New Plays from Taiwan: What’s Next After Marriage Equality?
Photo by Esther Ho.
Thursday, November 14, 2019 // Readings + Talkback
Segal Theatre
The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street
In May 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. Join us for an evening with Taiwanese playwrights, Chao Chi-Yun (趙啟運), Lin Meng-Huan (林孟寰), and Liu Chien-Kuo (劉建幗), who have created short plays embracing the achievements and struggles of this historic moment. This evening will feature three staged readings performed by a stellar cast of New York-based actors and directed by Michael Leibenluft of Gung Ho Projects. The readings will be followed by a discussion with the playwrights, curators, director, and translator Jeremy Tiang, and moderated by Linnea Valdivia, Literary Manager for the National Queer Theater.
Why Don’t We Get Married? by Liu Chien-Kuo
Halfway through a rehearsal, Xiao Ai’s girlfriend (and fellow actress) proposes to her—but in the flurry of wedding planning, will they lose sight of what marriage means? Meanwhile, in the audience, a mother and daughter have a difficult conversation about love—all interspersed with Taiwanese opera.
Love in Time by Chao Chi-Yun
Now that gay marriage has come to Taiwan, two sisters come up with a plan to stage a wedding for their late father and his former boyfriend—but Uncle Zun is still very much alive, and may not go along with their scheme. A play about love and loss, and what happens when progress comes too late.
The Red Balloon by Lin Meng-Huan
2049. When Lang Yong and his late husband had a child thirty years ago, they used genetic manipulation to ensure the boy would be gay too. Now their son wants to undergo orientation reversal surgery so he can be “normal”—but what does that mean in a world where anything is possible by medical means?
Co-curated by Yu Chien Liu, Pao-Chang Tsai, and Chi-Ping Yen in partnership with Gung Ho Projects and National Queer Theater, with support from the Ministry of Culture, ROC (Taiwan) and the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, in collaboration with Frank Hentschker (Segal Center).
All plays are translated by Jeremy Tiang and directed by Michael Leibenluft/Gung Ho Projects, a New York-based multilingual theater company that uses performance to create opportunities for self-expression, empowerment, and exchange across linguistic and cultural divides.
Presented in partnership with National Queer Theater, whose mission is to foster and support LGBTQ communities through social justice in the performing arts. Media Partnership with Lambda Literary that nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers.