On April 12, 1962 Korea’s first modern theater opened its doors at the foot of Namsan Mountain in Seoul. At the time, the opening of the Drama Center made headlines. Koreans weren’t fully recovered from the devastation of the Korean War, which had ended only about a decade before. At a time when a black-and-white TV was a luxury most Koreans could not afford, the country finally had a venue to promote theater plays and nurture stage actors, with the help of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Asia Foundation.

The debut performance for the Drama Center was Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” The audience looked down on the stage, just like in the ancient amphitheaters in Rome and Greece, and the actors appeared not only from behind the stage, but from all directions, leaving the audience completely spellbound. On May 12th, just one month after the opening of the Drama Center, the Namsan cable cars went into operation.



The Namsan cable car station was just three minutes away from the drama Center. With the launch of the cable cars, watching a play at the Drama Center became one of the favorite activities for young lovers.

Five decades later, the cable cars have become larger, able to accommodate 48 people in each car, and in 2009, the Drama Center was renamed the Namsan Arts Center. Befitting its new name, the Namsan Arts Center is fulfilling its role as the Mecca of creative stage plays that celebrate Korean theatrical people’s spirit of experimentation and originality. Here’s Ms. Ahn Mi-young of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture to tell us more.

The Namsan Arts Center is a public theater for original plays. Its mission is to turn the issues that concern all of us into plays that we can relate to. With that purpose in mind, the Center plans to host six original productions this year.

The 2014 season is underway at the Namsan Arts Center. Six original plays are put on stage one after another and all of them are highly anticipated for their unusual plots and experimental styles. The first season program was titled “Namsan Documenta도큐멘타,” which told the stories surrounding the Namsan Arts Center from a new perspective. Currently running at the center is a Korea-India joint production called “Beyond Binary,” which is about sexual minorities.

“Beyond Binary” speaks on behalf of the sexual minorities, such as trans-genders, homosexuals or bisexuals in southern India. Having founded a community called Hijras, the members worship the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Mata. Here’s the play’s director Bae Yo-seop배요섭.

This is a story of sexual minorities in Korea and India. Actors question their sexuality and understand the lives of other sexually marginalized people they meet. It’s a play looking deep into the issue of human sexuality. I received a proposal for this play when I went to India five years ago. Through this play I want people to think about those who are marginalized or discriminated against because of their sexual orientation and view their own lives from a different perspective.

Director Bae Yo-seop wanted our society to see the messages from people who are still searching for their sexual identities. This play would never have made it to a commercial stage. Here’s “Beyond Binary” director Bae Yo-seop again.

It would have been really hard to get a sponsor for this play, but thanks to this center we have a venue to show it. The Namsan Arts Center is known as the birthplace of contemporary plays, so it has great historical significance. Remodeling has obscured some of the old, original pillars up in the spectator section, but they are still there. It’s nice that this place still safeguards the legacy of our predecessors. This is the perfect place for someone like me, who doesn’t know much about making money. I’m not anxious even when there aren’t that many people watching the play. This is why I like this place.

It’s every stage actor and director’s dream to bring their imaginations and experimentations alive on stage. But it is realistically impossible to present esoteric plays in commercial venues. This is where the Namsan Arts Center comes in. There, original plays take priority over others. So the Namsan Arts Center is a godsend for artistic theater people. The most unconventional play so far this season is “Namsan Documenta” presented last month.

Through their lines, the actors introduce the history of the Drama Center, the forerunner of the present day Namsan Arts Center. The star of “Namsan Documenta” is the Center itself. Starting with the center’s opening in 1962, the actors narrate the events that took place around Namsan Mountain during that time.



Among the tales told in the play are untold stories of the Agency for National Security Planning, the nation’s top intelligence agency at the time, which was located close to the Namsan Arts Center. The spy agency was regarded as the representation of the iron-fisted military government of the 1970s and 80s, when numerous democratization activists were brought to the building to be interrogated and tortured. Now the site of the old intelligence service building houses a youth hostel, the symbol of youthful exuberance and hope. Here’s Mr. Lee Kyeong-seong이경성 who directed “Namsan Documenta.”

“Namsan Documenta” is a play about the Drama Center, Korea’s first modern theater, and the areas surrounding it. The location occupies an important place in modern Korean history, because of the tragic and frightening past associated with the Korean Central Intelligence Agency under the Park Jung-hee government. There were so many dreadful incidents and unnecessary deaths associated with the espionage headquarters. Imagine the theater standing witness to all that tragedy. I wanted to look at the relationships between the Drama Center and its surroundings.

Another element that sets this play apart is its audience. The audience is divided into two types – those who specifically came to see the play and those who came without knowing that there was a play. Actors bring people to the theater as if they’re just tour guides showing people around the area. Unwitting audience members are surprised and perplexed at why they were brought there. There is a reason for this setup and director Lee Kyeong-seong will explain.

Some 30 people enter the theater through a different entrance from those who came to see the play. Just when the audience sits back to enjoy the play, a side door opens and in comes a group of people, who were fooled into coming to the theater by the actors disguised as tour guides. So the audience and accidental playgoers face each other across the stage, creating a moment of tension and awkwardness. I thought just looking at the stage from the spectator seats felt too passive, too routine. So I wanted to create a play that blurred the line between the audience and the actors.

It would have been impossible to present such an unconventional play at any other venue than the Namsan Arts Center. Another highly anticipated production is “On a Blue Day,” which will begin its run on April 26th. It’s a very popular play which has been a staple of the Center for four years straight. It highlights the life of a Buddhist monk against the backdrop of the bloody democratization movement in Gwangju in May 1980. In August “Happy Bok-hee복희” is scheduled. The play deals with human desires and selfishness. It will be followed in September by “Invisible Man,” a story of modern man’s isolation and loneliness, and in November “Why Do I Become Indignant over Trivial Things” based on the life and works of poet Kim Su-yeong.

The Namsan Arts Center is able to showcase such original works every season because the Center spares no expense in supporting playwrights. The Center has been hosting a drama festival for three years and this year, from February 25th to 27th, productions of several emerging dramatists were presented to receive encouragement and constructive criticism. Here’s Ms. Ahn Mi-young of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture to tell us more.

The festival provides an opportunity to discover good plays. Amateur playwrights are encouraged to send in their plays to the festival. Then the organizers select the ones with potential and give them a chance to debut on the professional stage. This program is opened to new playwrights twice a year.

A good original play comes from a synopsis with fresh ideas and viewpoints. When a competent director and a talented cast are added to the mix, the end result is a thought-provoking and inventive production. And the Namsan Arts Center is what makes it all happen. Here’s Ms. Ahn Mi-young of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture again.

We think about how to effectively assist our producing partners. Usually, co-production involves helping out with production cost and venue selection, but that doesn’t help much. What the Namsan Arts Center does is to get deeply involved in all production stages, not only in budgeting and venue support, but also in brainstorming and cast selection. Director and producer share their ideas and try to upgrade the quality of the play at hand. This is the best production process in which a playwright, a production staff and the theater stand to benefit.

It takes time and money to put a worthy play on stage, and the reality is that merely providing a venue and assisting with production costs falls far short of a co-producer’s responsibility. So the Namsan Arts Center is leading the effort to discover new, talented playwrights and passionate directors.



The most difficult part of this program is to discover a jewel hidden in the mud and create something new and meaningful from it with other artists. Famous translated plays or crowd-pleasing productions carry out certain functions in promoting theater, but only a limited number of original works are available for the Korean stage. Korea’s problem is that it relies too much on western plays. So it is the duty of a public theater to find new talent and develop original plays that we Koreans can relate to.

Plays speak for our concerns and joys in life. Actors and actresses express those emotions and thoughts through their movements and dialogue, and we, the audience, feel a sort of catharsis or emotional cleansing through the experiences. That’s the role popular culture and arts play in our society. But fulfilling that role would be impossible without all-out support and investment. So the Namsan Arts Center’s boundless support for original plays is a blessing for all those playwrights, directors and performers searching for a venue to test their passion and innovative ideas. Perhaps after years of the Center’s effort to promote original theater plays, Korea can finally see masterpiece productions that could be applauded throughout the ages, much like Shakespearean plays.