Theater without actor

2013 New Concept Performance Art Series of Hanguk Performing Arts Center 

'Theater without Actor’

Live Experimental Theatre Made by Kyoung-ju Park(www.kyongjupark.com), a New Conceptual Artist, with Multicultural People'Theater without Actor' is an experimental theater selected by Hanguk Performing Arts Center as a special performance in part of interdisciplinary arts of a new concept performance art series, which covers a multicultural discourse through a live talk show. It is a kind of a 'making theater' that total four theatres of 'the Series of Unrespected Death' created by Kyongju Park based on real stories that she had covered while managing Salad TV, a multicultural broadcasting system, and performed by the Theatre Salad(www.salad.or.kr)

There will be several ENG cameras on the stage which looks like the one for broadcasting and that an announcer will lead a talk show. The talk show will be transmitted real time to the broadcasting system in an operating room and edited real time to be broadcasted for 120 minutes through a live channel titled 'Theater without Actor' of Ustream. Also, replies made by web users to the moving picture of Ustream will be shown real time in a screen on the stage. Audiences will have an opportunity to directly participate in discussion.

The Series of Unrespected Death that Kyongju Park, an artist, made with Salad, the first multicultural theater in Korea, is the series of creative performances covering the stories of Korean miners dispatched to Germany whom she had met while studying in the country, migrant workers residing in Korea whom she had met while covering the fire incident occurring in Yeosu Foreigners' Detention Center, a migrant woman who came to Korea through a brokerage of a human trafficking type international marriage and fell to death, and refugees in Korea whom she had met while covering their stories.

Kyongju Park made 'the persons who experienced the incidents' play as 'actors' on the stage on purpose in all performances of the series. Survivors from the fire in Yeosu Foreigners' Detention Center and the director of the counselling center in charge of their counseling, Korean male victims of international marriage, refugees in Korea, marriage migrant women, etc. participated in theatres to deliver 'the truths' of our era that audiences could feel uncomfortable to the audiences in a credible voice.

While the Series of Unrespected Death were performed, diverse episodes were created. Survivors from the fire incident who delivered their stories on the stage shook with anxiety and left the theater when watching the scene that migrant actors and actresses of Salad represented the fire after finishing telling their stories and did not come again. At that time, survivors just stayed uneasily in Korea without a visa. This performance had been played in front of diverse audiences in Offices of Education, Multicultural Centers, etc. One teacher watching the performance threw away a steel-barred window that actors grabbed because the teacher could not ignore actors' shouting "Open the Door" One audience watching a talk show of male victims of international marriage left the theater, saying that the audience was likely to vomit and another audience cried, listening to 'the letters sent to wives who left' that male victims read.

On the other hand, the Series of Unrespected Death have faced a harsh criticism. 'Acting but not acting' done by 'migrant actors and actresses and the persons experiencing incidents who were not good at delivering lines compared to Korean actors has been the most critical problem and a director's capability of completing performances with 'involved persons' not with 'actors and actresses' also was judged.

Kyongju Park defines the Series of Unrespected Death as the theatre without actors and actresses. The most important factor of theater is actor. However, if persons involved in incidents instead of expert actors or actresses who have been perfectly technically trained deliver their stories on the stage, is it called theater? Is 'theater without actors and actresses' possible? What is theater? What is art? Where is the borderline between art and life? Isn't it possible that life becomes closer to art and art becomes closer to life? Kyongju Park now wants to frankly talk with audiences about theatrical experiments and achievement that Salad, the first multicultrual theater in Korea, has done for last four years through ' 'Theater without Actor.'

-Theater without Actor-

'Theater without Actors and Actresses' is lively broadcasted through Ustream. (Broadcasting time: same as the running time)

http://ustre.am/14kgp  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/배우-없는-연극

Date: 8 pm on September 6th, 3 pm and 7 pm on September 7th, and 3 pm on September 8th in 2013

Location: Small hall in Arko Arts Theater, Hanguk Performing Arts Center

Host: Hanguk Performing Arts Center(www.koreapac.kr) , Salad(www.salad.or.kr)

Organizer: Salad, Undergroundartchannel

Writer/Planner/Director: Kyongju Park

Media director: Sungsuk Suk

Choreography: Kaseki Yuko

Music: Wolfgang in der Wiesche, Sato Yukie

Stage art: Jaesung Lee

Promotion: Hyoungju Park

Running time: 120 minutes

Translation: Hayan Jeun

Cast: Dashmaa Purey, Lorna de Matheo, Gyehwa Kim, Gobchangjeungol, Amarsaikhan Tserennadmid, Tsogtbaatar Uranchimeg, Baldez ma Gleiza, Gono Daiske, etc.

Ticketing: 02-3668-0007 www.hanpac.or.kr, Hanguk Performing Arts Center, Interpark, Salad

Sponsor: AGI SOCIETY, Ustream Korea

Contact: www.kyongjupark.com (saladboom@hanmail.net)