Sex, Lines and No Videotape

14 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES BY Alita RICKards DRAMA STOP Sex, lines and COMPILED BY DAVid CHEN no videotape hen rumors emerged last Ethan Ruan is staying in weekend that Jerry Yan school — and out of the scar Wilde once said he regarded “the theater as (言承旭) had been born out military. PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate Wof wedlock, the TV actor and way in which a human being can share with another singer responded with a vague (半島音樂盛世演唱 Othe sense of what it is to be a human being.” It is with acknowledgement that turned into 會), according to that sense of sharing the human experience that Taipei a tribute to his mother. our sister paper the Players was founded in 2008 by two expatriate Canadians “I don’t really know [if the Liberty Times. seeking an outlet for English-language theater in Taiwan. rumors are true] but I don’t think But her singing This weekend in Taipei the group will be holding its it’s important,” Yan said at a was the last thing fourth production, An Evening of Shorts III, comprised of Children’s Day charity event the media was four comedic shorts each between 10 and 30 minutes long. on Sunday. interested in. For Brook Hall, who directs one of the shorts, there “My mother worked hard to Reporters were “was a gaping hole in the lack of contemporary theater raise me, and I never robbed, dying to know in Taipei, especially for an English-speaking audience” PERFORMANCE noTES: I never stole. She is my role when Sun is before Taipei Players was founded. “My day job is model,” he said. “No matter what, going to finally working with various Taiwanese theater companies,” WHAT: Taipei Players, An Evening of Shorts III I’ll support her and I hope when marry “mustache man” (鬍鬚男), he said. “It’s hard enough to be a Taiwanese theater I grow older I can make her even aka Nadim van der Ros, the Dutch company in 2010, but there is no pre-conceived notion or WHEN: Tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm and more proud of me.” beau she’s been dating for three path whatsoever for a foreigner-run operation.” Above: The battle of the sexes continues in Wedding Story. 7:30pm The 33-year old heartthrob years. Was a secret marriage in He credits Taipei Players founders Mandy Rovenda Right: Uncovering the true story behind “recovering” homosexuals in 牯嶺街小劇 talked about growing up in a one- the works? “When we have the and Sarah Zittrer for being “unbelievably passionate about Room 69. PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOUSE CHEN WHERE: Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre ( parent household that struggled time, and of course we won’t getting the word out, getting people motivated and finding 場), 2, Ln 5, Guling St, Taipei City (台北市牯嶺街5巷2號) to pay the bills and also revealed be telling you when,” said an what was necessary to launch the company last year.” Partlow. “I can’t say that I have quite the amount of energy he was offered work during high uncharacteristically shy Sun. The piece he is directing, The Game, by Dennis that Doris has, but I really admire her passion, even if it’s ADMISSION: NT$300 in advance or NT$400 at school as a gigolo. Ethan Ruan (阮經天) has been Noble, was written in the 1970s and is “near and dear” misplaced. It’s fun to play such an angry woman.” the door He turned the offer down catching flack lately, not for to his heart. Hall saw the play when he was still in high Brandon Thompson, frontman for indie-rock group but admitted that he was highly cheating on his girlfriend as school but doesn’t want to say too much about it: “I hope Sons of Homer, stars in the only monologue of the DETAILS: Advance tickets can be purchased from tempted, especially after watching alleged last month, but for being audiences get to experience the same thing I did when night, Matt Mayerchak’s The Great Outdoors, in which both Toasteria locations, at 2, Ln 248, Zhongxiao E his friends who got into the in school. I first saw it,” he said. “There are certain plays that you the character pursues the woman of his dreams on Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段248巷2號) or business driving expensive cars. The star of the hit gangster will remember 24 hours, a week, maybe even a month a NordicTrack. 1, Ln 72, Yunhe St, Taipei City (台北市雲和街72巷1號). “I remembered what my flick Monga (艋舺) has been later, and I think this is one of them.” Actor Thomas van Niekerk narrates in The Wedding The performances contain adult content and are not mother told me: ‘A poor man enrolled at Hsing Wu College (醒吾 Another of the plays being shown, Room 69 by Story, by Julianne Homokay, which has Zittrer facing recommended for audiences younger than 16 must keep his integrity. Whatever 科技學院) for six years, prompting Bruce Ward, features actress Katie Partlow who has off against Ben Cunningham in a not-quite fairy-tale you do, don’t let yourself down speculation that he has avoided been studying for her MFA in acting at Taipei National romance. The play itself is a comedy, but in rehearsal ON THE NET: www.taipeiplayers.com and don’t let others down.’ So graduating in order to stall his University of the Arts (國立臺北藝術大學) since 2008. things got taken to another level when Niekerk flubbed I said I wasn’t interested,” said compulsory military service. She has been in all of the Players’ previous shows and the line “It was a real ego boost to have snagged up a hot Yan. “Besides, if I really went and The Apple Daily did some said that it “provides a different voice for the English- stud 11 years younger than she,” and said instead “It was actors and the response of those watching. did that, my mom would have digging and found that Ruan is speaking community in Taiwan.” a real ego boost to have snagged up a hot 11-year-old “Coming to see theater in general gives everyone killed me.” in good company. Entertainers In Room 69, which is based on a recovering stud,” to the chagrin and shocked laughter of the cast. involved a sense of being in the moment,” said Partlow. One of Yan’s former Joseph Cheng (鄭元暢), Mike Ho homosexuals group meeting, she plays Doris, a woman This is one of the charms of live theater — that it is “You can’t download us and watch us later. You’re bandmates from boy band F4, (賀軍翔) and Chang Shu-wei (張書 having problems with her sexual identity. “She is driven not prerecorded, but raw, influenced by the moods of either there in the theater laughing hysterically or Van Ness Wu (吳建豪), was spotted 偉) are fellow Hsing Wu students by her anger, her passion and her internal fears,” said both cast and audience, by the talent and foibles of the you’re not.” in Hong Kong last weekend with who have also been enrolled for a new girlfriend. six years. Paparazzi stalked the couple But the real kings among BY BRADLEY WINTERTON at a shopping mall in Central celebrity draft-dodgers, the report MUSIC District and the Apple Daily said, are pop idols Matthew Lin posted video footage on its Web (明道), who is entering his ninth site, which began with a shot year of school, and Bobby Dou of the Taiwanese American (竇智孔), who has been enrolled in Strings attached singer and mystery girl looking university for 10 years. amorously at each other while Actress Shu Qi (舒淇) has nne-Sophie Mutter is a special figure in the riding an escalator. been discovering her inner world of classical music. A child prodigy on the PERFORMANCE noTES: The pursuit culminated at a otaku. The starlet has become violin, she was taken up by Herbert von Karajan clothing boutique when Wu’s addicted to the Facebook game Awho conducted her in a performance with his Berlin sweetheart discovered cameras Happy Farm. She fessed up to Philharmonic Orchestra when she was only 13. She WHAT: Mercedes-Benz Classical Music Festival pointed their way and ducked her obsession in a recent posting subsequently went on to enjoy an international career, — Anne-Sophie Mutter Festival (世紀古典音樂年 behind the counter. Aww, isn’t on her official blog: “I check recording numerous works and performing worldwide. 2010系列 — 安．蘇菲．慕特音樂節) that cute? She’s not used to the [my farm] when I get up in the Her current series of Taiwan concerts, plus a master media, was the tone of the Apple morning, I check before I go to class, is part of a short Asian tour — she will go from WHEN: Evening of Brahms: today at 7:30pm (Taipei) Daily video report. bed. When I go out to eat, I think here to Shanghai, and then on to Japan. and tomorrow at 7:30pm (Kaohsiung). Evening Wu played it cool and spoke about that farm and often find In Taiwan, Mutter will play Brahms’ three violin of Dvorak: Sunday at 7:30pm (Taichung) and to the reporters, avoiding their myself saying, ‘I have to go ... you sonatas (with Lambert Orkis, piano) in Taipei tonight, Wednesday at 7:30pm (Taipei) questions about his companion. guys keeping eating, I have to get and in Kaohsiung tomorrow night. She will then play But later on he confirmed through back to my harvest.’” Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A Minor with the National WHERE: National Concert Hall, Taipei City; his manager that she was indeed Pop Stop concludes this week Taiwan Symphony Orchestra under Michael Francis in Kaohsiung’s Chih-teh Hall (高雄市文化中心至德堂), his new girlfriend.

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