Science Theater and Musical
This year is the first Taiwan Science Festival. The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with five major museums and ten scientific institutes, jointly organized a series of Taiwan Science Festival activities across various locations. Among the most anticipated events is this large-scale outdoor science art theater play "Legislator of the Stars - The Life of Kepler", with two days of performances each in the north, central, and south regions. It's absolutely not to be missed.
In addition, the Science Education Center also hosted another science musical "Calculus: The Musical!" performed by the American duo theater group Matheatre, entirely in English with Chinese subtitles on both sides. As long as children can read subtitles, they are suitable for viewing. This musical performance seems to compensate for the English theater that Caves Books didn't organize this year, which can be considered a small blessing during the pandemic!
Pre-performance Press Conference in Kaohsiung
What if you don't understand at the venue? Come listen to the guide!
The 26-minute video below is a viewing guide about the theater play. Through the dialogue between the radio host and Director Sun Wei-hsin, you can gain a preliminary understanding of the entire theater play before watching.
This is a tragic play
Looking at Kepler's life as a whole, it was intertwined with the dark ignorance of the Middle Ages, including religious wars, witch trials, plague disasters, etc. However, he still maintained a progressive heart for seeking scientific truth. When facing the end of his dramatic life, Kepler wrote his own epitaph: "I measured the heights of the heavens, now I measure the depths of the earth. My soul came from heaven, my mortal body lies here (Mensus eram coelos, nunc terrae metior umbras Mens coelestis erat, corporis umbra iacet.)."
Before the play began, the host humorously mentioned that there would be some war scenes in the play, asking parents to pay attention to their children's viewing conditions. But only after watching would you know that the host's warm reminder wasn't limited to children - even adults would be moved by Kepler's tragic cries of grief, combined with background lighting displays and war sound effects, perfectly interpreting the tragedy and making people deeply understand the sorrow of facing tragedies due to war and plague.
Central characters throughout the play: Kepler, Tycho, Copernicus
Kepler: "How could I be so stupid"
Kepler's greatest contribution in life was his "Three Laws of Planetary Motion". He discovered that planetary orbits actually move in "ellipses" rather than the "circular" orbits that previous scientists believed. Kepler not only accurately predicted celestial movements but also overturned the cosmology of the time, even writing "How could I be so stupid" into his scientific works, describing his situation when he struggled to find answers.
Kepler's father became a mercenary during his childhood, leaving home to fight in wars, so his mother had a profound influence on Kepler. There's one particularly memorable monologue where his mother, facing death, said to the weeping Kepler: "If you cry for missing the sun, you won't be able to see the stars either."
Tycho: "Science can make mistakes, but it never lies"
Tycho was Kepler's teacher. If placed in modern times, Tycho could be called the principal investigator of a large-scale scientific research project! With abundant research funding, Tycho built the most advanced observatory of the time, obtained precious Mars data, and invited Kepler to become his "Mars data" research assistant.
At the same time, Tycho was also a proud scientist. When he was young, he lost his nose in a duel. In his later years, Tycho was expelled from Denmark and, lacking scientific funding, had to socialize with the nobility everywhere, hoping to get some funding. He eventually died of a ruptured bladder, which was quite lamentable.
Copernicus: "A student surpassing their teacher is the greatest honor for the teacher"
Kepler regarded Copernicus as his intellectual mentor and was deeply influenced by him. Copernicus appears throughout the play, just like Kepler's state of mind when facing astronomical problems - he didn't want to deny Copernicus's "circular planetary orbits," but circular orbits couldn't reasonably explain Tycho's Mars data, causing great pain. Finally, when Kepler discovered that "ellipses" were the shape of planetary orbits, Copernicus said: "A student surpassing their teacher is the greatest honor for the teacher."
Another interesting point is, did everyone notice that Copernicus wore a white cloth around his neck throughout the entire play? At the end of the play, many other actors also wore white cloth around their necks. This is a small thoughtful detail in the play's arrangement, using white cloth to symbolize that the character has passed away, allowing the audience to distinguish them.
Explaining scientific principles through drama
During the performance, the stage actors and audience interacted, making the audience feel more involved. Because it's a "science" theater play, in addition to portraying the life of scientist Kepler, it naturally includes some scientific knowledge! After Tycho explained the concept of observing planets on stage, he invited the audience below to extend their right thumb in front of their eyes, then use their left hand to cover their left and right eyes respectively, allowing audience members of different ages to understand "parallax."
Scene outline
Scene 1: Lecture on cutting-edge technology
Scene 2: Duel in the Danish court
Scene 3: Fun mathematics competition
Scene 4: Visit to the astronomical castle
Scene 5: The emergence of celestial truth
Scene 6: The joy of discovering ellipses
Scene 7: Religious court trial
Scene 8: The sorrow of family loss
Scene 9: The new Danish king's counterattack
Scene 10: The joy of looking up at heaven
Ticket collection method
Due to the pandemic this year, real-name registration is required. It's important to note that after online registration, you must go to designated locations to collect tickets. Only with physical tickets can you enter. The ticket collection process is: first register online to request tickets, then go to designated locations to collect tickets, and then you can enter to watch. Otherwise, you can only queue for standby spots at the venue.
The physical paper tickets clearly show significant investment, printed on paper containing pearl powder components with a shiny effect that perfectly matches the theme of this theater play. You can see that the organizers put great care into the details.
Watching the show! Entry precautions
When collecting tickets, I received 2 consecutive email notifications from the organizers reminding me of ticket collection times. After entering the website, there were viewing precautions, explaining that the entire play has no intermission, and since it's an outdoor performance, you need to prepare your own warm clothing. If it rains that day, you need to wear raincoats and cannot use umbrellas to avoid blocking others' view.
Waiting before the show begins
After entering at 6 PM, we had to wait until around 6:45 PM for the performance to begin. During this time, the large screens on both sides of the stage continuously played Taiwan Science Festival promotional activities.
Suggest bringing snacks, but take your trash with you!
The entire play starts at 6:45 PM, but many people arrive at the venue around 6 PM. Since it's close to dinner time, watching the play halfway through, you actually get quite hungry. If there's another chance to watch, I highly recommend bringing your own snacks to avoid getting too hungry.
Show gift "Telescope"
In November in Taipei, the sky gets dark quickly. After walking out of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall MRT station that day, I was immediately drenched by light rain. Before reaching the entrance, I could see the large stage setup. Arriving at the entrance around 6 PM, I first went to the service desk to get the program and a small gift. The gift was a simple telescope that perfectly matched the theme of this theater play "astronomical science," and the telescope happened to be an essential prop for watching the theater play. This is another thoughtful detail from the organizers.
Rainy day measures
It was drizzling on the day of the performance, so staff distributed raincoats before entry. Before the performance started, several people holding umbrellas in front of the stage were persuaded by staff to put away their umbrellas and use the raincoats provided by the organizers.
Taipei performance curtain call
When Kepler's life came to an end, we also reached the finale of the entire play. At the end, the choir, dancers, actors, designers, and directors came out in sequence. When it was Director Sun Wei-hsin's turn, he walked to the front of the stage, looked up at the "blue moon*" hanging in the sky, and said: "Thank you for joining us tonight in experiencing Kepler's life. Sweet dreams, and may you all have a brilliant starry sky in your dreams." This officially concluded the science theater play.
*Note: Blue moon refers to the second full moon in a month.
Reluctant departure (Taipei performance)
Before the performance started, there was intermittent light rain, but fortunately it stopped not long after the performance began. Despite this, the entire theater play had dramatic ups and downs, with surprising scenes and moving plots. It's a theater play full of details, and people of all ages can have different insights after watching. When leaving, whether walking in Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall or entering the MRT passage, you could hear the departing audience giving high praise for the entire play. Many people said it was their first time watching, and they were all amazed by today's science theater play, hoping that Taiwan will have more opportunities in the future to allow more people to participate in this scientific feast.
Taipei V.S Taichung "Legislator of the Stars"
This is a theater play full of details. Whether it's the actors' gestures, tone, songs, or dance, everything is professional. When watching the Taipei performance, my attention was focused on the plot development. When watching the Taichung performance again, my attention shifted to the performance details, and that's when I truly discovered the interesting aspects of the theater play.
Interesting point one: Going to the bathroom gets you a small sticker
Unlike the Taipei performance, when watching the Taichung performance, I finally remembered to bring dinner and snacks to enjoy, so I inevitably needed to use the bathroom. Because there were many people on site, crowd control was needed. So whenever you left the stage area, staff would stick a "Legislator of the Stars" sticker on the audience member, which you could take home as a souvenir. Compared to stamping blue hand stamps or sticking common red dot stickers, this was really thoughtful!
Interesting point two: The director's entrance is very different
The Taipei and Taichung performances had quite different stage configurations. The Taipei performance stage was built on the large square of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, with flat seating for the audience, no height differences. Director Sun Wei-hsin's entrance was on a rising platform emerging from underground, which was a great surprise for an audience unfamiliar with theater performances, drawing applause from the entire audience upon entrance.
The Taichung performance was at the Yuanman Theater, with tiered seating, the stage at the bottom. When the director entered, he walked out from the right side of the stage, lacking some surprise. Also, since Director Sun Wei-hsin is the director of the Taichung Science Museum, I don't know if it's because everyone is too familiar with the director's figure, but there was no enthusiastic applause when he entered that day.
Interesting point three: Interaction between actors and audience
Whether it was the Taipei or Taichung performance, my seats were very close to the front, but the experience was different. Friends attending the Taipei performance would give polite applause for each actor's entrance pauses, and there was less discussion from children, possibly because the rainy weather with raincoats and wet chairs dampened everyone's enthusiasm a bit, haha~
When attending the Taichung performance, I was basically surrounded by children. Whenever the little butler appeared, the children around me would discuss excitedly, and even adults would be amused by some of the little butler's segments. This was an experience I didn't have much at the Taipei performance, and because of this, I realized how great the playwright is when writing scripts, needing to insert various different jokes to cater to diverse audience tastes!
First Taiwan Science Festival curtain call (Taichung performance)
The Sunday Taichung performance was the last "Legislator of the Stars" performance in Taiwan. Actress Luo Mei-ling, who played Susanna (Kepler's wife), couldn't help but shed tears when preparing to come out for the curtain call backstage. After all the actors finished their curtain call and the lights dimmed, the director stood quietly on stage alone for a while, then slowly walked down from the front of the stage. I think that emotion was commemorating Kepler's tragic life and also remembering those scientists who suffered tragedies due to scientific progress.
Behind the scenes
When watching the theater play, you only see actors entering and exiting from small black doors on both sides, but how does it actually work? The video below is from the YouTube channel of Chen Yan-ting, who played Fabri, and Ai Wei, which records the backstage preparation process of the "Legislator of the Stars" theater play. Let's take a look!
Cast list
Kepler: Wang Bo-sen
Susanna (Kepler's wife): Luo Mei-ling
Fabri: Chen Yan-ting
Brahe (Fabri's wife): Luo Xiang-ling
Tycho: Du Man-sheng
Copernicus: Xia Zhi-shi
Old Danish King/Religious Court Judge: Ye Zi-yan
Danish Prince/Jury Judge: Dai Li-wu
Little Butler: Peng Zi-xu
Further understanding of the theater play "Legislator of the Stars"
After the theater play ended, I couldn't forget the dialogue, songs, and lighting, so I found related resources and organized them as follows:
Director Sun Wei-hsin introduces the theater play on radio
RTI Central Radio 201020 Good Morning Taiwan - The persistence of truth, the persistence of dreams, please watch "Legislator of the Stars - The Life of Kepler"(RTI Central Radio Featured Program)
Taiwan Science Festival official website theater play performance clips
【Legislator of the Stars - The Life of Kepler】 Sneak peek! (Taiwan Science Festival TSF)
2020 Taiwan Science Festival "Legislator of the Stars" Theater Play(China News 20201106)
Behind the scenes
Ai Wei goes behind the scenes of large-scale theater plays, taking you to see everything!(Ai Wei & Yan Ting)
News media coverage
Science Festival debut! Portraying Kepler's story - "Science + Theater" on the big stage (Sanlih News)