Las necesidades comunicativas: elemento vital a tener en cuenta para la labor de

The traditional form of Korean theatre art was folk theatre, which was

performed and mostly enjoyed by the lower classes. Folk theatre was performed

outdoors.

According to the Korean drama critic and historian Yu Min-yeong, it was in the

late nineteenth century, following exchanges with the Western world, that Korean

people first showed an awareness of indoor theatres (2001: 22). The records on

Western theatre and Western-style indoor stages began to appear at that time: Yu

Gil-jun (1856-1914), a Korean politician and reformist of the late Joseon Dynasty,

introduced the Western dramatic forms of comedy and tragedy, the Western theatre

system and mise-en-scène in his book titledSeoyugyeonmun(Travel Sketches of

Western Countries) that was published in 1895, and Min Yeong-hwan (1861-1905),6

a minister of Korea’s late Joseon Dynasty, explained about the scale of the Western-

style indoor theatre in the diary he wrote while travelling through Russia in 1896 (Yi

D. 1981: 3-4).

6 _{He visited Russia in 1896 to attend the coronation of Russian czar Nicolas II. In 1905, when the}

Japan-Korea Protectorate Treaty was made, he presented a memorandum to the king, saying that the treaty should be annulled. He committed suicide when his aim was not attained.

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The demand for a new type of theatre began to rise around this time. With a

move towards modernisation as the result of contact with Western countries and

Japan, Korean people felt the need for a new type of theatre that could reflect their

period. Especially, this need was felt among the majority of Korean intelligentsia and

urban audiences (Cho O. 1988: 9). With this demand, elements of modern theatre

began to be seen. The most prominent phenomenon was the emergence of indoor

stages in the late nineteenth century. Although it was in 1902 that Hyeomnyulsa, the

first Western-style theatre house established by the government, was opened, there

were indoor theatres established by civilians before then. One of the articles of the

Hwangseong Sinmundaily news published in 1899 says that low fellows established

Mudong theatre at Ahyeon and other theatres in other places and people swarmed

about to see them (Hwangseong Sinmun3rdApril 1899). Another article of the same

newspaper indicates that there was another theatre at Yongsan before 1902

(Hwangseong Sinmun6thMarch 1900). It is not known what the theatres at Ahyeon

and Yongsan were like. Hyeomnyulsa was the first national indoor theatre: it opened

in 1902 to celebrate the 40-year reign of King Gojong (Yu M. 1998: 23; Baek H.

1997:30). According to Yi Sang-u, it was established as part of building a modern

nation-state (2004: 42-48). It could accommodate 500 theatre-goers. The

Hyeomnyulsa was forced to close after Yi Pil-hwa’s memorandum to King Gojong to the effect that the theatre corrupted public morals (ibid.: 28-30). Regarding the

reasons of its closure, there are two opposite views: the involvement of Korean

nationalists and that of Japanese colonisers. Yi Sang-u (2004) argues that Korean

nationalist newspapers such asDaehan Maeil SinboandHwangseong Sinmun

attacked the Hyeomnyulsa because of the involvement of Japanese people and pro-

Japanese Koreans in its establishment and this led to its closure. By contrast,

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power and degenerated into a kind of lady-in-waiting to Japan after the Japan-Korea

Protectorate Treaty in 1905, the closure does not seem to have been decided by the

Korean ruling classes alone (1975: 171-73). This opinion suggests the interference of

Japanese colonisers in Korean theatre.

In 1907, a number of other theatres, including Gwangmudae, Yeonheungsa and

Danseongsa, opened. Yi Sang-pil, Gwak Han-seung, and Gwak Han-yeong, who

worked for the Hansung Electronic Company, co-financed by Korea and the U.S.,

opened a play theatre, later called the Gwangmudae, in order to reform traditional

Korean theatre (Yu M. 1998: 66-70). Traditional Korean theatre had been produced

in this theatre before the colonisation of Korea. After colonisation, the theatre was

used for the performance of Japanesesinpaby theatre companies such as the

Hyeoksindan and the Chwiseongjwa.7 The Yeonheungsa was used for the

performance of traditional Korean theatre, but subsequently became a site of the

reproduction of Japanesesinpatheatre until 1915, when it was closed. The

Danseongsa was used for the performance of traditional Korean theatre and later

remodelled as the first permanent Korean cinema (ibid.: 157).8

In July 1908, the Wongaksa theatre was opened by Yi In-jik: it was

Hyeomnyulsa re-opened. Yi In-jik staged his own playEunsegye(A Silver World),

which was based on the enlightenment novel by him. This play was not a type of

Western-style drama, but achanggeuk, a new genre of Korean opera that had

evolved frompansori(Seo Y. 1975: 175-77; Baek H. 1997: 19). Traditional Korean

theatre andchanggeukwere performed at the Wongaksa until it was closed in 1909.

7

During the 1920s, Gwangmudae was opened to thesingeuk(new drama) theatre companies, such as the Towolhoe (Yu M. 1998: 105). In 1928, the right to run the theatre was taken over by Japan.

8 _{The nationalistic filmArirang(1926), directed by and starring Na Un-gyu, the best known Korean}

actor and director of the 1920s, was shown in the Danseongsa. Later the film was banned by the Japanese colonial government because of its nationalistic inclination.

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The distinctive feature of these theatre houses is that they were opened, not by

theatre practitioners, but by government officials or businessmen (Yu M. 1998: 12).

It seems that this was because, until then, most theatre practitioners were involved in

traditional Korean theatre, and had no understanding of modern theatre - and had no

capital to open a theatre – so they felt no need for Western-style theatre houses. The

involvement of government officials or businessmen also revealed the fact that

modern theatre was the preserve of the upper classes while traditional Korean theatre

was the preserve of the lower classes. This may explain the improved status of the

theatre in Korea.

The performance repertoire staged in these theatre houses during this period

includedpansori,such asChunhyangjeon(Tale of Chunghyang) andHeungbujeon

(Tale of Heungbu), and a variety of Korean traditional dances. The emergence of

indoor theatre houses brought about a change in theatre conventions and partly led to

a decline in some forms of traditional Korean theatre that were unsuitable for indoor

conventions, although the most important factor to affect the decline was the colonial

policies.Pansori, witticism and dance flourished, but mask-dance drama and puppet

theatre declined (Yu M. 2001: 12). For example, the mask-dance of Hahoe village,

the central part of an annual festival, was no longer performed after 1928. Since then,

the festival itself has stopped being held (Cho O. 1988: 9).

Another feature of Korean theatre during this period was the advent of

changgeuk, a type of opera that was performed inpansori–style singing.Changgeuk

began to develop when the musical storytelling tradition ofpansoriwas brought into

the new public theatres in the early 1900s (Killick 2003: 44).

Three elements ofpansoriwere transformed to suit the Western-style modern

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many singers,aniri(stylised speech) was replaced by dramatic dialogue and

neoreumsae(gestures) was replaced by dramatic acting (Seo Y. 1975: 25).

As Killick also pointed out, although the historical origins of this

transformation frompansoriintochanggeukremain a subject of debate and cannot

be definitively answered, most Korean scholars, except a handful, have believed the

influence to be the Chinese operas, depending on Korean veteranpansorisinger Yi

Dongbaek’s recollection (Killick 2003: 46-47 and 2010: 28-72): Pak Hwang (1976)

and Yu Min-yeong (2000) emphasise the influence of the Chinese operas, and Choe

Ung, Yu Taesu and Yi Taebeom also mention the influence of the Chinese operas

together withsinpaandkabuki(Choe U. et al. 2004: 178-181). Pointing out that the

documentary record is too thin to admit any final and authoritative account of

Chinese influence on the formation ofchanggeuk, and the primary sources support

Japanese and American influences rather than Chinese, Killick argues that the most

widely believed story of the Chinese influence is fabrication (2003: 47 and 2010: 67-

72). Killick continutes to say that this fabrication was made in response to the

postcolonial predicament: “the newly liberated nation needed to assert its right to

political independence through symbols that would express its cultural independence

from its former colonists” (2003: 48 and 2010: 70). Killick explains the origin of

changgeukby polygenesis rather than direct influence of Chinese opera. He sees

changgeukas an example of “hybrid-popular theatre”, which was suggested by

Hanne de Bruin as a name for the novel forms of drama that arose in various parts of

South and South-east Asia as a result of “direct and indirect contacts between

indigenous expressive genres and Western, melodramatic performance conventions

and proscenium stage techniques, which were ‘imported’ into Asia during colonial

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elements of local narrative and dramatic traditions are brought together with

conventions deriving from Western theatre:

Performances are given in an enclosed space open to all those, and only

those, who will pay the price of admission; the subject matter is more

human; and the presentation is more realistic. (Killick 2003: 51)

Killick sees that hybrid-popular theatre forms were developed when the social

and political conditions were propitious, which conditions were generally brought

about by colonisation, andchanggeukwas developed in the similar conditions (ibid.:

52-53). Given that Korea had contacts with other worlds, not just China, before the

advent ofchanggeuk, his opinion seems to be persuasive.

As the background of the appearance ofchanggeuk, drama historian Seo Yeon-

ho argues: firstly, it emerged to meet the demands of intellectuals who wanted to

improve Korean theatre by developing it in the image of Western modern theatre;

secondly, it was a move to avoid the suppression of traditional Korean theatre by the

ruling classes; as mentioned above, the suppression of traditional theatre by the

ruling classes was partly related to the Japanese interference. Thirdly, it represented

an effort by Japan and pro-Japanese theatre practitioners to make traditional Korean

theatre take on a more Japanese style (Seo Y. 1975: 179). This background seems to

be related to the position ofchanggeukin Korean theatre history:changgeukhad

been disparaged as “a corrupt form ofpansori”, “a variant of commercialised

pansori”, “a deformed drama which depended on Western drama”, “an art grafted

onto heterogeneous culture without independent thinking” (Choe U. et al. 2004: 175).

Together with its short history and unstable performance conventions (Killick 2010:

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for recognition as “traditional Korean opera” after nearly a century while Hobsbawm

and Ranger’s “invented traditions” are generally accepted as “traditional” within a

few years (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983: 1).

Like traditional Korean theatres,changgeukexperienced rise and fall on the

Korean stage during the colonial period in Korea. During the mid-1910’s when the

coloniser’s suppression was loosened,changgeukenjoyed popularity among the

Korean audience so much as to compete withsinpa(Baek H. 1997: 92-96; Yu M.

2000: 106-10), but after that, it was squeezed out of the Korean stage bysinpaand

modern Korean drama from mid-1910 to 1920s (Choe U. et al. 2004: 182-83), and

then it was revived again during the 1930s. Joseon Seongak Yeonguhoe (Korean

Vocal Music Association) was founded in 1934 and the Dongyang Theatre opened in

1935; both events contributed to the revival ofchanggeuk(Yu M. 2002; Killick

2003: 55; Choe U. 2004: 183). It was during the 1930s that the genre name

changgeukcame to be used for the first time; it was calledsinyeongeuk, new drama,

before the advent ofsinpadramas during the 1900s and thenguyeongeuk,old drama,

orgupageuk, old school drama, after the advent ofsinpaduring the 1910s. The

Joseon Seongak Yeonguhoe created a new form ofchanggeukwith most of the

features we would recognise in the genre today (Killick 2003: 56; Baek H. 1997: 25).

There were also changes in the audience. Traditionally, theatre audiences had

mostly been from the lower classes. During the first decade of the twentieth century,

however, the upper classes, such as high government officials and their children,

joined the audience, although the middle classes and intellectuals still kept away

from the theatre. The emergence of a new audience also meant a demand for new

plays to fill the programme.

However, professional directors and actresses did not appear during this period.

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had been female entertainergisaengbefore this.9 Gisaengperformances sometimes

included dramatised scenes. Professional directors did not appear on the dramatic

scene until after 1919 (Yu M. 2001: 11).

As seen above, with the demand for a new type of theatre, the Korean theatre

world began to be prepared for modern theatre by opening indoor theatre houses

although they were still performing traditional types of theatre. However, before

modern theatre had evolved, Korea was colonised and the evolvement of modern

Korean theatre was influenced by colonial policies. The next section will deal with

how colonial polices changed the field of Korean theatre.

1.2. Korean Theatre as a Site of [Re-]production of the Colonisers’ Sinpa

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