Puppetry master Chen Hsi-huang (陳錫煌), who is revered as a "National Living Treasure" of Taiwan, will lead his Traditional Glove Puppet Troupe to perform A Chance Encounter (巧遇姻緣) on June 15 and 16, 2019 at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. Maestro Chen and the company will also hold a post-performance session to showcase sophisticated skills for puppet movements. Maestro Chen will donate two Taiwan traditional puppets to the Center for display so visitors may better understand Taiwan’s glove puppet culture.
Maestro Chen is the only glove puppeteer in Taiwan to have been recognized by the Ministry of Culture as an important preserver of both traditional glove puppetry and classical glove puppet clothing and headwear props. He founded the eponymous Chen Hsi-Huang Traditional Puppet Troupe (陳錫煌傳統掌中劇團) in December 2008.
The main focus of Chen’s puppetry is “life.” He wants his puppets to resemble people in all respects, including their postures, expressions and movements. To enable audience members who don’t under¬stand Taiwanese to follow the narration, he reworked A Chance Encounter by removing the narration and telling the story through movement alone. The three puppet roles—¬sheng (young man), dan (young woman), and chou (clown)—win the audience over, while the finer points of the performance highlight Chen’s innovations to the art form. A Chance Encounter tells the story of a student who rescues a young lady from a pack of hoodlums, and his bravery leads to their marriage.
Chen was born in 1931 into a family of glove puppeteers. His paternal grandfather, Hsu Chin-mu, was the head of Hua Yang Tai Puppet Theatre Troupe (華陽台); his maternal grandfather, Chen A-lai (陳阿來), was the head of Le Hua Yuan Puppet Theatre Troupe (樂花園); and his father, Li Tian-lu (李天祿), was the head of I Wan Jan Puppet Theatre (亦宛然).
The performance is co-sponsored by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta (TECO in Atlanta) and the Center for Puppetry Arts.
Performance Information:
Date: Saturday, June 15 at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.; Sunday, June 16 at 5:00 p.m.
Venue: Center for Puppetry Arts (1404 Spring St., NW, at 18th, Atlanta, GA 30309)
For more information, please visit the website: http://www.puppet.org/buy-tickets/2019-20/a-chance-encounter/
Enclosure：Images of A Chance Encounter
