I Will Live As An Actor - Chapter 76

I Will Live as an Actor Episode 76

“Why is the stage so clean?”

Actor Ji Dong-yeon’s eyes widened.

“Don’t even talk about it. I heard that England came in the morning and did all the cleaning by himself, mopping and mopping. We were surprised when we came here just now. We already had to clean the stage, so we thought we should call someone else.”

“England did it?”

“I’m glad they just cleaned it up. Now, I can see that even the movement lines on the stage have been marked with markers. In addition, they’ve even taped up the stage sections for easy blocking. When I asked how they did it, they said they just learned it from a book.”

“her.”

Ji Dong-yeon swallows a laugh. This is a theater company rented for a month for the Korean Theater Festival. Since it was closed early, there wasn’t much room for repairs.

In particular, marking the movement route with a marker or dividing the stage is difficult to learn right away unless you have been in the theater for a long time. Is it even possible to learn something by reading a book? Ji Dong-yeon’s gaze is directed towards England on one side of the stage.

‘What on earth is he?’

I can’t forget what I showed at the first rehearsal. Didn’t he show an acting so mature that it’s hard to believe he’s a rookie actor? He clearly had the birth name of someone who learned theater. It’s like I’ve been honing my play for a very long time.

Unable to contain his curiosity, he asked temporary director Lee Chang-hoon from whom England learned theater acting. However, the answer he heard made Ji Dong-yeon’s mouth automatically open.

Self-study.

“England, you’ve had a hard time since morning.”

Director Lee Chang-hoon pats England on the shoulder. It is true that he was also surprised. Who would have thought that England would come out early in the morning to clean and maintain the stage? After all, he is a teen actor who is considered one of the best in broadcasting these days. You might have thought that he would hold his head high while being intoxicated with popularity, but when you look at his actions, there is nothing like this.

“No, it wasn’t that hard.”

England looks embarrassed. In fact, going to the extreme early in the morning is like a habit from my past life.

‘The youngest children were always in charge of cleaning.’

It is the youngest’s responsibility to clean the theater’s stage and audience. Hasn’t Britain been living the youngest life for a long time? Even when juniors came in, they couldn’t last even a few months and left, so I was the youngest member of the troupe for over five years.

“brother.”

At that time, Yeonsu cautiously approaches and calls out to England. Yeon-soo, who brought England to an empty place, sighs and explains more.

“Next time, take me with you.”

“uh?”

“If there’s cleaning to do in the morning, I’ll come with you.”

England thought ‘oops’. Now that I think about it, I guess not only I am the youngest member of the troupe, but also Yeonsu. I had forgotten that she was much younger and that she was my younger sister.

Anyway, she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable about the current situation. In a way, it is similar to how young privates in the military look at the opinions of their seniors. If only one person is exceptionally good, the others are bound to be undervalued.

“Okay, let’s go together next time.”

The corner of Yeonsu’s mouth rises at England’s answer. In fact, the UK probably doesn’t know. Yeon-soo didn’t say that out of curiosity, but the fact that she was looking forward to coming out with England to the troupe early in the morning when no one was there. At that moment, leader Lee Chang-hoon shouts out as if blowing away the two people’s thoughts.

“Let the run-through begin!”

* * *

run through.

This refers to a rehearsal in which the beginning and end of a performance are acted out non-stop. Among these, even if an actor makes a mistake in acting, the director does not stop rehearsals.

Typically, a run-through is performed after taking on a role and rehearsing each stage for more than three months. However, with the Korean Theater Festival just around the corner, the start of the run-through is bound to accelerate.

“How do you feel after watching Director Seong for 15 days as a director and stage manager?”

“It’s better than I imagined. I expected that they would adapt quickly as they were quite famous actors in the original play, but the problems that appeared in the first rehearsal were erased in 15 days. Actor Park’s handling of gaze was a problem, but it improved like a lie, and Actor Son “I, Actor Kim, have also regained my former self. Not to mention the leader and Actor Ji, they are all back to their prime. The driving force behind this is probably Actor Jang.”

“Isn’t it fascinating?”

“What can I say? It’s not only amazing, but I’ve never seen a rookie like that in all my years as a stage director. Thanks to that friend, I can see that the actor next to me is also improving his acting skills.”

Rehearsals have been going on without a break for the past fortnight. They were actors who once dominated the theater scene, but I thought it would take a long time for them to regain their former appearance because they had been in the broadcasting world for a long time. But somehow, as the rehearsals continued, it didn’t take long for them to regain their glory days. At the center of it all is actor Jang Young-guk.

‘I feel like I’m all inspired by that friend, despite my theater career.’

It’s not the acting skills of a new actor. The director must supervise and coordinate everything that happens on stage. When an actor presents an overly exaggerated performance, it must be pointed out, and when it is felt that the use of movement, including blocking, is insufficient, the stage must be set again using stage equipment. What’s more, isn’t this a temporarily rented theater company?

It is a small stage that cannot be compared to a regular theater stage. It would be a mistake to think that putting on a play has become easier just because the stage has become smaller. Rather, it was more difficult to utilize a small stage than a large stage.

In that sense, a new actor named Jang Young-guk utilizes the small stage better than anyone else on stage. The movements and lines that have become ingrained in the body as if they were in the palm of one’s own hand, and the sight of the actor reciting the lines, make the empty stage look like the streets of Gyeongseong.

Act 1, scene 7.

‘Why are you talking like this?’

Actress Park Sang-ah holds onto her trembling heart as she sees England acting in front of her. Although he was a new actor with a significant age difference from me, his acting was as dense as that of most actors.

As proof of that, when I played the role of Misaki, the only daughter of the Governor-General of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, I limped my lines without realizing it. Park Sang-ah catches her breath and expands on her lines.

“Muyeol, aren’t they really beautiful cherry blossoms? The saplings that our people brought while building the Japanese Government-General in Joseon have already grown as big as me. Someday, I hope that Muyeol and I can go to Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto and go see the cherry blossoms together. “It would be great. I think it would be really magical if we held hands and walked down the streets of Kyoto together.”

Baek Mu-yeol answers Misaki’s question with a faint smile. And looking at the cherry blossoms in full bloom on the streets of Gyeongseong, I soothe my troubled heart. Before you know it, the streets are filled with signs written in Japanese, and people dressed in traditional Japanese clothing are also common.

Even more so, the clicking sound of clogs called geta (lower shoes) can be heard, and he wears a sheathed sword at his side as if he is showing off. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disgusted by that sight.

“It would be great to walk the streets of Kyoto with Misaki someday, because it would be so beautiful to have your face in it. I heard that the Superintendent is busy with his duties these days and can’t come by the house often. Is that correct?”

“That’s right, that’s why there are more guards guarding the house than usual. Even today, he secretly climbed over the wall and came to see Muyeol. Instead of Muyeol, can’t you go to Kyoto with me? If I tell my father, he will definitely change Muyeol’s identity to Japanese. .”

“I’ll have to consider that for a moment. Misaki, I can’t go anywhere with you, but I still have work to do in this country.”

“Hmph. Do you hate Japan? Or do you hate being with me?”

At that moment, Misaki, who was walking together, hesitates for a moment. Embarrassment seeps into the face of Park Sang-ah, who was playing the role of Misaki. This is not smoke. I had actually lost my footing. At that moment, Baek Mu-yeol wraps one hand around Misaki’s waist and faces him.

“How could I let such a foolish woman go alone?”

Park Sang-ah’s face, whose back is curved like a bow, turns red like a blush. England, who plays the role of Baek Mu-yeol, corrects Park Sang-ah’s posture as if nothing had happened. Jeong Yong-dae, who was watching the scene from the audience, expressed admiration. Even in unexpected situations, he is so quick to respond. As an audience member, I couldn’t help but be more curious about the next scene than my role as a playwright.

It was then.

“Let’s stop for a moment!”

Stage manager Seong Ji-hoon raises his hand and stops the run-through. The sudden stoppage caused questioning looks from the actors on stage. However, his gaze is directed towards the lights hanging from the stage ceiling.

* * *

“This is the problem.”

Stage manager Seong Ji-hoon scratches his head and looks at the flickering lights. Various lights are used on the theater stage.

In particular, during rehearsals, changes in act and scene are often expressed through lighting and music. It would be nice to actually construct a stage set and perform a run-through as is, but this is due to the limitations of poor production costs.

After all, actors and staff working at theaters in Daehakro do not receive even the minimum wage. Therefore, it is not uncommon for actors who majored in theater acting to do children’s plays or leave to make a living. The stage composition is also the same. In reality, rather than outsourcing minor tasks, the actors and staff often did them themselves.

‘What should I do with this?’

Seong Ji-hoon is looking at the flickering lights and thinking hard. As a stage director, this is something he has to fix, but unfortunately, Seong Ji-hoon does not have deep expertise in lighting. In particular, the wire assembly itself is old and tangled like a spider’s web, so it may be difficult for non-experts.

“I feel sorry, Director Seong.”

Playwright Jeong Yong-dae wipes his dry lips. He had no idea that the condition of the theater company he had rented would be in such poor condition. Since we only rented for one month, we failed to consider many things.

That’s because the actors appearing in his work ‘Spring of Joseon’ alone spent more than two-thirds of the production cost. It is not enough to create an outstanding practice stage. Manager Lee Chang-hoon, who could not see what was happening, approaches and speaks.

“Don’t do that, I’ll contact the lighting engineer today. If we touch it clumsily, it could break down further. If you were in Daehakro in the past, fixing something like this wouldn’t be a problem.” All the actors sighed

as they looked at the flickering lights. It was time.

“Everyone, please step aside for a moment.”

England gestures towards the gathered people and sets up a ladder in place. While everyone is dumbfounded by the youngest members’ sudden actions, England, carrying gloves and tools that he doesn’t know where he got them from, strides up the ladder. Of course, Yeonsu is holding a tool box next to him.

‘It’s a good thing I brought it.’

England packed a tool box in advance just in case. This is because, while rehearsing at the theater company for the past 15 days, I realized that there was a lot of room for improvement. England narrowed his eyes as he looked at the lights attached to the stage ceiling.

‘The border light is also problematic and the grounding part of the Baby Spot is broken. ‘I don’t know who designed the battens (pipes), but they were done very sloppily.’

“Director Seong, please leave the toad house for a moment. Yeonsu, please give me the small flashlight in the tool box.”

The flickering lights on the stage turn off, and Yeon-soo, who was standing holding a tool box like an assistant, is given a small flashlight by Yeon-soo. England, who has climbed to the top of the ladder, holds a small flashlight in his mouth and deftly feels the wires that are tangled like a spider’s web. The appearance resembles that of a lighting engineer.

‘I almost became a stage crew member.’

In the case of small theater companies that were always struggling with production costs, they often had to do stage production and even lighting installation themselves. As a joke, theater actors sometimes say that they cannot tell whether they are working hard or on stage.

England, who was the youngest at the time, often assisted the lighting engineer because he was dexterous. The chemistry was so good that the lighting engineer encouraged England to quit being a stage actor and work for him. How much time has passed? England, who was at the end of the ladder, shouts down.

“Please turn on the light.”

At England’s shout, stage director Seong Ji-hoon raised the toad nest again, and the lights, including the border lights, which had flickered, began to shine again as if they had never been like that before. When England comes down from the ladder, his assistant Yeonsu receives the tools. The others looked dumbfounded at the sight of the youngest children. At that time, England spoke to the people looking at him.

“Now everyone, let’s do the run-through again.”