Shelby Becker works with a student at the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts. Becker plays to implement aspects of her studies into the upcoming performance of The King and the Deer. (Contributed by Shelby Becker)
The summer is often a time for theater students to work on internships and gain experience in the field. This summer, junior theater major Shelby Becker had an opportunity to expand her experience not only as an actor, but also as a global citizen.
Traveling to Taiwan in the weeks before school began, Becker met with a director and two professional actors who will be at Miami University to rehearse and perform a short show.
Titled The King and the Deer, the show was written by Howard Blanning, an assistant theatre professor at Miami, blending folk and fairytale stories from Southeast Asia.
According to Blanning, it is about a deer who gives birth to a child that is half human and half nature, and a king who falls in love with that woman after she grows up. The show is appropriate for all ages and will be about half an hour long.
This professional show will be directed by Mingxe, who has worked at Miami before.
"I was hoping he could come over and work with a student... Shelby was willing to travel [to Taiwan], she's dependable," Blanning said. "She gets to work with two professional actors and a really good director."
While in Taiwan, Becker got the chance to work with students from the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, seven of which will be coming to campus to perform this semester as well.
According to Becker, the students at the NTC begin training in the Jingxu opera style and started performing at about age six, perfecting their performance techniques as they go through school.
"I saw some of the work they do there. I had never seen anything so precise, yet not mechanical," Becker said. "I plan to apply a lot of what I learned in Taiwan to The King and the Deer."
The King and the Deer will take place 4 p.m. Sept. 7 in the Art Museum. Other performances are being planned with possibilities for the Ernst Nature Theatre. The visiting artists will also be teaching classes at the Oxford Community Center.
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