It's been a season or two since I dropped by the Sinchon area. I got acquainted with this neighborhood during my early years in Seoul when tennis friends brought me to Sinchon for lunch after playing at the tennis courts of Sogang University, a Jesuit-run university that was visited by Pope Francis last year.
This area around the Sinchon Station of Line 2 is popular to students since this is near some universities like Yonsei, Ewha Womans, Sogang, and Hong-ik. And this weekend, the Seodaemun District has set up a water slide right in the middle of the Yonsei-ro (Yonsei Street), which they closed down to make way for fun and performances.
The idea was to provide respite from this summer heat, and this water slide, which stretched from the first Starbucks across Nike Court until the second Starbucks in the neighborhood, was filled with kids and adults in swimwear, sunblock and inflatables, who all happily found a way to cool down, right in the middle of the street!
And while those having fun on the slide were busy soaking, those on 'dry land' were entertained by selected Korean non-verbal and musical performances, namely, The Painters: Hero, Fanta-Stick, Sa-Choom, and Nanta, which I have all seen before courtesy of my complimentary tickets from the Korea Tourism Organization.
The Painters: Hero
Last year, I recommended to my friend Vanji to bring her kids to watch The Painters: Hero because I was sure Ethan and Patrick would enjoy it. And they did! Today, those watching a segment performance of this show enjoyed as well. Here's a short clip. Today's performance was just a teaser where they featured their 'Michael Jackson' painting. During their regular performances, they have charcoal, painter on water, oil and other media that they use to create these interesting art pieces on stage. With music and digital images as background on stage, the whole experience of watching this type of performance is unique. If you happen to watch this show, try to volunteer up the stage. It should be worth your while.
Fanta-Stick
The musicians and drummers of Fanta-Stick also took turns in drumming up excitement among the crowd. This performance is promoted as a live 'gugak' musical. 'Gugak' means traditional Korean music, but if you watch the performance, you'd also hear recorded contemporary and modern music. It's a story 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 somewhere in Seoul. This show is a mix of traditional music, dancing and slapstick comedy. It was actually fun taking photographs today of Fanta-Stick performers; the showmanship was there, and so was the synchronized movements and energy.
Sa-Choom
I have watched Sa-Choom early this year, and their short performance today was just a segment of their 85-minute dance musical with about 12 dancers. Right in the middle of Sinchon, they wowed the crowd especially with the bboy stunts and a mix of modern jazz, tango, and perhaps a few steps from Dancing 9 and some k-pop girl bands. Sa-Choom's theater is at Jongno, below the VIPS buffet restaurant, where you can always grab dinner before you go down to watch it. The show is mixed with some mime, slapstick comedy sketch and the required audience participation. Today, the performers went down from the stage and tried to engage the crowd on dry land. Luckily, they left the kids alone who were on the pool with their inflatables.
Nanta
And as the last to perform, the cooks of Nanta with all their vegetable-chopping in their kitchen reminded everyone that it was probably time for dinner. Ha-ha-ha! Anyone who's into cooking would be able to relate to Nanta because everything in the kitchen comes to life with all these cooks: the pans, the utensils, the vegetables, seasonings and those very sharp knives! Nanta's venues are actually in Myeongdong and at Chungjeongno Station. If you're staying at Myeongdong, it's the most convenient venue for you; although the performances at Chungjeongno Station usually have Rush Ticket discounts. Nanta is probably the most popular of all the Korean performances with everyone I know wanting to see this show in Seoul.
And as for those standing in line for their turn, I wondered how long it actually took for one to wait until its time to swoosh down the slide with the help of an inflatable, running water, and gravity. But no matter how long the wait was, from the looks on their faces, it was worth the wait and the entrance fee.
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
Early this month, the Korea Tourism Organization launched the 2013 Korea In Motion (KOINMO), a month-long campaign to promote performances that can be enjoyed in Korea.
And fortunately, some lucky participants who joined the KOINMO events got some free tickets to watch these performances. And I won tickets that allowed me to watch two performances.
(My NANTA tickets)
(My two T-Money cards worth KRW10,000 each
from the Korea Tourism Organization)
So, for the past Chuseok holidays, I went around town to watch Nanta, a non-verbal performance, and Hwarang, a Korean musicale.
It was my first time to watch the very popular NANTA, which my friends Ruth and Nicole had enjoyed before. And I didn't know how convenient it was for me to get to their venue near the Chungcheongno Station: I just took the Blue Bus 472 from Hannam-dong, and got off at Exit 2 of that station. And walking for a few meters towards Exit 7, and I was there!
(The Nanta Theater)
The venue was full of Chinese-speaking tourists when I got there, and the seats up front were full of children, who seemed to have enjoyed all the slapstick jokes and mimes during the show.
Although this type of non-verbal performance is not my cup of iced cafe mocha, it's a hit among children and international tourists because it's a novelty: clanging of kitchen utensils all throughout the show, slicing and dicing vegetables and throwing them at the audience, a lot of audience participation and a few light and sound effects. Plus, the plot was pretty simple: a quartet of cooks who had to come up with Korean dishes for a wedding banquet before....'sheeks-oh-klak'. Do watch the show if you want to know what I mean by that. Ha-ha-ha!
(My Hwarang tickets from KOINMO)
And my free tickets to the second show was for Hwarang, a Korean musicale being staged at Art Madang in Daehangno. This musicale was featured during the 2013 KOINMO launching event, where the actors stole the show. It was also featured at the 2012 KOINMO stage and was even given the best performance award.
And on this 2013 open-run, the musicale moved to another venue, which was a bit tricky to find. I will have to write an updated blog due to the change of theater and teams of actors featured in the show. And based on the screams from the audience I heard during the show, I think the musicale still packs them in. Here's a preview: HWARANG MUSICALE.
(Hwarang's Star Team)
(Hwarang's Super Team)
Well, the Chuseok holidays are over, and gone are my tickets. But thanks to KOINMO, I was able to enjoy these two shows. I am looking forward to winning tickets again next year!
