When the National Theater and Concert Hall opened in October 1987 amid speeches and the striking of Chinese gongs, expectations for the new facilities were running high among officials and the public. Taiwan was finally gaining an international-class theater and concert hall worthy of hosting top foreign performers as well as show casing and promoting local talent. These were to be the facilities that would put the island on the international performing arts map.
The buildings themselves are works of art. Located in Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park, the US$296 million structures were built with exquisitely crafted facades in Ching dynasty imperial style and were outfitted with top quality technical equipment. They are impressive in size as well. The theater seats more than 1,500, and the concert hall more than 2,000. Today, the twin buildings are one of Taipei's main tourist attractions and are a great source of local pride.
After six years and 2,000 performances, the twin halls have secured a position as the center of performing arts. Here, the authentic Ching dynasty architecture of the National Concert Hall in its park setting.
Six years and more than two thousand performances later, the halls have secured their place as the center of performing arts on the island. They have become the regular venues for the island's best-known performing arts groups, including the Ming Hua Yuan Taiwanese opera troupe, the National Symphony Orchestra, and Taiwan's most successful modern dance troupe, Cloud Gate Dance Theater. In fact, the halls rank securely as the top choice for performers in Taiwan. In a 1992 survey of Taipei artists taken by the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Foundation), virtually all respondents listed the National Theater and Concert Hall as their first choice venues.
The public knows the facilities as the site of many of the island's most exciting performances. For example, when opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti visited in February 1990, the show packed the house, and an estimated 50,000 others watched on an outdoor screen. About one-third of the performances in the halls feature foreign artists. The guest list to date includes Yo Yo Ma, Rudolf Nureyev, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
But the grand physical appearance and impressive roster of first-rate performers have not protected the facilities from criticism. As the official home for performing arts in Taiwan, the halls are subject to widely varying opinions on how they should be used to best promote the arts. Artists in various sectors of the local arts community compete fiercely for use of the National Theater and Concert Hall, and they all have their own definitions of what the facilities should be. As a government-run operation, the management of the halls faces the difficult task of trying to balance artists' needs with the goals of the Ministry of Education (MOE), which oversees and funds the halls.
Differences between the artists and officials involved with the halls began long before they opened. Arts professionals complain that they were not given an opportunity to be involved in the design process. "From the beginning, the goal was to build a first-class theater, but no one thought about what that means. No body considered the purpose of the theater," says Nieh Kuang-yen (聶光炎), perhaps Taiwan's best-known stage designer. A thirty-year veteran of the stage who has worked in Taiwan and abroad, Nieh has been involved in numerous productions at the National Theater. He and other arts experts attempted to give advice through letters and newspaper articles, but these efforts had little impact on the de sign. Says Nieh, "Many people were very upset."
As a result, the facilities have some physical shortcomings. Because the National Theater stage is modeled after an actual mid-sized German opera house, it is a style that was foreign to those in local theater circles. "They built a mid-sized European opera house, but we don't have a European opera house tradition," Nieh says, explaining that most Taiwan theater personnel are trained in the United States. In addition, while the theater's main stage is adequate in size for most dramas, it is too small and shallow for large operas and some modern dance performances. Others in theater find the ornate, formal decor of the theater cold and intimidating for audiences.
The theater suffers from several technical weak spots as well. The most serious problems have been with the lighting system. According to Nieh, the lighting is designed for opera and is often inadequate for drama and dance performances. He brings additional lighting equipment when he stages shows there. Other performers have complained that the computerized lighting system is unstable and has shut down on several occasions. For example, during the 1990 performances by the Martha Graham Dance Company, the lighting system failed several times in mid performance.
Playwright and director Stan Lai (賴聲川) also feels the theater does not meet local needs as well as it could have if artists had been more involved in the planning process. "We were given a theater that is not sensitive to what we are doing," Lai says. As director of the Performance Workshop, one of Taiwan's best-known theater groups, he has staged several plays at the National Theater. He points out that the proscenium-style stage creates a display-window effect that is good for ballet and opera, but creates a sense of distance when staging dramas. In addition, the view varies greatly from the first floor to the balcony. "The stage cuts the audience off—you watch, detached," he explains. "The National Theater is like a feudal theater," Lai says. "The lords sit in the middle. The poor people sit on the third floor and look down on the actors' heads."
But visiting foreign performers have found the halls equal to or better than many in their home countries. "To me, coming here to play is like heaven," says Wu Han, a concert pianist from New York City who has played in the concert hall twice. She claims the facilities out shine many in the United States. For in stance, the hall has eight concert pianos available for performers—far more than are offered at Carnegie Hall or the Metropolitan Opera House.
Hsu Ching-hsin, a conductor for the Oregon Symphony who has twice served as guest conductor for Taiwan's National Symphony Orchestra, adds that the administration of the concert hall also compares well to overseas counterparts. Since her first visit in 1991, she says, the administration has improved and "really cares about what they are doing."
The most heated criticisms have concerned programming. While other government-owned facilities rent time to performing groups with a minimum of restrictions, the National Theater and Concert Hall exercise far more control in program selection. According to the original MOE guidelines for the halls, the facilities have a duty to "build appreciation of the arts, upgrade domestic performing arts, and enrich people's cultural lives." As such, performance applicants must meet a number of requirements. Local performers seeking to book time submit proposals according to a strict schedule. These are reviewed by one of eight screening committees comprised of non-governmental arts professionals. The facilities's planning section then makes final selections according to a matrix of variables taking into account such things as the ratio of foreign to local performers, and the amount of time reserved for traditional Chinese opera or college and university performances.
One of the most outspoken critics of this program-selection process is Hsu Po yun (許博允), president of New Aspect Promotion Corp. As the head of one of Taiwan's largest and oldest arts agencies (now in its sixteenth year), Hsu is considered by many to be the island's top impresario. He argues that the process is not fair since those on the screening committees have personal ties to the arts and are therefore biased. "It's like having a ball game where they want to be the team and also be the umpires," Hsu says. "Nobody can win."
"They should just rent the theater," Hsu continues. "In a democratic country, the government should not run a program like this by itself." He calls the selection process, "not just bureaucratic, but imperialistic." Ideally, he says, "the goal should be to serve the people; it is a service job and a professional technician's job." Instead, he charges, the management "still thinks it is operating under martial law."
Director John Hu—"The government is, through us, making a social, educational, and cultural investment in return for a better standard of life."
John Hu (胡耀恆), director of the National Theater and Concert Hall, is well familiar with these criticisms, including Hsu's analogy to a one-sided baseball game. "The problem with the [program selection] committees is that every member is involved with arts," Hu says. "They have been criticized because they are referees and they stand on the side of the players. My answer to that is: That's all the talent we have in Taipei. We need more cultural talent."
Chung Yui-kwong (鐘耀光), head of the facility's planning section, stresses that those on the committees do not vote when their own performances are being considered. And he argues that the committee members are the island's most qualified arts experts. "They are the best," Chung says. "Take Lin Hwai-min, director of Cloud Gate, for instance. If you are not going to invite Lin Hwai-min, who are you going to ask? He almost represents dance in Taiwan."
Another criticism leveled at the halls is that a large percentage of the administration and staff are government officials with little expertise or interest in the arts. But nearly all performers interviewed agree that the National Theater and Con cert Hall staff are significantly better trained and are more sensitive to artists' needs than the personnel at other government-run arts facilities. And many say that the management has improved since the halls opened.
One controversy that has not abated is the debate over whether the facilities' unique system of sponsoring performers helps or hinders the arts. The MOE charter states that 50 percent of the booking dates can be reserved for in-house productions in which the theater and a local or foreign performing group jointly produce a show. (The other half are rented to independent performers or arts agents.) Under this arrangement, the facility covers production costs and supplies technical staff. The theater or concert hall then collects the box-office receipts.
Private arts agents dislike this arrangement because it eats up a large percentage of the booking dates. "They reserve a lot of the venue-private agents can only use the last of the dates," says Daniel Gun (耿繼光), president of Master Arts Promotion in Taipei. "The system is not good for anyone." Gun believes it is not fair that the programming committee operates like a private arts agent, but uses government money and has exclusive access to a good percentage of the booking dates.
Gun also charges that artists applying for in-house funding are sometimes given an unfair advantage over independent arts agents. "When I apply, I must provide all sorts of materials—video tapes, all kinds of details about the program," he says. "But with the venue they reserve for themselves, they don't demand all those materials." He claims some performers who are well known to committee members are accepted with far fewer hassles.
But Stan Lai, who sits on the non-traditional theater committee, believes that the benefits offered by the sponsorship program outweigh any faults. Without these unique grants of funding and performance space, he believes many shows simply would not be produced. As an example, he points to Performance Work shop's 1992 production of the Chinese version of Death of a Salesman. Says Lai: "We got to do a show that would not have been done otherwise, and the audience got to see a classic."
Facility director Hu also stresses that the sponsorship system allows the theater and concert hall to support a range of pro grams that would probably not be under taken by private agents or individual companies. For example, the program funds nearly all of the shows performed in the halls' secondary facilities: the Experimental Theater and the Recital Hall. There, programming includes experimental modem dance pieces, dramas by amateur theater companies, solo concerts, or demonstrations and lectures.
Choreographer Ku Ming-shen (古名伸), who has used the Experimental Theater regularly since it opened, says the sponsorship system is the only way many artists can get access to theater space, equipment, and funding. Of those who oversee the sponsorship program, Ku says, "They have certainly helped to develop local arts. They have given artists like me the opportunity to develop what ever they want to develop." For example, last year she performed an improvisational dance that included audience-artist discussions.
The halls also host a series of special programs designed to build audiences among groups who would not normally attend cultural performances. This spring, the concert hall is targeting college fresh men with an introductory concert-and lecture series on classical music. In 1992, the hall focused on high school and junior high students, and in 1991, it worked with elementary students. And last fall, the theater and concert hall began publishing a Chinese monthly magazine, Performing Arts Review.
The management has also undertaken two ambitious programs to promote the performing arts. Beginning this year, the National Theater and Concert Hall plan to host an annual month-long international arts festival beginning on ROC National Day (October 10). Planning section director Chung Yui-kwong is now lining up foreign and local dance, theater, and music performers and has already signed on one big-name group: the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1994, the theater and concert hall also expect to begin sponsoring local and foreign guest artists to put on performances around the island.
Such programs are expensive. In fact, in the first five years, the National Theater and Concert Hall accumulated a debt of about US$36 million. This year, director Hu expects to fall short by more than US$13 million; the halls will operate on an MOE budget of US$18 million while drawing estimated ticket sales of less than US$5 million. But he argues that the facilities are simply fulfilling their mission as national cultural centers. "The government is, through us, making a social, educational, and cultural investment in return for a better standard of life and a more civilized society," Hu says.
Hsu Po-yun opposes the hands-on approach to program selection, charging that the management "still thinks it is operating under martial law."
A solution to the debate over the level of government and staff involvement in programming may already be under way. Artists, agents, and officials seem to agree on one change that would ease tensions: Many of them support the forming of in-house performance companies, including a national dance troupe, drama company, and orchestra. (The National Symphony Orchestra now operates separately from the National Concert Hall; it is funded by the MOE and administered by National Taiwan Normal University.) Artists believe such a move would help boost the standards of the performing arts as a whole, and arts agents Daniel Gun and Hsu Po-yun support it if it would replace the current sponsorship program.
"State-run theaters in other countries have their own ballet group, their own orchestra, and all other performances are open for agents," Gun says. "No country does it like Taiwan." He believes it would be fair if these national performing groups reserved some booking dates, and the rest of the dates were left open to independent groups and agencies. He adds that artists could continue to receive MOE funding to cover production costs, but that funding and booking theater space should be kept separate.
Hwang Mei-shu (黃美序), a member of the theater screening committee, also supports the forming of in-house performance companies, but for different reasons. "I think the condition of Taiwan theater in general suffers because we don't have one professional theater group," says Hwang, a playwright and professor of literature and drama at Tamkang University. Although a handful of very small drama troupes now operate, most theater groups form and disband on a project-by-project basis. Developing a full-time, official drama company is, Hwang says, "the ideal way to improve theater here."
In fact, the original charter states that the halls should develop their own per forming groups, and planning director Chung says the management is beginning to take steps in that direction. He believes the National Symphony Orchestra will become the first in-house performance group. In addition, the theater and concert hall have already taken steps to scale down the sponsorship program. In .the past three years, the MOE has reduced the percentage of sponsored programs from 50 percent in 1990, to 44 percent this year and 40 percent for 1994.
As another possible way to reduce friction between government agencies and performing groups, director Hu is pushing for the establishment of a foundation that would oversee programming and management of the theater and concert hall. Such a shift would move the management one step further from government control. But the change would take several years. "There is a long way to go on this," Hu says. "We have to wait for many changes. It's a matter of three to five years, at least." In the meantime, the facilities will continue in their difficult mission of trying to balance the needs of a rapidly growing local performing arts community with official policy toward arts promotion.