Expat-flavored theater in Seoul

A scene from “Just Deserts,” directed by Ray Salcedo (Photo: Rahul Aijaz)

About fourteen years ago, a small group of expats gathered in Seoul to form their own theater company, held together by volunteers and their love for theater. That’s how “Seoul Players” came to life by Australian Thespian and businessman Roman Zolnierczyk. His goal was simple and significant: to bring English-language theater to Seoul. Although the founding members left Korea long ago, the popularity of Seoul Players has only increased over the time thanks to those expats who have been involved with the theater company.

In the past years, they have produced a big collection of productions, sometimes two productions a year. Among their most famous productions are their shadow cast rendition of the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show, the infamous feminist peace The Vagina Monologues, and the ‘10 Minute’ Play Festival.

A scene from “Time Eless, Private Eye,” directed by Joon Hur (Photo: Rahul Aijaz)

The ‘10 Minute’ Play Festival comes back for its fifth year, this year with 16 different plays, ranging from comedies to dramas. These 16 plays were chosen from over 200 submissions sent from Korea and overseas. Festival co-producer Sarah Grover told the Korea Herald that she expects that this year there will be more dark comedies and dramas among the plays, different than last year’s more regular plays.

The festival which is held over the span of three days, the two main days on 13^th and 14^th of November, where all 16 plays will be performed, eight on each day. According to the audience’s votes, it gets decided which four plays get selected for the final round held on Saturday 21^st November, at the Arts Tree Theatre in Guro-dong, Seoul.

A scene from “Natural Enemy,” directed by Henry Ball. (Photo: Rahul Aijaz)

The plays are short, usually 10-12 minutes long, which ensures the audience to be enticed and entertained as they watch eight plays in one night. This year’s line-up includes veterans and first-timers alike. One play is called “The Origin of the Wind”, written by Jennifer Waesher from USA and directed by Rahul Aijaz from Pakistan. It stars Garan Fitzgerald, Kyle Tennant, and Jake Kwon, and revolves around the work and findings of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, whose work focused on individualism as a central concept of analytical psychology. “It is the story of a fictional psychiatrist, Dr. Mathias Kugler and his patient, Luca and how through his case, he eventually comes up with the idea of ‘personal unconsciousness’ and ‘collective unconsciousness’.”

Actors Kyle Tennant (as Luca, on left), and Garan Fitzgerald (as Dr. Kugler, on right) in the play “Origin of the Wind,” written by Jennifer Waesher and directed by Rahul Aijaz. 

The director, Rahul, talks of this play, “The beauty of it is in the dialogue most of which is composed of one-liners but when you put it all together, it introduces you to a beautiful imaginative world and gives you an entry point to the complex world of psychiatry in a quite simplified way.”

Actors perform in the play “Neanderthal Tech Support,” directed by Kate Burney (Photo: Rahul Aijaz)

He talks of the community of expat filmmakers and artists living in Seoul as a wonderful experience. “My actors and I have been rehearsing almost every week for two months, working on the character motivations, body language, dialog delivery, facial expressions, stage blocking and the whole mise-en-scene of the play. My vision is to keep it minimal, to bring focus on the actors and the concepts they cover through dialog, rather than the props and elaborate costumes,” he adds.

Director of “Origin of the Wind,” Rahul Aijaz (left) with actor, Garan Fitzgerald. (Photo: Aram Kim)

Another promising play is “Tim Eless, Private Eye” written by Stephen Kaplan and directed by Joon Hur, starring Jema Abbate and Henry Ball. It is a detective noir parody, featuring private detective Tim Eless and a mysterious woman who enters his life with a proposition, and beneath it lays an entangled history that erupts on stage. Hur describes his plays as “It is the kind of play you bring your future ex along to express your feelings in a safe, cheap and legal way.”

He talks of his experience being part of the production, “My experience in the production of this play can be expressed in one word: prodigious. Working with two of the finest actors in Seoul is truly a blessing that the English language had yet to define,” adding how much this experience has added to his theatrical experience.

Actors gather on stage after the performance at the end of day 1 (Photo: Rahul Aijaz)

The lineup for the festival includes plays like ‘Sinners on a Southbound Bus’ (director: Wayne Chalom), Life and Death on the Stage (Lorne Oliver), Dying to Live (Kyle Tennant), Michael Prince’s Capstone Performance (Jamie Horan), The Maltese Walter and Just Desserts (Ray Salcedo) and many more.