Performing Arts Take to Gwacheon Streets
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Every fall, various festivals are taking place across the nation. But among them, the Gwacheon Hanmadang Festival has an outstanding reputation for presenting unique international and Korean performances on the streets and in open-air theaters.
This year, the festival will present 22 local productions and nine overseas productions at performing areas such as Jungang Park and the open stages of the civic center in Gwacheon on the southern outskirts of Seoul.
The festival aims at developing street art in Korea, promoting cultural exchange between countries and relating to the audiences more interactively by presenting unique and original performances.
``We've tried to bring performing arts from closed and indoor theaters to the streets since 1997 to differentiate our festival from other regional festivals. We're proud of our annual event as an increasing number of theater and dance companies are recently doing street performances, and the quality is getting better,'' Yim Su-taek, artistic director of the festival, said.
The opening performance, ``Returning to Love'' based on a legendary Queen's Tomb of Mt. Gwanak, will be held on Sept. 23-24 in an outdoor theater and will feature large puppets. Traditional Korean music and dance are other essential elements in the performance while more than 100 non-professional actors from the city will participate in the performance as villagers.
For overseas productions, ``Bivouac'' presented by Generik Vapeur (France) will be a highlight performance on Sept. 27-28, featuring blue-faced men and women coming out onto the street. They appear from odd places in the city to transform streets, roadside trees, and benches, searching for a place where they can gather together. In front of them will stand a huge pyramid as a symbol of stabilized order and the blue-faced men and women will march towards the pyramid. They will disappear with the roar of the music just as they did when they appeared.
Other foreign performances include ``The Cherry Orchard'' by Voskresinnia (Ukraine) Sept. 25-27, which was adapted for the outdoor performance and ``Les Horseman'' by Les Goulus (France), which will be staged Sept. 25-26.
``Fallen Angels'' by Born in a Taxi (Australia) will be performed Sept. 24-26 and ``The Boat of Faith'' by Born in a Taxi (Australia) will be staged Sept. 24-25 and 27-28, using images, music, and masks based on the unique characters of Michael Leunig, takes audience on a journey helmed by the character Mr. Curly.
The Clownzilla Troupe (US) will perform ``Clownzilla: A Love Story,'' a comic adventure of two outcast clowns struggling to find true love in a cruel world of red-nosed clowns.
A street theater work, ``1+1,'' is a Korea-Japan co-production by Ko Jae-kyoung, one of the most famous mime artists in Korea and Japanese mime artist Yammamoto Koyo.
Among Korean productions, ``Bird'' by Dance Theater Chang, deals with birds of white feathers donning black clothes, symbolizing the dying seabirds covered in black oil after the oil spill in Taean. The work not only talks about environmental pollution, but also criticizes today's industrial society that forces the weak to make sacrifices.
``A Day Like a Today'' by Homo Ludence Company, a mime theater, deals with the emerging elderly issues in an aging society. While the virtue of respect for the elderly is disappearing, economics and marketability has taking root as the rule of society, pushing the elderly further into a corner. A garbage can in the theater symbolizes the elderly struggling in modern society. By looking at the difficult lives of their living in a dumpster, the performance arouses the audience to realize the importance of senior citizens.
The closing ceremony will be the grand finale of the six-day festival and feature exciting events and performances including ``Daljip burning (burning straw under the moon)'' in which Gwacheon citizens, festival participants and volunteers will get together with a firework show and a drum performance.
Visitors can also enjoy other exciting programs ― tight-rope walking, Gwacheon woodcutter play and circus acts ― for culture and arts at booths and Jayu madang in the main performing area Sept. 24-28.
Not only the performing arts but also installation arts exhibits titled ``One Shining Day's Morning'' and ``The Puppet World'' will be held during the festival.
For more information, visit www.gcfest.or.kr.