I Will Live As An Actor

Chapter 76

“Why is the stage so clean?”

Actor Ji Dong-yeon’s eyes widened.

“Don’t ask me, Young-guk came here since morning and cleaned and polished the whole place by himself. We were also surprised when we came here. We were wondering if we had to hire someone to clean the stage.”

“Young-guk did it?”

“Not only that, he also marked the movements on the stage with markers. And he taped the stage sections to make blocking easier. When I asked him how he did it, he said he just learned from a book.”

“Huh.”

Ji Dong-yeon chuckled bitterly. 

They had rented the theater for a month for the National Theater Festival. 

It was a place that had been closed for a long time, so there were many things to fix.

Especially marking the movements on the stage or dividing the stage sections were not easy things to learn without a long experience in theater. 

How could he learn from a book? 

Ji Dong-yeon’s gaze turned to Young-guk, who was at one corner of the stage.

‘What is his identity?’

He couldn’t forget the performance he showed at the first rehearsal. He was too skilled to be a rookie actor. 

He had the aura of someone who had trained in theater for a long time.

He couldn’t help but ask the temporary director Lee Chang-hoon who Young-guk learned acting from. But the answer he got made his jaw drop.

Self-taught.

“Young-guk, you worked hard since morning.”

Director Lee Chang-hoon patted Young-guk’s shoulder. He was also amazed. 

Who would have thought that Young-guk would come here early in the morning and clean and arrange the stage by himself. 

He was a teen star who was popular in the broadcasting industry. He thought he would be arrogant, but his actions were admirable.

“No, it wasn’t that hard.”

Young-guk smiled awkwardly. 

The truth was, he came here early in the morning because of a habit from his past life.

‘The youngest ones always had to clean.’

Cleaning the stage and the seats was the duty of the youngest. 

Young-guk had been the youngest for a long time. 

Even when new juniors came, they didn’t last more than a few months and left. He had been the youngest for over five years.

“Oppa.”

Then Yeon-su came closer and called Young-guk. She took him to a place where no one was and sighed.

“Next time, take me with you.”

“Huh?”

“If you have to clean in the morning, let’s go together.”

Young-guk realized his mistake. He forgot that he wasn’t the only youngest in the theater. 

Yeon-su was also younger than him and his sister. He felt sorry for her.

She must be uncomfortable with the situation. 

It was like the soldiers who were in the same rank had to watch their seniors. If one of them stood out, the other one would be underestimated.

“Okay, let’s go together next time.”

Yeon-su’s lips curled up. Young-guk didn’t know. Yeon-su didn’t say that because she was worried. 

She was looking forward to coming to the empty theater with Young-guk in the morning. Then director Lee Chang-hoon shouted.

“Run-through, let’s start!”

***

Run-through.

A rehearsal where the actors perform from the beginning to the end of the show without stopping. 

Even if the actors make a mistake, the director does not stop the rehearsal.

Usually, a run-through is practiced after taking a role and rehearsing for each scene for more than three months. But with the Korean Theater Festival approaching, the start of the run-through had to be hastened.

“Director Sung, how do you feel after watching the rehearsals for the past two weeks as a director and a stage manager?”

“It’s beyond my imagination. I expected them to adapt quickly since they were already quite famous in the theater scene, but they erased the problems that showed up in the first rehearsal in just two weeks. Park’s eye contact was an issue, but it improved like a lie. Son and Kim also regained their old selves. There’s nothing to say about the chief and Ji. They’re all in their prime. The driving force behind this must be Jang.”

“Isn’t it amazing?”

“What can I say? It’s not only amazing, but I’ve never seen such a rookie in my stage manager career. Thanks to him, even the actor next to him, Yeon, is improving his acting skills visibly.”

The rehearsals went on without a break for the last two weeks. 

They were actors who had dominated the theater scene once, but they had been immersed in the broadcasting industry for a long time, so I thought it would take quite a while to recover their old selves. But for some reason, as the rehearsals repeated, they didn’t take long to regain their appearance from their heyday. 

At the center of it was the actor Jang Young-guk.

‘I wonder if they all feel stimulated by him, regardless of their experience in the theater scene.’

It’s not his acting skills as a rookie. 

The director has to control and coordinate everything that happens on the stage. 

When an actor shows an exaggerated performance, he has to point it out and set up the stage again using the stage equipment when he feels that the blocking and movement are lacking. 

Not to mention that this is a temporary theater rental.

It’s a small stage that can’t even compare to a regular theater stage. 

It’s a mistake to think that it’s easier to perform on a small stage because the stage is smaller. 

Rather, it was harder to use a small stage than a large one.

In that sense, the rookie actor Jang Young-guk uses the small stage better than anyone else on the stage. 

He makes the stage look like a bustling street with his movements and lines that are ingrained in his body, as if it were his own palm.

Act 1, Scene 7.

‘Why is my heart pounding so much?’

The actress Park Sang-ah tries to calm her trembling heart as she watches Young-guk perform in front of her. 

He was a rookie actor who was much younger than her, but his acting intensity was not inferior to any actor.

When I played the role of Misaki, the only daughter of the Governor-General of Joseon, I couldn’t help but cut my lines short. Park Sanga took a deep breath and added more to her dialogue.

“Muyeol, aren’t these cherry blossoms beautiful? Our people brought these saplings when they built the Governor-General’s Office in Joseon, and they’ve already grown as tall as me. Someday, I want to go to Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺) in Kyoto with you and see the cherry blossoms together. It would be wonderful to walk along the streets of Kyoto holding hands with you.”

Baek Muyeol answered Misaki’s question with a faint smile. 

He looked at the cherry blossoms that bloomed wildly on the streets of Gyeongseong and calmed his troubled heart. Everywhere he looked, there were signs written in Japanese and people wearing traditional Japanese clothing.

Not to mention the clattering sound of the wooden clogs called geta (下駄), and the swords they carried on their sides as if they were proud of them. He would be lying if he said he didn’t hate them.

“Someday, it would be nice to walk along the streets of Kyoto with you, Misaki. It would be very beautiful to capture your face there. By the way, I heard that the Governor-General is very busy these days and doesn’t come home often. Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s why the guards who protect the house are more than usual. I also came to see you today by secretly climbing over the wall. Muyeol, why don’t you come with me to Kyoto? If I talk to my father, he will surely change your status to Japanese.”

“I’ll have to think about that for a while, Misaki. I would go anywhere with you, but I still have things to do in this land.”

“Hmph. Do you hate Japan? Or do you hate being with me?”

At that moment, Misaki, who was walking with him, stumbled. Park Sanga, who was acting as Misaki, had a look of panic on her face. 

This was not acting. She had actually tripped. Baek Muyeol wrapped his arm around Misaki’s waist and faced her.

“How can I leave a woman who is so clumsy alone?”

Park Sanga’s face turned red as a radish. Yeongguk, who played Baek Muyeol, straightened Park Sanga’s posture as if nothing had happened. Jeong Yongdae, who was watching from the audience, exclaimed. 

He was impressed by their quick response to the unexpected situation. 

As a playwright, he was more curious about the next scene than his duty.

That’s when it happened.

“Stop for a moment!”

The stage director Seong Jihun raised his hand and stopped the run-through. 

The actors on the stage looked at him with puzzled eyes. But his gaze was on the lights hanging from the ceiling of the stage.

****

“This is a problem.”

Seong Jihun scratched his head and looked at the flickering lights. 

There were various lights used on the stage.

Especially during rehearsals, the changes of scenes and settings were often expressed with lights and music. 

It would be nice to set up the stage and run through it as it is, but it was limited by the poor production budget.

Anyway, the actors and staff who worked in the theater district of Daehak-ro didn’t even get the minimum wage. 

That’s why actors who majored in theater acting often did children’s plays or left for a living. 

The stage setup was the same. In reality, they often did trivial things themselves rather than outsourcing them.

‘What do I do with this?’

Seong Jihun looked at the flickering lights and racked his brains. 

As a stage director, he had to fix it himself, but unfortunately, he was not very skilled in lighting. 

Especially, the wiring itself was old and tangled like spider webs, so it would be difficult for anyone who was not an expert.

“Director Seong, I’m sorry.”

The playwright Jeong Yongdae licked his dry lips. He didn’t know that the theater he rented was in such a shabby condition. 

He rented it for only a month, so he didn’t consider much.

He had a reason for that. 

The actors who appeared in his work ‘Spring of Joseon’ took more than a third of the production cost as their fees. 

It was not enough to make a decent rehearsal stage. 

The theater owner Lee Changhun came over and said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll contact the lighting technician today. It might get worse if we touch it poorly. If they were the ones who used to work in Daehak-ro, this wouldn’t be a problem.”

All the actors sighed as they looked at the flickering lights.

“Everyone, please step aside for a moment.”

He gestures to the people gathered around and sets up a ladder in his spot. 

Everyone is stunned by the sudden actions of the youngest ones, who have somehow acquired gloves and tools. 

Young-guk climbs up the ladder swiftly, while Yeon-su holds the toolbox next to him.

‘I’m glad I brought this.’

Young-guk had prepared the toolbox in advance, knowing that there were many things to fix after rehearsing at the theater for the past two weeks. 

He frowns as he inspects the lights attached to the ceiling of the stage.

‘The border lights are faulty, and the baby spot has a broken ground wire. The batten is poorly designed, too.’

“Director Sung, could you please lower the house lights for a moment? Yeon-su, hand me the small flashlight in the toolbox.”

The lights on the stage flicker off, and Young-guk receives a small flashlight from Yeon-su, who acts like his assistant. 

He reaches the end of the ladder and bites the flashlight in his mouth, skillfully handling the tangled wires. He looks like a lighting technician.

‘I almost became a stagehand.’

For small theater companies that always struggle with the production budget, it was common to do everything from stage design to lighting installation by themselves. The actors would joke that they couldn’t tell if they came to do manual labor or to perform on stage.

Back then, Young-guk, who was the youngest, often helped the lighting technician because he was good with his hands. 

He was so good that the technician even suggested that he quit acting and work under him. How much time has passed since then? Young-guk shouts down from the ladder.

“Turn on the lights, please.”

At Young-guk’s shout, the stage director, Sung Ji-hoon, raises the house lights again, and the border lights and other lights shine as if nothing had happened. 

Young-guk comes down from the ladder and Yeon-su takes the tools from him. 

The others look at them with wide eyes. Then Young-guk says to them.

“Alright, everyone, let’s do another run-through.”