Korean Drama -
Traditional
Korean Drama has its origins in shamanic ceremonies, dance dramas and performance rituals dating back to the first century BC. In Korea, these are generically known by the Korean words for playing Nolum (놀음) and Yeonhee (연희). The Korean drama Ch'oyong which developed during the Shilla Kingdom (57 B.C.-935), seems to one of the first forms of Korean Drama. It was a form which combined stories, musical accompaniment and dramatic dance movements and many of the elements of Korean drama.
Mask dance dramas, an integral part of
traditional Korean drama, are often known under regional names such as
‘tachchum’, ‘sandaenori’, ‘ogwangdae’ and ‘yayu’. Some mask dramas were
developed during specific eras such as the ‘Cheoyongmu’ life celebration dance
drama and ‘Hyangak’ five-mask drama (both developed during the Silla Kingdom).
Hahoe T’al – Origins of Korean Drama
The Korean
traditional folk dance drama form Hahoe Pyolshin-gut T'al-Nori
(sometimes known as Hahoe T’al) is one of the oldest and most enduring
folk drama forms. This shaman-based masked dance drama has its origins in the
12th century AD. The development of this form saw the emergence of
definite The form derives its name from Hahoemaul, Andong, Korea where the Hahoe
T’al wooden performance masks are made.
Traditional stories
tell the story of the birth of Hahoe T’al
when a talented young mask maker, Ho-dory-ong, received a revelation in a dream
from the village god to confine himself to a secluded place and devote himself
to making a complete set of 14 masks. It is told, that his girlfriend trying to
capture a glimpse of his mask making, disturbed him and the instant he was
seen, he began spitting up blood and he died on the spot. It is said that this
is the reason why the last mask, Imae, is an unfinished mask and does not have
a chin.
In Korean, masks are
called ‘Gamyeon’ which literally means ‘a false face’. The term ‘T’al’ (mask)
has the double meaning of ‘a disaster’ or ‘to remove a bad thing’.
Traditionally, T’al drama was seen as a way to remove potential disaster. Hahoe
masks are normally made of alderwood, covered with Korean paper made from
tak-namu (paper made from mulberry pulp), and then lacquered heavily and
painted with natural pigments. Village masks are often considered sacred and
kept in holy
place between
performances which prior to 1928 were sometimes only performed every three,
fives or ten years depending on the revelation of local rituals and the worship
of goddesses. In some regions, masks were used once and burnt after they were
used in a performance. In present day Korea, many performances seem to happen
now in the New Year or in early January. Folklore alleges that a person could
not go to heaven unless they had seen at least one Hahoe performance in their
lifetime.
The greatest
contribution that the Hahoe dance drama has made to Korean drama is its
development of definite allegorical or archetypal characters. Of the original
fourteen characters, eleven characters remain. These are:
Yangban
(an arrogant aristocrat)
Kakshi
(the bride)
Sonbi
(a scholar)
Pune
(a flirtatious young woman)
Ch'oraengi
(a busybody)
Paekchong(a
butcher)
Halmi
(the granny)
Chung
(a Buddhist priest)
Imae
(the foolish servant)
two
Chujis (two lions)
Hahoe drama
integrates shaman rituals and popular entertainment and the dance drama was
performed to bring peace and prosperity. The storylines are often comic
parodies of village life, status and social tensions of the village and family
life. Hahoe dance drama is normally accompanied by Nong-ak, one of the
oldest forms of Korean performance music and was traditionally played at
important rice festivals by a village percussion quartets made up of a Puk
(large drum), a Changgo (long drum), a Kkwaenggwari (small gong)
and a Ching (large gong).
Sandae Mask Drama
The use of movement, masks and musical
accompaniment are the common elements of traditional Korean drama from rural to
shamanic to royal performances. The Sandae drama developed during the
Koryo Dynasty (918-1392) started to develop more definite dramatic elements.
Although the sandae existed prior to the
14th century, the Choson Dynasty (1392-1910), saw it become a large
part of both rural and courtly life. The sandae is primarily performed
onstage by masked actors with songs and dances but each drama has definite
story and dialogue and monologues. Like much of Korean drama, sandae
often used satire of the aristocratic yangban and Buddhist priests
classes.
Sandae dance-dramas mostly consist of ten acts
and thirteen scenes each of which concentrates on one character and their
attributes such as “The Dark-Faced Monk” and often involves a love or power
triangle. The all-male cast use twenty-four masks and puppets and normally
perform on makeshift open air stage erected in public spaces such as village
squares. Normally the shows would begin after sunset and continue well on
through the night. Present day shows tend to be shorter and concentrate on just
a number of characters and some of the simpler storylines.
Talchum (탈춤) Mask Plays
Although the origins
of Talchum mask plays probably date
back to the Silla kingdom (57 B.C. – 1392 A.D.), it is not until the Joseon
Dynasty (1392-1910) that Talchum mask dance plays as we know them start to
become popular.
Mostly performed at
local festivals, these dramas were normally performed by peasants and farmers
and often explored larger social themes such as the harshness of life under
dishonest rulers, moral commentary on the debauchery of some of the monk class,
domestic drama on the relationships between wives, husbands and concubines, and
moral parables which advocated living a virtuous life. About thirteen different
forms of Talchum mask dramas still exist of which Songpa Talchum and Bongsan
Talchum are the most popular.
The masks themselves
are versatile and symbolic. A raising of the chin normally makes a mask more
cheerful while a dropping of the head or chin can make a mask look more evil
and menacing. In some regions, a mask painted half red and half white can
symbolize an illegitimate son while a disfigured or asymmetric mask can signify
a person with smallpox or leprosy. The use of white in masks often symbolizes
youth or purity and black usually signifies age. The red in masks like
Choegwari’s (the old Buddhist monk) may seem demonic but in fact in Korean
culture this seems to represents an over-indulgence.
The performances themselves
would now and then have audience participation and sometimes the resolution of
a play could be determined by the audience (normally the audience advocated the
death of an aristocrat). Some modern dance forms set to contemporary music use talchum
as a dance form.
Baltal Drama
Unlike other Korean Drama, Baltal or Baltalnori is a puppet show drama played with the feet. Combining dramatic elements of both mask drama and marionette drama, Baltal is believed to have its origins in the 19th Century in the Gyeonggi-do Province. In this drama, a puppet or mask (tal) is normally put on the foot (tal) and some of the other movements are controlled by bamboo poles. Today, this puppet theatre is performed on a boxed three-sided black curtain with a split in the middle for the foot puppet and a stage two metres by one metre where the baltal master lies inside and sticks his feet outside.
Allegedly, baltal is
said to have derived from the Korean namsadang puppet shows of itinerant
traveling players which were located around Anseong. Initially, baltal were
performed with a scarecrow-like head mask being put on the foot with the arms
being moved by strings which are attached to the puppet’s hands. The tradition
of bamboo pole system for hand movements was probably developed by the Korean
puppeteers Nam Hyongwoo or Lee Dong-an who would attach bamboo poles to the
puppet’s hands and control the poles with transparent strings which come over
the backdrop and are controlled by the puppeteer from behind the screen.
Baltal normally involved character based plays and folk
stories accompanied by songs and satirical dances and jokes. Often the stories
are criticisms of society and its leaders. Musicians often sit on either side
of the stage and often in a trio or quartet playing any number of instruments
including a two stringed Korean violin called a haegeum, two wind
instruments (the jeodae flute and the piri), a large Korean
kettle drum (called a buk), a small hand drum (buk), a kkwenggwari
(a small hand-held gong) and/or an hourglass-shaped drum (called a janggo).
The puppeteer and the
puppet characters often interact with the musicians, an actor (often a woman
dressed in yellow jacket) or a narrator (who is often dressed in grey trousers
and uses a fan. Often the story and dialogue is interspersed with songs,
character dances, dialogue, songs and satirical jokes.
Pansori Song
Drama
Pansori is a form of
storytelling song drama which became popular in Korea in the 19th
century combining vocal, percussive and narrative elements. The term pansori
derives from pan which in Korean means “a place where a crowd gathers”
and sori which means “sound”. The stories are handed down orally and a
full traditional story or madang (마당)
can take up to three to nine hours to complete and is made up of dialogue or
descriptive speeches called aniris (아니리) and song cycles called changs (창).
Today five of the original twelve madangs have endured. These are Chunhyangga,
Heungbuga, Jeokbyeokga, Simcheongga and Sugungga.
In a pansori
performance, the gosu or musician starts a specific rhythm and a
specific vocal tone called a chuimsae. Often the beat used is a 4:4
meter punctuated by pauses and exclamations. Then the kwangdaei or
singer enters, and stands with a folding fan which opens up and closes in
specific gestures and movements called pallim to announce the change in
each scene and mood changes within the song drama. The kwangdaei sings aniri
or sori with changes, phrases and clauses accentuated by the gosu
using olssu, chohchi, chohta or olsigu. The gosu sometimes
even takes on the beat and tones of characters in the story sung by the kwangdaei.
The audience sometimes encourages or suggests chuimsae in the
way that a sports crowd starts or maintains a chant.
Only six of the original twelve pansori
remain and these include Shin Chae-hyo’s (1812-1884) Ch'unhyangga,
T'oepyolga, Shimch'ongga, Pakhungboga, Chokpyokga and Pyon-gangsoeka.
In 2003, UNESCO proclaimed Pansori a Materpiece of the Oral and
Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Korean
Drama Exercises and Practical Activities
Baltal Exercises and Activities
Students prepare in groups to present a Korean
Folktale as a Baltal foot puppetry piece. Students should start on their backs
on the floor with socks on and their feet in the air. The teacher gets the
students to draw various shapes in the air with their socked feet – a horizontal
line, a vertical line, a curve, a circle, a figure eight etc. Next students
attempt to show different emotions with their feet as if the feet were faces
i.e. happiness, sadness, anger, excitement, shyness etc. Then students practice
having one of their feet talk to the other as if they were characters. Students
can then even draw faces on old light coloured socks to develop puppets in a
short simply way. Students can also make elaborate foot sock puppets of
different characters at this point.
A small fabric screen can be set up or a table
can be turned on its side to act as a foot puppet theatre. Students can even do
this with a separate person reading out the story while they act it out with
Baltal puppets which they make themselves. See some of the links below to
Korean Folk stories.
Other Korean Drama form activities
Other forms of Korean traditional drama can be
explored with some of the links below. Students can even make, create and paint
their own Korean drama character masks for various Korean drama mask forms
Bibliography
Banham, Martin. 2005.
Cambridge Guide to Theatre. P607-609.
Cho, Oh-Kon. 2002. Traditional Korean Theatre – Studies in Korean Religions and Culture 2, Asian Humanities Press. New York.
(Accessed 10/11/13)
(Accessed 12/11/13)
(Accessed 13/11/13)
http://www.accu.or.jp/ich/en/arts/A_KOR2.html
(Accessed 17/12/13)
Movies and Images
Making and Painting Korean Masks
Wetzel, Charles. 2007. How to Make a Korean Mask.
Youtube.
(Accessed 16/12/2013)
Hahoe Mask Drama
(Accessed 10/12/1013)
(Accessed 19/12/2013)
(Accessed 11/12/2013)
Talchum
(Accessed 18/12/2013)
Pansori
(Accessed 20/12/2013)
(Accessed 21/12/2013)
