questions the ethical and moral choices that confront designers in the tech industry as the lines between virtual personas and real people become ever more blurred.”
Solo Data is performed in three languages (English, French and Mandarin) with live super-title translations.
Pao-Chang Tsai Biography
Pao-Chang graduated from the department of drama and theatre, National Taiwan University and had his master in music theatre from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. He is the co- artistic director at Tainaner Ensemble.
The CommonWealth Magazine selected Pao-Chang Tsai as the Future Young Leader in Performing arts. He also attended the America Repertory Theater at Harvard University for further study in Voice and Speech sponsored by Asian Cultural Council, and spent three months studying at the Moscow Art Theatre. Pao-Chang just completed his residency at Cité internationale des Arts in Paris. Solo Date is his first one-man theatre production. It premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016 and has since been performed in.
The Tainaner Ensemble
Founded in 1987 as Hwa Deng Theatre Troupe, Tainaner Ensemble made significant contributions to the development of the performing arts in Tainan, southern Taiwan. Having built a reputation for producing plays reflecting a local perspective, it began to look more outwardly while still using Holo dialect, or Taiwanese (as well as Mandarin and other languages) in adaptations of Western drama. In early 2012, Tainaner Ensemble moved to Taipei City, signalling a new phase in its evolution. As the company has grown, so have the opportunities it provides for cultivating new acting and playwriting talent. It is now a leading light in Taiwan’s theatrical vanguard.
Funding Credits
The production in San Francisco was funded in part by Taiwan Academy and the Western Arts Federation Tourwest Program (WESTAF)
Contact
San Francisco International Arts Festival
Andrew Wood
415-399-9554
www.sfiaf.org
Cell Phone: 415-305-1102
Andrew Wood
415-399-9554
www.sfiaf.org
Cell Phone: 415-305-1102
Contact
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