Section Chief Wang of the Promotion Division of the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, said that after the establishment of Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company, its main task is to continue the traditional opera culture. The Company’s another important task is to promote Bangzi Opera. Therefore, the Company often performs on campus and in the communities, as well as frequently goes abroad for cultural exchanges and performances. Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company keeps pace with the changing times and constantly seeks innovation in opera art. Besides, the Company takes into account the parallel development of both tradition and modernity. The Company does not focus on traditional operas. Instead, the Company incorporates adapted or innovative plots and uses the effects of media technology to make the stage more vivid to attract more audiences. Therefore, Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company shoulders the great responsibility of promoting Bangzi Opera, and the priority is to focus on the community and campus promotion and development.

 

Promotional performances are intended to spread the seeds of Bangzi Opera, take root in campuses, and serve as a preparatory work for future young audiences to go to theaters to watch operas. The planned promotional activities include “campus promotion,” “community promotion,” “promotion lectures,” “teacher workshops,” “opera teaching performances,” “opera literature lectures,” “special performances,” etc. The programs in promotional performances are mostly condensed versions of the original play into 90 minutes of performances featured by short performance time, few actors, light sets and props, low production costs, and large audiences.

“Teacher workshops” aim to recruit teachers who are interested in promoting traditional opera. Such workshops hope that teachers can become seed teachers after the training. Hopefully, the seed teachers can teach more students to cultivate the in-depth understanding of the performing arts of traditional opera and promote the art of traditional opera. 
“Opera literature lectures” are activities held by screenwriters, directors and actors at colleges and universities before the annual performance, mainly as “promotional lectures” and supplemented by “box office marketing.” With the support of teachers who are enthusiastic about promoting traditional opera, the proportion of young students going to theaters to appreciate opera has increased significantly.
In terms of “Special performances” and “opera teaching performances,” the Company cooperated with the Ministry of Education to plan “special performances” for the purpose of opera appreciation, which enables teachers to guide students to the performance hall to appreciate the performance. The Company also carefully designed learning cards for the performance programs to improve learning effectiveness. “Opera teaching performances” specialize in opera teaching. The Company accepts school invitations, designs courses for students of different age groups and performs during weekly meetings or class time. The two models are both quite popular in junior high and elementary schools. Another major feature of promotional performances is the host system. Whether it is a performance or an event being promoted, the host can create the effects of opening, warming up, and connecting the performance. Another feature is the on-site demonstration teaching for practical experiencing. The Company introduces the special body movements, music, facial makeup and costumes of opera in an easy-to-understand way, which enables students to experience the fun of performance in person and is extremely popular among students.

The contents of invited performances are all-encompassing, including evening parties, annual meetings, temple fairs, dharma assemblies, lantern festivals, group weddings, singles mixers, opening ceremonies, award ceremonies, etc. This type of performance lasts from ten minutes to half an hour, mostly opera excerpts. The Company occasionally accepts invitations to engage in special performances, such as the performance of “Pa-Chieh Chu Makes Trouble in the Silk Cave” at the Fo Guang Shan Peace Festival Lantern Festival, the performance of “The Legend of the Green Snake” at the Kaohsiung County Arts Festival and the performance of “The Clever Magistrate” at the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology’s opening ceremony. Due to the diversity of the organizations inviting performances, Bangzi Opera Company can perform in different occasions. Although the performance time is not long, it is very likely to develop a new performing arts market or potential audience group.
Supportive performances include suitcase support, set and props support, Wenwu stage support, makeup support, club and school teaching support, etc. In the early days, the demand for “suitcase support” from folk group performances was the highest, accounting for more than two-thirds of the supported performances. Supportive performances assist in the interactions with opera troupes and non-governmental organizations in a positive way and the effective utilization of public resources.

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