How to Navigate the Miniature Stages? A Guide to the 2026 Growing Together Art Festival  

Who are the intended beneficiaries of the curatorial vision behind the Growing Together Art Festival?

If it’s for the children, perhaps phonetic notations or specific vocabulary tailored to the age group are needed. Or, maybe there’s no need for a formal curatorial concept at all. If it’s for the adults, would this merely amount to mere marketing jargon? After all, it is the adults who bring the children to the shows.

Rather than viewing this text as a formal curatorial statement, let’s start by “imagining.” Imagine this festival as an amusement park. Since it’s everyone's first time here, let’s read the “guidebook” before the gates open. Those who can read can share these words in their own voice with the little ones by their sides, and together, you can step into this park.

Park Introduction: Why “Children’s Traditional Theatre”?

“Children’s Traditional Theatre.” Rather than calling it a brand-new genre, we can better describe it as a concept that is currently being redefined. I was born in the late 1980s. For those born before that, childhood memories of traditional theatre mostly came from outdoor performances in temple courtyards or on street corners, or perhaps from bulky CRT television sets broadcasting Beijing opera, Taiwanese opera, or glove puppetry. Looking back, those stories were often “not suitable for children.” If we were captivated, it was usually by the stylized movements, the singing, and the offstage music. These are the elements drawn from life, yet distinct from the everyday.

Times change, and the ways in which children receive information and enjoy entertainment naturally evolve as well. Our methods of parenting and our ideas about childhood have also shifted. While traditional repertoire never specified a suitable age group, the emergence of “Children’s Traditional Theatre" isn’t merely about “content rating.” Instead, it is about using modern sensibilities to find new ways to communicate with children.

The “Children’s Glove Puppetry Script Creation and Promotion Program,” launched by the National Center for Traditional Arts in 2024 is an excellent example. In the past, glove puppetry and puppet shows were often pigeonholed as “children’s theatre” when in fact they were not. The emergence of children's glove puppetry has created a distinction that breaks stereotypes, allowing troupes to target their own specific audiences.

The 2026 festival features the award-winning script from last year, “Tigger's Marvellous Adventure”. After touring around campuses, Zhen Yun Lin Ge Puppet Theater will present a modified “theatrical version” of the show, in which Playwright Cheng Yu-shan uses an adorable mythical beast to tell a story about coming of age, a journey everyone must face. This year will also see the premiere of three new children’s glove puppetry shows: Wu Zhou Sheng Yi Ge Puppet Theatre and Chang Ting-yu’s “The Gentle Giant”; Sheng Ping Puppet Troupe and Li Jun-kuan’s “Every Star Has Its Own Light”; and Lui Im Theater and Huang Tzu-chien’s “Lady Guishan is Fuming!”. These works are closely tied to modern issues, including peer bullying, respecting diversity, parent-child communication, local legends, and indigenous languages. They enable children to learn about glove puppetry while gaining a deeper understanding of the world around them, making stories feel less distant.

Additionally, following its popular debut last year, “Brave Adventures of the Dragon Girl” by Walk Player returns in a remastered production. Continuing to utilize the distinct vocal and movement styles of Taiwanese Opera, the troupe attempts to engage children who are beginning to feel the pressure of schoolwork in a dialogue about how to foster mutual understanding with parents, friends, and teachers.

These works might be for children, but the plots can also help adults resolve lingering questions from their own childhoods or find more topics to discuss with their kids long after leaving the theatre. I also believe that the idea of “children” should not be defined strictly by age. Is there a way for adults who are unfamiliar with traditional theatre to feel that same sense of wonder? This isn’t just a “children's playground” or a “children’s festival”; it is a park designed for audiences of all ages to enter together.

Attraction Overview: Why “Navigate the Miniature Stages”?

Since this festival is a park, it needs a theme! 

For this inaugural edition, I have titled the theme “Navigate the Miniature Stages.” Let’s imagine what traditional theatre is made of, then turn those individual elements into performances, or rather, a set of amusement park rides!

First is Taipei Puppet Theatre’s “The Water Ghosts: Between Realms.” This features a legend from Lujuegou, Chiayi. But these water ghosts aren’t looking to scare anyone; they want to help a man who died an accidental death find closure for his regrets. While the original version used light, shadow, and glove puppetry, this festival version incorporates tech art. Much like a high-tech immersive space in a theme park, this show transports us through underwater realms and beyond the boundary between the living and the dead, offering a fresh perspective on glove puppetry.

Stylized movements are a vital element of traditional theatre. To highlight this, Eye Catching Circus has dispatched their strongest alien race, the “Little Clowny Oddballs,” to invade the Experimental Theatre of the Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center. In “What Now, Mulan?”, they collaborate with traditional theatre performers, using the story of Mulan as inspiration to blend opera movements, juggling, hula hoops, and aerial acrobatics into a brand-new “Battle Mode.” What happens next? You’ll have to experience it for yourself!

How else can you experience the show, if not seated?

Director Sung Hou-kuan, a father of twin daughters, takes on the challenge of writing a traditional opera that children can truly understand. “Story Together” stems from the endless bedtime stories he tells his daughters. Drawing inspiration from the improvisational nature of Taiwanese opera, the actors and the audiences become bards together to tell the next tale. In this magical space, no one stays seated; everyone moves through this singing, magical world of Taiwanese opera.

While “Story Together” turns the theatre into a magical realm, Haomiang Creative Studio has built a museum that transports the audience into another enchanted timeline. “We Are Closing” imagines a near-future where Taiwanese opera has vanished. However, the artifacts belonging to the performers and musicians kept in the museum are not content with silence. Once the closing announcement rings out, they—come to life! A traditional Taiwanese opera is composed of the “front stage” (performers) and the “offstage” (musicians), each fulfilling their role to complete the show. “We Are Closing” introduces us to every unsung hero of the stage, letting us hear and see the stories that belong to them.

Finally, I hope participants of all ages can enjoy every work in this park to the fullest. Explore the different parts of traditional theatre, find what intrigues and interests you, and use those pieces to build your own “miniature stage.” One day, when you walk into a theatre again, you will find that these arts, which have accompanied us as we grew up, are now taking on new forms. At that moment, we will truly navigate the miniature stages together!

Curator