National Taichung Theater International Forum "A Theater For Arts and New Lifestyle"
With an international forum that gathers arts professionals, we celebrate the grand opening of the National Taichung Theater, the first national-level performing arts venue in central Taiwan, on September 30, 2016. Designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito, the building is supported solely by curved walls without any column. The eye-catching design was inspired by the arcs of caves.
Aligning with NTT’s core vision of being a Theater for Arts and New Lifestyle, we invite prominent speakers from UK, France, Spain, Belgium and Taiwan to engage in a conversation elaborated from their experiences across regions, from which thoughts and perspectives on the impacts of theater shall be shared.
Date: 2016.10.1 (Sat)
Venue: Corner Salon, National Taichung Theater (1F, No.101, Section 2, Huilai Road, Xitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan.)
Sessions|10/01(Sat) | |
10:30 – 12:00 | Session 1: Power of Theater — From Barbican Centre to British Council Keynote: Graham Sheffield, CBE / Director Arts, British Council, UK Moderator: Wu Jing-jyi / NCCU Endowed Chair in Creativity / Emeritus Professor, Taiwan |
13:30 – 15:00 | Session 2: Impact of Dance Keynote: Bernard Faivre d'Arcier / Former Director of Avignon Festival, Chairman of La Biennale de Lyon, France Discussant: Bulareyaung Pagarlava / Founder & Artistic Director of Bulareyaung Dance Company, Taiwan Cheng Tsung-lung / Artistic Director of Cloud Gate 2, Taiwan Moderator: Lin Hwai-min / Founder & Artistic Director, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan |
15:45 – 17:15 | Session 3: Ideas of My Theater Davide Livermore / General Manager & Artistic Director, The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia, Spain Jean-Louis Colinet / Director, Festival de Liège, Belgium Lü Shao-chia / Music Director of National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Lee Huey-mei / Artistic Director of National Theater & Concert Hall, Taiwan Kathy Hong / Director of Marketing & Communications, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), Taiwan Victoria Wang / Executive & Artistic Director of National Taichung Theater, Taiwan (Moderator) |
Qualifications and information:
International Speakers
Graham Sheffield, CBE
Director Arts, British Council, UK
Graham Sheffield is Director Arts for the British Council, responsible for leading the global arts strategy and programme across the Council's 116 country operation.
From 1995 to 2010 Graham was Artistic Director of the Barbican Centre in London. Under his directorship, the Barbican became one of the most innovative, dynamic and respected arts centres, with an award-winning international programme.
In the last five years he has driven a major expansion and reshaping of the arts programme at the Council, defining a new vision, developing new arts specialists in the global network, planning major seasons of work in Brazil, China, Qatar, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia and South Africa, as well as responding ambitiously to social and political change in the Middle East, Gulf and North Africa.
Under Graham’s leadership, the arts programme has grown in size and received significant investment to launch a Cultural Skills programme, expand the work within the Creative Industries, develop a digital arts programme and refresh and enlarge the British Council’s internationally renowned Art Collection.
Graham graduated in Music from Edinburgh University and worked as a BBC Radio 3 producer for 12 years. In 1990 he moved to the Southbank Centre as Music Projects Director, during which time he started the world-renowned Meltdown Festival. From 2004 to 2006 Graham was Chair of the International Society of Performing Arts. In 2014 Graham took up a new voluntary role as Chair of the UK’s largest music charity, Help Musicians UK and joined the Board of Rambert.
He was awarded CBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours’ list for services to the arts and was made Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2005. He is an honorary Doctor of Arts at City University.
Graham was honoured in January 2015 by ISPA with the International Citation of Merit for lifetime achievement in the arts.
Bernard Faivre d’Arcier
Former Director of Avignon Festival
Chairman of La Biennale de Lyon, France
Bernard Faivre d'Arcier, a civil administrator, left the state administration school, ENA, in 1972, to join the Ministry of Culture. From 1980 to 1984, he served as the Director of the Avignon Festival.
Mr. Faivre d’Arcier was then Cultural Advisor to the Prime Minister from 1984 to 1985, and, in 1986, he launched the television channel La Sept, the French arm of the Franco-German channel Arte.
In 1989, he organised events celebrating the bicentenary of the French National Assembly and was also from 1989 to 1992 the Head of Theatre and Performance Art Department at the Ministry of Culture.
From 1993 to 2003, Mr. Faivre d’Arcier was the Director of Avignon Festival once more. From 1993 to 1998 he was also the Director of the Centre National du Théâtre and was Commissioner for the Hungarian cultural season in France in 2001 and the Polish cultural season in 2003. For the past years, he has worked as a consultant with festivals, municipalities and governments under the name of BFA-Conseil.
He is currently Chairman of the Board of “La Biennale de Lyon” a double-face event devoted to dance and visual art.
Davide Livermore
General Manager & Artistic Director, The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia, Spain
As from 26 January 2015, Davide Livermore (Turin, 1966) is the General Manager & Artistic Director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.
Livermore has forged his outstanding 22 year career both on the main stages of Europe and at smaller theatres in his native country Italy, during which time he has been stage director, set designer, wardrobe and lighting designer, singer, dancer, actor, scriptwriter and teacher.
Since 2002, Davide Livermore has been Artistic Director of the Teatro Baretti in Turin, where he has devoted his time to experimental music theatre. He also teaches at the arts school of the Teatro Stabile in Turin. He has worked as stage director for the main Italian theatres and also has worked in opera houses in USA, France, Japan and South Korea, among others.
The critics have praised Davide Livermore as one of the newcomers of great merit on the operatic scene. His production of I vespri siciliani, with which the Regio in Turin celebrated the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, was chosen by Musical America as one of the 10 best shows of 2011.
He has also been Artistic Director of the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo (Palau de les Arts Young Singer's Studio) since 2013, which he is able to combine with his new post at the Valencian arts centre, where he has staged La Bohème by Puccini, the Verdi operas Otello and La forza del destino, Norma by Bellini, and, most recently, Idomeneo by Mozart. He was awarded his first Premio Lírico Teatro Campoamor (considered the 'Goya Awards' of musicals) for his staging of La forza del destino, in 2014.
He is Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia.
Jean-Louis Colinet
Director, Festival de Liège, Belgium
Jean-Louis Colinet was born in 1950. From 1969 to 1973, he studied theatrical directing at INSAS, Brussels. In 1969, he created in Morlanwelz the "Fantastic Sicilian Musical Theatre Club Band", a company composed of Sicilian immigrant workers with whom he has toured in Belgium and abroad.
In 1973, he created, in the Liege region, Le Théâtre de la Renaissance, a theatrical movement composed of theater groups of young workers. From 1973 to 1977, he held the position of Theatrical Animator and Director at the Théâtre de la Communauté in Seraing (Belgium). From 1977 to 1988, he assumed the Head of Mission function at the Ministry of Culture of the Federation Wallonia Brussels. Along with this feature, he directed several plays for various theaters and also taught a course on participatory practices of the theater at INSAS (stage section) for three years. From 1988 to 2004, he assumed the General Director of the Théâtre de la Place in Liège. In 1999, he became Director of the Festival de Liège, a position he currently occupies. From 2004 to 2015, he was appointed as Director of the Théâtre National, Brussels.
In 2016, at the request of Franco Dragone, he joined the Napoli Teatro Festival (Italy) to build the international selection.
Plan Your Trip to National Taichung Theater
National Taichung Theater
No. 101, Section 2, Huilai Road, Xitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan