SOLO DATE
May 31 – June 2, 2018
SF International Arts Festival & Qcc present
SOLO DATE
Southside, various times
Pao Chang Tsai
Tickets: General Admission $25
http://www.sfiaf.org/2018_pao_chang_tsai
Solo Date is written and performed by Pao-Chang Tsai. It tells the story of Ho-Nien, whose long-time lover and partner Alan is killed in an air crash.
Stricken with grief Ho-Nien attempts to reunite with Alan, but after a failed attempt to visit hell via an ancient Taoist ritual, Ho-Nien endeavors to reconstruct Alan utilizing artificial intelligence and by accessing his encrypted online data and social media records.
What follows is a surreal journey through a virtual underworld where Ho-Nien encounters digital gatekeepers, confronts social taboos and uncovers secrets from the past that tarnish the reunion and risk robbing Ho-Nien of his past.
Innovative, elegant and moving, Solo Date uses new media to explore loneliness and longing, desire and death, artificial intelligence and human loss and need. It also asks unsettling questions about online privacy, the ethics of re-inventing the dead and several other as-yet-to-be-articulated aspects of the digital frontier.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/184977949
BIOGRAPHIES
Tainaner Ensemble
Founded in 1987 as Hwa Deng Theatre Troupe, Tainaner Ensemble made significant contributions to the development of the performing arts in Tainan, southern Taiwan. Having built a reputation for producing plays reflecting a local perspective, it began to look more outwardly while still using Holo dialect, or Taiwanese (as well as Mandarin and other languages) in adaptations of Western drama. In early 2012 Tainaner Ensemble moved to Taipei City, signaling a new phase in its evolution. As the company has grown, so have the opportunities it provides for cultivating new acting and playwriting talent. It is now a leading light in Taiwan’s theatrical vanguard.
Pao-Chang Tsai
Pao-Chang graduated from the department of drama and theatre, National Taiwan University and had his master in music theatre from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. He is currently the co- artistic director at Tainaner Ensemble. Learning has always been at the top of Pao-Chang’s priority when it comes to his career, exposing himself to various practitioners and companies with diverse views on theatre. But with learning also comes teaching, as Pao-Chang has spent time teaching youth theatre and also universities, where he puts to practice all that he has learned.Pao-Chang Tsai is frequently seen as a creator equipped with three talents playwrighting, directing and acting, and has worked with the National Symphony Orchestra, Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group, Creative Society, Horse Dance Theatre and If Kids Theatre. Since 2009, Pao-Chang has been invited as co-artistic director to collaborate with Po-Shen Lu at Tainaner Ensemble.
