Lee Hae-Rang, a director, was one of the most representative Realism directors of Korea who pursued Realism theater throughout his theater activities in an endeavor to help Realism theater introduced and taken root in Korea. The entire processes of h...
Lee Hae-Rang, a director, was one of the most representative Realism directors of Korea who pursued Realism theater throughout his theater activities in an endeavor to help Realism theater introduced and taken root in Korea. The entire processes of his theater activities represented an a cross-sectional aspect of the processes in which the Realism theater was accepted in the country.
This paper shed light on the characteristics of Realism inclination of Lee Hae-Rang, the director, by analyzing the director's book of Wild Duck and Long Days Journey Into the Night which incorporate the characteristics of Realism production the most intensively among his works.
The director's book of Lee Hae-Rang contains detailed description of actors or actresses' behaviors, lists his instructions for the performance of actors and actresses in detail, as well as his instructions relating to the structure of scenes.
This paper looked into the growth and education of Lee Hae-Rang, his experience with the performance on the stage as an actor, and the formation of his perspective toward the production through the knowledge of theories pertinent to the theater that he acquired from Chekhov and Stanislavsky, which aimed to gain an insight into the patterns of Realism represented in the works of Lee Hae-Rang based on the analysis of his director's book
His acquisition of theoretical knowledge on the Western Realism theater during his study in Japan and personal probe into theories of theater by reading many books paved the way for his formation of perspective toward the production, as well as his experience in childhood that helped shape his extraordinary artistic sensibility and his experience of the theater through the Tokyo Student Art Session when he was a young man.
In addition, he recognized the importance of detailed analysis of character while working as an actor for a long time, and put an emphasis on the temperate performance that was calculated precisely, and pursued Realism thoroughly, and in consideration of that, his extensive experience of the performance on the stage as an actor may have had a considerable effect on his formation of Realism perspective toward production.
Particularly, Lee Hae-Rang was influenced very much by Chekhov's perspective of theater and Stanislavsky's theory of theater while he was accepting theories relating to Realism theater.
On the basis of the aforesaid perspective of Lee Hae-Rang toward the production, he pursued Realism theaters throughout his production activities, and in particular, this paper examined the characteristic patterns that were revealed in his director's book by classifying them into three categories: 1) interpretation of theater as an interpretative director, 2) the pattern of stage composition, 3) the pattern of scene
Lee Hae-Rang, an interpretative director, attempted to embrace the intention of original work faithfully in his interpretation of theater, and tried to analyze the intention of the author and represent the value inherent in the text on the stage without compromising it.
In addition, Lee Hae-Rang emphasized the logical interpretation to ventilate the internal impulse of actor based on the interpretative standpoint of director when he was working with actors, and pursued unexaggerated, natural and delicate performance on the basis of logical interpretation.
He emphasized that a theater was like simply living on the stage, as Zola said that the performance was like living naturally, not before the audience, and he said that was possible only through scientific and logical interpretation.
His logical interpretation of theater as an interpretative director was applied to the performance of ensemble among actors . Lee Hae-Rang stressed that only the scientific and systematic interpretation of character and the subsequent thorough practice were the precondition for ensemble, presenting his standpoint of interpretative director who put an added emphasis on the logical interpretation in the creation of ensemble that builds the relationship among characters.
The aforesaid attitude of Lee Hae-Rang as an interpretative director incorporated Realism patterns into the composition of stage. First, he reiterated the importance of prior behavioral line design to reproduce the reality through the creation of ensemble relating to the composition of stage, which was enabled by generating scientific and systematic director's book
Second, Lee Hae-Rang used the behavioral line very often which put the character right in front of the audience for the composition of stage. Such uses of front position reinforced the dramatic meaning, while strengthening the Realism in the composition of stage.
Third, Lee Hae-Rang created scenes of crowd based on precise calculation in order to reproduce Realism in the composition of stage. Although scenes of crow in which the characters appear together at once may make the scenes distracted or lose focus, Lee Hae-Rang calculated every motion and movement of characters precisely and thoroughly in applying the focus and ensured that the reproduction of Realism could be realized through ensemble.
Fourth, he built the substructure through the business utilizing the props that were used in practical lives, which helped bolster the reality and facilitated the physical representation of subtext.
Lee Hae-Rang, the director, was in pursuit of the reality thoroughly for the composition of stage. First, he created a stage that reproduce the environment as a living space in the composition of stage.
Second, he applied the symbolic technique through the lighting and sound on the stage that was reproduced to strengthen the Realism in the composition of stage. Third, he made an extensive effort at the composition of scenes based on the reproduction of external reality of drama by selecting stage devices and props that were validated.
As it can be found in the pattern of Realism that was revealed in his director's book of <The Wild Duck> and <Long Days Journey Into the Night>, Lee Hae-Rang, a director, pursued only Realism theaters throughout his life.
Moreover, Lee Hae-Rang, a director, organized a mobile theater to promote theaters for people in provincial regions who were culturally disconnected, creating opportunities for them to experience theaters, and trained and fostered many young directors in theater groups and universities.
Undoubtedly, Lee Hae-Rang, a director, theatered a significant role in helping Realism theater introduced and taken root in Korea through his devotion to Realism theater throughout his life, an accomplishment which can be evaluated highly.
The scope of production tends to have little on-site record and is an art of moment that cannot be recorded by writing. Therefore, researches of the history of theater, drama, and author have been conducted vigorously, but little researches of actors and director have not been carried out which focus on the record of performance site.
Particularly when the characters that do not exist in reality are addressed, only the materials that have been preserved well without damage to date are analyzed, which makes it any objective research challenging and very careful.
Nonetheless, this thesis may be significant in that it represents the first attempt to shed light on the patterns of Realism production of Lee Hae-Rang, a director, through the analysis of real director's book.