1960년대 한국 연극 예술의 정체성과 상업성 담론

Abstract

This study would investigate and reveal the image of theater that the play scene would create at this time and the changing patterns of the play scene by examining the commercial discourses raised in the scene of Korean plays in the 1960s. First, this study examined the point in which they would newly define the nature of theatrical art, distinguishing the theatrical from the non-theatrical through commercial discourses. The criticisms at this time defined and criticized that it would be non-theatrical and commercial to utilize stars instead of stage actors or show the actors’ personal technical skills or the scenes’ technical skills noticeably and present self-consciousness as stage actors and the ensemble of performances as the conditions with which theatrical art should be equipped. In addition, the ‘true audience’ of a play is limited to the audience with the ability to love and appreciate it, not the general public because the intrinsic value of the play has been found in emotional unity with the audience. Along with this view of the theater, as college student audience take the center, there is an aspect that the works selected by the audience are considered good ones. At the time, they chose classical masterpieces or popular works as their repertory to draw the attention of college student audience; however, low-quality performance is also criticized as a commercial attitude. This criticism is earnestly raised in the process in which emerging actors would distinguish their plays from technically inexperienced student plays and position themselves to a professional play company. In the theater in the 1960s, theatrical subjects redefined the nature of theater, actively utilizing commercial discourses and responded to the tasks of the play scene to construct their identities and roles.