Play readings are often seen as a preliminary stage in theatre-making, but within the context of international exchange, they have gradually become an important site where different cultures meet and engage in dialogue. As the festival’s closing forum, this session brings together theatre makers and cultural observers to share their perspectives and experiences, and to reconsider the role and possibilities of script readings in contemporary theatre.
Moderator:
Wu Cheng-han Artistic Director of Prologue Center for New Plays (Taiwan)Panelists:
Kim Naghyung Artistic Director of Chungbuk Theatre Company (Korea)
Choi Se-hoon Associate Professor of Department of Korean Language and Literature, Chinese Culture University (Korea)
Yen Chi-ping Chief Executive Officer of National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan)
Chou Hui-ling Chair of The World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights & Distinguished Professor of National Central University (Taiwan)
Siraya Pai Theatre Critic & Play Translator (Taiwan)
Alastor Chow Playwright & Resident Writer at Taiwan Literature Base (Hong Kong)
Kim Naghyung
Kim Naghyung, the inaugural Artistic Director of Chungbuk Theatre Company, is an artist who listens to the unconscious and absurdity of modern life. As a playwright, Kim considers both the completeness of the play's text and its performance aspects, creating a spectacle on stage. He continuously strives to communicate with his audience using black comedy that critiques contemporary society and theatrical language that is light but not trivial, heavy but not burdensome.
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Choi Se-hoon
Associate Professor, Department of Korean Language and Literature at Chinese Culture University.
Ph.D. in Korean Studies, Yonsei University (Film Criticism)
MA in Shakespeare in History, University College London (UCL)
MA in English Literature, Korea University (John Milton).
Research areas: the history of East Asian proletarian arts in the 1920s–30s; the introduction of Western literature into Korea; Korean diaspora literature.
Chou Hui-ling
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
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. 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 Chow
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
Organizer
