Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist 

The story is set in Yunlin and portrays the lives and interactions between three sisters who depend on each other, before depicting how they gradually let go of their issues about their father, family, and the local tradition. It is a bittersweet process that makes the audience laugh and cry. The religious ritual at the end is recreated in a crafted manner, which not only ties up the plot lines of the story but also demonstrates the formal ornateness and solemnity of the ritual. The pace of the funeral procession to send off the father reveals a sense of unwillingness, filling the farewell with reluctance and remembrance. Even though some parts of the piece remain to be discussed in terms of script development and character design, as a musical in Chinese incorporated with the traditional soul-guiding ceremony, the overall production is fluent, rare, and refreshing, with merits that outweigh the flaws. No wonder it is a piece on everyone’s lips. (Commentator: CHANG You-Sheng)

Artwork Introduction

The character structure of Don't Cry, Dancing Girls is inspired by the Russian play Three Sisters by Chekhov but twisted and implanted with a large number of local Taiwanese elements. Through the three sisters, they return to the hometown where their parents fled and inherit the traditional skills of their priest father and their mourner mother. For them, it is a completely unfamiliar environment of Taiwanese rural culture. While the development and population migration of local towns accelerates, desperately trying to draw closer to modernization, the three sisters are walking in the opposite direction, trying to capture the last trace of the local spirit, to get close to, or to reawaken the sense of belonging that they have been missing for a long time. At the same time, in the tension of such broken and conflicting values, each one of them has found an outlet for their own growth, their respective life, love, confidence, and even identity.

About the Artist

The VMTheatre Company is based on “the performance concepts and creative structure of New York’s musicals” to draw creative inspiration from and feed on local culture. The theatre company looks for realistic themes that are close to contemporary life from a humanistic point of view. It is especially interested in working and developing with young artists in the fields of music, dance, literature, and theater, hoping to contribute to the evolution of Taiwan’s musical culture through exchanging views and crossover collaborations.

Production Team

Artistic Director｜TSENG Hui-cheng

Librettist｜ZHAN Jie

Music Director & Composer｜Robert KANG

Damaturg｜LiYing CHIEN

Choreographer｜CHANG Ya-ting

Stage Designer｜HSIEH Chun-an

Lighting Designer｜HO Ting-tsung

Multimedia Designer｜HSU Yi-chun

Prop Designer｜Yan-xing

Costume Designer｜CHANG Yu-chieh

Hair Designer｜YANG Yu-jen

Makeup Designer｜LU Ching-wen

Sound Designer｜Tony YANG

Producer｜LIN Yi-Heng, CHENG Han-Wen

Key Vision Designer｜Haospring Design · CHEN Pei-chi

Inscription｜HUANG Chung-ken

Cast｜CHANG Ching-chia, CHANG Fang-yu, KUNG Neng-an, TSENG Chih-yuan, LU Cheng-you, HUANG Ju-dong, WANG Wei, TSENG Ssu-yu, HU Ya-chieh, LI Min- chieh, HUANG Yi-hao, HUANG Hui-sen, ZHOU Wan-yi, CHOU Cheng-hsien, CHOU Chen-yu, Billy CHENG(swing), Shao LEE(swing)

Orchestra｜Robert KANG, WU Kang-chiu, LIN Hong-yu, WU Chun-you