Performers at Aside 9, May 30 2016

tina maTina Ma

Singer / Red Room Muse

Like most artists, in younger days Tina was a Taiwanese hippy, rebelling against anything that interfered with her free will. She loved playing the guitar and learned American music while participating in all the social movements when Taiwan was seeking its identity in the early 80s.

After 30 years, she knows that the voice and sound must come from her own ground and soil now.

Having explored different art forms, she has finally chosen telling Taiwanese stories through songs from the ancient Chinese to current days, and to follow her bliss…

She likes to see herself as someone who uses this ancient musical instrument – moon guitar, to share shamanic spirits from nature and folklore of the mother earth. The instrument is two stringed, but says a lot in a simple ways, as most of life’s wisdom does.

taiwanteama@gmail.com
Facebook: Tina Ma


Screenshot 2016-07-22 01.53.05Jimbo Clark
Innovator

When I arrived in Taiwan in 1997, I was a fresh graduate of Seattle Pacific University and my name was Jim Clark. Over the years, Taiwan has become my home, I’ve learned to love the people and culture here, and my English name (Jimbo) is a transliteration of my Chinese name 金波.

For the past ten years I have been working as a consultant with multinationals across Asia, focusing primarily on innovation and creativity. I strongly believe that for me to have credibility in teaching innovation, that I must be an innovator myself. As such, I constantly work on creating new processes, simulations, and activities that will stretch the participants point of view and open new possibilities.

One of the most common requests from leaders is to help their people “Think out of the box.” I look forward to sharing one of my favorite innovations with you at Red Room Aside, a simple box that we can think in and out of to move ourselves towards the future we most desire.

jclark@innogreat.com


Screenshot 2016-07-22 01.55.45Valentin Lechat
Juggler

Valentin Lechat is a professional juggler and performance artist from France. Juggling, acting, dance, visual art, stage direction, poetry, live music, Qi Gong. Starting at 11 years of age, he has been performing Juggling Art for more than 20 years.

He founded THE UNITED ARTISTS company before moving to Asia in 2005. He has performed in 12 different countries solos and collective shows in theatres, Art galleries, circus tents (Circus Lili), corporate shows, cabarets, TVs, videos, outdoor, festivals, … notably with Cie Jérome Thomas, Mazalda, Taipei Cross Over Dance Company, Shakespeare Wild Sister Group, Riverbed Theatre, The United Artists, … He is acting, creating and training in Asia on multiple artistic projects. VL is also a licensed street-performer in Taiwan. VL is a part time juggling teacher at the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts.

valentinlechat.com

The United Artists 藝術圓劇團
France/Taiwan
bio : valentinlechat.com/bio
performance : http://valentinlechat.com/faces/


li tsuei 1Sun Li Tsuei
Theater Director, Performer

Sun Li Tsuei founded Shang Orientheatre in 2000. She studied Chinese Tai Chi Chuan at a very young age, also Chi Gong and some ancient traditional dances from several Chinese masters. She sees the study of Chinese philosophy (including Taoism, Confucius, and Buddhism) as essentially within all practice of movement.

In the early 1980’s, Sun Li Tsuei traveled to Europe where she studied performing art with Jacques Lecoq、Marcel Marceau、Maximilien Decroux、and Stefan Niedzialkowski. Using western theatrical physical training as a movement base, she combined her own culture and created her own art form. Since Chinese philosophy is difficult to translate, movement has become an incredible medium to pass on the essence of the philosophy.

All the performance pieces of Shang Orientheatre have been created by Sun LI Tsuei. She has brought ideas from the source of Chinese culture to modern times, and transferred the philosophy into contemporary physical theater, showing that the body can show all human emotions and that the most profound feeling is really wordless. She has developed only the essential physical works of performance; they are “Shan-Zai Dragon”, “Shan Hai Jing-an odyssey of a Shaman”, “Bardo Todel”, “Heavenly Earth”, “Orpheus Britanicus- Fairy Queen”, “La Lune Souffle”, “Lagan”, “The Lotus Eater”, etc.

Shang Orientheatre has performed at the Avignon Festival every year. The company has been invited to Belgium, Spain, France, UK, West Indies, Hong Kong and Shanghai, China, amongst others.

Performance

【The Transformation】
Sun Li-Tsuei has created【The Transformation, a character with mask to present an oriental metaphor of past going into another time and space in the future. It is mimodrame in its style, incorporating masks play, dancing, Chinese martial art.


mauro 2Mauro Sacchi
Movement Thinker

I am a performer, teacher, choreographer, creator, and writer, specializing in the theory and practice of improvisation, physical theater, embodied techniques for dancers and actors, and the making of stuff. I am also really just a human being trying really hard to make sense of his place in the space we call world. Currently, I may or may not be in the process of setting up my own Company for the Making of Stuff, tentatively called “WE – the company for the making of stuff”.

BODY STUFF – a movement talk.

We are all physical beings, bodies full of emptiness and stuff, constantly moving to communicate with others around us, never still. We are, quite literally, our movement, always performing: thus we ought to practice, daily, to (re)learn how to better improvise and choreograph in the world, how to dance this piece of life we are given.

This talk is an invitation to do so, with tips and suggestions; it is a call for being more aware of, more in tune with the amazing physical body we inhabit; it is an honest, personal sharing of the pain and trouble that arises when we forget to move and be moved.

maurolovespapaya@gmail.com


Screenshot 2016-07-22 01.51.11Brook C Hall
Choreographer, Director

Brook C Hall is the artistic director of Taiwan’s THE LAB community theatre space and Butterfly Effect Theatre Co. He came to Taiwan in 2001 for an arts festival after performing in, directing, or choreographing more than 80 iInternationally touring, regional, and residential theatre productions around the US, Europe, and in New York City. Some of those shows include: JOSEPH AND DREAMCOAT, SINGING IN THE RAIN, CRAZY FOR YOU, WEST SIDE STORY, PETER PAN, THE KING AND I, CINDERELLA, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, GREASE, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROS, PHANTOM, MUSIC MAN, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OTHELLO, THE BOYS NEXT DOOR, GUYS AND DOLLS, OKLAHOMA, STATE FAIR, and many more…

Brook Hall
Artistic Director
bflyefx@gmail.com
地點: 空場Polymer
地址: 台北市北投區北投路一段9號3樓

Performers at Aside @ the Red Room 8

Saturday, March 14th, 2014 Time: 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Red Room’s eighth exclusive event, where these artists share their most imaginative, courageous and inspiring performances.
You can register online ( http://goo.gl/forms/Fjqc56ydLY) or email us at
red.room.taipei@gmail.com to confirm your attendance.

DAN O’SHEA

ASIDE-8-PRESENTERS-1

ACOUSTIC SINGER SONGWRITER
ACOUSTIC FOLK/ROCK/CLASSICAL

Bio:

Born in Oxford in 1983 and brought up in York for the next twenty years. For Christmas and birthday’s I didn’t get presents, but musical instruments – that’s how it is when you come from a large Irish family. I tried the piano, the trumpet, the violin, the harp, several other instruments and eventually at 16 I took up the guitar – I have now been playing for fifteen years. I have travelled around the world playing venues in Chicago, Havana, Paris, Prague, London, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and now Taiwan.

I have entered various competitions around the UK. I enjoy writing original material about lost love and life’s little quirks and mishaps as well as interpreting others’ songs in my own view. I love music and I believe it’s all about the soul and passion you put into it – that’s what makes it so real.

I’m currently living in Taipei – after I finished travelling the world playing in various bars, restaurants, music venues I relocated to London, but unfortunately couldn’t live with the novelties of being barged into and the noisy silence. I still love to visit and playing gigs there. It is one of the most challenging places to play. I am not competitive, I do it all for fun. That way I get to do whatever this is that makes me happy.

In the future I hope to earn a career from music – be it writing or performing. I’m happy staying away from the limelight so I do dream that I’ll survive on being a teacher and performing music. I have played in a few bands – my rhythm is in my own timing so drummers and bass players don’t like playing with me. The only unique style I change the song each time I play it. It’s all about how you feel in the moment..

I have played the same guitar my whole life – it’s customised to how I play and although a little pretentious I do believe because of the abuse I have subjected to my guitar it’s got my soul inside it. I believe real art comes from pain and if you read, everything will become so much easier.

Performance:

I will be playing songs that have shaped who I am.
They’re all mine and were written over the last fifteen years. Some have been written in 3 minutes, some have taken years to write.
The songs will be about all of my personalities; The Good, The Bad and the Mischievous.

I hope you enjoy the songs, please feel free to ask questions. If you
like, there is a radio show where I perform live and talk about my songs.
The link to that is here:
PaulSecklowSessions/secklow-sessions-featuring-daniel-oshea/
dan@danoshea.net
www.facebook.com/danosheamusic

DAVID GENTILE

ASIDE-8-PRESENTERS-2

Bio:

David Gentile came to Taiwan years ago to study Chinese and Kung Fu, then ended up graduating from the Chinese Dept. at NTNU this past Summer. He traveled throughout the US before coming to Taiwan, and has always enjoyed coming up with little one-two line rhymes about the strange, beautiful, or troubling people, places, and things he encountered along the way.

“The poems started to become a way for me to impermanently document my experiences and even influenced the way I saw the world. Places became references to epic lines with names like “The Dog-Rocket House” or “The Dust Palace” that echoed the feeling of the abandoned hotel in the Lost Boys. People around me started to have nicknames so colorful and fitting that they sounded like the cast of Dick Tracy villains, and even the simplest of tasks were a mix between everyone’s own unique dog commands and rhyming slang. Basically, we got in there like swimwear, and now I have a whole new time zone…”

RED ROOM RADIO REDUX
ASIDE-8-PRESENTERS-3

Bio:

As part of the Red Room community “dedicated to listening”, the mission at Red Room Radio Redux (R4) is to bring selections from the canon of Western literature to wide audience using simple techniques of readers’ theater and radio drama. We seek to re-kindle an appreciation for Western literary tradition and to find common purpose through a shared, re-imagined experience of these great works. R4 performs in English, in adaptations that draw extensively on the original language of the story or poem. Participants are auditioned and cast on the basis of their vocal abilities and willingness to contribute to an ensemble theatre production. Carefully chosen background music and live sound effects enhance the listening experience as we recreate the story in the minds of the audience.

In addition to live public performances, R4 also records voice dramas for broadcast in partnership with ICRT-FM100. We have also been in contact with educational institutions in Taipei and look forward to sharing our passion for the spoken word and Western literature with their students. Our repertoire includes: Macbeth, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The War of the Worlds, Treasure Island and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. A not-for-profit organization, R4 is always grateful for support in any form. We welcome fresh talent, technical assistance off & onstage online and off, gifts in kind and, of course, sponsorship. Our progress as art-makers would not be possible without the generous support of Red Room Volunteers, ICRT-FM100 and The Ripplemaker Foundation.

Performance:

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the story of a young girl who finds herself in a world where nothing is as it seems. It was quite revolutionary for its time, in that it was written for enjoyment, rather than for educational and character-building purposes. It also helped to make the fantasy genre a popular and reputable way to tell a story for children, as well as adults. It is full of poems, songs, and verses that don’t make sense and fantastic and slightly disturbing characters, all seen through the eyes of a intelligent child who is full of curiosity.

Our Radio Redux presentation MAD TEA was extracted from Chapter 7: “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” with faithful attention to the original text.

Along with Alice, you’ll meet several of the most fun, and yes, craziest characters in literature: the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. This is your invitation to come to a tea party where you discover that “we’re all mad here,” in the best way.

Red room Radio Redux: r4.radioredux@gmail.com
Facebook: R4radioredux

TINA MA

ASIDE-8-PRESENTERS-4

Bio:

Like most artists, in younger days Tina was a Taiwanese hippy, rebelling against anything that interfered with her free will. She loved playing the guitar and learned American music while participating in all the social movements when Taiwan was seeking its identity in the early 80s.

After 30 years, she knows that the voice and sound must come from her own ground and soil now.

Having explored different art forms, she has finally chosen telling Taiwanese stories through songs from the ancient Chinese to current days, and to follow her bliss…

She likes to see herself as someone who uses this ancient musical instrument – moon guitar, to share shamanic spirits from nature and folklore of the mother earth. The instrument is two stringed, but says a lot in a simple ways, as most of life’s wisdom does.

taiwanteama@gmail.com
Facebook: Tina Ma

ROSE GOOSSEN

ASIDE-8-PRESENTERS-5

Bio:

Rose Goossen is the inventor of the Gypsy Jukebox and the Turkish Kanadiano. She was born in the Great White North, but quickly left for warmer climes and rhapsodic adventures. She makes the sound of music with her lovely wife, Madame Le Guitare. Together they have recorded four live albums of original songs and multilingual covers.

Synopsis: She will play original songs that were born of necessity while traveling the world and tell the top-secret stories behind the music.

 

MYSTERY PERFORMER

SOPHIE CHEN

Bio:

Sophie Chen, our mystery guest for Red Room Aside, brought a moving musical performance of strong vocals with fun live electronica to the evening. We loved the fresh experimental vibe.
Currently signed to Full Entertainment Marketing Company, based in Taipei, Taiwan.

Born December 26, 1992, in Montreal Canada, CHEN, or Sophie Chen, is singer-songwriter-producer that is fluent in French, Mandarin and English.

She has been performing since the age of 6, starting in her hometown, and later doing performances in big cities such as Toronto, Beijing, Shenzhen, Xiangtan. Invited by tv channels such as Shenzhen TV and Hunan TV, she often travels to China.

In 2010, Sophie  sang the official theme song of the Chinese blockbuster ‘Flirting Scholar 2’ and for another independent movie for whom she has written the theme song. Songwriting is also one of her passions, and she writes in French, English, and Mandarin.

http://www.chenmusiconline.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CHENmusiconline?fref=photo

Performers at Aside 7

Saturday, November 29th, 2014 Time: 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Red Room’s seventh exclusive event, where these artists share their most imaginative, courageous and inspiring performances.
You can register online (http://bit.ly/1vH0JCX) or email us at
red.room.taipei@gmail.com to confirm your attendance.

ASIDE 7 PRESENTERS Bio:

Coming from Indianapolis, U.SA.

Apelles Johnson is a poet of simplicity. His poems vary in subject matter and mood, but he tries to maintain a style of speaking clearly and giving a message easily understood.

He is proud to have performed in Taipei as it shows an appreciation for his style of universal poetry. He has also hosted a poetry workshop here through the organization ‘Becoming’ as well as written and performed short plays with the Taipei Players. He loves listening to live music and works as an English teacher at Tamkang High School.

apellesjohnson@gmail.com

ASIDE 7 PRESENTERS2Bio:

Like most artists, in younger days Tina was a Taiwanese hippy, rebelling against anything that interfered with her free will. She loved playing the guitar and learned American music while participating in all the social movements when Taiwan was seeking its identity in the early 80s.

After 30 years, she knows that the voice and sound must come from her own ground and soil now.

Having explored different art forms, she has finally chosen telling Taiwanese stories through songs from the ancient Chinese to current days, and to follow her bliss…

She likes to see herself as someone who uses this ancient musical instrument – moon guitar, to share shamanic spirits from nature and folklore of the mother earth. The instrument is two stringed, but says a lot in a simple ways, as most of life’s wisdom does.

taiwanteama@gmail.com

ASIDE 7 PRESENTERS3

Bio:

Conor Murphy’s compelling Irish voice carries any crowd, and when pulling back to circle around a more delicate turn in a song, audiences instinctively lean in to hear where he’s going next, lost in the narrative.

One remembers his work long after listening not only for its uniqueness, but his uncanny and marvelous ability to transmit the richness of human experience into word and song.

The subtle, enveloping, and sometimes explosive presence Murphy wields onstage combines remarkably with his lyrics, which carry all of the raw and the marvelous of life. His work inspires a nostalgia for the present, like all great art.

Performance statement: With every song comes the tale of its creation. No one person will be left unengaged, of this you are assured.

www.conorbarneymurphy.com

E: conor-murphy@hotmail.co.uk

 

ASIDE 7 PRESENTERS4Bio:

高中畢業於華岡藝術學校表演藝術科,現在就讀中國文化大學2年級
對表演熱愛的他,有想許多大大小小的表演經驗,希望未來能突破更多挑戰

 

ASIDE 7 PRESENTERS5Bio:

Daniel was born and raised in NYC. His first foray into storytelling was with taking  photos in Lower East Side. From there he graduated to film.  Ever since then he has been trying his best to translate the visuals he sees in his own mind to the public. A good portion of his stories are drawn from real experiences, either his own or others.

the.danielblack.90@gmail.com

Performers, Aside 6 @ the Red Room, August 30 2014

Saturday, August 30th, 2014 Time: 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Red Room’s sixth exclusive event, where these artists share their most imaginative, courageous and inspiring performances.
You can register online (http://bit.ly/1sFbGFZ) or email us at
red.room.taipei@gmail.com to confirm your attendance.

Featuring:

ASIDE 6 PRESENTERS_Page_2

Bio:

Mark van Tongeren is a sound explorer, experimental vocalist and cultural musicologist, well-known for his work on Tuvan throat singing and other kinds of overtone singing around the world. He wrote a textbook Overtone Singing (2004) and presented his work internationally from the USA and New Zealand to Taiwan. In 2013 he received his PhD from Leiden University with his thesis ‘Thresholds of the Audible. About the Polyphony of the Body’. Mark is a member of the arts/sound-collective Oorbeek and founded Parafonia and Superstringtrio. He lives in Taiwan with his Taiwanese wife Wen Yo-June and their two children.

Performance statement: For this Red Room I have prepared a sound massage, to clean the audience’ ears, brains and cells. Simple, flowing vocal sounds (though with a twist …. ) that can swallow up all the confused energy in your body-mind. Close your eyes, open your ears, and experience soundspace the way you have never experienced it before. Forget what you were doing, what troubled you, forget even who you are and where you are. Enjoy some moments of pure silence, of simple being afterwards. And come out refreshed.

E: mark@fusica.nl

 

 

ASIDE 6 PRESENTERS_Page_3

Bio:

Coming from Indianapolis, U.SA.

Apelles Johnson is a poet of simplicity. His poems vary in subject matter and mood, but he tries to maintain a style of speaking clearly and giving a message easily understood.

He is proud to have performed in Taipei as it shows an appreciation for his style of universal poetry. He has also hosted a poetry workshop here through the organization ‘Becoming’ as well as written and performed short plays with the Taipei Players. He loves listening to live music and works as an English teacher at Tamkang High School.

apellesjohnson@gmail.com

ASIDE 6 PRESENTERS_Page_1

Bio:

David Gentile came to Taiwan years ago to study Chinese and Kung Fu, then ended up graduating from the Chinese Dept. at NTNU this past Summer. He traveled throughout the US before coming to Taiwan, and has always enjoyed coming up with little one-two line rhymes about the strange, beautiful, or troubling people, places, and things he encountered along the way.

“The poems started to become a way for me to impermanently document my experiences and even influenced the way I saw the world. Places became references to epic lines with names like “The Dog-Rocket House” or “The Dust Palace” that echoed the feeling of the abandoned hotel in the Lost Boys. People around me started to have nicknames so colorful and fitting that they sounded like the cast of Dick Tracy villains, and even the simplest of tasks were a mix between everyone’s own unique dog commands and rhyming slang. Basically, we got in there like swimwear, and now I have a whole new time zone…”

david.gentile.5@facebook.com

ASIDE 6 PRESENTERS_Page_4

Bio:

Like most artists, in younger days Tina was a Taiwanese hippy, rebelling against anything that interfered with her free will. She loved playing the guitar and learned American music while participating in all the social movements when Taiwan was seeking its identity in the early 80s.

After 30 years, she knows that the voice and sound must come from her own ground and soil now.

Having explored different art forms, she has finally chosen telling Taiwanese stories through songs from the ancient Chinese to current days, and to follow her bliss…

She likes to see herself as someone who uses this ancient musical instrument – moon guitar, to share shamanic spirits from nature and folklore of the mother earth. The instrument is two stringed, but says a lot in a simple ways, as most of life’s wisdom does.

taiwanteama@gmail.com ASIDE 6 PRESENTERS_Page_5

Bio:
“The Power and Purpose of Art”
      藝術人文的力量和用途
A few weeks ago, on the Internet site called Reddit, there was a post of a young man sharing his pain. The pain was of loss. The young man, 24 years old, agreed to watching his neighbor’s daughter while they went through a divorce, he fixed his car in the garage and she sat with him, eventually curious and brave enough to ask him if she could help. The two developed a bond over the weeks to come only to be separated by an imminent divorce and move.
His pain, when shared, opened up a sensational trend of responses. People connected and created from his and her pain. His loss of a friend, the young girl’s loss the only respectful adult who cared for her. Some of the most powerful responses were acts of artistry, and creation. Using their story to create poems, songs, and beautiful verse reposes, they helped mend him, all with the desire and goal to help him find a way through his loss.
So what is art for, and why do we have it? Where does it come from? How has the creative energy transformed today into our world of living with technology? Do we still use art for the same reasons?
Through the examination of poetry, verse, theatrics, music, and this example, I will try to address the humanness to create and give, and examine where the true resting place for a final piece of artistry should be.
幾個星期前在一個叫 Reddit 的網站上一 24 歲的研究所畢業生留了一篇散文,他在這篇文章裡面敘述了他的親生經歷。他有一對鄰居是兩個快要離婚的夫婦,而他們在這個又煩又忙的過程中沒有足夠的時間照顧他們的 8 歲女兒。小女孩的父母親其實只顧著他們自己的需求,也不把他們女兒的成長過程放在眼裡。反而,是這位在一邊修他的汽車,一邊看管他們的小孩的「臨時保姆」才真正的當上了一個盡責的家長。可是小女孩的父母離婚不久之後,她的母親決定要遷居,女兒也一定是被牽著走,而這對投錯胎的「真父女」也就拆離了。
他發佈他的苦衷之後,網友們的回應都是非常的熱烈,而且多半以詩文、抒情的散文,以及音樂的形式回應。他們都以他們兩人的故事當靈感之後用藝術人文的管道來幫他渡過這個難關。
那麼,什麼是藝術人文到底是什麼?它為什麼存在?它從哪裏來?今天的藝術人文用途是否和過去相同?在我們生活科技過度發達的時代我們又要如何把這創造性的能量發揮到最大的境界?
通過詩歌,白話,戲劇,音樂,以及這個故事作為例子,我會討論我們為人的創造和給予能力,並且尋找藝術與人文的真正的目的地。

ASIDE 6 PRESENTERS_Page_6

Bio:
I’ve been involved in the performing arts in a wide variety of ways since early childhood. Since coming to Taipei five years ago, I find myself in an entirely new-to-me sub-genre: Radio Drama and it might never have occurred to me if not for my involvement with the Red Room Community. The experience has been transformative. I’m Director/Producer of a fledgling company: Red Room Radio Redux (R4). Our mission is to share great classic Western literature with a wide audience using simple techniques of readers’ theater and radio drama. In our productions, we seek to re-kindle an appreciation for Western literary tradition and to find common purpose through a shared, re-imagined experience of these great works.
A not-for-profit organization, R4 is always grateful for support in any form: technical assistance online and onstage, opportunities to perform, gifts in kind and, of course, sponsorship. We seek to connect with educational institutions in Taipei; we want to share our passion for the spoken word and do our part for education. If you can help in any way, please email us at r4.radioredux@gmail.com

ASIDE 6 PRESENTERS_Page_7

Bio
Thomas Bellmore has been a valuable player with R4 starting with his portrayal of Jonathan Harker in Dracula LIVE! Halloween 2013. He recorded the same role for broadcast on ICRT-FM100 this year (10/30 at a time TBA)
Last December, he played Marley’s Ghost for our annual presentations of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and, in a special command performance, took the challenge to portray 8 different characters before a live audience.
We are grateful to him for his time and talent.

TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, a radio drama, March 2014

For Aside @The Red Room on March 29, 2014

​Red Room Radio Redux (R ​4)​ has been commissioned to present a reading of ​TS Eliot’s​ The Waste Land, ​widely regarded as one of the most important modern poems of the 20th century.  For this special reading of the poem, The Waste Land has been adapted for four voices with live sound effects and accompanied by the music by influential contemporaries of the poet: Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berlin, Ravel, and popular music in London at the time. Featuring the vocal talents of Marc Anthony, Andrianna Smela, Charlie Storrar, and Pat Woods. Directed by Ruth Landowne Giordano. Original concept and script by Ignatz Ratzkywatzky, The text is rich with dramatic situations, dialogs, lyrics, foreign languages and the inner workings of the poet’s mind during a time of rapid social changes. This will surely be a unique approach to this historic piece.

FROM THE DESK OF Ignatz Ratzkywatzky, dramaturge, writer, and originator:

T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land: A Radio Drama probes the mystery of existence, the angst of the human heart and the marvelous irony that our dread of death celebrates our elation and passion to live.

From Wikipedia:

“The Waste Land” is a long poem written by T.S. Eliot. It is widely regarded as “one of the most important poems of the 20th century” and a central text in Modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the U.K. in the October issue of The Criterion and in the U.S. in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Among its famous phrases are “April is the cruellest month”, “I will show you fear in a handful of dust”, and the mantra in the Sanskrit language “Shantih shantih shantih“.]

Eliot’s poem loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of the contemporary social condition in British society. Eliot employs many literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon and from Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads.  The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time and conjuring of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.

The poem’s structure is divided into five sections. The first section, titled The Burial of the Dead introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The second, titled A Game of Chess employs vignettes of several characters—alternating narrations—that address those themes experientially. The Fire Sermon, the third section, offers a philosophical meditation in relation to the imagery of death and views of self-denial in juxtaposition influenced by Augustine of Hippo and eastern religions. After a fourth section that includes a brief lyrical petition, the culminating fifth section, What the Thunder Said concludes with an image of judgment.

(c) Copyright 2014 Red Room.  Material on this site is the property of contributing members of the Red Room Community. Please do not copy any part of this publication. Thank you.

Performers, Aside 5 @ the Red Room, March 29 2014

Saturday, March 29th, 2014 Time: 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Red Room’s fifth exclusive event, where five artists share their most imaginative, courageous and inspiring performances.

Featuring:

ASIDE 5 PRESENTERS

Bio:

David Gentile came to Taiwan years ago to study Chinese and Kung Fu, then ended up graduating from the Chinese Dept. at NTNU this past Summer. He traveled throughout the US before coming to Taiwan, and has always enjoyed coming up with little one-two line rhymes about the strange, beautiful, or troubling people, places, and things he encountered along the way.

“The poems started to become a way for me to impermanently document my experiences and even influenced the way I saw the world. Places became references to epic lines with names like “The Dog-Rocket House” or “The Dust Palace” that echoed the feeling of the abandoned hotel in the Lost Boys. People around me started to have nicknames so colorful and fitting that they sounded like the cast of Dick Tracy villains, and even the simplest of tasks were a mix between everyone’s own unique dog commands and rhyming slang. Basically, we got in there like swimwear, and now I have a whole new time zone…”

david.gentile.5@facebook.com

ASIDE 5 PRESENTERS2

Bio:

Charlie Storrar is an editor and comedian based in Taipei. He spends his working hours thinking of puns for headlines and his evenings performing stand-up and improv. He is the host of the regular comedy quiz night Charlie Storrar’s Death Panel.

Content:

How I Became a Born-Again Sinner (shared at the recent Story Slam)

Charlie Storrar <charliestorrar@yahoo.co.uk>

ASIDE 5 PRESENTERS3

Bio:

Josh Drye is a classically trained guitarist, composer, and songwriter that is putting most of his concentration now into the study of song form as it has evolved through the ages. He studied classical guitar and composition at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and then moved to New York City where he worked as a side man for various ensembles in Brooklyn and Manhattan, composer of theater music for productions as diverse as Shakespeare to Pinter, rehearsal accompanist for musicals, and could be found most Thursday nights belting out Irish music at Paddy Reilly’s. He has lived in Taiwan for a little less than a year. He has great taste in sweaters and vintage antiques. He doesn’t like ceramic cats, though, or baseball, so kindly refrain from asking him about either. It’ll just be awkward.

Performance Statement: 

I hope to present a few of my favorite songs. I want to pick them apart for you and show you how they work, then put them back together and spin ’em so you can see them in motion and understand what’s happening. Songs are one of the most ancient and instinctual forms of human expression. Each one carries with it a wealth of images, symbols, stories and emotions that all mean something different for each person but can still create a shared collective catharsis. I am going to play a few songs from different time periods, styles, and cultures to show that, no matter how large the gap is of time or space, we all have felt and hopefully always will feel the same big emotions about love, life, friendship, death and everything in between.

Josh Drye ‪<joshbdrye@gmail.com>

ASIDE 5 PRESENTERS5

Red Room Radio Redux (R ​4)​ has been commissioned to present a reading of ​ T. S. Eliot’s​ The Waste Land, ​widely regarded as one of the most important modern poems of the 20th century.  For this special reading of the poem, The Waste Land has been adapted for four voices with live sound effects and accompanied by the music by influential contemporaries of the poet: Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berlin, Ravel, and popular music in London at the time. The readers feature Marc Anthony, Andrianna Smela, Charlie Storrar, and Pat Woods, and is directed by Ruth Landowne Giordano. The text is rich with dramatic situations, dialogs, lyrics, foreign languages and the inner workings of the poet’s mind during a time of rapid social changes. This will surely be a unique approach to this historic piece.​

From the desk of IR

T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land : A Radio Drama probes the mystery of existence, the angst of the human heart and the marvelous irony that our dread of death celebrates our elation and passion to live.

Red Room Radio Redux <r4.radioredux@gmail.com>

ASIDE 5 PRESENTERS4

Bio: 

Like most artists, in younger days Tina was a Taiwanese hippy, rebelling against anything that interfered with her free will. She loved playing the guitar and learned American music while participating in all the social movements when Taiwan was seeking its identity in the early 80s.

After 30 years, she knows that the voice and sound must come from her own ground and soil now.

Having explored different art forms, she has finally chosen telling Taiwanese stories through songs from the ancient Chinese to current days, and to follow her bliss…

She likes to see herself as someone who uses this ancient musical instrument – moon guitar, to share shamanic spirits from nature and folklore of the mother earth. The instrument is two stringed, but says a lot in a simple ways, as most of life’s wisdom does.

长发披肩步轻盈,
身着彩衣特随性,
出行总会携月琴,
沉醉吟唱起共鸣,
最爱山林我独行,
花鸟鱼虫皆欢迎,
Tina 是她英文名,
中文名唤马丽英。

EMAIL: taiwanteama@gmail.com

Performers, Aside 4 @ the Red Room, November 2013

Saturday, November 30th, 2013 Time: 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Red Room’s fourth exclusive event, where five artists share their most imaginative, courageous and inspiring performances.

Performers:

Conor Murphy Singer/ Songwriter

conor aside 4

Conor Murphy, Aside4

Bio: Conor Murphy’s compelling Irish voice carries any crowd, and when pulling back to circle around a more delicate turn in a song, audiences instinctively lean in to hear where he’s going next, lost in the narrative.

One remembers his work long after listening not only for its uniqueness, but his uncanny and marvelous ability to transmit the richness of human experience into word and song.

The subtle, enveloping, and sometimes explosive presence Murphy wields onstage combines remarkably with his lyrics, which carry all of the raw and the marvelous of life. His work inspires a nostalgia for the present, like all great art.

Performance statement: With every song comes the tale of its creation. No one person will be left unengaged, of this you are assured.

www.conorbarneymurphy.com (under construction, but ready soon!)

E: conor-murphy@hotmail.co.uk

——————————————————————————————————

Mark van Tongeren Sound Explorer

mark aside 4

Mark Tongeren, Aside 4

Bio: Mark van Tongeren is a sound explorer, experimental vocalist and cultural musicologist, well-known for his work on Tuvan throat singing and other kinds of overtone singing around the world. He wrote a textbook Overtone Singing (2004) and presented his work internationally from the USA and New Zealand to Taiwan. In 2013 he received his PhD from Leiden University with his thesis ‘Thresholds of the Audible. About the Polyphony of the Body’. Mark is a member of the arts/sound-collective Oorbeek and founded Parafonia and Superstringtrio. He lives in Taiwan with his Taiwanese wife Wen Yo-June and their two children.

Performance statement: For this Red Room I have prepared a sound massage, to clean the audience’ ears, brains and cells. Simple, flowing vocal sounds (though with a twist …. ) that can swallow up all the confused energy in your body-mind. Close your eyes, open your ears, and experience soundspace the way you have never experienced it before. Forget what you were doing, what troubled you, forget even who you are and where you are. Enjoy some moments of pure silence, of simple being afterwards. And come out refreshed.

E: mark@fusica.nl

 

Hu Chien, (Allia Hu) Musical Theater Producer

Allia Hu, Aside4

Allia Hu, Aside4

Bio: Born in Nanging, and settled in Taiwan, Hu Chien 胡健, (Allia Hu) founded Miling’an Musical Theater in 2009, and has since become an important preservationist for Paiwanese culture and a promoter for Taiwanese performing arts.
He is a musical theater producer. “Miling’an Forest” was premiered in Taiwan in 2011, and this work was awarded the 2010-2012 grant of “pursuit of excellence in the performing arts” funded by the National Culture and Arts Foundation. The musical theater pioneered to be managed as a Broadway show in Taiwan, and is now played regularly twice every week. By means of his artiscit works, he hopes to send out his passion for aboriginal culture through the eyes of the tribesmen and their perspectives.
www.milingan.org
Performance statement:
A Journey into the Ancient Heritage
Born in Nanging, and finally settling his roots in Taiwan, Allia will be sharing his life journey through the pursuit of art, sharing a new idea of “beauty” in life that originates from the tribe – the kind that connects the hearts, the kind that opens up to the simplest conversations.

Andrianna Smela Soprano

Andrienna Aside4

Andrianna, Aside4

Bio: Soprano Andrianna Smela has performed eclectic repertoire encompassing Early Music, Zarzuela, and improvisational opera. Most recently, Andrianna appeared in the original cabaret Ich Liebe Jesus at the Brick Theatre in New York City. She frequently collaborates with pianist Maria Dessena in performances of unique Classical Cabaret programs. The core repertoire of these shows is the music of Kurt Weill; the programming also includes pieces by Schoenberg, Poulenc, Bolcom, songs popularized by Edith Piaf, and tangos by Polish composer Petersburski. The duo has performed at the Metropolitan Room, the Liederkranz Club in New York City, and the Jazz Bar as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Andrianna’s opera and concert experience includes: Mrs. Peachum in Weill’s The Threepenny Opera with the Princeton Festival, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with the Bronx Opera, and Mařenka in The Bartered Bride with the Liederkranz Foundation, as well as Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Bach’s Magnificat with the West Islip Symphony and Sophisticated Strings.
Andrianna graduated from the IU School of Music and has attended summer programs at the Jarvis Conservatory Zarzuela workshop and OperaWorks. She currently resides in Taipei.

Performance statement: The composer Kurt Weill achieved a masterful blend of high art and popular musical idioms.  As a Jew in 1930’s Berlin, he was forced into exile, first fleeing to Paris and then to New York.  Although Weill was always an outsider, in each city he perfectly captured the energy and spirit of the time and place.  I’ll be singing songs representative of his work in each of these locales.

E: andrianna_smela@yahoo.com

Tina Ma: Vocalist and Musician

Tina Ma, Aside4

Tina Ma, Aside4

Bio: 

Like most artists, in younger days Tina was a Taiwanese hippy, rebelling against anything that interfered with her free will. She loved playing the guitar and learned American music while participating in all the social movements when Taiwan was seeking its identity in the early 80s.

After 30 years, she knows that the voice and sound must come from her own ground and soil now.

Having explored different art forms, she has finally chosen telling Taiwanese stories through songs from the ancient Chinese to current days, and to follow her bliss…

She likes to see herself as someone who uses this ancient musical instrument – moon guitar, to share shamanic spirits from nature and folklore of the mother earth. The instrument is two stringed, but says a lot in a simple ways, as most of life’s wisdom does.

长发披肩步轻盈,
身着彩衣特随性,
出行总会携月琴,
沉醉吟唱起共鸣,
最爱山林我独行,
花鸟鱼虫皆欢迎,
Tina 是她英文名,
中文名唤马丽英。

Tina will bring her new love “single string 一弦琴”
She will do a story  around Chinese tea.

EMAIL: taiwanteama@gmail.com

Volunteer & Internship Opportunities at the Red Room

rr-972x420-10The Red Room is an ever-expanding community, exploring and extending the boundaries between audience and performer; a not-for-profit platform for events developing a culture of learning to listen to each other, what is around us, and our selves.

We at the Red Room are always on the lookout for motivated and energetic volunteers. As a multi-arts organization, the Red Room offers opportunities for volunteers to gain experience in non-profit management and to help support a range of outstanding events.

Those who are interested in short-term volunteer opportunities at the Red Room should email red.room.taipei@gmail.com or call 0910 947 307 to inquire about ushering at certain events; helping to promote the Red Room’s events via emails, calls and flier/postcard distribution; cleaning and setting parts of the Red Room space; and other individual projects that arise from month to month.

Red Room also offers ongoing internships for college or graduate students and early- or mid-career professionals who are interested in gaining arts management experience.

Internships are part-time and unpaid; they typically last for the equivalent of an academic quarter or semester. Interns have the opportunity to work in an informal but extremely active administrative environment, and to witness an array of performances, rehearsals and workshops at the Red Room.

We seek interns in the following categories:

Assistant to Event Coordinator Intern:
Interns will assist with management tasks, including helping the event coordinator with Red Room activities. Responsibilities may include helping book events, scout artists, maintain and update the event calendar, reviewing and editing documents, correspondence and promotional text, special events tasks, and administrative duties such as database management, maintaining files and archiving. Previous experiences working with programming, event planning and/or artist management preferred but not required. Interns will be expected to work about 10 hours per week.

Publicity/Outreach Intern:

This intern works with the team to prepare and disseminate periodic press releases and listings e-blasts for Red Room events; helps field press requests and arrange press events as needed. The Publicity/Outreach intern should have excellent writing and communication skills. Interns will be expected to work about 10 hours per week.

Media and Website Intern
The media and website internship is ideal for individuals with relevant coursework in photography, videography, web development or web based graphic design. Both on-site and off-site internship opportunities are available. Responsibilities may include event photography, videography, web site maintenance and programming (this includes but is not limited to making ongoing revisions and uploading content to Red Room webpages, assisting in Red Room webpage redesigns, developing new webpages, assisting with other design and web projects as needed). Travel to event sites in Taipei may be necessary. Previous experience working with photo, video editing software, knowledge in html, experience using web and media analytics, experience using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign preferred but not required. Interns will be expected to work about 10 hours per week.

Freedom to Write Intern

This internship is for individuals interested in writing about Red Room events in Chinese and/or English. Applicants should be interested in writing and editing and be eager to develop synopsis of Red Room events. Responsibilities include listening to Red Room Radio Redux shows and writing up appealing summaries which people can read on the Red Room website and e-news blasts. Candidates should have an interest in the performing arts, a flair for writing, and a facility with the English and/or Chinese language. Interns will be expected to work about 10 hours per week.

About Red Room Internships
Internships will be based at the Red Room unless otherwise specified. Internships are unpaid. Red Room will work with interns to comply with the requirements of internship-for-credit program at their institution.

Objectives
Interns will learn first-hand how a non-profit organization, as well as be exposed to various events within the Taipei community and have various networking opportunities with attendance members and performers. Interns will gain skills in non-profit management, event planning and public speaking. In addition to receiving experience and garnering recommendations from Red Room co-founders and/or event coordinators, interns have free admission to all Red Room events.

General qualifications
Candidates must be able to assume significant responsibility and work independently. Excellent communication and organization skills are required. Proficiency in Microsoft Office programs required. Interest or experience in NGO or non-profit organization/management and event planning preferred but not required. Graduate students preferred but qualified undergraduates are welcome to apply. Database, Web/graphic design and foreign language skills (especially Chinese) preferred but not required.

How to apply
Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to email a cover letter and resume to red.room.taipei@gmail.com, with the phrase “Red Room Intern” included in the subject header. In the cover letter, please indicate which internship position you are interested in assisting and describe why you want to be an intern at the Red Room.

Applications for Fall, Spring and Summer positions accepted on a rolling basis.

We encourage anyone interested in an internship to familiarize her- or himself with the Red Room’s programming and history before applying.

We look forward to hearing from you!