Stan Lai (Lai Sheng-chuan) is the most celebrated Chinese language playwright and director in the world. Asiaweek hails him as “Asia’s Top Theatre Director,” and the BBC calls him “The best Chinese language playwright and director in the world.” Lai’s epic A Dream Like A Dream (2000) has been acclaimed as “possibly the greatest Chinese-language play since time immemorial” and “the most elaborate theater work in Chinese history” (China Daily). In 2010, Lai was chosen by Newsweek China as the Most Influential Man of the Year in the field of Culture. In 2013, Lai co-founded the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in Wuzhen China, for which he serves as Festival Director. He has received Taiwan’s highest award for the arts, the National Arts Award, an unprecedented two times (1988, 2001). In 2007, Lai was elected into the Chinese Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2011 he received Taiwan’s highest civilian award, the Grand Cordon, Order of the Brilliant Star Medal.
Stan Lai (Lai Sheng-chuan) is one of the most celebrated Chinese language playwrights and directors working in the world. He will be in residence at the CalArts School of Theater in the Spring of 2016 for a developmental workshop with students and professionals.
Among the pieces he will be developing during his residency is a piece inspired by The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens’ majestic Liu Fang Yuan, Garden of Flowing Fragrance. One of the largest Chinese-style gardens outside of China, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance features a 1.5-acre lake, a complex of pavilions, a teahouse and tea shop, stone bridges and waterfalls set against a wooded backdrop of mature oaks and pines. Lai envisions the Garden as playing a dominant character in the work being developed. Details to come.