The co-founders of Taiwan-based Fooderlon Theater, Ya-Yu Tseng and Shan-Ting Hsu, launched their careers in adult theatre. But after marrying and having a daughter, the couple switched their focus to drama education for children. Now, after delivering more than 1,000 events in their home country, they will offer free workshops for kids at the LunarFest GTA celebrations at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham on February 21 and 22.
“Our format is very diverse,” Tseng tells the Toronto Spark over Zoom from Taiwan. “It includes theatre performances as well as courses and various collaborations.”
On the same Zoom call, Hsu notes that they try to help children discover their innate abilities.
“We want them to realize what they’re doing on-stage isn’t so far removed from their own lives,” the theatre artist says. “They, too, can be the next ones to stand on-stage and share their stories.”
Through stories, participants learn that their experiences are recognized as something to be cherished. That, in turn, makes them feel more connected to one another. According to the LunarFest GTA website, the name “Fooderlon” comes from the Chinese words for blessing (fu 福), virtue (de 德), and prosperity (long 隆).
LunarFest workshops offer tools for self-expression
Each workshop participant will create a small horse puppet from recycled cardboard. Fooderlon’s co-founders encourage family members to rely on this puppet to “ride” through personal stories of overcoming challenges. Hsu also creates drawings and hand sculptures for public events.
Tseng oversees organizational aspects of the workshops and performances. She also engages the audience and children with handicrafts and painting.
“Because of our limited time, we use a variety of methods in creating the puppets,” Tseng says. “In this process, besides our instruction, they can also learn through observation.”
The workshops will take place between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on February 21 and 22.
“Through the workshop, we hope to let children discover that every aspect of daily life can be a tool for their expression,” Hsu emphasizes. “The things they create may look different and they will have their own personalities.”
Sculpting the Dragon entails creating a dragon from locally sourced materials. In Racing Into Spring, Fooderlon will set up a live stop-motion animation of running horses. It will include photographs of art created by workshop participants, connecting it with other images made in different cities by people from other cultures.
“These galloping horses become a cross-cultural exchange, bringing diverse voices together into a collaborative artwork and symbolizing Lunar New Year reunion,” the LunarFest GTA website states.
Fooderlon collects stories from across Taiwan
Tseng and Hsu have performed and conducted workshops all over their East Asian island nation. That includes the outlying Penghu and Kinmen archipelagos.
Because Taiwan includes many ethnic groups—including Hoklo, Hakka, and Indigenous peoples—Fooderlon Theater created a theatrical adaptation of the 10 Suns Chinese folk tale. In Hsu’s Han culture, people traditionally believed that there were 10 Suns. But on the emperor’s orders, Hou Yi the Archer shot down nine of them, turning them into three-legged crows.
“But when I went to different regions and cities, their sun myths were different from mine because their ethnic groups were different,” Hsu reveals. “Some of them had two suns; some had three suns.”
This led him to collect children’s stories from every corner of Taiwan. And he realized that his worldview had been quite limited.
“If I want to go into the world or broaden my horizons, I should listen more to other people’s stories,” Hsu says.
At that point, Tseng jumps into the conversation to mention that one of their works is called 13 Suns. It’s deals with descendants of Han Chinese culture but also touches upon other cultures.
“We have 10 Suns but many Indigenous cultures have stories of two suns or suns that were stolen,” Tseng declares. “While researching, we discovered that Canadian Indigenous cultures also have many stories about the sun.
“So we collected these stories from different educational settings and encounters,” she continues. “And we turned them into a children’s play for everyone to see.”
Watch how Fooderlon Theater conducts one of its workshops.
LunarFest event details
LunarFest GTA will present Fooderlon Theater’s free workshops between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on February 21 and 22. For more information and a schedule of events, visit the website.
Lunar Lanterns: Brave the Wind will be in the Varley Art Gallery Courtyard from February 21 to March 20. The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
