What we experience as a teenager has a great impact on our lives. Today, I would like to tell the story of students who gain life experiences through theater activities. It is the '23rd Daegu Youth Play Festival' . In this theater festival, 9 high school theater teams (Hamjigo, Daegok High School, Dasago, Jeil Women's Commercial High School, Hyehwa Girls' High School, Shinmyeong High School, Dowon High School, Gyeongbuk Technical High School, Daegu Tourism High School) participate to show off their dreams and passion . It is a valuable stage to do .
Youth theater is not evaluated on the perfection of the play itself, but rather focuses on the experience students build through theater activities . In other words, the process is more important than the result, and it is an activity where you can learn and experience a lot about real life in the process. In particular, youth plays mainly deal with works that reflect the emotions of young people or deal with youth problems so that they can immerse themselves.
If you look at the entries of this Daegu Youth Theater Festival, you can know the characteristics of youth plays. The main topics of interest in adolescence are 'self, family, school life, friendship, wandering, and dreams'. Because the repertoire of youth plays is not diverse, there are teams that perform the same work, but it is said that this is common in youth plays that value process.
Watching 'Mom!' of the theater class at Dasa High School
Among the performances of 9 theater teams, I chose Dasa High School's 'Mom! '. Would you say the title appealed to you the most? I was curious about what the "mom" our teenagers talk about and play is like. It ran for about an hour, but it was a highly immersive play. Stage equipment, acting, and overall sound quality were high, so I could feel how serious the students were. 'Mom!' is a large-scale play in which 11 high school freshmen and sophomores appear. As director Kim Ye-bin said, "I wanted to draw a more info diary of humanity's growth that contains the confusion, conflict, and reconciliation of high school students." She revealed her directing intentions.
The entire storyline of the play 'Mom!' 유스씨어터 contains the conflict between family members, the conflict and reconciliation with the real mother, and the conflict and understanding with the stepmother . Most of the characters are teenagers, so it's not too much trouble, but the main roles of "real mother, stepmom, father, and teacher" require acting skills and character analysis, so I wondered how the students handled them.
First of all, I was surprised by the acting of the two female students who played the roles of stepmom and biological mother. Even though she is still in high school, she played the role of a mother raising her children well. Thanks to that, the structure of the play was very stable. In particular, the male student who played the main character Hyeon-soo was amazing. It was touching to finally meet her real mother and tell each other what was inside and become a sea of tears. Even professional actors say that it is difficult to act crying, but 'Hyun-soo' led the play to the highlight by saying his lines without missing his emotions while crying. All the visitors were very moved by that part.