Hairspray in Taiwan

Weekends are tough around here in this paradise. Tennis each morning at 6:00 a.m. with my wonderful Taiwanese fellow tennis players bringing me lychee fruit (a small, bite size morsel grown on a local tree that needs to be peeled and has the consistency of a pear-see picture), oranges, and bananas to make sure I don't fade away to a shadow (fat chance!). Swimming in the ocean each afternoon in 78 degree water. Attending the English service at a demonstrative church Sunday afternoon where they asked me to speak next week (boy, do they not know what they are getting into.) Spending half a day writing and sending my consulting reports back to Maine (what a wondrous world we live in that has the technology that allows me to do this). And celebrating my standoff in my private war (lizard not to be seen and one dead cockroach found!)

But the most fun was walking down the hill Saturday night and attending the University production

of Hairspray. I arrived 15 minutes before curtain call expecting to walk right in to the 2000 plus modern theater with a orchestra pit that has a hydraulic lift. Wrong. The lines of students and locals stretched for a couple of hundred yards in two directions. To say the least, my well laid plans to meet and attend with some of my students went out the window. Now, being a single I did find a seat in the balcony and congratulated myself for getting in.

I must say, having seen Hairspray on Broadway and the Maine State Theater, I was a little apprehensive on how an all Taiwanese cast was going to portray a civil rights issue in the US in the 60's with no black or white actors and while speaking and singing in their second language. And what role would black face acting play in their production, a sensitive issue in the US.

My worries were unfounded. From the overture by excellent musician, I was treated to an energetic and entertaining college student production of an American musical. The dancing was superb and most of the dialogue and lyrics were easily understood except when English words had sounds not typically used in Chinese or when the sound system didn't work in that part of the stage. (Having trouble trying to master some of the unfamiliar sounds in Chinese, I vow to be more patient with those who are trying to master some of the unfamiliar sounds of English.) Taiwanese playing blacks and white subcultures was not problem; the whole musical was a celebration of integration including women playing men and men playing women. Wigs and dark stockings distinguished races. Differences were celebrated on many levels, all sensitively done.

I came away with a greater appreciation of how participating on a dramatic team that works hard for a common goal, just like participating in team sports, can teach invaluable life-long lessons about team work. Dramatic productions will become part of my examples I use in my management classes about how to develop one of the skill sets demanded by modern employers in this global economy.