New Buds on a Fertile Island: New Play Development in Taiwan, Part 2

For Part 1 see here.

Prologue Center for New Plays

Having worked as a dramaturg, theatre critic, and educator for over ten years, Cheng-Han Wu noticed that in recent years, the theatre in Taiwan has been increasingly market-oriented. As a result, playwriting has become dominated by realism, sentimentalism, and linear storytelling, which restrains playwrights from being imaginative and exploring more possibilities in narrative forms. What’s worse, content deemed unfit for mainstream taste or lacking obvious market value may be considered unproducible. Some playwrights choose to pander to the audience, while others suffer from self-censorship. When playwriting becomes something undaring, the topics, forms, and tones that plays deal with are limited, thus making the theatre in Taiwan appear monotonous and stagnant. Feeling frustrated with such a phenomenon, Wu applied for a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) and embarked on a research trip to New York City, interviewing artistic directors, dramaturgs, and playwrights from over 50 theatres and organizations regarding their new play programs. In 2024, he founded the first independent new play development institution in Taiwan: the Prologue Center for New Plays.

In his interview with ACC, Wu shared his vision clearly. “My ultimate goal is to have a new play development center in Taiwan. At this center, I hope to help playwrights create something they really like and foster a way to perceive the world through their own eyes: that is, not bound by financial concerns, strictly linear storytelling, or audience-pleasing constraints. A mission like this is also why I find the arts to be so important, because even though we exist in a confined, man-made societal structure, the arts can be a place where we can break that reality to perceive new possibilities.” This vision became the foundation of the Prologue Center.

In order to build an environment that encourages playwrights to discover their own voices, tones, and styles, the development center launched an array of programs that equip playwrights with various writing skills as well as dramaturgical thinking. Besides typical programming and support, such as writers’ groups, playwriting residencies, developmental workshops, dramaturgical conversations, staged readings, and opportunities for networking, the Prologue Center also provides playwrights with a variety of resources that can stimulate artistic energies and facilitate cultural exchange. It is a laboratory for new voices and new ideas as well as a home for artists.

The International Play Salon. Photo courtesy of the Prologue Center for New Plays.

One of the Prologue Center’s most distinctive programs is the International Play Salon, a weekly book club that reads and discusses plays from a diverse range of countries, including Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Spain, France, Germany, Russia, Chile, Iran, Mexico, USA, and the UK, among others. After two-to-three-week discussions for each country, a guest speaker who is knowledgeable in the theater landscape of the country in question is invited. Both intensively and extensively, participants are able to observe and absorb different subject matters, cultural values, mindsets, dramaturgies, and worldviews reflected in plays from different countries. Meanwhile, they are encouraged to reconsider the society and cultures of Taiwan from different perspectives to further find their own ways of seeing the world, discover topics and voices that are underrepresented onstage, and explore new ways of storytelling.

In addition to bringing local playwrights access to plays from other countries, the Prologue Center is also committed to introducing Taiwanese plays abroad through translation. This is also what makes this institution unique; it believes Taiwanese playwrights deserve a spot on the international stage. It is constantly seeking opportunities to introduce Taiwanese plays and playwrights abroad, as well as facilitate connections and collaborations with other international play development programs and organizations. In this way, the Prologue Center is not only a platform that stimulates creative energies and provides artistic resources, but a hub for cultural exchange.

Most importantly, the Prologue Center is planning to organize three play reading festivals in the near future, including the Prologue Festival, Spotlight Festival, and Taiwan International Play Reading Festival. While the Prologue Festival is a new play festival that promotes emerging playwrights, new voices, or works-in-progress, the Spotlight Festival presents a collection of plays written by one established Taiwanese playwright whose works are worth being recognized, reviewed, and reevaluated as a whole. Focusing on one country as its theme, the Taiwan International Play Reading Festival presents a number of plays from the country, along with Taiwanese plays, turning theatre into an intercultural event where new meanings and new ideas may be born.

Though the programs at Our Theatre, Voleur du Feu Theatre, and Prologue Center for New Plays are run by different curatorial philosophies, they have all fueled new playwriting in Taiwan in various aspects. Ultimately, their efforts will foster a better environment for playwrights, discover new talent of the next generation, inspire more diverse voices in content and form, and change the scene of playwriting and theatre in Taiwan.