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PHILOSOPHY IN MOTION… U THEATRE
AT NJPAC ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5 AT 7:00PM
PLEASE NOTE: PHOTOGRAPHY AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Newark, NJ (September 17, 2003) – NJAPC presents Taipei’s internationally acclaimed U Theatre in The Sound of Ocean at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Sunday, October 5 at 7:00PM in Prudential Hall. Combining dynamically complex drumming with martial art techniques, U Theatre presents a spiritually moving, rhythmically-based exploration of space, environment and sound that traces the cyclical journey of water– from drop to stream, from river to ocean. The primal power of thunderous percussion melds with the meditative sounds of temple bells and gongs in this total performing arts experience that has earned rave reviews around the globe. Tickets are $16-$46, and may be purchased by telephone, at the NJPAC Box Office at One Center Street in downtown Newark, or by visiting the NJPAC website at www.njpac.org. This performance is part of Alternate Routes: World Festival VII, sponsored in part, by American Express. U Theatre’s Fall USA tour is produced by Lisa Booth Management, Inc., in association with Asia Society. Major support is provided by the Council of Cultural Affairs, Taiwan.
U Theatre was founded in 1988 by Artistic Director and performer Liu Ching-Ming to reacquaint herself with Taiwanese and Chinese cultures as well as to introduce traditional cultural elements into modern theater. U Theatre’s continuous creativity stems from the assimilation of contemporary Taiwanese culture and the Company’s frequent spiritual retreats. For example, while performing the work U Theatre Sacred Drum-Walking the Heights of Taiwan, U Theatre made an epic journey, traveling the Taiwanese mountainous terrain by foot. Walking 600 kilometers in 31 days, the troupe walked by day and performed by night in 18 different towns and townships.
In ancient China, Zen masters wrote that a true artist should balance artistic skill with self-improvement (the “Tao”). With this theory in hand, U Theatre has created performances that probe the inner meaning of self. At U Theatre’s open-air theater, located on Laochun Mountain, an hour north of Taipei City, members train and rehearse daily in a spiritually sound environment in an effort to improve their quality of life. On the mountain, members train in the art of Tai-chi, practice traditional drumming techniques, engage in forms of physical training such as martial arts, and meditate. “Performance is the representation of the best aspects of life,” is an oft-repeated mantra of Liu Ching Ming, that has come to define all U Theatre performances.
Performing across the nation and around the globe, U Theatre first premieres new works in their own 500 seat open-air theater, and then performs in spaces as primitive as makeshift outdoor stages around Taiwan’s countryside to urban theaters and cultural centers. The group has been seen in New York, London, the Philippines, Singapore, and other international settings, including Korea for its second Asian Theater Festival and the Avignon Arts Festival in France. The organizers of the Avignon Arts Festival opened a new theater, the Red Land Quarry in Boulbon, especially for U Theatre’s performance.
New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located in the heart of an emerging downtown Newark, New Jersey, is the sixth largest performing arts center in the United States. Home of the Grammy® Award-winning New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, NJPAC has been widely cited as a catalyst in the revitalization of New Jersey’s largest city, attracting over 3.2 million visitors (including more than 600,000 children) in its first six years of operation.
This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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NJAPC presents Taipei’s internationally acclaimed U Theatre in The Sound of Ocean at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Sunday, October 5 at 7:00PM in Prudential Hall. Combining dynamically complex drumming with martial art techniques, U Theatre presents a spiritually moving, rhythmically-based exploration of space, environment and sound that traces the cyclical journey of water– from drop to stream, from river to ocean. The primal power of thunderous percussion melds with the meditative sounds of temple bells and gongs in this total performing arts experience that has earned rave reviews around the globe. This performance is part of Alternate Routes: World Festival VII, sponsored in part, by American Express. U Theatre’s Fall USA tour is produced by Lisa Booth Management, Inc. in association with Asia Society. Major support is provided by the Council of Cultural Affairs, Taiwan.
Tickets are $16-$46, and may be purchased by telephone, at the NJPAC Box Office at One Center Street in downtown Newark, or by visiting the NJPAC website at www.njpac.org.
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