Korean Drama
Korean Drama, encompassing both traditional and modern forms, is a rich aspect of the cultural heritage of Korea, reflecting its historical evolution and societal changes. Traditional Korean theater includes diverse performances such as mask-dance dramas and puppet plays, which have roots in ancient religious rites and folk celebrations. These performances served various purposes, from exorcising evil spirits to entertaining the public, and were enjoyed by all social classes until the early twentieth century. With the advent of Japanese colonial rule, many traditional forms were suppressed, leading to a decline in folk drama. However, modern Korean drama emerged in the early 20th century, influenced by Western styles, addressing contemporary social issues, and evolving into a vibrant commercial theater.
The modern genres, such as shinp’a in South Korea and shingŭk in North Korea, reflect the political and cultural landscapes of their respective societies. Today, there is a resurgence of interest in traditional forms alongside contemporary adaptations, as artists integrate modern storytelling techniques with historical elements. This blending of past and present highlights the ongoing relevance of Korean drama in representing the nation's identity and cultural narratives.
Korean Drama
Introduction
Traditional Korean theater, which encompasses different forms of mask-dance drama and puppet drama, and modern Korean theater, which consists of imitated Western melodrama and drama influenced by Western realism and naturalism, are increasingly embraced as part of the cultural and national heritage of North and South Korea. During the successive rule of three dynasties—Silla, Koguryŏ, and Choson (57 Before the Common Era-1910 Common Era)—various forms of dance and mask-dance play were performed under the court’s auspices and encouragement, except puppet drama, because its status was that of belonging to society’s common class. Modern drama developed at the beginning of the twentieth century with many Western influences in theatrical themes and literary concepts.
Folk Theater
The history of traditional Korean theater dates back more than two thousand years, but its exact origin is unknown. Historians and scholars have theorized that its origin may be traced back to ancient religious rites, folk observances, shamanistic rituals, court performances, and general amusement both for the elite at court and for the commoners. Korean mask-dance drama is usually grouped into two types of drama: village festival, or ceremony plays known as purakje, and court theatrical plays or performances known as sandae-gŭk. Purakje includes village drama in the genre of pyŏlsin-gut among various genres of village plays. Sandae-gŭk includes court drama with several variations driven by region or locale: ogwangdae, pyŏlsandae, t’alch’um, and yaryu.
People of all social classes were greatly entertained by the many forms of mask-dance drama and puppet theater in Korean society and culture until the beginning of the twentieth century. However, folk dramas were becoming obsolete because modern audiences found them antiquated and irrelevant to contemporary issues. Moreover, in the first decade of the twentieth century, folk drama was censored and prohibited by the occupying Japanese colonial administration, which wanted to eliminate Korean cultural heritage and force Japanese acculturation; therefore, it banned mask-dance drama and puppet plays from 1930 to 1945. Between 1910 and 1930, Korean intellectuals and other dramatists could still produce modern plays that focused on Korean suffering at the hands of the Japanese occupation. However, these plays did not elicit the approval of the Japanese officials. In turn, from 1930 to 1945, the Japanese eliminated the presentation of all Korean cultural heritage, which included theatrical productions. However, folk theater re-emerged during the 1970s, returning to Korean roots via government and academic intervention and renewed interest from contemporary audiences.
Ogwangdaemask-dance drama was performed according to the lunar calendar on New Year’s Eve and is unique to Pamm ri, a town situated on the bank of Naktong-kang River, Kyongsang-namdo Province, South Korea. Although its origin is unclear, one story suggests the villagers found a casket floating along the bank near Pamm ri. They finally opened the basket to find the masks and instructions for enacting a mask-dance drama. The purposes of ogwangdae were to exorcise the past year's demons and evil spirits and ensure prosperity for the next year, a good harvest, and an abundance of fish for the villagers. Ogwangdae means “five-clown play.” The plays in this mask-dance drama usually consist of five scenes. No original masks, made of paulownia wood, from Pamm ri have survived because of a great fire in1909. Dance, music, and witty dialogue are fundamental elements of the production of ogwangdae drama. The dance, which used to be brisk and lively, has become slower over time.
The origin of pyŏlsandaeis is described in a legend of more than two hundred years ago. According to this legend, the townspeople of Yangju, about fifteen miles northeast of Seoul, began to put on a dance performance by making their own masks after court performers of sandae-gŭk (which encompasses most forms of Korean court mask-dance drama preserved through oral tradition) did not appear for the scheduled performance. After the unexpected success of this mask-dance drama, the townspeople called it Yangju pyŏlsandae. The word pyŏlsandae means “separate stage performance” because it is derived from sandae-gŭk. The pyŏlsandae mask-dance drama was performed several times a year for heaven worship and reverence to the gods, notably for the autumn harvest and Buddha’s birthday on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, with people dancing and singing in these ceremonies. Dance and music are very important in the pyŏlsandae, which uses most of the basic Korean mask-dance forms. The music in this drama derives from folk and shamanistic lamenting songs.
There are thirty-two masks in the pyŏlsandae, although only twenty-two masks are usually used for its performance; however, none of the original masks has survived. The masks for this mask-dance drama are made from dried gourds, paper, wood, and pine bark.
Until the early twentieth century, the pyŏlsin-gutmask-dance drama was a traditional ceremony performed once every ten years in Hahoe Village, North Kyongsang Province, South Korea. The word pyŏlsin broadly means incantation, and gut means spectacle or show. Together, pyŏlsin-gut broadly means incantatious spectacle or show. The origin of this village mask-dance drama is not exact. However, some experts suggest that it may have had its roots in many forms of heaven or shamanistic ceremonies practiced by villagers in the Hahoe region. Hahoe villagers were not the only people participating in the pyŏlsin-gut; the people from neighboring regions were also fond of this mask-dance drama. The purposes of pyŏlsin-gut were to ensure prosperity for the village, exorcise evil spirits, and amuse the villagers.
The wooden masks of pyŏlsin-gut are refined in their carving and age because they were not burned at the end of each performance, unlike masks used in other Korean mask-dance dramas. Only nine of the original twelve masks remain. The reasons for the disappearance of the other three masks are not known.
The word t’alch’ummeans “masked dance” and supposedly came from various regions in the western and southeastern plains and coastal towns in present-day North Korea. Of the three regions, only t’alch’um from Pongsan in the western plains continues to be performed; other versions of t’alch’um are now obsolete. This mask-dance drama was performed during the Tano Festival, one of Korea’s oldest holidays honoring village spirits and ancestors, an event that takes place outdoors. The t’alch’um was a satirical dance used by local villagers to alienate their anger, sadness, and frustrations with life. This mask-dance drama is no longer performed in North Korea because it is considered backward and not revolutionary enough by the communist government. However, it is preserved in South Korea by those performers who escaped North Korea during the Korean War (1950-1953).
The masks of t’alch’um are well known because of their grotesque and outlandish appearance. This mask-dance drama is especially noted for its poetry, music, beautiful dialogue, and puns. The masks used in t’alch’um are smaller than in other mask-dance dramas and are usually made of paper. Often, these masks are considered demonic masks because of their grotesque appearance.
Yaryu means “playground or field play” because this mask-dance drama was usually held outdoors in the market square. It is very short, with only four or five scenes. The yaryu was found in the region east of Naktong-kang River, Kyongsang-namdo Province, South Korea, though its origins are unknown. This mask-dance drama was often performed in sacrificial festivals for the gods as an exorcism and to ensure the villagers' safety and an adequate harvest.
Eleven masks are required for the performance of the yaryu theater. Eight masks represent human characters, two masks represent animals, and one represents a character that is neither human nor animal. Because all the masks were required to be burned to ensure the peace and prosperity of the village, no original masks exist today. These masks are made of dried gourds, paper, and bamboo.
Puppet Drama
The word kkoktu means “puppet,” and generally, puppet drama is called kkoktu kaksi. Scholars have suggested that Korean puppetry may have come from China or Asia Minor because of its linguistic roots. This puppet drama was highly popular among the commoners in Korean culture and society because of its subject matter and thematic relevance to the oppression of the lower classes. Kkoktu kaksi was performed for numerous purposes: religious worship, shamanistic rites, ancestral worship, ceremonial and military functions, and general amusement. For general entertainment, puppets of stock characters, such as corrupted officials, lustful monks, and other domestic characters, were greatly satirized, serving popular amusement for the commoners. Historically, few attempts have been made to preserve kkoktu kaksi; scanty evidence implies that puppet plays were not considered to have literary or aesthetic value in ancient times. However, attempts by modern scholars and historians to restore this heritage began in the mid-twentieth century and continue in the contemporary period.
The puppets are constructed using carved wood and papier-mâché with wooden frames. A puppet theater company usually consists of six or seven performers, three or four puppeteers, and three musicians.
Modern Theater
When folk drama's popularity began to decline at the beginning of the twentieth century, modern forms of drama began to emerge. These modern dramas dealt with contemporary social issues deemed more relevant to Korean people than folk drama.
Shinp’a refers to a genre of modern drama. It is a popular commercial theater form that emerged during the 1930s and was influenced by modern Japanese theater and Western literary sources. Shinp’a is made up of three types of plays: domestic, military, and detective plays. The domestic plays were most popular among these types because they were melodramatic, dealing with love, family separation, and bankruptcy, evidenced notably in Pak Sung-hi’s play Arirang-goge (pr. 1926; Arirang Pass). These themes likely arose in response to Japanese occupation and exploitation. In South Korea, the production of contemporary American plays by such playwrights as Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and William Inge was predominant in the shinp’a during the 1950s. The 1960s saw European authors such as Jean Anouilh, Max Frisch, and Samuel Beckett being introduced in the shinp’a. In the shinp’a genre of the early twenty-first century, surrealism and experimental techniques have been introduced and embraced by modern Korean audiences.
In 1948, Korea was divided into the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea after the liberation from Japanese occupation at the end of World War II. In North Korea, under a communist regime, shingŭk arose as a dominant genre of realistic modern drama, dealing with left-wing interests and nationalist propaganda, evidenced in a play called Kongsan ppalchisan (communist guerrilla) in the 1950s, a spectacular modern vision of Korean struggle against Japanese domination led by General Kim Il Sung, the first leader of North Korea. Plays were also written to promote Kim’s political propaganda and nationalistic ideologies. Shingŭk remained confined to North Korea because of its leftist nature and never emerged in South Korea, which favored the Western-influenced shinp’a.
Three types of shingŭk emerged in North Korea in the 1970s. Revolutionary opera, music and dance drama, and epic drama in music and dance were grand and spectacular productions on the stages of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Recurring themes included the struggle against Japanese domination, the war against American imperialism, and the glorification of Kim Il Sung. These themes continued to dominate in the last decade of the twentieth century despite the demise of communism in Eastern Europe and Russia (1989-1991).
In the last decades of the twentieth century, theaters in North and South Korea struggled to attract audiences and to create new works in Korean drama. Because several historical and political factors have worked toward eradicating traditional Korean theater, preserving traditional and modern Korean drama as a cultural art and heritage is very important. Although new ideas and influences, especially from American and European playwrights and writers, are welcomed, historical elements of Korean theater and dance are essential in encouraging the success of modern-day Korean theater.
As the twenty-first century progressed, traditional Korean theater experienced a resurgence in South Korea, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. The National Changgeuk Company of Korea has begun performing many Western dramas employing elements of traditional Korean theater. Musical storytelling and traditional mask dance have also seen renewed interest, reflecting a renaissance of traditional Korean culture and history in the context of theater.
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