Enjoy and learn: shows offer more than fun

Performances in Seoul based on classics target vacationing kids and teens


Musicals and plays can do more than just entertain when they target a special audience like children and teenagers. Here are four educational shows that both parents and kids would enjoy dedicating a day of their summer vacation to.

Musical “Frogs,” which opens this week at Ewha 100th Memorial Hall in Jeong-dong, central Seoul, helps kids become familiar with classical music without realizing it. TOMBANG, a musical production house, smartly mixed 12 Beethoven symphonies, piano sonatas and violin concertos with a reinterpreted version of the Grimm Brother’s well-known fairy tale “The Frog Prince.”

After a successful premier in 2008 at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, the musical has been held in different venues every year since. While the 10-person TOMBANG Chamber Ensemble plays the legendary composer’s masterpieces in the background, the musical unfolds a tale about a spoiled princess who is desperate to find her frog prince, a frog named Subong who is set to save his friend from the princess and a frog named Beethoven who obviously leads the story.

 

At the landslide-hit Seoul Arts Center in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul, the play “Shopping for Shoes” restarted last week. Written by Tim Crouch, a British play writer/actor known for plays for young people, it is one of the few plays productions here aimed at a teenaged audience. After successful shows in Britain, the U.S. and Australia, it arrived in Seoul.

Instead of going on about the hardships of adolescence, “Shopping for Shoes” talk about teenagers’ first love and obsessions with fashion and looks and even politics through 26 pairs of personified shoes.

“Guess How Much I Love You,” currently underway at Wonder Space in Hyehwa-dong, central Seoul, is an English language musical based on a children’s book of the same title by British writer Sam McBratney and illustrator Anita Jeram.

Since its premiere in 2010, the show was held in 27 different cities in the U.K. Starring a father rabbit and a baby rabbit, the musical not only teaches about fatherly love but also English. Annabelle Ambrose, TV personality and English teacher who appeared in KBS 2TV’s show “Misuda” or “Chitchat of Beautiful Ladies,” plays a commentator in the play.

The National Museum of Korea is holding the musical “Children Don Quixote” at its Theater Yong as a sidebar program to its current exhibition “Princely Treasures: European Masterpieces 1600-1800 from the Victoria and Albert Museum.”

It is based on Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes’s novel of the same title, which revolves around the adventures of the foolhardy Spanish knight Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho. Considering the target audience, however, the musical is pepped up with extra eye-catching stage settings and an easy choreography for kids to follow.

“Frogs” will run from Aug. 4-28 at Ewha 100th Memorial Hall in Jeong-dong, central Seoul. Tickets range from 25,000 won to 50,000 won. For more information, call (02) 584-9039~41 or visit www.tombang.com.

“Shopping for Shoes” runs through Aug. 10 at Seoul Arts Center’s Jayu Theater in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul. Tickets range from 20,000 won to 30,000 won. For more information, call (02) 2234-4036 or visit www.kccac.org.

“Guess How Much I Love You” runs through Aug. 21 at Wonder Space in Hyehwa-dong, central Seoul. Admission is 30,000 won. For details, visit www.guessonstage.com.

“Children Don Quixote” runs through Aug. 28 at the National Museum of Korea’s Theater Yong in Yongsan-dong, central Seoul. Tickets range from 30,000 won to 50,000 won. For details, call 1544-5955 or visit www.theateryong.or.kr.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)