Dreaming of Immortal art through Inescapably-mortal Sound!

Music Theatre <Jeokro> is a story of two historical figures – daegeum masters Park Jonggi (1880-1947) and Kim Gyeseon (1891-1943), who were both active during the Japanese colonial period. By describing the artistic spirits of these two musicians who are not widely known to the general public despite their profound influence on Korean music, the theatre explores artists’ lives who dreamed of immortality against the mortal temporality confronted by them.

The script by Bae Samsik, one of the representative playwrights of Korea, became reborn with composer Choi Woojeong’s arrangement as well as beautiful and powerful traditional musical elements. <Jeokro> has been praised for showing new possibilities of music theatre within the traditional art scene. The theatre was completed through the outstanding and delicate directing by Jeong Yeongdoo, a contemporary dance choreographer/director who has been crossing various genres including plays, musicals, operas, etc.

In addition, a large number of great younger-generation instrumentalists participate in this performance. Daegeum-player Park Myeonggyu, especially, a descendant of the musical lineage of Park Jonggi (the protagonist of this play), is now following in his grandfather Park Byungchan’s and father Park Hwanyeong’s footsteps.

SYNOPSIS

Gyeongseong (Seoul), early autumn, 1941: Jonggi, who has already passed his 60th birthday, is about to return to his hometown of Jindo due to that his coughing became worse recently. Gyeseon, the only artist in his carpenter-based family and the one who knows the deepness of Jonggi’s musicality, wants Jonggi not to return to the homeland. The two figures start to a scuffle while having farewell-drink together.