Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009 - 56

Li designed a circular platform placed within a sloping
circular ramp that rises above the platform upstage and sinks
below downstage, suggesting a skewed ringed planet. He painted the surfaces to resemble the large bricks common to upper
middle-class dwellings in Taiwan circa 1950. Adding a weathering of umber to the warm beige base color, he then layered
on puddles and splashes of vibrant colors to give the pointillist
effect. These became brilliant receptors of colored light. At the
rear of the stage he placed a sky drop. Hanging in front of this
at the opening of the play, as the Stage Manager introduces us
to Tanshui, is a profile flat of its roofs, treetops, and steeples.
(The first Christians came to Tanshui in the 1600s, and the
missionary influence has been strong since the late nineteenth
century.) Moving toward night at the end of Act I, a scrim in
front of the ramp up center takes a projected sketch of the little
town of the past, with its rolling hills, red roofed houses, and
church steeple. The stars come out and the "terrible" moon
described by Emily in Wilder's script emerges, a huge round
textured circle that almost blots out the steeple (figure 8). In
the wedding scene of Act II, a tall red cloth with borders of calligraphy on each side descends up center. It contains a circle,
much the same size as the moon, with the symbols of double
happiness (figure 2). During the flashback scene in this act, in
which Chen Shao-Wei (George) and Ai Mo-Li (Emily) discover
their love, the scrim projection returns, this time more distant.
A small red-orange circle of light over the steeple conveys the
idea of a late afternoon in the past (figure 10). As prescribed
by Wilder, furnishings are simple and versatile: three chairs,
two small tables (one round, one rectangular), two benches,
two high stools used for the rooftop windows of Act I, and a
castered podium that doubles as wedding pulpit and ice cream
counter. All are in warm wood tones with pointillist touches,
and the ice cream counter features a primitively painted blue
and white porcelain scene of a palm tree and clouds.

Chin's costumes effectively express both period and character. The Stage Manager wears black trousers, a black T-shirt
under a black work shirt, and a small cross on a chain at his
neck. In the soda fountain scene, he dons a pointillist spattered
apron, and officiating at the wedding a black robe trimmed with
red brocade. The remaining costumes of the first two acts-
housedresses, cheongsams, trousers, shirts, jackets, uniforms,
underwear-have all been lovingly "pointillized." Even Ai MoLi's western style white wedding gown has circles woven into its
fabric. Particularly poignant and amusing are Mrs. Ai's green
spattered ankle-strap wedgies in Act I, matching the buttons on

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her apron (figure 9), and the loud wide-striped red and gold
jacket sported by Shao-Wei at his wedding (figure 11). In Act III,
with Mo-Li's death, the rich color patterns disappear, returning
only in the memory scene when Mo-Li revisits her twelfth birthday. The funeral guests wear solid black coats, and as in Wilder,
carry black umbrellas. Chin also follows the playwright's suggestion in Mo-Li's costume: she wears all white, as do the other
dead, who are seated in chairs on the up left side of the ramp.
Tsao's lighting ties everything together. Through most of
the play, she paints the stage with rich and romantic swaths
and splashes of color, adding texture with gobos and breakups.
In Act III, during the funeral, pointillism disappears in world
of the dead: the light is bleached and clear, a sharp reminder
of death's agonizing reality. As Mo-Li bids farewell to Tanshui,
Tsao establishes a contrast between the clear, cold blue light of
death and the golden vibrancy of memory. The backdrop and
surround have disappeared. At left we see Mo-Li and the Stage
Manager and their long shadows in a cool low-angled light, at
right the last vestige of memory, Mo-Li's parents warmly silhouetted in a pair of gobos. An avenue of deep amber light opens,
the parents walk into it, and the world of memory disappears.
The Stage Manager takes Mo-Li's hand and they walk down the
ramp, a blue spot following them. The platform is now dark,
but they pass through small golden rectangles on the ramp, revealing bits of its pointillist texture and reminding us poignantly
of the world Mo-Li has relinquished.
Thornton Wilder spent part of his adolescence in Shanghai and Hong Kong, where his father was the American consul.
As an adult, he greatly admired the performances of Mei LanFang, the first artist to bring Chinese opera to the United States,
and he borrowed its minimalism and frank theatricality in his
setting of Our Town. He might be pleased to see the cup of sugar passed back in Godot Theatre's innovative Chinese-language
version of his play.

ainaner ensemble
This semi-professional company, known until recently as Tainan Jen, began in 1987 in the basement of a Catholic Church.
The American priest encouraged young people's interest in the
arts, and when a group of students asked if they might organize
a theatre company, he encouraged them. Among them was Lee
Wei-Mu, now the company's resident designer-technical director. In the early days, members of the group shared production
responsibilities. Since Lee's father ran a steel fabrication company, he knew something about construction techniques, and it
seemed natural that he would work on sets. Today he teaches
theatre technology at Tainan University.
At first, the company's work focused on its members' own
stories, and what they call "theatre localism" remains a part

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009