• Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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• no.48
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• pp.509-547
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• 2012

The Seoul Arts Center is an representing Korean arts-complex consisting of the Opera House, the Concert Hall and the Museums. Since its opening in 1993, it has been established as a mecca of arts and the culture in Korea. Many local public theatres in Korea are benchmarking its operating system and policy. Unlike most European or American theatres, the Seoul Arts Center has no resident art companies. It is not a 'producing theatre' whose programming is mainly based on house productions with resident companies, but a 'presenting theatre' that is to be managed with rental and invitation programs without resident companies. The majority of the Korean public theatres are also presenting theatres. This study aims to research and analyze how the Seoul Arts Center has developed the programming of the Opera House for last 19 years and which challenges and issues it has been dealing with, and finally to propose what will be recommendable remedies for its successful future. The analysis is divided into four development stages: preparation period from 1981 to 1992, establishment period from 1993 to 1999, growth period from 2000 to 2006, and lastly crisis period from 2007 to 2011. Facing the 20th anniversary next year(2013), the Opera House of the Seoul Arts Center is going through recent critical situations: higher competitions among increased theatres, trends of commercial musical productions, and rapid declines in its house programs due to the low budget and unclear programming policy. I propose as a discussion to start a repositioning strategy as a Korea's representing arts-complex, utilizing all sources from inside and outside and having the policy direction.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.161-180
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to define Juan Mayorga's play Hamelin as a Post-Epic Theatre and to study the practical directing technique for Hamelin as a Post-Epic Theatre. Post-Epic Theatre, which appeared after the Post-drama, has the purpose of presenting social issues, communicating interactively between the actors and the audience, and making the audience think about the issues presented by the techniques of immersion and alienation. To this end, after examining the theoretical background of the Post-Epic Theatre, the characteristics of the Post-Epic Theatre of Hamelin were identified and based on these features, '1. Building a visual image based on a Cubistic multifocal concept' and '2. The concept of directing was derived from reinforcing Meta-drama through role-playing'. Next, the actual directing technique was discussed, focusing on the chain action of immersion and alienation that occurs in the form of communication between actors and audiences. '1. Presenting the characteristics of the work through Post-Epic Theatre scenography', '2. Co-existence of actors and characters', '3. Building and utilizing body-centered gestus' are them. As a result, demanding an active attitude from the audience, various experiences such as critical thinking of the audience, strengthening the characteristics of post-epic dramas, and active meaning creation were made possible.

• Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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• no.48
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• pp.51-84
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• 2012

In Korea, historical plays took an epoch-making turn from the previous historical plays in terms of approaches to topic and material and methods of rewriting history in the 1990s. Historical plays became dehistoricized with individual, everyday life, and faction emerging as major codes of historical plays according to mistrust in history and grand narrative as the original and disappearance of trust in the growth and totality of history. A new trend became dominant of presenting fictionality prominent instead of reproduction of history and freely playing with history outside the context. While modern historical plays were subject to the content of history, post-modern historical plays sought after new history writing to tell a new story on history within a framework of fiction. Focusing on some of the trends in post-modern historical plays since the 1990s, which include play with history, daily life-style history writing, and reproduction patterns of colonial modernity, this study examined the goals, representations, and text strategies of new history writing in three historical plays, Generation After Generation(2000) by Park Geunhyung, The Mercenaries(2000) by Park Sujin, and Chosun Detective Hong Yunshik(2007) by Sung Giwoong. In Generation After Generation, the author adopts a plot of starting with the present and tracing back to the past, breaking down the myth of racially homogeneous nation. At the same time, he discloses that the colonial history is not just by the oppressive force of Japan but also by the voluntary cooperation of Korean people. That is, we are also accountable for the colonial history of the nation. The Mercenaries contrasts the independence movement during the colonial period against the modern history developed after Liberation, thus highlighting the still continuing coloniality, namely post-colonial present. The past is presented as the "phantom of history" making its appearance according to the request of the present hoping for salvation. The author politicizes history and grants political wishes to history by summoning the history by personal memories such as fictional diaries and letters with Messiah-like images opposed to the present of collapse and catastrophe. In Chosun Detective Hong Yunshik, the author makes an attempt at the microscopic reproduction of daily life by approaching the 1930s as the modern period when capitalist daily life started to take root. The lists of signs comprising daily life in colonial Gyeongseong are divided between civilization and savagery and between modern and premodern. With the progress of narrative, however, they become mixed together and reversed in the representation system in which the latter overwhelms the former.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.265-299
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• 2021

The purpose of this research paper is to facilitate the understanding of the synesthetic aesthetics in the film The Age of Innocence through the intertextuality among the narrative, paintings, and music in the film. In this paper, a two-dimensional intertextual analysis of the paintings in relation to the narrative is conducted on the paintings owned by Old New York, the paintings owned by Ellen, the portraits of unknown artists on the street outside of Parker House, and Rubens' painting at the Louvre. A three-dimensional intertextual analysis of performances in relation to the narrative is conducted on the stages and the box seats at the New York Academy of Music, in which Charles F. Gounod's Faust is performed, and the Wallack's Theatre, in which Dion Boucicault's The Shaughraun is performed. An intertextual analysis of music in relation to the narrative is also conducted on the diegetic and non-diegetic classical music of the film, including Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 and Mendelssohn's String Quintet No. 2, as well as Elmer Bernstein's non-diegetic music of the film. The constituent event of The Age of Innocence represents the passion trapped in the reflection of love and desire that are not lasting, and the supplementary event embodies the narrow viewpoint and the inversion of values caused by the patriarchal authority of Old New York. The characters in the film live a double life, presenting an unaffected surface and concealing the problems behind it. The characters restrain their emotions at both the climax and the ending. The most powerful aspect of the film is the type and nature of oppressive life, which are more delicately described with the help of paintings and music, as there is a limit to describing them only by acting. In intertextual terms, paintings and music in The Age of Innocence continuously emphasize "feeling of emotions that cannot be expressed in language." With a synesthetic image, as if each part were imprinted on the previous part, the continuity "responds to continuous camera movements and montage effects." In The Age of Innocence, erotic dynamism brings dramatic excitement to the highest level, switching between the satisfaction of revealing desire and the disappointment of hiding desire due to its taboo status. This is possible because paintings and music related to the narrative have made aesthetic achievements that overcome the limitations of two-dimensional planes and limited frames. The significance of this study lies in that, since the identification in The Age of Innocence is based on the establishment of a synesthetic aesthetic through audio-visual representation of the film narrative, it helps us to rediscover the possibility of cinematic aesthetics.