극단 가교(架橋)의 관객지향성 연구

Abstract

Gagyo is a theater company which was first established by drama and cinema majors who basically wanted to communicate with the public via plays. In order to invite as many audiences as possible to its plays, Gagyo had shows on tour ever since it was first founded, and in the 1960's when everyone was passionate about a realism drama, Gagyo was brave and different enough not to follow the trend but, instead, staged plays of various genres such as an epic drama and an absurd drama. During its tours across the country, Gagyo entertained and enlightened the audiences with biblical dramas and educative dramas. Its biblical dramas performed with the support from Methodist Church were welcomed by several schools, churches, prisons and others on every Easter season and every Christmas season as well. The mostly-known biblical dramas of Gagyo should be and . In particular, was the very first shadow play in Korea while this was a work which had been staged for more than 600 times. In terms of the most popular educative dramas of Gagyo, they should be as well as . When these two dramas were performed, Gagyo hoped that it could make changes in how the public understand some particular social issues back then which were roundworms and Hansen's disease. In the end, not only did the educative dramas of Gagyo achieve its primary purpose to enlighten the public but also encouraged ordinary people to stage their own plays in their lives. This was confirmed when children who had seen had fun playing roles during Gagyo's tour with . Now, another time had come for Gagyo to take a new step to develop beyond its show on tour. Gagyo finally created its own 'Moving Theater' and visited audiences. Gagyo made 'Tent Theater' and during the summer, which was the slow season for drama companies, it personally gathered audiences on beaches and mountains and staged its play. In the beginning, 'Tent Theater' would have performed only works of Gagyo but after a few years, this 'Tent Theater' changed into a summer theater festival which other theater companies could participate in. What and how Gagyo would do for its performances did influence other theater companies and eventually, while observing Gagyo and being inspired by it, those theaters became convinced of borrowing some ideas and works of Gagyo when they prepared for their own performances. The 1980's came and Gagyo entered a period of downturn as Seung-kyu LEE, both a president and a director of the company, resigned. A person who took a replacement for Seung-kyu LEE was Jin-ju MOH, and MOH was assigned to directing of Shakespeare's works. During these times, Gagyo, down on the road, focused mostly on foreign plays as well as other plays which were most appreciated by the audiences in the past. In the 1990's, Gagyo went for a new challenge and put on a musical drama which was being almost vanished since it was first introduced in the 1920's. The musicals of Gagyo attracted a lot of attention from the public and in the end, it became a trend. The musical drew middle-aged audiences to the theaters and gradually, people in different age groups also showed a great interest in the musical. When a theater company wants to make its musical play a resource to lengthen its lifespan, it, first, needs to understand emotions of people, music and others of those times. However, when it comes to musicals of Gagyo, the backgrounds of theirs were dealing with the Japanese colonial era and the Korean War but nothing else while only some old pop songs in the past were used in the plays. The audiences saw Gagyo constantly staging musicals of the similar topics and structures only and as a result, after some ten years of musical play performance, Gagyo was shunned by the audiences. As clearly described in the foundation philosophy of Gagyo, the concerned theater company pursued plays which would be with audiences. Gagyo, in other words, wanted to use its performance as a chance to entertain the public and to communicate with them. What and how Gagyo did to make its foundation philosophy real, approaching audiences even more closely, could be found in many fields. As it made it clear from the foundation philosophy, Gagyo lent its devices to others and held theater seminars targeting teachers who teach a play to students. In addition, Gagyo made several attempts to come closer to audiences, first, by staging plays of various genres for the sake of audiences when the whole theater field in Korea was still concentrating on the realism drama. Second, Gagyo was not afraid of performing not only in some traditional stages but also other places while it introduced so many different performing methods to the audiences in Korea, such as the shadow play and the dumb masque. Gagyo also tried to make plays to satirize circumstances and issues of those times. From the very first day of the company to the last day, Gagyo did the best to keep its initial determination and spirit as it preserved Donginje. Based on what has been learned so far, the study confirmed that Gagyo has been constantly participating in audience-centered activities since it was first established in the year of 1965. It is considered truly rare for a theater company to perform for audiences for 50 years and longer. All those activities and achievements of Gagyo so far are believed to be as satisfactory as those of other theater companies in the field of theater in Korea. However, considering how Gagyo is doing at this very moment, it feels a bit sad because this theater company is leveling off for now after all those years when Gagyo took a lead in making changes in performing arts by actively visiting audiences and performing for them. The earlier members got old and failed to find any young members who would be proper enough to preserve the reputation and the foundation philosophy of Gagyo. Not only that, Gagyo was not smart or quick enough to suitably cope with changes in its operational methods. These are considered as some of the causes for Gagyo to end its history as Donginje. The study, however, will look forward to seeing Gagyo taking the most impressive leap once again for a better future of the play field in Korea.