InterviewWinner of this year's Korea Musical Awards best actress returns as 'Dracula' heroine

Among Korean musical fans, actor Cho Jung-eun has long been known as the "Seonnyeo" onstage — the celestial maiden from Korean folklore — ever since she appeared in the costume in "Pimatgol Yeonga" in 2010. The nickname has since followed her through a string of graceful, emotionally charged heroines, from Emma in "Jekyll & Hyde" to Fantine in "Les Misérables."

Offstage, however, the actor says she is nothing of the sort.

"My everyday personality isn't emotional at all," Cho said during an interview with The Korea Times in central Seoul, Tuesday. "I like things clear, sharp and distinct. I like feedback to be sharp and straightforward too. Meaningless praise actually scares me."

That approach has carried her through a quarter century on stage. Cho, who debuted in 2001 as an ensemble member of the Seoul Performing Arts Company, marks her 25th anniversary this year, months after winning best actress at the 10th Korea Musical Awards for her role in "The Bridges of Madison County."

She is now back as Mina in "Dracula," a role she first played in the show's 2014 Korean premiere and is revisiting for the fourth time in its current run at LG Arts Center Seoul through Oct. 18.

25 years in

Cho said she never expected to stay in the profession this long, and that for years she questioned whether she had enough range, or whether she should keep going at all.

Those doubts faded through "Dracula," she said, which made it clearer to her what kind of actor she is.

"Whatever show I take on becomes my everything," she said. "Work is still the most fun thing for me and the thing that stirs up the most passion, so I'm grateful for these 25 years and want to tell myself I did well."

Playing Francesca in "The Bridges of Madison County," a woman who has built a family on an Iowa farm, was a "steep climb," she said, since she is unmarried and has no children and had to lean heavily on imagination and the director's guidance.

When she was left discouraged, someone she "deeply trusts" told her plainly, "That's your level," and Cho said that remark, rather than any encouragement, was what set her straight.

"Encouragement doesn't help me much," she said. "It didn't make me feel good, exactly, but it left me no room to wallow."

Back to Mina

Cho had considered her previous "Dracula" season her last. That run ended without curtain-call greetings due to COVID-19, and when the show returned for its 10th anniversary in 2023, she was already committed to "Les Misérables."

"I wondered whether doing it a fourth time would actually help the production, or whether audiences would be tired of me," she said. "Since I couldn't be part of the 10th anniversary, I joined as Mina with the personal intention of marking that anniversary in my own way."

The time spent on "The Bridges of Madison County" found its way into this year's Mina, Cho said, describing emotions onstage that have grown more intense than she had felt before.

"The Minas I've played have become bolder," she said. "Mina's emotional range has grown, and it hits me harder."

Based on Bram Stoker's novel with music by Frank Wildhorn, "Dracula" follows a count who has loved one woman for more than 400 years and finds her again in Mina, a young woman engaged to Jonathan Harker. Its Korean production, which premiered in 2014, was staged with its own set design, direction and choreography rather than replicating the Broadway original.

In Cho's reading, Mina does not know she is the reincarnation of Elisabeta, Dracula's wife from centuries earlier, but vaguely senses something until his love story makes it click.

"I think theirs is a fated love," she said. "Her strong rejection of eternal life, and of Dracula, is actually because she loves him so much and the temptation is so intense. These are things reason and logic don't work on."

This season, she shares the stage with four Draculas — actors Kim Jun-su, Jeon Dong-suk, Shin Sung-rok and newcomer Ko Eun-sung.

Cho said she treats each performance as if it were her last, mindful that audiences travel a long way to the theater in southwestern Seoul's Magok-dong.

"Musical tickets are expensive, and a performance can set the mood for someone's whole day, so as a stage actor I feel a strong sense of responsibility ... I know how precious that time spent getting there and back is," she said.

"If it were food, I simply want to serve them a really good meal."