Maritime Glow Production d'arts du spectacle by Kaohsiung City Government

Maritime Glow Production d'arts du spectacle by Kaohsiung City Government is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award d'Or in Arts du Spectacle Competition Category.

OrArts du Spectacle· 2023

Maritime Glow Production d'arts du spectacle

by Kaohsiung City Government

Client: Bureau of Cultural Affairs

A' Design Award d'Or Winner in Arts du Spectacle Category

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The Design

About Maritime Glow Production d'arts du spectacle

« Maritime Glow » est une production d'arts du spectacle de grande envergure, en plein air, créée pour un festival des lanternes à Kaohsiung, à Taïwan. La rivière de l'Amour fait office de scène et le ciel ouvert de rideau. La technologie de projection transforme la scène en bateau, et 400 projecteurs déploient 381 mètres d'images visuelles. Opéra local, rock taïwanais, musique hakka, chants autochtones, théâtre musical, arts martiaux traditionnels et danse se conjuguent au sein d'un même spectacle. Plus de 600 artistes issus de onze troupes et deux écoles y participent. Le récit met en scène le passé, le présent et l'avenir de Kaohsiung.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award d'Or

Maritime Glow Production d'arts du spectacle est lauréat de l'A' Design Award d'Or, une reconnaissance immensément prestigieuse décernée à des designs de premier ordre, merveilleux et remarquables. Les lauréats Or sont des créations extrêmement innovantes, visionnaires et d'un éclat glamour éblouissant, qui reflètent le génie, la sagesse et la maîtrise de leurs concepteurs. Maritime Glow Production d'arts du spectacle est censé être une invention très louée, avant-gardiste et monumentale, qui apporte une valeur sans précédent. Ce design lauréat de l'A' Design Award d'Or est un projet spectaculaire et respecté qui sert grandement l'art, la science, le design et la technologie et en repousse les limites. Maritime Glow Production d'arts du spectacle crée de vifs sentiments de désir, éveille la passion, encourage la créativité et nous fascine.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: In this project, local opera, Taiwanese rock, Hakka, Yu opera, indigenous ancient songs, a go-go, Taiwanese opera, musical theatre, traditional kung fu, pop dance, and other content are in place at once. As for the music, the team adopted a musical theatre approach to transform the same melody and integrate it into the performance forms, which played repeatedly to impress the audience. With the sky as the curtain and the world-class Weiwuying Theater as the stage, 'Maritime Glow' broke the boundary of performance. The design team used projection technology to transform the stage into a boat, creating the largest performing arts scale in Taiwan and combining it with Kaohsiung traditional opera.
Dimensions & Packaging: 20 sets of 30,000 lumens and 70,000 sets of 20,000 lumens projection equipment linked with 400 dazzling lights presented 381 meters of visual images, creating the largest scale of performing arts in Taiwan. When the audience was in the venue, the L-shaped gigantic stage surrounding them and the trees behind them also changed their lights as the play progressed, so they were enjoying a fully immersive experience. The spirit of the play, Cihou Lighthouse, was a replica of the original building, and even its lighting frequency was identical. The live streaming was filmed with four camera drones, and the total number of YouTube video views has exceeded one million as of March 2022.
Tags: Maritime Glow, Kaohsiung, Weiwuying, Taiwanese Opera, Lantern Festival.
Production Technology: The 'boat' in the play refers to the carrier of great history, which implies the idea of moving forward at all times. On the other hand, 'love' refers to the temperature of the performance and the expectation for the next generation. In this play, the performance team presented the past, present, and future of Kaohsiung in a detailed and sophisticated way. People across the world have come to trade around the seas of Taiwan for 400 years. The river is still the same, it is time to raise the sails and head for the future, based on Taiwan and moving forward internationally.
Design Challenge: The performance involved 11 groups and 2 schools, with over 600 performers. The most challenging part of such a large performance was the rehearsals. Especially during the epidemic and the Lunar New Year holiday, many projects had to be discussed online, which greatly compressed the rehearsal time. In addition, the final rehearsal time on site was also critical. To ensure the smooth operation of the entire lantern festival, the team of 600 people can only take four times late at night to grasp the rehearsal opportunities.
Research: This project was the first time in Taiwan that involves 11 groups and 2 schools, with over 600 performers in front of and behind the scenes. In the overture performance, each group sings its parts. The first generation of the troupe sings the first line while holding the oar in their hands, and the second generation takes over the oar from their hands when the second line was sung, symbolizing that 'Maritime Glow' was not only about Kaohsiung's past and future but also represents the inheritance of the performers. The design team has always been committed to promoting the culture of Taiwanese opera.
Inspiration: During the 2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival in Kaohsiung event, the seven year incubation of Maritime Glow adopted the landmark of Kaohsiung city, the Love River, which is a river shared in everyone's memory, as the stage for the festival. The design team extended the story to the local culture and history, describing the prosperity, cultural conflicts, and industrial development of the island for a century. In this project, the design team linked the relationship between Kaohsiung and the sea, ships, and people with the imagery of ships and touching performances.
Project Duration: The project started in May 2020 in Taiwan and finished in December 2021 in Taiwan.
Operation Flow: The design team transformed the main lantern of the Taiwan Lantern Festival into a play with virtual projection technology. The story of 'Boat Love' told the story of this land from 400 years ago to nowadays. The events in the story were all related to ships and the sea while the ships and harbors represent Kaohsiung's industry, culture, and history. The design team integrated the spirit and emotion of the island and ships into the story to describe the development of Kaohsiung. The brilliance of the play was not only to describe the history of Kaohsiung but also to make many breakthroughs in the performance format.
Team Members: Shih Che, Dennis Che, Yichun Hsu, Hui Chen, Yi-Chien Chou
Image Credits: Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Kaohsiung City Government