Fanta-Stick: A Korean Performance At NH Art Hall

                       (My Fanta-Stick ticket courtesy of 
                         Korea Tourism Organization)

NH Art Hall is the only performance venue I have been to that's connected to an exit of a subway station. I didn't need to get out of Seodamun Stations' Exit 5 to find it.

There's an entrance right there into the theater before the escalators. And there's even a store selling agricultural products in case you want to get some groceries after watching the show.

Fanta-Stick is promoted as  a live 'gugak' musical. 'Gugak' means Korean traditional music. But the music played at the performance was not only gugak. I'd say more than half of the music played at the performance was recorded contemporary and modern.

During the show, I actually tried to figure out how was the title Fanta-Stick connected to the concept of the whole show. The story was about a man and a woman banished from the heavens for not having been able to take care of a sacred drum and flute, with the latter ending up lost and later found in a car repair shop. 

The family running the shop were humans and knew how to use percussion, while the banished family were ghosts and could play the Korean traditional instruments. I guess the title just borrowed 'fantasy' to describe the fictional story, and 'stick', to describe all the drumming.

The show was a mix of, well, Korean traditional music, dancing (with a lot of head tosses by the female performer with long hair!), slaptick comedy (for the kids), modern sounds and a lot of car parts. There was also a portion for audience participation where, that night, a female audience member was asked to come on stage and had her head beaten by a stick several times. Of course, she was wearing a helmet. And she got a gift for her bravery.

Too bad. A few days back, I watched MISO and couldn't help but compare the two shows, which actually bank on traditional Korean music and instruments. While MISO went all out on the traditional, from costumes to story, to music, Fanta-Stick tried to mix it with modern, making it look and sound ill-conceived and messy.

But perhaps, to an international tourist or to a kid, Fanta-Stick would be a funny novelty. But for it to last long, one needs creativity to make it stick. For now, the bus loads of Chinese tourists watching the show fill in the seats of NH Art Hall. They got a captive audience, so to speak. 

I actually saw excerpts of this show at the Korea In Motion showcase in Myeongdong during the chuseok holidays and I wasn't impressed at all. It was just a group of performers drumming and plucking their instruments with nary a concept but to produce noise. Even the playing of Korean instruments that time sounded discordant. 

But luckily, my ticket that night was courtesy of the Korea Tourism Organization, or I would have regretted buying a ticket, or wasting my time sitting there for 80 minutes wondering how many calories I could have burned if I spent those minutes jogging along the Han River park. Ha-ha-ha!

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to the Korean performance I'll watch next. Perhaps, there'll be more creativity this time.

But if you and your kids still want to watch this show, here's the show's website:

http://www.fanta-stick.co.kr/us/index.html

The 2014 Korea In Motion Showcase At Myeongdong!

To keep the beat going, the 2014 Korea In Motion (KOINMO) festival holds a regular showcase performance in front of the Myeongdong Theater right in the middle of Seoul's shopping centrale.

This showcase performance features shows included in the KOINMO campaign. These performances are usually held twice a day at 1PM and 3PM.

During the holidays, I was able to pass by the Myeongdong area twice. The first time was when I headed to the Bukchon Village to visit a friend, and the second time was when I headed to the City Hall area to watch the MISO performance at Jeongdong Theater.

The two performances featured were the non-verbal show Fanta-Stick, and a musicale called Hwarang.

The crowd watching the KOINMO showcase was a mix of locals and international tourists who were there to shop and spend their day in Myeongdong. Fortunately, the KOINMO organizers followed my suggestion to also invite the crowd to watch the Korean performances in languages other than Korean; a KOINMO staff invited the crowd in Korean, English and Chinese.

So, if you're planning to watch these shows, you can see excerpts of the performances at the KOINMO showcase stage right in the middle of Myeongdong. 

Here's the link to the KOINMO website:

http://www.kperformance.org/Index.asp

Daehangno's Musicale Hwarang 뮤지컬 화랑

                      (The Art Madang Theater Building)

It's the one aspect of Korean culture that needs to be promoted more: the Korean musicale performances and plays in Daehang-no.

While most tourists may not be able to understand the plays as they are in Korean, they may be able to enjoy the music and the dancing of the musicale even if these are in Korean.

                    (Audience lining up to enter the theater)

And while the non-verbal performances in Seoul are already popular with international tourists bussed in to their shows non-stop, I, as a member of the K-Performance Supporters of the Korea Tourism Organization, am helping to promote the musicales, which most international tourists have yet to discover.

The Korean musicale Hwarang has been playing for a few years now. The musicale is a mixture of story of  Shilla Dynasty trainee-soldiers, who are called Hwarang. The five male characters, Ki-Parang, Yu-o, Mun-no, Gwan-rang and Sa-daham, all tell their own story through dialogues, and very K-pop-ish song ang dance routines, which K-pop lovers out there would appreciate. 

Here's the synopsis of the musicale, as provided by the Visit Korea website:

The Hwarang audition announcement is posted in Seorabol, the capital of the Shilla Dynasty, which has a thousand-year history.

The rebel Yu-o who wants to escape from his mother, the audacious and self-centered Ki-Parang, the Hwarang descendant Mun-no, who came down the mountain village with great dreams, the reluctant Gwan-rang, who was forced by his father to apply for Hwarang, and the innocent youth Sa-daham who thought the only purpose of his life is to protect Gwan-rang, all finally become a team after many twists and turns. However, there is no such thing as a peaceful day for this group given their different personalities, backgrounds and talents.

In order to break free from the strict rules and hard training routine, the group decides to make an escape plan. To make things worse, they reach a turning point where they have to decide whether to endure the competition or succumb to the conflicts and misunderstandings arising from the group.

Will they succeed in becoming a real 'Hwarang' and achieve they dream of becoming a superstar in Seorabeol?

(The cast and a lucky audience member.)

As the show has been playing for years now, it has created quite a following, especially among the young girls. But since the musicale is based on history and updated to the current music trend, it's for the whole family. When I watched last weekend, there were a couple of parents with their kids in the audience clapping at each lively song-and-dance number. In keeping with their tradition, the current cast also has very good voices, way much better than the K-pop boy band you'd see on TV.

The musicale holds 'events' every once in a while where lucky audience members are given prizes by the cast. 

  

For directions to the theater, do refer to the photographs and directions on this previous Hwarang blog. Or to their Facebook page.

JUMP!

It’s not the Pointer Sisters’ 1980’s dance song with the same title. It’s actually a martial arts show, where there is a lot of, well, jumping!


Although I never had any interest on watching this show, I was finally dragged by my friend Lena to watch it. This one is not your typical Broadway musical-type show, where actors audition for the role based on their acting abilities and on how they can memorize long lines. The actors’ qualifications for this one include expertise in Taekwondo, Wushu, Kung Fu and gymnastics. The acting comes in second. And since this is a comic performance, no acting is actually required. It’s all about slapstick movements done Kung-Fu style.

The show has four episodes, all told by the actors in martial arts movements, with no verbalization. The only sounds you hear from the stage are mostly laughter, screams, grunts, shouts and of course, sounds from the blows, tumblings and somersaults.

Since the show is not your typical Broadway-type, the stage wasn’t typical, too. The stage has a thick carpet lining as flooring, to cushion the players when they land from all the jumping and leaping on air. And can they leap! They even do tumbling runs which you only see at the gymnastics’ floor exercises. I didn’t see any double-twister ala Nadia Comaneci or a double-back flip ala Svetlana Khorkina. But these actors can do their stunts with precision worthy of a perfect 10 just the same!

Well, in case you want to catch it, I don’t want to spill out the plot, but it’s all about an eccentric family who all happens to be martial arts experts – from the grandpa, to the parents, to the daughter and even to the nerd suitor! They all display their dexterity, flexibility and lots of flat abs!


During the show, a couple of audience members will be plucked out from the crowd and join the trouble onstage. And in case they picked you, don’t be shy. Just get up from your seat and join the actors. It will be fun experience up there!


After the show, the actors are available backstage where they can sign autographs and pose with you.

Or if you want a more interesting souvenir photo, you can post in front of their giant poster outside the theater.

Ciao!