When a person who isn’t usually into live theater gets the chance to see a play (eg. if they receive an invitation or know someone on the stage), they usually complain about how hard their seat is. Comparing it to a multiplex cinema or deluxe concert halls, they say how the small size of the theater makes it less comfortable and not as romantic.

Even for me, as someone who writes plays and makes drama as a job, it is a painful thing to watch boring drama for two hours. So, some people say that to make uneconomical live theater profitable we have to use high tech effects and music to make it entertaining, instead of boring. Actually I’m opposed to this idea. I think there is very big difference between watching small-scale plays and seeing blockbusters at a movie theater.

Audiences of small-scale plays don’t just passively watch but also participate in the making of the play. After the show, actors are deeply interested in their audiences’ response. Just as the audience looks to the actors, the actors also look to their viewers in completing the play. Through this interaction between performer and audience, every performance goes differently, and success and failure depends on it.

I think the magnetic power that makes live theater entertaining is a sort of empathy between these people. It is not until they meet the audience that they know whether the show has been successful or not. The reaction of the people seated on their hard chairs, concentrating on the drama, is a splendid process of communication with the actors.

Furthermore, it makes the actors absorbed in the play. Imagine how you would feel if you were an actor working arduously on the stage while your audience were sitting on a cozy sofa relaxedly. It wouldn’t help build any of that empathy between actor and the audience.

This is not only about the etiquette for the play and actors but also the instrument for the communication
In fact many people don’t even laugh or feel moved by things these days that they don’t arouse their interest even when it is something really special or splendorous. But if this is the reason you miss the chance to visit live theater, you are missing out on a lot.

Go Yeon-ok

96 Pusan-ilbo prize-winning entry in the department of drama of a spring literary contest
Hope if is a dream, game of homicide, life alike to drama, first kiss of the mankind
2000 This year best drama (First kiss of the mankind)
2000 This year best 3 selected by the critics(First kiss of the mankind)
저작권자 © The UOS Times(서울시립대영자신문) 무단전재 및 재배포 금지