“Myeongdong Theater first opened in 1936 during the Japanese colonial era as a movie theater called Myeongchiza. Along with Myeongdong Cathedral an...
Participants of the backstage tour at Myeongdong Theater look out over the stage on September 27. The 70-minute tour is available on a first-come, first-served basis each month via the National Theater Company’s website.
/ Reporter Bae Moon-kyu “Myeongdong Theater first opened in 1936 during the Japanese colonial era as a movie theater called Myeongchiza. Along with Myeongdong Cathedral and the Midopa Department Store , it was one of the neighborhood’s ‘hot spots.’ The building has been renovated and looks almost new, but traces of the past remain. Do you see the small window next to the entrance? That used to be the ticket booth where people lined up to buy movie tickets.” At 35 Myeongdong-gil in Jung-gu, Seoul, a Western classical-style building with ornate decorations on its facade catches the eye in the heart of Myeongdong. This is the National Theater Company of Korea’s Myeongdong Theater, now 89 years old and a landmark of Korean performing arts. The National Theater Company resumed its “backstage tour” last month after halting it during the coronavirus pandemic. By opening up the theater, often passed by but not easily entered, the program seeks to break the perception that “plays feel distant and difficult.” On September 27, 36 elementary school students and teachers from Yatap Youth Center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, secured a coveted group reservation for the tour. Kim Soo-hyun, the house manager who served as guide, explained, “We may not have the glamorous facilities or grand pipe organs of modern theaters, but there is no other theater in Korea with this much history that still stages performances. Visitors also get to explore spaces normally closed to the public.” Myeongdong Theater is modest in size, with one basement floor, five stories above ground, and a total floor area of 2,475 square meters. The tour begins in the first-floor lobby, passes through the fifth-floor supporters’ lounge, and then heads to the main highlight, the audience seating area and the backstage facilities. Remnants of the past remain throughout. On the fifth floor lies a “secret garden” with a view of Myeongdong Street and Namsan Tower, and it once served as a restaurant where people ate pasta at outdoor tables. On the second-floor corridor, an exposed brick wall serves as a visual reminder of the theater’s heritage as a modern cultural property. “From the first floor, you can clearly see the actors’ expressions, while the second and third floors give you a full view of the stage. I hope you’ll enjoy finding your favorite spot as you attend performances.” The auditorium, spanning the 2nd to 4th floors, has 547 seats. The steep 3rd-floor balcony is known as the “attic seats,” but because of obstructed views, they are usually not sold. They are only opened for popular productions such as “The Orphan of Zhao: Seeds of Revenge” and “Scapin,” staples of the National Theater Company, when the 1st and 2nd floors are sold out. Returning to the 1st-floor auditorium, one notices no visible passage leading backstage, the dressing room corridors are actually located on both sides of the lobby. Actors also use a wooden side door near the McDonald’s outside the building. “There are two shared dressing rooms and two for lead actors. During performances, they’re packed with costumes and props. If you go up one more flight, you’ll arrive behind the stage.” The children gasped with excitement. Before them unfolded the hidden mechanics of the stage: steel beams, machinery, and tape marking stage positions. Music stands and chairs had been set up for a staged reading later that afternoon of a new play chosen through a script contest. Stage manager Na Hye-min continued the tour. While the house manager oversees audience services, the stage manager controls the performance from behind the scenes. “The stage is shaped like a picture frame. This type of stage, separated from the audience, is called a proscenium stage, which lets you focus as if you were watching on a TV or smartphone screen.” Above the stage hang pipe battens for lighting, speakers, and set pieces, which are swapped out to transform the scenery. The front portion of the stage floor is the orchestra pit, which can be lowered by four meters, while rear lifts move up and down to allow actors to appear suddenly or for dramatic set changes. Floor lighting, follow spots, and 35 speakers placed throughout the hall all fascinated the audience, who listened intently. “Myeongdong Theater was designed as a theater exclusively for plays from the very beginning. Its reverberation time was set at 1.1 seconds so that dialogue would be heard most clearly. Behind the proscenium are countless hidden devices that allow for diverse performances. What you see on stage is just the actors and the play, but behind it all are numerous staff members working together for the show.” Efforts to bring audiences closer to the theater have unexpectedly been boosted by the global popularity of K-content. In the Netflix animated film “K-pop Demon Hunters,” the boy band Saja Boys perform the song “Soda Pop” in front of Myeongdong Theater, drawing more tourists eager to take photos at the site. Baek Ha-rin, 12, one of the tour participants, said, “It was impressive to tour a theater older than my grandparents, who are in their 70s. I think I’ll enjoy plays and musicals much more from now on.”
Iconic Setting Of Saja Boys’ ‘Soda Pop’ In ’K-Pop
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