Camaraderie of Houtong Community

On August 25th the New Taipei Houtong community theater will hold its fourth lantern walk. Organizer Tsai Shu-Hui hopes that travelers coming to Houtong – known locally as ‘Cat Town’- won’t only see cats but also take the time to visit the village pavilion where they can take a look at Houlong’s long mining history. Even Nearer Playback Theatre teacher Chen Shu-Hui said this year’s community theater began mobilizing resident participation in March, and set a preliminary draft in June. She added that nearly half a year was spent attracting the children and youth of Houtong community, and that many of the participating youths in the event, have moved out of Houtong community, but returned back simply to join the event; this has added a great deal of excitement for all concerned.

Chen Shu-Hui believes community theatre performances give participating children the opportunity to express their dreams and ponder over their futures. She also believes that participation in this community theater performance will build a strong community spirit, not only bringing awareness to the problems tourism has brought to Houtong community, but also help find solutions to these problems. In the eyes of Chen Shu-Hui, community improvement is the fruit and contribution that theater can bring to the community.

The theme of this year’s community theater performance will continue on from last year’s miners story, with the addition of many old miners and senior citizens from the community. A combination of rich storyline, body movement and miner’s sharing memories from days gone by, bring the bitter life of these old miner’s to life, giving the audience a moving portrayal of the hard times these miners struggled through.

PeoPo 公民新聞

Camaraderie of Houtong Community (by CJ focus123)
URL: http://www.peopo.org/news/100450

(以下為中文對照)

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猴硐社區精采展現社區凝聚力 ( 蘿蔔頭 )

新北市猴硐社區劇場於8月25日舉辦第四屆關燈夜遊，主辦單位蔡淑惠希望旅客來猴硐除了來貓村看看貓之外，也可以到願景館看看猴硐的礦工故事。一一擬爾劇團老師陳淑惠表示此次社區劇場，在今年的三月開始動員居民參與，並在六月訂定初步草案，將近半年的時間，吸引了不少猴硐的小孩與年青人加入，在此次活動也發現許多居住在外地的猴硐青年，也加入了社區劇場的展演，讓她非常興奮。陳淑惠認為，參與社區劇場的小孩，在劇場中能有機會向大家描述自己的夢想，並思考未來的目標方向，也讓參與劇場的成人們，開始思考猴硐目前因觀光所帶來的問題，並一同尋求解決之道，共同描繪出猴硐人的未來，這是社區劇場對社區改造很重要的一個貢獻。

社區劇場的內容，主要是延續去年的礦工故事主題，今年有不少礦工耆老參與演出，並向台下觀眾以豐富的肢體動作與劇情，結合昔日的記憶，將礦工辛苦的工作情境與故事情節表演出來，讓大眾能了解礦工歲月的辛酸，呈現種種感人的點滴故事。

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