‘Assiteji Festival’ held at the Dream Field Theater following the school festival

2024-07-29 23:53:02

‘Siphonade, the Caterpillar’s Dream’, held on the 27th at the Arko Dream Field Theater in Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, depicts the figure of a child who grows without resting to become an adult, just like a caterpillar that hatches from an egg and grows from a pupa to a butterfly. Courtesy of Assitej Korea.

When the dancer on stage went inside a large egg, the audience erupted in childish laughter. The children exclaimed in their glass-bead-like voices, “Wow, that’s amazing,” and whispered to their mothers, “It disappeared. Where did it go?” This was during the children’s dance play “Siphonade, the Caterpillar’s ​​Dream” held at the Arko Dream Field Theater in Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 27th. This place, which used to be the “Hakjeon” small theater, was filled with children’s laughter for the first time in about five months since the family musical “Gochujang Tteokbokki” was performed in February of this year.

The 32nd Assitej International Summer Festival was held at the former site of the former ‘Hakjeon’, which was operated by the late singer Kim Min-ki and then closed. Assitej International Summer Festival is Korea’s representative children’s and youth performing arts festival hosted by the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (Assitej Korea). Until the 28th, 11 performances from 8 countries were presented at theaters around Daehak-ro, including Arko Dream Field Theater and Daehak-ro Arts Theater, and regional joint performances will continue in Gwangju Metropolitan City, Gyeonggi-do Gwangju, and other places next month.

The second floor office of the old school theater was renovated into an ‘art playground’ for children. Here, children waited for the performance while coloring and reading storybooks with their parents. Courtesy of Assitej Korea.

The deceased has passed away, but his will to “provide quality performances for children” continues in the new space. The second floor “Art Playground,” which was temporarily remodeled from the existing theater company office, was crowded with about 20 audience members before the performance began. Children were absorbed in coloring with colored pencils, and their parents asked, “What animal is this?” or took out storybooks from the bookshelf and read them to them. Choi (36), who visited the theater with her 5-year-old son, said, “It’s nice to have a lounge where I can wait while playing with my child who has difficulty waiting even for 5 minutes,” and “I’ve enjoyed watching small theater performances in Daehangno since I was in my 20s. I’m glad that ‘Hakjeon’ has reopened as a children’s theater.”

As the announcement that the performance was about to begin came on, the children held their parents’ hands and headed to the small theater in the basement. The small theater, which had been renovated and renovated, no longer had a musty smell. The numerous buckets that had been used to support the lights due to previous leaks were all gone. Height-increasing cushions for the younger audience members were also newly installed at the back of the seats. Just before the lights went black, an announcement appropriate for a theater for children and teenagers was heard. “Adult audience members, please look around. Are there any children who have difficulty seeing the stage? Please cooperate so that the children can enjoy the performance.”

The performance of ‘Siphonade, the Caterpillar’s Dream’ that was performed that day is a work that expresses the process of a child becoming an adult through dance, like a caterpillar breaking out of an egg. When the water sprayed into the air by the dancers was reflected by the lights, both children and adults burst into exclamations. In the ‘Audience Talk’ held after the performance, a young audience member raised his hand and asked the cast, “How do you feel when you’re on stage?” Ms. Ahn (38), who watched the performance with her 6-year-old daughter, said, “I found out about the festival while searching for Kim Min-ki last week. I was happy that I could watch a performance that even adults find fun with my child.”

On the 27th, a bouquet of chrysanthemums was neatly placed next to the Kim Kwang-seok song monument in front of the Arko Dream Field Theater in memory of the late Kim Min-ki.

Meanwhile, the deceased, who passed away on the 21st at the age of 73, left behind his wish that the Arko Dream Field Theater, which succeeded the Hakjeon, would become a place for youth and new musicians. The Korea Arts and Culture Committee has continued his wish and has been operating it as a theater exclusively for children and youth since the 17th of this month. On the 29th, the bereaved family said, “Throughout the three-day funeral, we thought, ‘My dad lived a good life,’ and it was a time of both tears and laughter,” expressing their gratitude. They continued, “The deceased wanted his work to remain as a record of the times. That is why he does not want a memorial performance or memorial project using his name.”

Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]

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2024-07-29 23:53:02