Mark Kwak wanted to make a Korean Culture Night that would appeal to people from all backgrounds and not just Koreans. He started writing a script at the beginning of the school year and after more than six months at work, the fruits of his labors are finally ripe. Tonight is opening night.
Hanoolim, a student-run Korean cultural group on campus, presents “In the Making” tonight at 7 p.m. in Royce Hall. The show will use Kwak’s, a fourth-year business economics and theater student, original script, while integrating elements of traditional drumming, traditional dance and even modern dance.
“We’re trying to make it very modern and a show that people can relate to,” said Lisa Kim, a fourth-year linguistics student and Korean Culture Night’s executive producer.
“The audience who are going to be watching this show are our generation, and they’re students or people in our community. In the past, it’s been very traditional, like the themes, and we’re trying to make it more modern-contemporary so that everyone can relate to what the character is going through.”
Based in Koreatown, the story focuses on two American-born Korean brothers and their conflicted attitudes toward traditional Korean culture and toward each other. The brothers’ conflict is also a reflection of Kwak’s play in the context of Korean Culture Night; a move from the traditional to the contemporary in order to appeal to a larger, more general audience.
“A huge clash of personalities (ends) up enabling events and conflicts that end up testing their relationship, testing the family, testing Korean culture as well,” said Kwak, who also directed “In the Making.”
In the play, the two brothers represent different aspects of the Korean cultural experience. Older brother David Yoon embodies Korean American culture, while younger brother Jason gets much more involved with traditional Korean culture, while younger brother Jason gets much more involved with traditional Korean culture, Kwak said.
“A lot of what Korean Americans go through is embodied by Jason. Maybe not the experiences, but the turmoil that goes inside with this whole culture,” said Andrew Han, a second-year civil engineering student who plays Jason. “The problem with Jason is that he’s too involved with Korean culture, too deep into it. He’s allowed culture to take over.”
According to Justin Yi, a fourth-year international development studies student who plays David, his character does not initially embody any aspect of Korean or Korean American culture. Because his near abandonment of Korean culture is such a big contrast from Jason, it causes problems.
“It’s a big identity thing with David and Jason. You can see that a lot of Koreans, because of this identity struggle, either fall under the Jason category or the David category. Toward the end, both of us come together. There’s some compromise,” Han said.
Yi and Han expressed the difficulty in resolving these cultural extremes. In a similar vein, Kwak said that the brothers’ strengths and weaknesses balance each other out. The brothers’ continued growth explains the play’s title, as both brothers are in the making with respect to their relationship and their cultural identities.
“A lot of Korean Americans these days don’t really know which road to follow in terms of, “˜Should we head toward the American dream?’ At the same time, our parents try to implement Korean customs and traditional values. Our generation is confused about how to mash it together,” Kim said.
“It’s very different, Western values and Eastern values. People feel very incomplete because they end up, as portrayed in the story, focusing on one or the other.”
Although “In the Making” is a contemporary story, it incorporates traditional Korean dancing and drumming. The juxtaposition of the old and the new is not only a salient feature of past Korean Culture Nights but also addresses the play’s conflict. Kwak said that creating a germane context for these traditional artistic idioms has always been a challenge for past writers and directors.
“I made a goal to myself to make sure that they were well incorporated. I’ve actually made it so the story line actually incorporates these things. The plot has to deal with these (in-play) performances,” Kwak said.
A few of the event’s goals are to celebrate Korean culture and educate others. The event’s reputation grows more favorable every year, and Kim said she is especially excited this year for the increased involvement of non-Koreans.
“Every year, the audience diversifies,” Kim said. “This year, a lot of non-Koreans applied, … and we do have a lot of people of different ethnic backgrounds in the show. I think that’s really great because they know how big we are and what a good job we do, but then by teaching Korean culture, they are also learning Korean culture.”
Kwak said that questioning Korean culture actually strengthens Korean Americans’ burgeoning understanding of their culture.
“At any point in our lives, we’re in the making,” Kim said.