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There are countless theater and film pieces on depression, but Every Brilliant Thing is a rarity in that it's gentle and humorous, even to the point of eliciting howls of laughter from the audience at times. Current society is by no means unfamiliar with depression, but mainstream media's bloodlust has overly stigmatized suicide and depression. This is part of the inspiration for Every Brilliant Thing: Macmillan wanted the piece to discuss these issues in the most ordinary tone, so instead of making it emotional and painted with tragedy, he chose comedy to discuss the influence depression and suicide have on people.
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More importantly, he wanted it to be something that everyone can relate to.
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So during the performance, audience participation is a must. The narrator talks about critical moments in life in detail, continually adding to the list, and when the narrator yells out a number, the vet, counselor, university professor, girlfriend, and father of the narrator invite the person in the audience with that number to perform with the protagonist.
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Before its debut, I had my doubts about such an interactive performance. I wondered, will members of the audience really participate? Can the performer really respond well to what will happen during the unrehearsed interaction? Is the audience participation just a stunt, or is it really necessary? I also wondered why I should produce a play done in a way that I'm not familiar with or even into. But performance after performance showed me that the audience's participation is both a structural aspect and an integral part of the narrator and the story. By saying items on the list and playing characters, the audience in fact takes part in what the characters have experienced.
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I'm a director, and this was the first time I couldn't mentally grasp a piece, because all the responses and interaction from the audience are completely unknown until they actually happen. Obviously, this is quite challenging and even horrifying for the performer.
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I often joke with the performers that the piece can't really be rehearsed. This is no exaggeration, because even though we may try to prepare for whatever responses, types of interaction, and behavior members of the audience might provide, every show is a surprise. What they do leads to improvised reactions by the performers, but with Macmillan's clever design, they end up completing the piece together, though not always smoothly – at times the participants are so shy or nervous that we hit blanks and moments of awkwardness. Nonetheless, the rest of the audience is always understanding.
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The unknown, uncertain, accidental, rough plainness, negligence-induced flaws, and resulting gentleness and interaction are actually the nature of theater and a precise metaphor for life. Every Brilliant Thing seems light but in fact carries an unbearable weight, though with the power of theater, it captures the characters and the emotions of the audience.
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For this year's production, besides CHU Ding-yi and LIN Chia-chi, WANG Shih-wei has joined the team as we hope to echo the diversity in terms of gender, age, race, and disposition seen in the play's performers around the world. Moreover, we look forward to Taiwanese performers from even more walks of life sharing this story in the future.
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\n',date:"2023.11.28",description:"I was actually not into interactive performances for a long time and frequently felt alienated by even those full of positive energy, but one such piece, Every Brilliant Thing, changed my view of why theater is still so important in contemporary society over the past few years. This plain, simple, yet strongly therapeutic one-man show seems to remind me (us) of why we need to sit with a bunch of strangers to watch performances and share our feelings.",image:"1e73fa66aa663fef2696fdede2809a94",title:"The Most Brilliant Thing: Being Captured by Theater",tags:["5af04be2beda2e0005bbb3f1"],programs:[]},recommendReadings:[{_id:"65ee9f9846290e00098baea2",date:"2024.03.11",introduction:"A friend once gave me a yellow-brown, palm-sized pastry. At first, I assumed it had a red-bean filling and so just took a bite without thinking twice. But I was surprised to find that inside were three distinct flavors: salty pork floss, sweet mochi, and sweet red-bean puree. This combination of salty and sweet enveloped in the springy, al-dente pastry prompted me to take a close look to see what a rarity it was for its capacity to hold so many different flavors in such a small space.\n",image:"754778facd0bc95a82f5f790770c682e",title:"Different Layers of Taste: Dance a Dance from My Yellow Skin"},{_id:"658937c85b32610007c1fffc",date:"2023.12.25",introduction:'As 2023 draws to a close, industries are gradually revitalizing. The "technology" that was massively discussed, applied, and grew at the speed of light during the pandemic, is now blossoming post-pandemic. Arts Talk has invited FENG Chien-chang, the creative director at FREE’S who has extensive experience in pop music concert production and straddles both traditional fine arts and new media arts, as well as LIN Yi-chun, the director of the Tsinghua University AI orchestra. The former discussed "The Integration of New Media and Art," speaking about his 20 years of experience transitioning from manual to digital creation and creativity, while the latter shared her practical experience since 2019 in AI research, applying artificial intelligence to music composition and event planning. The speakers\' personal experiences are a testament to the extraordinary levels of creativity and artistic milestones that have been catalyzed by technological advancements.',image:"114f290fafa19b097e5800052fc182ba",title:"Arts Talk | Lecture sidenotes for November and December"}],relatedPrograms:[]},fetched:!0},shippingAreas:{rows:[],loaded:!1},userAuth:{logined:!1,status:"NORMAL",inited:!1,data:null,showNsoOverlay:!1},announce:{show:!0},youthOverlay:{show:!1,showed:!1},featureCategories:{rows:[],loaded:!1,loading:!1},features:{rows:[],loaded:!1,loading:!1},newsCatalogs:{rows:[],loaded:!1,loading:!1},chronologies:{rows:[],loaded:!1,loading:!1}},routing:{locationBeforeTransitions:null}}