The New York Times: When most Americans think of Korean pop music, colloquially called K-pop, what comes to mind is usually Psy’s “Gangnam Style” — a high-octane fusion of rap verses, techno beats and pop hooks, complete with an ultrabright music video and hypersynchronized dance moves. But the playwright Jason Kim is hoping to change that.
2 comments:
I really wish I could see this show! This summer I was one of the assistant stage manager's on Jason Kim's new play The Model American, and working was him was an amazing experience. He has such a great ability to capture people's experiences from all different backgrounds and bring them to the stage. His play this summer was about the immigrant experience in America from the perspective of a gay Latino man, and how he advances throughout the business world. During rehearsals for Model American he told us about KPOP and I was super interested in it. Immersive theatre is something that I always have loved attending, so a show that incorporates this idea with high-energy music is something I would love to see. I think it's also unique that KPOP explores the way that the pop groups are built, which is something that many people will have never heard of before. With all of the issues with whitewashing that the entertainment industry has seen lately it's also great that the 17 person cast is almost entirely made up of people from an Asian background. Jason is both an amazing writer and an awesome person, so I really hope that this production is a huge success.
This production looks incredibly exciting. I would be very interested in seeing where the KPOP genre and style could be incorporated on stage, as anyone who has seen a KPOP video will tell you that everything is immaculately designed and incredibly clean. Not only that, but it could provide an opportunity for Asian and Asian American performers to have roles on a broadway stage, which is something that has been incredibly lacking. It seems that this show is also focused on educating people about how KPOP is made, something that I personally don't have any knowledge about, and had no idea that the music was produced in the "factory-like" setting that the article describes. I know that KPOP performers are incredibly talented singers and dancers, but I didn't know that they can train for up to 15 years before stepping foot on stage. Not to mention the fact that this show is also immersive, which could provide for some amazing opportunities for audiences literally to step foot into a KPOP music video, which has always been a dream of mine.
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