When Associate Professor of English Dr. Kevin Lindberg walked into BH 207 on Thursday, Feb. 10, he was expecting to discuss sixteenth century drama; however, a group of drama students from the Tzu Chi College of Technology in Taiwan had something else in store for his class.
Having performed their sign language opera, “Love Transcends the Skyline,” on Sunday, Feb. 8 at the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts’ Recital Hall, the Tzu Chi students continued their mission-“to spread the seed of love and kindness”-throughout the following week with several presentations.
“This will be a different kind of drama,” Dr. Lindberg said as he introduced the group.
During their class visits, the Tzu Chi students performed a children’s drama, “The Legend of Happy Forest.” While the characters are loosely based on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the drama explores a different view on good versus evil.
In “The Legend of Happy Forest,” the witch has been contaminating Happy Forest with pollution, giving the animal residents a case of “bad diarrhea.” When she becomes fatally ill as a result, Princess Purity and the dwarves determine to take responsibility for their shared environment by cleaning up her mess. They also decide to help the dying witch, in spite of her nasty behavior, on the principle that every living being deserves compassion. She is given Doc Owl’s Four Miracle Potion-made with content, gratitude, understanding, and tolerance-and wakes up with her inner goodness restored. Then, Prince White Horse comes to whisk Princess Purity away to live happily ever after. Saddened, the dwarves wonder who will love and take care of them. The witch volunteers to fill Princess Purity’s shoes, as her experience has shown her that “only by loving others will others love you.”
The presentation continued with musical selections from “Love Transcends the Skyline,” performed in Taiwanese and sign language.
Because of the incorporation of signing, some audience members wondered if the performers had hearing disabilities.
This was not the case, as the director of the General Education Center for Tzu Chi College of Technology in Taiwan Dr. Eunice Yu-Mei Tsai explained.
“Sign language was introduced to our Tzu Chi volunteers not only as a language of communication with mute and deaf persons, but also as a language of the heart to communicate our thoughts and feelings.”
According to Tsai, the universality of sign language allows their message to transcend cultural and language barriers.
Having earned a Master of Science in Education at TAMIU in 1988, Tsai returned to bring this unique opportunity through a performance project funded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education.
One of the performers, Chun Yi Lia (a.k.a. “Willie”) expressed his gratitude towards the audience.
“Tzu Chi always respects the audience; without them, the performance means nothing,” Lia said.
In regards to his first visit to Laredo, he was impressed by the warmth-referring to both the weather and the people.