{"id":430,"date":"2020-11-09T21:34:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T21:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/?p=430"},"modified":"2022-11-23T20:05:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T20:05:43","slug":"the-counterpart-becoming-myself-interview-with-kang-ryang-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/the-counterpart-becoming-myself-interview-with-kang-ryang-won\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Counterpart” Becoming Myself: Interview with Kang Ryang-won"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Lee Hwawon<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Director Kang Ryang-won. Photo: Courtesy of Kang Ryang-won<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For nearly 20 years as the leader of Dong Theatre Company, Kang Ryang-won has been a director of performances in which the audience are expected to find their own meaning. He majored in Theology in Korea and studied directing at the Vakhtangov Theatre Shchukin Theatre Institute, Russia. He mainly creates texts from segmented pieces of the actor’s physical acts and works with his actors to make up their own text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He started performing in Korea with Ph\u00e8dre,<\/em> The Maids<\/em> and adaptations of novels such as Gogol\u2019s The Overcoat<\/em>, Kafka\u2019s Metamorphosis<\/em>, \u00c9mile Zola\u2019s Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Raquin<\/em> and William Faulkner\u2019s As I Lay Dying,<\/em> developing his own writing and acting methods. Since the sinking, in 2014, of the Sewol Ferry, he has presented works which allow to look at issues in Korean society. Among them, he performed Crab Factory Ship<\/em> in Japan and Secret Police<\/em>, Invisible Man<\/em>, Waning Crescent,<\/em> Or<\/em> the<\/em> Way You Remember The World<\/em> in Moscow and Korea. In the last seven years, he has won a number of major theatre awards, which have put him in the spotlight of both the local and  the international theatre community.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jean Racine, Ph\u00e8dre, <\/em>Theatre Dong, Seoul, 1999. Photo: Dong Theatre Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Immediately after returning from Russia, you founded Dong Theatre Company and started to perform at Theatre Dong, in the Hongdae area, in 1999. Back then, your artistic choices were unique and hard to comprehend. What were your special intentions in such choices, and what do you think when you look back on them today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the beginning of my present directing and theatre language. Rather than performing predictable dramas, I tried to have my actors meet and respond to \u201ccounterparts\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/a> physically, within the boundaries of theatre and non-theatre. I wanted to turn all texts into pieces offering characters as counterparts to be met by actors and make each piece an independent symbol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am still heading towards that impossible aim. The actor creates the story through physical movements of the body. As the audience tries to understand it, it is drawn unconsciously into the actor’s physical movements. The story is a way of opening up the audience’s own body, and it is important that the actor’s body and the audience’s body affect each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I focus more on the materiality of words such as the sound of speech, the color and strength of words. I try to place them next to the body without absorbing them into it. So, if the words are soft, the body acts strongly, and if the words are strong, the body acts softly. I try not to match words with actions. I like to have my actors talk with different rhythms and tempo using their body. This delays the interpretation as long as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jean Genet, The Maids<\/em>, Theatre Dong, Seoul, 2001. Photo: Dong Theatre Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You remind me of the idea of the \u201cGrotesque\u201d described in Meyerhold\u2019s theatre method\u2014the effect of \u201cunfamiliarization\u201d created by connecting disparate elements. While studying in Russia, you, of course, met with Stanislavski’s acting training and his interest in the physical body. The training and use of the body have since been developed by Vakhtangov, Meyerhold and Grotowski in theatre. Could you compare your training methods with those masters\u2019 mentioned above?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jean Genet, The Maids<\/em>, Theatre Dong, Seoul, 2001. Photo: Dong Theatre Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Vakhtangov Theatre Institute, where I studied, has moved on from Stanislavski very creatively. That is where I learned to focus on \u201ccounterpart.\u201d When an actor concentrates on the counterpart, his body opens up and extends to the counterpart, to the whole world he encounters. I am not interested in conflicts between characters, but in showing changes and creations in one\u2019s own world. For example, in Waning Crescent<\/em>, Or<\/em> the Way You Remember the World<\/em>, I wanted my actor to concentrate on a single person, to look at the world of the murderer and show the universe at the moment when the murderer throws himself on to the knife of the mother of the recently murdered child. I do not think an actor goes into action by thinking of the purpose, the reason and who the character is, but by his behavior on stage and a combination of those movements. Towards the end of his life, Stanislavski became interested in the present being, and he ultimately wanted the actor to act as himself. During my study in Russia, those who believed that Stanislavski\u2019s main concern was the story and the given circumstances told me this was not Stanislavski. I got along better with theatrical people who were studying Meyerhold and Vakhtangov, thinking they understood Stanislavski better.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Chang Kang-myung, Waning Crescent, Or the Way You Remember the World<\/em>, Namsan Art Center, Seoul, 2007. Photo: Dong Theatre Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I agree that the whole world surrounding us, including the counterpart, is always undergoing organic change and creation, communicating with us at various levels. By the way, your 2012 Secret Police<\/font> used not only the actor’s body, but also various versions of the performance to differentiate it from other works, adding overwhelming audio-visual effects. You used Korean traditional art, including live gugak performance and Korean traditional puppetry, for your theatrical spectacle. Can you explain the direction, intention and effect, compared to your previous works?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secret Police<\/em> was mostly inspired by Meyerhold\u2019s version of Gogol\u2019s The Inspector<\/em>. Just as Meyerhold discovered that theatre was the most immediate way to communicate with the public, I created the spectacle of \u201ctheatricalism\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a> through using the traditional Namsadang<\/em> play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What matters to me on the stage is always about actors\u2019 meeting the counterpart; I wanted to produce not only naturalist works like Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Raquin<\/em>, but also Meyerhold-type works such as Secret Police<\/em>. While sticking to the reality of the original play, I tried to expose how the influx of Western culture has unbalanced Korean culture: so, American musical hits were heard through speakers, as traditional Korean instruments were performing. Also, while the main character, the Inspector, did not appear, I tried to show that the censorship\u2014which breaks in and pretends to be the master, not an outsider\u2014was equivalent to the Inspector. I also tried to communicate with the audience physically and sensually, surprising them before they even thought about it. This may have given the audience more immediate “pleasure.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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Gogol, Secret Police<\/em>, Arco Art Grand Theatre, Seoul, 2010. Photo:  Dong Theatre Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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