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Drama Productions

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Seniors of the BA program produced one of Shakespeare's comedy classics A Midsummer Night's Dream in Fall 2014, under the direction of Prof. Kurt Cline. This prodctions was inspired by the productions of the same drama by Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, played at the National Theater in Taipei in the fall of 2014. Many students who went to the play also took the drama class in the semester and, together with class instructor Prof. Kurt Cline, decided to take on the challenge in producing A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Bald Soprano

The Bald Soprano is an absurdist play written by the French-Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco. As reported by the New York Times, “The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice Chauve) was inspired by [Ionesco's] own attempts to learn English by using an English-French conversational manual. Copying out phrases, he realized he was relearning obvious truths, that there are seven days in a week and that the ceiling is above, the floor below. Carrying that premise to ridiculous, word-spinning heights, he wrote his first play.” It was produced at Taipei Tech by the seniors of the BA program in Fall 2011 under the direction of Prof. Kurt Cline. The Taipei Tech production had its interpretation of the original play and, as advertised on the poster, included a 300-pound gorilla.

The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. Under the direction of Prof. Kurt Cline, the seniors of the BA program, together with some students of the MA program, produced this musical in Fall 2010. The musical featured a live band comprised of Taipei Tech alumni and Prof. Cline. Taipei Tech students also sang for the first time in a department stage production.

Sex, Taboo, Life, Death, and Dildos

Sex, Taboo, Life, Death, and Dildos was a piece of performance art work presented by the Creative Writing Workshop MA students in Fall 2010. The performance art work was designed to provide a serious look at the cultural and intra-psychic constructs which make up sex, taboo, life, death, and dildos and offer a multi-media experience combining theater, poetry, visual art, music, and humor. The idea was conceived and story written by the students, who were also the cast and crew of the production.

Woyengi

Woyengi is a Nigerian play written in English by Obotunde Ijimere. Based on a myth of the Yoruban people of Nigeria, the play centers on the witch Ogboinba and her quest to challenge Woyengi, the “Great Mother Goddess” who created the earth and all its creatures. The Taipei Tech production was produced by the seniors of the BA program in Fall 2009 under the direction of Prof. Kurt Cline. The design of the stage and costumes in this production benefited from an African artifacts exhibition that was showing at the time of the production at the Taipei Tech Arts & Cultural Center.

Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria was produced by the MA students of the Creative Writing Workshop in Fall 2009. It featured an open stage with no chairs and four simultaneously produced performances. As audience members moved near any corner of the room, the actors of that particular performance would start automatically, thereby making the overall experience the very definition of phantasmagoria, a sequence of images like that seen in a dream. The production was concluded by Prof. Cline's escape from a straitjacket while reciting a poem.

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett that was first performed in 1953. In it, the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for Godot, who never shows up. It was produced at Taipei Tech by the seniors of the BA program in Fall 2008 under the direction of Prof. Kurt Cline. This production was the first time students incorporated an original stage design for the set.

Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex is the famous Athenian tragedy by Sophocles about how Oedipus, the King of Thebes, who came to his destined downfall through his own tragic flaw. The Taipei Tech production was made by the BA program seniors in Fall 2007 and featured a change of setting from ancient Greece to ancient China.