Nai-Cheng Ting's interest in Shanghai was first aroused in Hong Kong last year as she prepared for her portrayal of renowned Shanghai writer Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing, 1922-1995) in "Who's Calling Eileen Chang."

When Ting visited Shanghai this year to direct the comedy "Lovers On a Two-way Street," she learned a good deal more about the city that produced the literary giant she so convincingly portrayed. "Eileen Chang lured me to this vibrant city, but it was the city itself that so impressed me. It is so attractive," says the 44-year-old actress, director and playwright.

The city also won over the play's producer, the Taipei-based Performance Workshop Theater, which recently opened a Shanghai office (a Beijing branch was established earlier this year).

"We didn't come to Shanghai until last year because the city's theater-goers have different tastes from other Chinese main-land cities; they seem more selective," says Lily Chang, chief representative of the theater's office in Beijing.

With the Majestic Theater as its home base, the drama workshop is promoting its productions and seeking more opportunities to collaborate with local dramatists. Earlier this year, "Lovers on a Two-way Street" debuted in Shanghai. The production, directed by Stan Lai with cast from Beijing and Shanghai, sold out its five-night run. Last month, the play was restaged, this time under Ting's direction. "Lovers" is the Taiwan-based theater's second offering on the Shanghai stage - In 2001, the company broke onto the local stage with "Millennium Cross-talk," a play based on a theatrical genre involving witty and whimsical dialogue.

Videotapes of the theater's productions are widely available in Taiwan, according to Chang, and most families have at least one tape in their collections.

"I've always been a devoted fan of theater," says Chang, an engineer by training. Given her love of the theater, however, she jumped at the opportunity to become the company's marketing representative on the Chinese mainland, a vital role requiring the tact of a diplomat and the charisma of a showman.

In Taiwan, the performance workshop has 10,000 individual subscribers. "Unlike pop culture, it takes time to cultivate a theater following," Chang says. "But we have a sophisticated marketing system that's been running successfully for more than 15 years, and a dynamic creative team."

As the author of four plays and with lead roles in several others, Ting is also an important player in the theater. Born in Taiwan, she began the life of an expatriate at the age of 17, studying French in Paris for a year before crossing the pond to New York, where she took courses in political science. But her insatiable appetite for books soon convinced her that another detour was in order, and she enrolled as a comparative literature major at the University of California.

In 1986, she returned to Taiwan and joined the theater company, which was established a year earlier by her brother-in-law Lai, a pioneering force behind Taiwan's contemporary drama scene.

In modest, albeit didactic tones, Ting explains the art of her literary deception. "In this particular instance, I made a conscious decision not to speak for either gender, and to forget I was a woman while writing. That's the rule for finding a universal audience."

Though she freely admits a dislike of science, her plot structure in "Lovers," in which the protagonist juggles two wives, follows a logical pattern. The comedy will be performed in 16 cities across the country, winding up its schedule in February 2003.

(eastday.com October 10, 2002)