Stan Lai
Stan Lai or Lai Sheng-chuan (simplified Chinese: 赖声川; traditional Chinese: 賴聲川; pinyin: Lài Shēngchuān, born 25 October 1954) is a highly influential award winning US born Taiwan based playwright and theater director, also known for his award-winning feature films. He has been described by the BBC as “probably the best Chinese language playwright and director in the world,”<Interview with Stan Lai by Harriet Gilbert, BBC, The Strand, 3/5/09> and his plays have been performed throughout the Chinese speaking world. He is the writer and director of Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land (暗戀桃花源, part of it loosely based on Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Spring"), often touted as the most successful contemporary Chinese plays. Lai is recognised as one of the most important theater directors in Asia.
Life
Lai was born on 25 October 1954 in Washington D.C., where his father was serving in the Republic of China's Embassy. He returned to Taiwan in 1966. In 1978, Lai married Ding Nai-chu (丁乃竺). After the marriage, the couple went to US for further studies.
He received his Ph.D. in Dramatic Art from University of California, Berkeley in 1983. He is also Professor and Founding Dean of the College of Theatre at Taipei National University of the Arts. In 1984, Lai and Ding founded Performance Workshop (表演工作坊), a contemporary theatre group that has become one of the most celebrated in the Chinese world. Lai became the Artistic Director while Ding is the Managing Director. Their work has revitalized theatre in Taiwan and had deep influence on the current theatre in mainland China.
Lai had been the recipient of Taiwan’s highest award for the arts, the National Arts Award, twice - 1988 and 2001, among many other awards, including being inducted into the Chinese Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007. His films have won international awards at Berlin, Tokyo and Singapore.
In 2006 and 2007, Lai taught at Stanford University as Visiting Professor and Resident Artist for the I.D.A. program.
A prolific author of 30 original performed plays to date, Lai was also director for the 2009 Summer Deaflympics, in charge of organizing the opening and closing ceremonies which were held in Taipei in September 2009.
Works
Stan Lai is known as “probably the best Chinese language playwright and director right now” (International Herald Tribune) and “Asia’s Top Theatre Director” (Asiaweek). Since 1984, his 30 original plays have continually pioneered the way toward new horizons in modern Chinese theatre. China’s most prominent critic Yu Qiuyu says that Lai’s work “always has the ability to touch the heartstrings of countless audiences.”
Stan Lai’s plays have the rare knack “to combine popular culture with high art.” The Far Eastern Economic Review describes his work as "the most exciting theatre in the Chinese-speaking world." His most famous work Secret Love In Peach Blossom Land (1986) has toured worldwide, been made into an award-winning film (1992), and in 2007 was chosen as one of the top ten Chinese plays of the century. Lai’s 2006 Beijing production has been a milestone in recent Chinese theatre for the breadth and depth of its influence. The New York Times said it “may be the most popular contemporary play in China…by the end, the audience is left to contemplate the burdens of memory, history, longing, love and the power of theater itself.” In 2007, Lai directed his own English translation of the play at Stanford University.
Lai’s famous “crosstalk” (相聲 or xiangsheng) plays, starting with the groundbreaking 那一夜，我們說相聲 That Evening, We Performed Xiangsheng (1985) have helped create the large, popular audience base for his critically acclaimed work, while at the same time resuscitating the dying traditional performing art form of xiangsheng. His epic 8 hour A Dream Like A Dream (2000) has been called “a masterpiece” of modern Chinese drama, and has drawn comparisons to Peter Brook’s Mahabharata. His two recent works Light Years (2008) and The Village (2008) explore decades of history and social change respectively in China and Taiwan, where performances have met with enthusiastic success. Writing in Water (2009) continues his development of Buddhist themes, which have become more prominent in his work.
Lai's main tool for playwriting is his use of improvisation in collaboration with the actors, which include many of the most respected names of the time. This is a method he learned from his mentor Shireen Strooker of the Amsterdam Werkteater, and he is one of the world's foremost exponents of using improvisation as a creative tool. His 30 plays are widely varied in style and reflect on the individuality of each project he undertakes, as well as the uniqueness of each cast he works with.
Lai has also written and directed two widely acclaimed feature films, The Peach Blossom Land (1992) and The Red Lotus Society (1994), which received top prizes at the Berlin, Tokyo, and Singapore international film festivals. His improvisational experiment in television, All In the Family are Humans (1995-97), was a surprising alternative hit on Taiwan TV and ran for 600 episodes. Lai occasionally directs the works of others, including the Chinese language premiere of Angels in America, Part I. He has also directed innovative versions of Mozart’s operas Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte and Figaro, all set in Chinese backgrounds, in collaboration with Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra.
In 2007, Lai became a best-selling author in Taiwan and China with his book on creativity called Stan Lai On Creativity (Chinese Lai Shengchuan de Chuangyixue), based on a course on Creativity he taught at Stanford University. This book has gained a reputation in business as well as artistic readers as a unique take on how one can train in creativity.
Plays
- We All Grew Up This Way (1984)
- Plucking Stars (1984)
- The Passer-by (1984)
- That Evening, We Performed Xiangsheng - 那一夜，我們說相聲 (1985)
- Bach Variations (1985)
- Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land - 暗戀桃花源 (1986, revived 1991, 1999 and 2006, Taiwanese Opera version 2006, English version 2007, joint Cantonese/Mandarin version 2007)
- Pastoral (1986)
- Circle Story (1987)
- Journey to the West (1987)
- Look Who's Crosstalking This Evening - 這一夜，誰來說相聲？ (1989)
- The Island and the Other Shore - 回頭是彼岸 (1989)
- Strange Tales from Taiwan - 台灣怪譚 (1991)
- Red Sky - 紅色的天空 (1994)
- The Complete History of Chinese Thought (1997)
- Open the Door, Sir! (one-act, 1998)
- I Me He Him - 我和我和他和他 (1998)
- Menage a 13 - 十三角關係 (1999)
- Lear and the 37fold Path of a Bodhisattva (one-act, 2000)
- A Dream Like A Dream (2000, Cantonese version 2002, Mandarin version revived 2005)
- Millennium Teahouse (2000)
- Singapore Impromptu (one-act, 2002)
- Mumble Jumble (2003)
- Sand and a Distant Star (2003)
- Total Woman (2005)
- Shanghai Story (2005)
- Stories for the Dead (in English, 2006)
- Like Shadows (2007)
- Light Years (2008)
- The Village (2008)
- Writing in Water (in Cantonese, 2009)
Film
- The Red Lotus Society (1994, Toronto, New York, Tokyo Film Festivals)
- Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land (1992 ; Calgary Prize, Forum, 1993 Berlin Film Festival/Best Picture, Best director, 1993 Singapore Film Festival)