2026 TIPRF - International Forum III | Beyond Staged Readings — A Site for Transnational Creative and Cultural Dialogue

Kim Naghyung, the inaugural Artistic Director of the Chungbuk Theatre Company, is an artist who explores the unconscious and the absurdity of modern life. As a playwright, Kim balances the literary integrity of the text with the practicalities of performance, crafting immersive spectacles on stage. He continuously strives to engage his audience through black comedy that critiques contemporary society, utilizing a theatrical language that is light but not trivial, and profound without being overbearing.

Choi Se-hoon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Chinese Culture University. He holds a Ph.D. in Korean Studies with a focus on Film Criticism from Yonsei University. His academic background also includes an M.A. in Shakespeare in History from University College London (UCL) and an M.A. in English Literature from Korea University, where he specialized in the works of John Milton.

His research explores the history of East Asian proletarian arts during the 1920s and 1930s, the introduction of Western literature into Korea, and the study of Korean diaspora literature.

Yen is a curator and arts administrator with a background in museology and visual arts. With a lifelong passion for the arts, her career spans central government agencies, local cultural institutions, and the nonprofit sector. In recent years, she has been dedicated to serving as a bridge between Taiwan’s art community and the world, actively fostering international cultural exchange.

During her ten-year tenure at the Taipei Cultural Center in New York under the Ministry of Culture, she gained in-depth insight into the dynamics of the North American art industry and global cultural trends. Through a multi-dimensional curatorial approach, she developed international partnerships and built extensive professional networks. From 2022 to 2026, she served as Deputy Director of the National Taichung Theater, where she explored and implemented unconventional performing arts productions and advanced sustainability through green theater initiatives. Since 2026, she has served as Chief Executive Officer of the National Culture and Arts Foundation.

Katherine Chou Hui-ling bridges the academic and creative worlds through her multifaceted work as a director, playwright, scholar, and professor.  In 1997, she co-founded Creative Society Theatre Group. As a director, she has also collaborated with Taiwan’s prestigious GuoGuang Opera Company, bringing a contemporary perspective to the traditional art form.   

In 2014, she initiated the World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights to facilitate artistic exchange across the Sinophone world, reaching as far as diaspora communities in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. She is currently a Professor in the Department of English at National Central University, specializing in cultural policy, gender performance, and digital archiving for the performing arts. She also founded and directs the Electronic Theatre Intermix in Taiwan, a digital archive dedicated to Taiwanese contemporary theatre since the 1980s.

Siraya Pai is a Taiwan-based freelance writer, translator, and theatre critic. Her work explores the relation and translation between theatre, music, and language. She has introduced foundational texts into the Mandarin world, including Michael Chekhov’s To the Actor, Phillip Zarrilli’s Psychophysical Acting, Christopher B. Balme’s Theatrical Public Sphere, Jonathan Burrows’s A Choreographer’s Handbook, and Eleanor Margolies’s Props, as well as the collection Empty Stages, Crowded Flats: Performativity As Curatorial Strategy. Her portfolio also features works by Beckett, Ibsen, and Tennessee Williams, alongside the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Her most recent book is a history of Taiwanese musical theatre, while other articles and critiques can be found in ARTCO, Performing Arts Review, and ARTalks.  

Alastor is a young playwright and dramaturg from Hong Kong. He has won the champion at The 5th World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights for his work Sparrows that Live On (Fear), becoming the first Hong Kong playwright to receive this honor. He has also participated in productions including The Drunkard of Hong Kong Arts Festival 2026.

Alastor is currently the Programme and Creative Director of Theatre Formula in Hong Kong, and also one of the Writer-in-residence of Taiwan Literature Base, and of the Resident-Artists of Prologue Center for New Plays.

Instagram: alastorhktheatre
E-mail: alastorstage@gmail.com