▶ Interview
Invited Youth, Trendy Pansori
Do-hui Kim (Department of Philosophy)
Min-yeong Yeo (Department of Sculpture)
Hye-jin Lee (Department of Korean Music)
Creative Korean classical music, modern arts, and philosophy have gathered to create a unique pansori play. How could Animal-jeon, a pansori play created through collaboration between undergraduate students with different majors, knock on the door of the cultural sphere beyond the arts on campus?
We finally speak of shame.
A human sorikkun (vocalist) gathers animals. This singer then further encourages these animals to confess the embarrassing stories they want to desperately hide.
However, these
attending animals, including a tiger, ox, dog, turtle, and peacock, proceed to brag about themselves, instead of offering embarrassing confessions. When the sorikkun
urges the
animals to stop showing off and tell humiliating stories, the animals finally begin to reluctantly share the shame they have been hiding. However, would humans be different
from animals? The pansori play Animal-jeon kicks off with this inquiry.
Animal-jeon is a pansori play with the theme, “Everyone has eccentricity, and they must embrace that eccentricity to move forward.” This play was created based on
the writing
and script of Min-yeong Yeo, a student from the Department of Sculpture, and Hye-jin Lee, a student from the Department of Korean Music, was in charge of the musical elements,
including composition, arrangement, singing, and playing the gayageum. Do-hui Kim, a student from the Department of Philosophy, was responsible for advising on philosophical
theories to promote the unique philosophy of the play.
“I recruited the members gaining acquaintance with Min-yeong, an author who has published a book, when she attended my performance with her friend; the feedback she gave me in
private at the time was heartwarming. As for Do-hui, I met her in a college writing course. I was eager to work with her because she was capable of both presentation and
writing.”
Hyejin Lee told me that although these three students were admitted to the school in 2020, they did not initially know each other. Despite the differences in their majors and
career plans, they embarked on new attempts through a sense of affiliation to the SNU and a common interest in the arts.
The inner thoughts and feelings of youth delivered through the mouths of animals
As an original play, the message that the creator intended to convey was important. Animal-jeon, which carries the ambiguity of assigning animals to the human concept of
“我怩眜蕋
(meaning “we,” “shameful,” “bold,” and “gather,” respectively),” connotes the theme that “We have boldly gathered here despite shame.”
“This sentence holds the significance of this play, as well as a message to inexperienced and young people such as myself that we can finally be confident before the world when
we can love the shameful inner aspects of our personalities, along with those favored ones.”
The original work written by Min-yeong became deeper and more detailed during the collaboration process. The personalities of the five animal characters, played by Hye-jin
wearing five different hats, contained aspects that those of today’s youth might have. Do-hui participated in the adaptation process by proposing ideas to build the unique
philosophy of Animal-jeon, rather than forcibly incorporating existing philosophical theories into the play.
“When I joined this team, the play’s theme of and the characteristics of the animals had been completed making the incorporation of philosophy into a demanding task for a major
student. However, in the process of sharing and coordinating opinions, I gradually realized my role. There was a growing consensus on the ‘philosophy unique to our work.’”
All the characters emerged as previously described: The tiger feels burdened due to the gaze of those who envy his superiority, the ox intends to remain helpful without
hesitating to sacrifice, the dog does not love and covets the strengths of others genuinely accepting his strengths, the turtle emphasizes selfish living to avoid harm, and the
peacock misses his heyday by failing to envision the future.
A collaboratively written initiation story through arts
Animal-jeon, which debuted as a showcase at the Power Plant of the Institute for Culture and Arts, has achieved meaningful success in receiving the President's Award
from SNU
Undergraduate Research Support Program and gaining appointment as a pandrama (pansori + drama) series for the Art Change UP project by the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and
Tourism (contest winner). It has also been performed twice at Gwanak Art Hall having been invited to the arts Week 2023. Amidst several performances, the props and the script
have undergone sweeping modifications. Masks, initially prepared via 3D printer, were removed for a more evocative delivery of facial expressions in the performance at the
Gwanak Art Hall held last September. Moreover, all the staff at this performance were students from the student-directed seminar. Approximately 20 students with different
majors were dedicated to sharing the duties of the performance, art, music, and planning teams. It was a moment when hearts shone to showcase “one perfect performance.”
“The accomplishments of Animals were the results of efforts, rather than the aimed goal. Numerous professional convergence performances were prevalent outside the
campus. We
were determined to put on a perfect performance rather than win awards. After all, I feel highly rewarded that this performance into which I poured a significant part of my
college years has been praised as an artwork.”
Art is independent of an evaluation sheet reflecting a graded scale of beauty and ugliness. Inexperienced attempts of young people occasionally deliver enormous appeal. These
three students dare to move forward by incorporating the arts into their daily lives based on their love and faith in themselves.
Hye-jin Lee (Department of Korean Music)
“As students, we are still learning by testing collaborations in various genres. Not all attempts may be successful.
Nevertheless, the driving force behind the continued
advancement of Animal-jeon must be the gathering of friends who are not afraid of challenges and starting from scratch.”
Min-yeong Yeo (Department of Sculpture)
“Animal-jeon enabled us to become deeply connected with the audience through our breath sounds and emotions
while performing on stage, and this may be one of the differences
between humans and animals—the ability to enjoy and appreciate the art. In fact, I believe that enjoying the beauty of the arts renders people the most human.”
