A new theater group in Ulsan is bringing English-language plays to the city, while giving expats and Koreans the chance to channel their creative sides.
“I’ve got some history in theater and coming over here, I wanted to do something, but because of the language barrier that was never going to happen,” explains Patrick Kinsella, a member of the Industrial Theatre Troupe in Ulsan.
“I got here from Ireland in February and I couldn’t find any English language theaters here.”
Out of the lack of English theater options available in Ulsan came the birth of the Industrial Theatre Troupe, an English-language troupe formed this spring. The troupe gives its eight members ― both Koreans and expats ― the chance to meet other English speakers while engaging their passions for acting and writing.
“One of the other cast members, Danielle, who’s also a drama teacher in the U.K., was talking to the manager of the Dongrami theater (in Ulsan), and she wanted to put up an English theater as well,” Kinsella told The Korea Herald.
“So we put an ad in the paper about it, and that’s how it started.”
On July 20, the troupe will debut their first play, “Too Much Light,” at Dongrami Theater. The name and format of the play borrows from “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” which is now in its 22nd year of performance by the Chicago acting troupe The Neo-Futurists.
The Industrial Theatre Troupe chose “Too Much Light” for its length ― it lasts one hour ― and because it encourages audience participation. Guests are given a menu of 30 possible short plays before the show begins. They then pick which plays the cast will perform during the hour-long show. Often, the audience also becomes involved.
“The audience might be embarrassed if they’re shy,” jokes Kinsella, as he describes one of the possible plays in “Too Much Light,” in which two audience members are chosen and introduced to each other, and the cast tries to set them up.
The mini-plays range in depth and content, from silly or satirical to dramatic. Some of the plays are written by the cast, many of whom have done theatrical work before or have a background in the performing or visual arts. As Kinsella puts it, “We’re all creative (in the company) and you just get the itch to do something, especially now that I’m in a foreign country.”
One cast-written play, “Bear Break,” describes the hilarity that ensues when a couple happens upon a bear while camping in the woods. “Paddy Cake,” written by Kinsella, offers the audience a comedic glance into a long-time married couple’s daily life as they bicker back and forth. Other plays by the cast deal with more serious topics, like in “Death is My Lover and He Wants to Move In” by English playwright Sarah Kane.
Although most of the plays are in English, some do mix in Korean, such as in one satire on politicians all over the world, which is performed half in Korean and half in English. Other plays in “Too Much Light” are from the Neo-Futurists’ original scripts, like “Choice in Vegetable,” in which friends order at a restaurant but instead of choosing a meal they begin choosing the lifestyle that they most desire.
At the end of the day, the troupe is meant to bring people with a common interest together, while giving Ulsan a bigger flavor for Western and English theater.
“Some people have come and gone and there are work schedules,” admits Kinsella. “But despite some of the challenges, the theater is an outlet for the members’ passion that keeps them active while living in a foreign country.
“Sometimes I don’t feel like I’m actually here when I walk on the beach,” jokes Kinsella. “You go to a new country and you get lazy or not motivated, and you need a kick in the bum.”
By Sarah Berlow, Intern Reporter
(
sarah.berlow@gmail.com)
