Annual Yeowoorak Festival to continue via online platform

The National Theater of Korea announced Tuesday it would continue its annual Yeowoorak Festival online as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

The state-run theater will live stream a total of six performances of the 2020 Yeowoorak Festival via Naver TV and YouTube without live audiences. The festival which kicks off Thursday will run until July 25.

The six performances -- “Master&Master,” “I and My Fellow Traveler,” “Such is Life,” “Four Individuals in Different Dimension,” “Conversation” and “Great Cross” – will provide a chance to enjoy how traditional music can be combined with contemporary Western music.

The first play, “Master&Master,” which is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Thursday, will be performed by Park Geun-young and Cho Young-an, two masters of “pansori,” Korean narrative singing. The two masters will showcase a “passionate battle” by singing pansori and drumming, according to the National Theater of Korea.

“Ak Dan Gwang Chil” -- the Korean shamanic folk pop group that has widely received global plaudits for combining K-pop features and Korean traditional music -- will stage “Such is Life,” playing its new song that talks about freedom. The show will be played at 4 p.m. Sunday.

The finale performance of the festival, “Great Cross,” which is scheduled both on July 24 and 25, will be performed by Korea’s pioneering rapper Tiger JK and Percussionist Yoo Kyung-hwa, who plays cheolhyeongeum, an instrument that combines the features of the Korean geomungo and the guitar. Visual director Cho Poong-yeon will join the performance.

For more information on performances, call the National Theater of Korea at (02) 2280-4114 or visit its website (www.ntok.go.kr).

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)