Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kwon Ji-hyeon = "When you look at the stage, there are two musicians on the left, at 10 o'clock. One is playing the piano, and the other is playing the guitar."
At the rehearsal for the family musical 'Wizard of the Theater' held at Gangdong Arts Center on the 21st, an actor explained the positions of performers on stage. This is to convey performance scenes to the visually impaired through voice commentary.
'Wizard of the Theater', which will be performed at Gangdong Arts Center Small Theater Dream from this day to the 23rd, is a work that improves performance accessibility for disabled audiences through these elements.
It depicts the process of a new actress, 'Dorothy', who is about to perform for the first time, an actor who has lost confidence, 'Lion', a director who is in creative trouble, 'Scarecrow', and a wizard who seeks help to complete the performance.
The work was planned with sign language interpretation, Korean subtitles, and voice commentary from the development stage, and PD Kim Min-sol, who has been planning several barrier-free performances, joined as the accessibility manager.
During the performance, Korean subtitles that include not only the dialogue but also the piano and other musical instrument performances appear on the upper right screen. To avoid the inconvenience of having to look at the stage acting and subtitle screens alternately, a number of sign language interpreters dressed up with the actors go on stage to both interpret and act.
In the play, the 'witch' who gives Dorothy riddles about the performance is both a character and a voice commentator who explains the stage to the audience.
Director Oh Jun-seok explained at a meeting held after the rehearsal that day that he constantly monitored the acting and voice commentary of actors and interpreters from the perspective of disabled audiences. Deaf audiences participated in the monitoring to check the transmissibility of sign language.
Director Oh said, “We filmed the actors and sign language interpreters countless times and tried to match their breathing and rhythm naturally. In the case of the voiceover, we listened with our eyes closed in the audience to adjust how the actors and instruments should sound.”
The four main actors appearing in the performance had to move around and act with a sign language interpreter, so a platform was installed on the stage where the actors and interpreters could stand side by side so that the sign language could be clearly seen from the audience.
Actress Kim Doo-ri, who played the role of Dorothy, said, "There were scenes where we moved around in our seats to be able to convey our emotions well without interfering with sign language, but in the end we decided to sit down and act. It was a process in which the cast members actively expressed their opinions and found the most appropriate movement and acting."
In response to feedback that the explanation was too excessive, the voiceover was reduced. Writer Yoo Ja-hong, who was in charge of writing the play, said, "Once basic information such as the location of the sound is provided at the beginning, there was an opinion that excessive commentary made the story boring and left no room for imagination," and added, "I tried to fill it in through acting instead of commentary."
The concept of accessibility is not yet considered much in the performing arts industry as a whole. For popular large-scale plays and musicals, it is difficult to attempt sign language interpretation due to the scale and acoustic characteristics.
Director Oh said, “The area of accessibility seems to be an issue that can only be known by continuing to try and (perform) directly,” and suggested, “Works that experiment with this direction should come out, and theaters should try to increase accessibility and gain experience.”
Some point out that support through public theaters is desperately needed until accessible performances are established. Writer Yoo said, “Preparing a performance with increased accessibility requires a long preparation period, repeated monitoring, and practice, so it is difficult for private theaters to attempt it,” and added, “This performance is meaningful in that a public theater at the local government level took the lead and set a precedent.”
