2026 TIPRF- La Cie MaxMind: Cherry Blossom Theatre 1937

Synopsis

Centering on the Aengjwa Theatre that existed in 1930s Cheongju, Cherry Blossom Theatre 1937 is a reimagining of a lost era. The play opens with an AI-reconstructed interview with a director, transporting the audience back to a volatile time of shadows and light. There, a street vendor with dyslexia dreaming of becoming a silent film narrator, a cinema assistant full of hope, and a washed-up legendary actress find their fates intertwined. As their beloved theatre faces demolition by pro-Japanese merchants, the group plans one final performance to reclaim their voices before being washed away by the currents of history.

Playwright Mun Ui-young blends rigorous historical research with innovative technological storytelling, using an "AI interview" structure to bridge the gap between historical figures and modern audiences. The play explores the enduring power of human stories, suggesting that even when physical spaces are destroyed, the "artistic light" bloomed in the ruins remains eternal. This nostalgic and contemplative work was commissioned as the 2025 resident play for the Chungbuk Theatre Company.

Mun Ui-young, Playwright

Mun Ui-young is a Korean playwright currently serving as the resident playwright of the Chungbuk Theatre Company and the artistic director of the Youth Theatre Company. Her play Sook-hee’s Bookstore won the Grand Prize at the Chungbuk Theatre Festival and the Silver Prize at the Korea Theatre Festival in 2019. Her major works include Sook-hee’s Bookstore, Breath of a Thousand Years, and The Proper Way to Eat Pork Belly. Her creative focus lies in local history and collective memory, exploring the evolving significance of regional spaces in contemporary Korean dramatic literature.

La Cie MaxMind

Artistic Director Lee Yi-hsiu and Nanguan/Beiguan composer Hsu Shu-hui are the central creative forces of La Cie MaxMind. It is the company’s mission to inject diverse sources of creative energy into traditional Nanguan and Beiguan music with material garnered from the rich multicultural grounds of Taiwan; and through this process, to establish an affecting new paradigm of theatrical form. The company’s work is often inspired by Taiwanese culture; the team is convinced that only when rooted in explorations of and reflections upon Taiwanese culture, can their work find its own unique way of conversing with the world. With local culture and global perspective, and a merging of traditional and contemporary artistic forms and elements, works by La Cie MaxMind have seen critical and popular success on the international stage as well.

About the 2026 Taiwan International Play Reading Festival

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.

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