3·1운동과 극장-극장 관객성의 변화 및 경성 극장업의 식민지적 재편에 대한 기성 연극계의 대응을 중심으로(1919-1922)-

Abstract

Based on the materials on the theaters and performances held in Gyeongseong from the March 1st Movement to 1922, this paper examined how established performers planned to build new theaters and gather sponsors and how reality was reflected in the performances in the light of the change in the spectatorship and the colonial reorganization of the theater industry after the March 1st Movement. The demonstrations held in Gyeongseong theaters took place in Dansungsa and Woomigwan from March 21 to 23. Considering that the police force was a constant presence, the demonstrations held in the theaters were a “threshold” moment. The suspension of performances in theaters began on March 25 and differed by whether the theaters were for the Japanese or Korean audience due to the ethnic spatial characteristic of the Korean theaters. Although the theaters reopened in early April, the aftershock of the demonstrations remained. Audience correspondence and reviews displayed criticism toward the “discrimination against Koreans” in theaters and the “Japanese style” in Shinpageuk (new trend theater) and the change in the spectatorship as the audience attempted to interpret “the political.” Such demands became a critical issue as established performers explored new grounds. The performance theaters experienced economic hardship after Danseongsa opened its movie theater, and the movie theater/large-scale theater system was consolidated after the abolishment of the Company Act and the expansion of the Japanese theater capital. The business tax (theater tax) increased from June 1920, and miscellaneous tax and actors tax were also reformed at the disadvantage of Korean theaters. The rise in business tax, in particular, led to the increase in the rental cost of theaters, which was at the core of the theaters’ economic hardship. Confidential materials on the Galdophoe Theater Troupe in 1922 and newspaper articles on the regulations for theaters show that the censorship during this period was tightened and that even the “expressions” and “lines” at the Korean theaters were contextually interpreted by the law enforcement. Faced with the double tasks of responding to the changing spectatorship and new demands, and coping with the contradictions of the colonial theater industry and strengthened censorship, the established theater industry attempted to build new theaters, such as Lim Seong-goo’s Gyeongseong Theater and Korea Entertainment Cooperation, and organize sponsors, so as to overcome the management issues and economic hardship and make changes to the “Japanese style” Shinpageuk. By 1921, however, the theater industry chose to comply with the system, as seen in the organization of a sponsor group consisting of compliant nationalists at the Art Association and Korean aristocrats, or the colonial capitalism and the interest of the Japanese empire projected in the licensing process of the Korean theaters, including the Joongang Theater and Joseon Theater. Nevertheless, a social imagination that implied the reality was alive and well in “Shingeuk” (New Drama) performances held by the established theaters. Namely Yoon Baek-nam’s productions, such as Huimujeong(Les Misérables), which was adapted to express the violence of the police force, the abject poverty and reality, and rage, or the translation of Louis XVI, which alluded to King Gojong, the March 1st Movement, and the people’s movement, were the works that displayed the social imagination and the “implied reality” found in the performances held by the established theaters. The imagination that alluded to the reality in Joseon was presented to the audience and the well-trained audience became the true legacy of the March 1st Movement.