Art and Culture

It's now time for our daily arts and culture segment with Michelle Kim. Today, she'll introduce us to two performances currently on stage in Korea and give us some news about Angelina Jolie.

Hello Michelle

[Reporter : ] Hello Conn-young

So let's start with the performances. What can you tell us about them

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[Reporter : ] The National Dance Company of Korea is presenting an encore production of its popular show "Madame Domi", which won rave reviews from critics overseas when it was first staged 20 years ago. The other show is a musical about monks in the Silla Dynasty.

Passion, jealousy and betrayal intertwine in a dance play called "Madame Domi" that is being presented at the National Theater of Korea until tomorrow, September 19th.
The show, which mixes the traditional Korean dance style of salpuri with beautiful staging and elegant costumes.
It was first performed in Los Angeles in 1984 during the Summer Olympics and has since been presented around 200 times.
The work was created by the National Dance Company of Korea, which is launching its 50th anniversary season with this show.
The show is based on a Korean folktale about the Baekjae Kingdom and tells the story of a musician named Domi and his beautiful wife Arang.
The life of the happily married couple is interrupted when King Gaeru becomes obsessed with Arang and tries to force her to live with him.
When she rejects his offer, he tries to tear husband and wife apart, but the two resist and are finally reunited.
The show ends with the re-creation of a shamanic ritual called a "gut" that originated in Jindo, South Jeolla Province.
This is a rare chance to see not only this beautiful ritual, but a classic Korean tale brought to life.

The musical "Song of Two Flowers" is also a period piece that is on stage this month.
It tells about the dreams, friendships, love and jealousies of two Buddhist monks during the Silla Dynasty.
It is performed in a sung-through style, which uses minimal dialogue and relies on music to convey the conversatiosn and thoughts of the characters.
The show is presented against a striking backdrop that features two rotating discs on stage.
It continues at the Universal Arts Center until September 30th.

Both of these shows seem to really bring out the beauty of traditional Korean music and dance. What can we expect in the theater[Reporter : ] Well, "Madame Domi" uses traditional Korean court dance, folk dance and folk games to tell the sad tale of Arang and her husband. The show is produced by Guk Soo-ho, who played the role of Domi 20 years ago, and is choreographed by the company's founding director Song Beom.
"Song of Two Flowers" is an intricate piece that requires listeners to pay close attention to the dialogue yet is also entertaining on many levels.

They both sound like interesting shows. And now, what else do you have for us[Reporter : ] Well moving on, Angelina Jolie visited Syria's four borders to tour refugee camps and meet with government leaders. Throughout her trip, she emphasized the importance of keeping the borders open to keep the refugees safe. Here are the details.

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie was in Jordan and Lebanon last week on a
mission to draw attention to the plight of Syrian refugees as part of her role as a special envoy for the United Nations.
According to the UNHCR, around 250,000 Syrians have fled to Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, where refugee camps have been set up along the borders.
In July, Jolie opened the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, which is 80 kilometers north east of the Jordani capital of Amman and shelters 28,000 Syrian refugees displaced by the 18-month old conflict.
Jolie seemed partiularly disturbed to hear "horrific" accounts from children about what they have seen in their ordeal.

[Interview : Angelina Jolie, Actress]
"Little children, I asked what they saw, and they described body parts separated and burnt people being pulled apart like chicken. That's a little nine-year-old girl that said that. It is also very emotional with people who are wondering who is on their side".

After her visit to Jordan, Angelina Jolie went to Lebanon, where she met with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and toured more refugee camps.
While there, Jolie expressed her gratitude to the Lebanese people for keeping the refugees safe, even when the Lebanese themselves are dealing with their own problems with their own economy.
Jolie recently visited Syrian refugee camps in Turkey and Iraq and met with government officials.
She is hoping to urge the governments of all four countries to keep the borders they share with Syria open, so the refugees can find safety outside of their homeland.

I've always respected Angelina Jolie for her interest in humanitarian issues such as these. I admire her for being not just an actess, director and mother but also for her work as a UN representative.

[Reporter : ] Yes, she's certainly doing important work. It's so hard to imagine what the refugees are going through, but to see children being subjected to such horrors is very sad.

I definitely agree and I hope the bloodshed in Syria will end soon. And now to wrap things up, you have the events bulletin, right[Reporter : ] Yes I do. There are three concerts in today's bulletin. Simon-D and the Geeks play in Hongdae on 22nd of this month, rock s tar Hong Kyung-min plays a concert in October, and the Geeks return to play on their own at the end of that month.

[Reporter : ed: jenny]
Simon-D and Geeks will perform on the 22nd of this month at Hongdae's V-Hall with a line-up of K-pop s tars including D-unit and 7 Puppet. The concert is part of the M.Pack Show series, which previously took place in larger venues but has been moved to Hongdae to give audiences a more intimate exprience.

Hong Kyung-min is celebrating his 15th anniversary with a concert at the Blue Square Samsung Card Hall on October 6th and 7th. Three years after his debut in 1997 with the album "Dedicate", he rose to fame in the year 2000 with the hit song "Broken Friendship".

If you miss the Geeks concert at V-Hall, you can see them again at Rolling Hall, another Hongdae venue, on October 28th. The band is performing with several other musicians in a concert that mixes rock and hip-hop music. The line-up includes BlackNut, Crucial STAR, Swings, and many more.

Thank you for the update

[Reporter : ] My pleasure.

SEP 18, 2012

Reporter : dainee@arirang.co.kr