The Stage Machine Lab run by Prof. Chin-yuan Yang from TNUA’s Department of Theatrical Design and Technology earlier this year developed a device to let people “fly,” enabling the Ping-Fong Acting Troupe to stage a play of the “modern martial arts” genre for the first-time ever in Taiwan.
The device – a programmable flying track machine – for the play, “The Underworld Code,” was developed in the form of industry-academic collaboration between the lab and the troupe, with help of 13 undergraduate students, Prof. Yang said.
As there was a tight schedule for developing the device, he said the project was incorporated into the syllabus of the “Technical Deign” course for the first semester of School Year 2010, moving the classroom to the real-life stage to let students take advantage of the project to receive first-hand working experiences of theatrical design.
He said he had never seen such crazy ideas from any other directors about letting actors and actresses fly on stage in the ways they have been seen in movies. Transposing the film logic to stage applications posed a big challenge, he said.
He said that when he was offered the project, he was exhilarated and excited, hoping it could improve the standards of Taiwan’s theatrical design and the capabilities of making its own stage machines.
Although the system was custom-designed for “The Underworld Code” to support its fighting scenes where actors had to maneuver in multi-directional stunts, it was funded by the Teaching Excellence program. It means TNUA now owns the unique “flying” system.
The system has passed all safety tests and its amazing effects have been witnessed by theatergoers to “The Underworld Codes” in Taoyuan and Taipei.