2024-04-10 14:18:45
‘A Thousand Blues’, a sold-out play
“I made a reservation for Gwangcleul, but I was disappointed”
Controversy over ticket sales before robot completion
“I had a hard time booking tickets out of curiosity, but I am devastated because the performance was suddenly postponed.”
Recently, the comments section of the National Theater Company’s social network service (SNS) continued to be filled with complaints from the audience. This is because the National Theater Company’s play ‘A Thousand Blues’ was suddenly postponed a day before its opening. This performance was a hot topic as it was the first robot actor to appear on stage in the 74-year history of the National Theater Company. Competition for tickets was fierce, and all tickets for the show were sold out just one day after the ticket sales began.
The reason the theater company decided to postpone the performance was because the power of the robot actor ‘Koli’ on stage was turned off during the last rehearsal. As a result of the investigation, problems with the circuit design were discovered, and it was decided that re-inspection was necessary. Accordingly, the opening day, originally scheduled for the 4th, was postponed to the 16th. ‘Coli’, which has completed a circuit re-examination, is scheduled to go to rehearsals starting on the 10th. It is still unclear whether the performance will proceed according to the rescheduled schedule.
The recent artificial intelligence (AI) craze has brought a new wave of ‘robot performance’ to the performing arts world. A representative example is that in June last year, the National Orchestra of Korea joined hands with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology to introduce Korea’s first robot conductor, ‘Ever6’. At that time, the performance was a box office success with over 1,200 tickets sold out. This time, ‘A Thousand Blues’ also saw a fierce competition for tickets, especially among young audiences. Expectations for a new type of performance are high.
However, if you look at the process of performing ‘A Thousand Blues’, you get the feeling that the preparation was relatively not thorough. Previously, the National Orchestra of Korea spent nearly a year researching and remodeling the Ever6, previously owned by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, to suit the role of a conductor, and put it on stage. However, the National Theater Company only completed production of the robot in the middle of last month after signing a contract with a robot development company in December of last year. Tickets began to be sold at the beginning of last month, so it seems that they decided to put on a ‘robot performance’ without even completing the robot.
What is important is that ‘technology convergence performances’ incorporating robots etc. are likely to increase in the future. Accordingly, the need to prepare production and performance systems in more detail is increasing. Lee Dong-wook, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, said, “There are insufficient guidelines for each situation when a problem occurs with the robot during a performance. “Just a few days of rehearsal is not enough to understand the scene,” he said. Theater critic Eom Hyeon-hee said, “Before full-scale production of a work, we need to develop it step by step for several years, such as conducting a ‘technical lab’ like in the overseas performing arts industry, to prevent the same problem from recurring.”
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
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2024-04-10 14:18:45