No More Cliché!
_After Collaborating with Foreign Performers to Cast Them ②

Kim Il-Song (editor-in-chief of TheApro)

@KIM SeungHwan

In May, TheApro had a round-table talk about what to keep in mind when collaborating with foreign performers. The talk had Choi ZinA from the Theater group Nolddang who has recently directed the play about refugees〈Arabesque〉and Lee JunYoung who performed in the play. It also had Kang HoonGu from the Ball Play Club, who is currently preparing the play〈Motherfucker Oedipus〉with foreign performers, as well as Anna Elisabeth Rihlmann and Anupam Tripathi who have been cast for the performance.

The previous issue of TheApro dealt with the circumstances in and out of Korea’s performing arts scene which has presented an increasing number of performances with foreign artists, foreign actors’ unstable status, stereotpyes about them and casting problems caused by such stereotpyes. For this issue, the participants discussed what problems could arise during rehearsals after casting foreign actors, how to solve the problems and how audiences actually reacted to their performances at theaters.

Considerate towards Foreign Performers

Il-Song	The previous issue dealt with what goes on until the casting phase. Now, I would like you to talk about what problems could arise from the rehearsing phase or what to keep in mind in order to prevent such problems. I’m actually asking myself if it would be right to define someone as a “foreign actor.” As you work on performances, you may be facing such self-censorship more often than I do.

JunYoung	came to perform with a Saudi Arabian actor in〈Arabesque〉. As our cultures are different, I found myself doing self-censorship regarding how to talk to him. In addition, when I worked in India and Japan, I didn’t know about their cultures so I kept doing self-censorship. But people do understand those from other cultures as they spend time together and mingle with each other.	Lee JunYoung @KIM SeungHwan
HoonGu	Directing , I worked with a foreign actor called Chris. He wasn’t fluent in Korean and I didn’t speak English very well. So we had to spend more time in rehearsing. Often, we don’t have much time to produce a performance and we have a tight schedule...
ZinA	When casting a foreign actor, I also wondered if they could enjoy rehearsing for an extended period of time. I cast a foreigner who wasn’t a professional actor and who wasn’t fluent in Korean. So from the time I saw him, I emphasized the fact that “a play takes a very long time to rehearse.
	“ I felt sorry for that so I told them they didn’t need to participate in the text analysis meetings. But as we rehearsed, we sometime had to analyze the text but I put off the discussion to be considerate towards the foreign performer. So I ended up telling him to act only.

Anupam	I also have that experience. But even if an actor appears in a performance very briefly, it is important for them to attend rehearsals and watch others because they learn a lot from that. So if time allows, it is right to ask them to attend rehearsals.
Anna	At first, I worked with the director Mr. Kim Jaeyeop. I appeared in his performance only briefly. At that time, I wasn’t going to school and I hadn’t decided whether to start my acting career. But I enjoyed the rehearsals so much that I kept going to the rehearsal room.
ZinA	Both of you are professional actors but I worked with someone who wasn’t professional. That may be why that happened. For stage setup, actors usually come to the theater four hours before. But the actor I worked with said, “Can’t I come an hour before? I can do well after rehearsing on stage just once.“ But actually, a stage rehearsal takes much time to make sure the technical elements work smoothly... So I ended up telling him to come a couple of hours before the performance. But he did enjoy acting, staying focused.
Anna	Nevertheless, I believe that it is important to tell them what is a right thing to do. You need to explain that they can’t rehearse more easily than others just because they are foreigners..
Anupam	If someone wants to experience acting but if they don’t go through the process needed for that, it is a problem. But there are many people who think that way. So how about teaching actors the rehearsing process? I tell foreigners that it is recommended to experience plays a couple of times even if they are planning to perform in the media. I also tell them that those in the media prefer those who have acted in plays.
ZinA	One day, the actor I worked with couldn’t find any parking space around the rehearsal venue so he just went back home. He was so tired that he got angry. If he had been a Korean, I would have told him, “You must not do that.“ But he was a foreigner so I didn’t know what to do at that moment. Only later, I asked him to come back and rehearse with us but it was very difficult to make that decision. I thought, “How should I treat him?“
Anupam	In such a case, you should not treat a foreign actor differently. If they did something wrong, they should be criticized just like everyone.
ZinA	There is another thing you need to keep in mind when working with foreign actors. That is, they may not be expressing themselves completely. One day, the actor wasn’t speaking his lines. He just stood still and collapsed. Later, I heard that he had stayed up all night because of an exam. So I wondered if it was that difficult to tell me how much he was tired. It was bewildering.
Anna	It is definitely risky to cast someone who isn’t a professional actor. But I wasn’t aware of that before performing in plays. My school is also having more and more foreign students. They are from countries like Sinagpore, China and Kazakhstan. They are willing to perform in plays actively. There are many foreign students so it would be better for you to work with those majoring in acting.
Il-Song	Based on what you said, being considerate towards foreign actors could make them feel that they are “others.“ A play takes a long period of time together but if you are too considerate towards them, they may feel that they are just guests, not family members. So both Koreans and foreigners may end up feeling uncomfortable.
Anupam	I worked with different theater companies. Some of them were considerate while others had no regard. As for those who were considerate, I sometimes felt that it was somewhat excessive. Personally, I felt comfortable when people weren’t considerate towards me just because I’m a foreigner. I enjoy meeting people and hanging out with them as friends. So when performing in a play, I like it when I can talk freely to others.

Another Prejudice Generated by Prejudice

HoonGu	During the performance 〈Dictation〉, I was worried that the foreign performer would act in Korean successfully. But I was even more concerned because his role of a foreign worker and victim may be a cliché and that role may strengthen people’s prejudice against foreigners. In contrast, 〈Daedalus〉, which was written by me, is about the near future, the year 2040. I recommended Anupam as the performance’s character who is the world’s richest guy making a spaceship. I personally thought that such casting was about overcoming the existing limitations. But later on, I thought that the effort to break free from prejudice may generate another prejudice. In this regard, I’m constantly worried that foreign actors might feel unpleasant from casting to rehearsing.	Kang HoonGu @KIM SeungHwan
ZinA	I had an experience of breaking away from a cliché. The character in〈Arabesque〉was a refugee but the actor was a rich student from Saudi Arabia. So he wasn’t very different from foreigners often seen on TV. When I actually met him, I found out that he is more affluent than I am. Working with him widened my view. Now, I could cast other foreigners.

JunYoung	Actually, the actor’s older brother was cast before him. But the two brothers were so different. So I also thought that ultimately, not cultures but people are different.
HoonGu	Seeing Anupam and Anna for the first time, I was curious and thought, “Koreans admire foreign plays but why would they perform in Korea?“ But I realized that it was another prejudice. So it was an experience of freeing myself from that prejudice.
Il-Song	Do you have any example of reflecting foreign actors’ ideas in your performance? That could be not only about characters but also about their relationships. Going beyond that, that could also be about making changes to your work.
HoonGu	As for〈Dictation〉, I cast actors before completing the script. So after casting the foreign actor, I talked to him to create his character gradually. The actor was from the Philippines and he was the leader of the Filipino community in Bucheon so he was engaging in many relevant activities. So I interviewed him and based on the interview, I made his character and story. The performance〈Motherfucker Oedipus〉I’m currently working on is about Korean politics. Politics is actually something relative. So Anna compares it to German politics. Such possibility of sharing relative views is interesting.
ZinA	That’s right. We encounter unexpected views. 〈Arabesque〉 tells a story about Arabs and you usually get information on them in books and on the internet. But Arabs themselves shared how they feel about their culture, Yemen and neighboring countries. So it was great to see a completely different view with very vivid information.

Anna	I wondered why Korea didn’t have dramaturgs. These days, Korea has many of them. If you want to produce a performance based on a foreign work, you need to listen to a story from someone who actually lived in that culture. If you don’t know that culture, you can’t understand the nuance of the lines. One day, I watched a performance and saw the actors drink from wine bottles as Koreans do with soju bottles. In other countries, people never drink that way. That’s when a dramaturg is needed. You could adopt the Korean style but if you don’t have an understanding of the original work, it could become strange.	Anna Elisabeth Rihlmann @KIM SeungHwan

Anupam	When I performed in India, I once played a role of a Japanese guy. At that time, someone said, “The actor who played that role last time shaved his hair off. So you just need to do that.“ So I shaved my hair off. But I didn’t know about Japan. So I just heard people talk about the Japanese and shaved my hair off. But looking back, I believe that it was something very wrong. And later on, I realized that how cruel it was. The same is true in Korea. But if you have a foreign actor with you, it would be different.
HoonGu	Do the Japanese shave their hair often?
Anupam	No. But I did so. What was funnier was my dad’s reaction. I went home after shaving my hair and he said, “I’m not dead yet.” In Hinduism, people shave their hair off only when their father passes away. I’m not supposed to make such a mistake but I make it because I’m ignorant.
Anna	I graduated in February and the title of my thesis is “Foreign Actors’ Efficient Approach to Acting from the Perspective of Intra Culture.“ The thesis is about foreign actors’ obstacles. To be more specific, it is about their sociocultural integration, the difference between adaptation and obedience, the discovery of my position in “us“ as a community and the challenges faced by foreign actors from psychological and linguistic points of view. In particular, Germany and Korea are very different socioculturally so experiencing Korea’s community culture, I went through many difficulties. That’s what I call “intra culture“ in my thesis. People talk a lot about “inter culture.“ But we work in Korea as foreign actors so I believed that the term “intra culture“ would work in this context. I explained that concept.

Enjoy Yourself and Be Honest

Il-Song	Have you ever been evaluted by critics or experts? Not as foreign performers but as professional actors.
Anupam	omeone said to me, “Your acting is in the Indian style. It’s exaggerated.“ But I don’t know what the “Indian style“ is. I think they say that just because I’m Indian.	Anupam Tripathi @KIM SeungHwan
ZinA	As for me, I worked with a non-professional foreigner. So the fact that he didn’t express himself enough caused problems. He should express himself more so the other actors could express themselves with him. But it didn’t work. After the performance, people even told me, “You were working with a foreign actor so you should have put more effort in directing.“ In contrast, others said, “It was great to have foreign actors.“ Their point was that foreign actors could generate an atmosphere that could never be made by Korean actors.
HoonGu	Basically, audiences seem to be ready to have foreign actors. They are favorable for them and at the same time, they are very observant. But producers don’t seem to be fully ready. Basically, audiences seem to be ready to have foreign actors.
	They are favorable for them and at the same time, they are very observant. But producers don’t seem to be fully ready. The Seoul Arts Center and Sejong Center for the Performing Arts are well-known to foreigners. But many of their special performances seem to be somewhat nationalistic and reveal Korea’s own identity. They seem to be trying to attract foreign audiences but their environment looks unfavorable to foreign actors. In that sense, Korea’s national and public theaters don’t seem to be fully ready.
Anupam	I’d like to try Korean historical drama. But when I say this, people respond like, "I wonder when you could be performing in those works." I’m capable of playing different roles but I don’t know why people just start thinking I can’t.
ZinA	I hope that day comes quickly.
HoonGu	I also want to try that because I can’t wait to see how audiences would react to it. Currently, most actors are cast as characters who are close to themselves. But what if they aren’t? It takes courage to do that. For example, I sometimes wonder how Korean audiences would react to a performance in which Japanese and Chinese actors are cast as Korea’s historical figures. A taboo does exist but I want to break it.
Il-Song	Do you have anything to add?
Anupam	Rater than being too careful, we need to think about how we could enjoy ourselves. When you are too careful, you get nervous. And when you get nervous, problems occur. When problems occur, you can’t communicate. At first, there may be some awkward encounters but how about performing on stage step by step? You don’t need to be careful.
Anna	When I first came to Korea, I often heard people say, "When in Korea, do as Koreans do." So I made great effort to adapt. But while doing so, I wondered if that would be the right answer. I believe we need to find a solution in between. If foreigners want to work in Korea, they should try to understand Korean culture. But put differently, Korean directors, crews and actors also need to think a lot about how they would work with foreigners. It would be great for them to ask a lot, talk a lot and explain honestly. Things may not change immediately but this talk we are having right now seems to be proving the potential of change.
HoonGu	I want to put emphasis on immigration policy. I often heard that former US president Trump’s policy made many immigrants suffer. But the same is true for us. We graduated from a national arts university in Korea but while working, we don’t know when we will be kicked out. And in many cases, we couldn’t get the job. People often say "global" and the "arts" but to create a work environment favorable for foreigners in Korea, the country should start by completely reviewing its immigration policy. And such a change could be made only when Koreans join forces.
ZinA	A play shows a piece of this world. Today, Korean society is changing and having people of all nationalities. If that’s the case, plays should reflect the reality and involve more people of different nationalities. In this way, I hope that we have a greater variety of experiences of widening the realm of our awareness and sensibility.	Choi ZinA @KIM SeungHwan
JunYoung	During the break, I talked to Anupam and he said that he wanted to write a thesis concerning Korean dance. When his thesis is done, there could be something new. I hope that we have more chances to work with foreign actors.
Il-Song	I organized this talk because I believe that the directors who are with us on this occasion have shown their sense of citizenship we need today through their performances dealing with immigration policy and foreigners’ work environment. But listening to you, I thought that it would also be my prejudice. So I think I should start by breaking free from such a prejudice. Thank you.