2024-05-06 23:14:41
‘Struggle for recognition; ‘Artist Edition’ ‘Jellyfish’
2nd play by disabled actors ‘hot topic’
“It’s not a drama made about disabilities.
“It’s just a work featuring a disabled person.”
‘More than 5 years of professional stage experience.’
When I saw the recruitment notice for troupe members, sadness and confusion spread across my face. I search through my entire body and the wheelchair to find ‘career’, but all I can find is dust. ‘I’, repeating, “I couldn’t prove anything through the time I endured alone,” slides down from the wheelchair and rolls around on the ground. She must first find a way to build her “career to build my credentials to become an artist, to prepare me for auditions.”
Doosan Art Center, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 3rd. The play ‘The Struggle for Recognition; This is how the practice of ‘Artist Edition’ began. This work examines the ‘struggle for recognition’ in which an artist constantly tries to prove his existence and will be performed at Doosan Art Center Space 111 starting on the 28th.
As with the premiere in 2019, all six actors who appeared were disabled, including brain lesions, osteogenesis imperfecta, and speech disorders. Ha Ji-seong and Kim Ji-soo, who are on stage this time, play voices that split into several streams within ‘me’. Director Lee Yeon-ju received the Best New Director Award at the 56th Donga Theater Awards in 2019 for this work.
What is different from the premiere is that it highlights the natural movements of the disabled actors’ bodies. Doosan Art Center PD Shin Ga-eun explained, “We changed the stage to be surrounded by audience seats so that the uniqueness of each body could be better seen by the audience.”
In the play ‘Jellyfish’, which will be premiered in Korea from the 22nd to the 28th of next month at the Moderate Arts Theater in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, actress Baek Ji-yoon, who has Down syndrome, will appear on stage and play the role of Kelly, the main character with the same disability. British playwright Ben Weatherill wrote the play, depicting the love and growth of 27-year-old Kelly in a popular romance. It honestly deals with Kelly’s real-life concerns as she falls in love with her non-disabled lover and becomes pregnant. Actors Kim Beom-jin, Kim Bada, and Su-young Jeong appear and work together.
In this way, two works in which disabled actors appear and act as ‘themselves’ meet the audience. The feature is that the role is completed with the movements and vocalizations of the disabled actor, breaking away from the role and acting style created based on non-disabled people. In these works, disabled actors appear as independent and complete characters beyond just narrative material.
Actor Ha Ji-seong of ‘Struggle for Recognition’ said, “Acting is about becoming someone else, but at the same time, it is a task that starts from myself. “I feel more independent because it is a work that talks about ‘me’ through lines that contain my speech impediment,” he said. Actor Kim Ji-su, who appears in the same play, said, “The audience will be able to feel that it is not a drama made by people with disabilities, but just a work starring people with disabilities.”
The practice process was also carried out in a different way. In ‘Jellyfish’, all cast members conducted sensory workshops and spatial awareness training together several times. Director Min Sae-rom said, “The existing practice method does not take into account various personalities and specialties, so the barrier to participation is high,” and added, “We tried to lower the anxiety index in the practice room through training in building relationships with the space.”
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
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2024-05-06 23:14:41