The 2026 Taiwan International Play Reading Festival features Korea as its annual theme. The program is organized into four main sections: Korea Series, Taiwan Contemporary, Formosa Classics, and Talks and Forums.
The Korea Series presents contemporary Korean plays, offering insight into recent developments in Korean theatre; Taiwan Contemporary highlights contemporary Taiwanese playwriting, showcasing a diversity of textual voices; Formosa Classics revisits important chapters in Taiwan’s theatre history through representative works by playwright Lin Tuan-chiu; and Talks and Forums extend the festival’s artistic and cultural dialogue through post-show discussions, thematic lectures, and international forums.
Looking ahead, the Taiwan International Play Reading Festival will continue to engage with different countries and cultural regions, gradually expanding to include Southeast Asia, Latin America, and beyond, positioning Taiwan as an important hub for international play exchange. Through the intersection of language and culture, the festival presents not only plays, but also theatre as a space for the exchange of ideas and mutual cultural reflection. In doing so, it seeks to open up broader international perspectives for Taiwanese theatre, while allowing the world to encounter Taiwan through its plays.
2026 Taiwan International Play Reading Festival
Play reading is a form of theatrical presentation centered on the play itself. Through the actors’ vocal interpretation and the audience’s shared imagination, the rhythm of the language, the emotional texture of the characters, the dramatic structure, and even the subtle breaths and pauses between roles can be perceived in their most direct and essential form. Although play reading is often regarded as an early stage in the theatre-making process, it also possesses independent artistic value and serves as an important site for cultural exchange and creative dialogue.
The Taiwan International Play Reading Festival (TIPRF) is curated by the Prologue Center for New Plays and jointly organized with the Taipei Performing Arts Center, aiming to establish an international excahnge platform centered on playwrights and plays. Each year, the festival focuses on a specific country or cultural region, exploring the differences and resonances among theatrical traditions and textual aesthetics through staged readings and cross-cultural interpretation.
Here, plays are not only the starting point of theatrical creation, but also a medium for cultural exchange through which diverse social experiences and creative perspectives are reflected, opening up a space for cross-cultural dialogue.
About
Staged Readings
This year’s festival features reciprocal staged readings between Taiwan and South Korea: Taiwanese teams perform Korean plays in Mandarin, while Korean teams present Taiwanese works in Korean. Through this exchange of perspectives, the plays are reinterpreted within different cultural contexts and performance traditions, generating new layers of meaning and understanding. In this process, staged readings become a vital site for creative exchange and cultural dialogue. Each reading is followed by a post-show discussion, offering audiences the opportunity to engage directly with the artists, gain deeper insight into the creative context behind the works, and reconsider the relationship between theatre and society from multiple perspectives. Tickets are available on OPENTIX.
Lectures and International Forums
In addition to the staged readings, this year’s festival features a series of lectures and forums. Three thematic lectures introduce the historical development and contemporary landscape of playwriting in Korea and Taiwan. Dialogues between Taiwanese and Korean scholars revisit the works of Lin Tuan-chiu, a key figure in Taiwanese theatre history, and reconsider their significance in relation to the times in which they were created.
The festival also presents three international forums, including conversations among Taiwanese and Korean playwrights, insights from translators working between the two languages, and discussions on how staged readings can serve as a platform for creative exchange and cultural dialogue.
Through these multi-layered conversations, spanning lectures, forums, and post-show discussions, the festival extends beyond staged readings to become a public space for dialogue between artists and audiences. It also fosters deeper understanding and stronger connections between Taiwanese and Korean theatre communities, while continuing to expand the possibilities for Asian play exchange and cross-cultural creation.
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