Art center announces innovative set of plays
Namsan Arts Center is upholding its reputation as a producer of innovative and inventive plays with its lineup this year.“Our motto is to provide premieres for young writers and unearth hidden talent,” said Cho Sun-hee, CEO of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture and a representative of the center, at a press conference introducing its schedule on Feb. 25.
This is also the reason why international theaters are not invited to stage their plays at the center, Cho added. Instead, they are asked to collaborate with the company to create new projects or performances with a twist.
The center has prepared three joint programs with a global influence for the year ahead: “Deluge: Water’s Memory,” a mime created with Austrian performers; “A Typhoon’s Tale,” a project by Korean and Japanese producers; and the 22-year-old “BeSeTo Festival 2015,” with artists from Tokyo and Beijing.
“‘Deluge: Water’s Memory’ was originally staged to commemorate a disastrous flood in Australia in 2011,” said Cho during the conference at the center in Jung District, central Seoul. “The plot grabbed my attention and has been revised for the Korean audience in order to remember the Sewol ferry crisis.”
Another much-anticipated play is “A Typhoon’s Tale,” which was written by Seong Gi-woong and is directed by Tada Junnosuke from Japan.
The piece reinterprets Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” from a more modern viewpoint, encompassing the story of reconciliation between Japan and Korea about 100 years ago.
“The performances with foreign theaters are remarkable,” said Ahn Mee-young, the team manager of Namsan Arts Center.
“We have worked with independent theaters to improve the theatrical scene. The plays throughout the year will be a chance for the audience to experience how the Korean theatrical scene and its content have advanced.”
Six plays and three festivals will be held between March 12 and Dec. 6.
The first play is “Free Master Before The Bull’s Owner Catch You Cutting Off The Horns,” a crime thriller that runs from March 12 to 29 at 8 p.m. on weekends and 3 p.m. on weekends.
There are no shows on Mondays. Other performances will be announced in the near future.
Tickets for each play are 30,000 won ($27) for adults. Take subway line No. 3 to Chungmuro Station and leave through exit 5, or line No. 4 to Myeongdong Station and leave through exit 2.
For details, visit www.nsartscenter.or.kr or call (02) 758-2150.
BY KIM JI-MIN [estyle@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)