Traditional performing arts, which are rooted in Korean history and culture, are currently showing the signs of modernistic development by promoting the production of various contents through the integration with new technologies and different genres ...
Traditional performing arts, which are rooted in Korean history and culture, are currently showing the signs of modernistic development by promoting the production of various contents through the integration with new technologies and different genres while preserving and succeeding to the original forms. While moving into the 2000’s, the advancement of technology has enabled the exchange between various cultures around the world and the extensive embracement of such cultures, and Korea is also conducting and providing various researches and supports for traditional performing arts to expand its cultural industry.
Today, the traditional performing arts experience the severance from the public as they failed to adapt to rapid socio-cultural changes while undergoing historical events such as the influx of western culture, colonization by Japan, and the Korean War and also, they are perceived as a peculiar genre of art which require special skills. This study intended to understand various efforts which are made to overcome such phenomena and bring traditional performing arts closer to the people, by applying the concept of ‘integration.’ Among such efforts, this study discussed the meaning and effect of using traditional performing arts by focusing on the genre integration with the musical which shares the characteristics of performing arts.
First, the trends of the traditional performing arts and the musical were analyzed through the review of literatures and advance preceding studies. Based on the literature analysis, an in-depth analysis was conducted on the ‘creative musical’ pieces produced by domestic staff and opened between 2010 and 2020 to determine how traditional performing arts have been used within the compositional format of the musical where the story, song, and dance are put on stage at the same time. Within the limited scope and theoretical background, three pieces: the <Red Cliff> which opened at Jeongdong Theater, the musical <Pan> which opened at CJ Azit Theater on Daehakno and Jeongdong Theater, and the musical <Seopyeonje> which opened four times since 2010, were analyzed in depth. The compositional format and the elements derived from traditional performing arts were analyzed, and in-depth interviews with the crew members of the pieces were also conducted to verify the objectiveness of the study. As a result, it was possible to classify the pieces into ‘non-organic stage’ where the elements derived from traditional performing arts formed a significant relationship within the compositional format of the musical, the ‘transitional stage’ where both simple integration and partial organic relationship were found, and ‘organic stage’ where each of the elements were applied appropriately and the quality of the piece was high.
This study intended to investigate the meaning and effect of forming an organic relationship between Korean traditional performing arts and musical by applying the concept of integration by focusing on the modernistic development of the Korean traditional performing arts involved with a musical piece. In summary, the combination of the compositional format of the musical and the Korean traditional performing arts formed an organic relationship which reduced negative perception of traditional performing arts and suggested the possibility of developing it into a unique musical format that can be produced in Korea. This possibility of development represents the possibility of an alternative that can not only overcome the limitation of the Korean traditional performing arts as a genre but also eliminate overheated competition and lack of materials, the problems emerging in domestic musical market. Furthermore, it is expected to expand the scope of reinterpretation regarding traditional performing arts and lead the cultural industry of Korea.