2026 TIPRF- Chungbuk Theatre Company: Between Classes

Synopsis

Starting from a campus bullying incident, the play layers the power dynamics of a senior high class through the trivial yet real dialogues of 39 student characters. Under the double shadow of mock exam pressure and rumors, it reveals the shadows of sexual harassment suspicions, romantic betrayal, and domestic violence. The entire play is like a series of fast-edited campus snapshots, presenting how individuals are labeled during the process of socialization and how they spiral out of control in the collective mediocrity of malice.

This work captures the fragmented communication characteristics of high school students with minimalist stage settings and extremely high-density dialogue, and analyzes the structural problems behind violence. Playwright Lee Cheng-jui also grants the performance great flexibility—38 scenes can be performed by 2 to 39 actors. The dialogue in two-person scenes is like catching and throwing a ball, with a fast rhythm and a precise structure, which led to this work winning the Jury Award at the 26th Taipei Literary Awards.

Lee Cheng-jui, Playwright

Lee Cheng-jui as a director at Re-Percussion Theatre, his creation themes often revolve around local history, geopolitics, and urban experience. Representative works: His script Going Home for the 2022 Taipei Children's Art Festival was nominated for the 21st Taishin Arts Award; Between Classes won the Jury Award at the 2024 Taipei Literary Awards; Happy King won first place in the "Children's Drama Script Creation" at the 2024 Taipei Children's Art Festival.

Chungbuk Theatre Company

Chungbuk Theatre Company was established in 2024, through years of effort from Chungbuk’s citizens and the local theatre artists. It aims to enhance the competitiveness of performing arts creation in Chungbuk and to provide its residents with diverse and high-quality cultural enjoyment. It is the 4th provincial theatre company established in the country, acting as a creative performing arts platform that encompasses artistic creation, enjoyment, and distribution. The Chungbuk Theatre Company will strive to create a local theatrical ecosystem, promote art in Chungbuk residents’ daily lives, and pursue the identity of Chungbuk and contemporary art under the slogan, "One United Heartbeat of Chungbuk Through Art." Together with its community, it pursues arts on stage that everyone in Chungbuk can enjoy together.

Kim Naghyung

Artistic Director (2024-present)
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.
 

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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