Zak Zebra Does Korea Part 2

Zak Zebra Malaysian Safari the Musical

Day 1 (after arrival)

After a good night's sleep in our hostel, one of the best iv'e experienced so far in terms of dormitory style accommodations, everything was perfect. Most of us were up early, those that didn't go for night caps that is, stayed back and made sure we were well rested for our early morning bump in, had our self made breakfast at our pantry which was well equipped with everything, stoves, ovens, eggs, bread, tea, coffee etc. We gathered together bitching about what a shitty network party that was hosted for us the night before, the only food that was served were 4 types of fried chicken, which the Koreans think they have perfected over the years but these ones we had were not even close to the quality of fried chicken the Koreans are well known for, these tasted like it was ordered from Dominoes or Pizza Hut, When we arrived there were no more drinks available, thank god none of us choked on our chickens. Every production team that attended the network party had to entertain

everyone by performing something as a team or individually, we just couldn't be bothered, looking at the fact that we just arrived, we just paid no attention to it, well we weren't the only once, seemed like the Singaporean team too did not bother performing themselves. The party was well over by 8.30pm,  did not leave much time for any form of networking really, the building lights just went off and everyone just left, so without a word all of us left too, some of us as mentioned earlier adjourned somewhere else but the rest of us just headed back to the hostel for a well deserved rest. And here we are all up at 8am, well rested and all ready for a heavy bump in. All set and ready to go, our journey to the venue daily was a 15 minute walk through a very quite housing area, the weather was nicely cool yet warm, in the morning a long sleeved shirt will suffice as it was a little bit chilly, but by afternoon shirts off once the sun hits the roof.

As we arrived at the venue, we were greeted by our friendly Korean stage manager Big John, by the name you can imagine a huge 6 footer, wide, military trained Korean, but very friendly and very huggable, i for one did not do much hugging but some how everyone else did, and so i was told that he was teddy bearrishly huggable, he joked and laughed most of the day, and tried his utter best to communicate with us in english but as we would call it back home "bagai ayam dengan itik." That aside we had 3 translators with us who spoke perfect english to help us get by, i was lucky to have 1 for myself as she took me around town makan-makan and all that, and truly helped me with my Korean sound counterpart who couldn't speak a word of english whatsoever, when my translator was not around all i was able to do to communicate with him was by using sign language and if any of us could converse with braille, i swear to god we would have done that too.

So we were off with our bump in, unloading our gears, props, costumes etc, much work was needed to complete most of the props, costumes and headgears, so the whole team was at work trying to complete as fast as we can, because all we had for bump in, tech rehearsal's and full dress was one day, and our opening show would be the next morning at 10am, so everybody got to work. I was given the mics i had to work with, initially they were going to hire DPA's for me and i was excited when i found out about it, i even published it on my FB status bragging about how important the Korean's thought i was by giving me the Lamborghini of audio microphones for a children's production, but to no surprise that wasn't to be, instead, all i got was some Shure wireless mics, which were not even headworn, they were lapel mics used for interviews and film shoots, so a massive amount of tapes were used just to have it rigged to the casts faces, poor guys, they were lucky i had surgical tapes orelse i would be forced to use gaffer tapes on them.

But being the engineer that i am, i just work with whatever that's been given to me regardless of the condition of the equipment, ill try my bestest to make it happen, but thank god everything went fine, mixers and speakers were good and that was enough for me to proceed without complain. Everyone else including the casts were busy outside installing the set and props while i was sound checking all mics and equipments and getting ready for the sound checks with the casts, technical and full dress rehearsals happening once everyone was ready.
Once all was done we walked out for a quick lunch, i was introduced to gimbab by our host, a long sushi thing wrapped in seaweed filled with glutinose rice, veggie and some meat, it was a filling meal for one and very cheap and affordable for us Malaysian's struggling with currency exchange issue's, halalness is always a problem everywhere in the world so nothing new in South Korea, i guess we just have to order anything you want and request that it is served without pork, if we were to go find halal restaurant's throughout Korea we might just end up not eating at all. Done with lunch we headed back to the venue and proceeded with our rehearsal's. We completed whatever we could for the day, tech run and blocking took a long time, we didn't have enough time for a full dress rehearsal as we ran out of time for the day, we had to pack up and leave by midnight, everything was fairly simple, so it didn't really matter whether we had a full dress or not, but would have been great to be able to.

Opening day! Our call time was at 8am at the venue, approximately 2 hours to get dressed, miked up, sound checked, and warmed up. The doors were opened at 10am sharp, suprisingly to a sold out crowd of little Korean children and their parents and guardians, most of the event organisers were there to catch the opening show. We were all afraid of whether they would be able to understand the show since it was fully written in english, and whether by reading the subtitles on the side of the stage would throw them off their focus on stage, there was not much we could do about it, so the guys performed to the best of their abilities and hoped for the best, only to be greeted and appreciated by a standing ovation at the end, which came to a surprise to us, Maybe the song's and the dances spoke by itself transcending all barrier's of language, age and culture.

To our delight our first show was over and done with without having to go through a full dress rehearsal, to some that would have been a nightmare if anything was to go wrong, thank the god's everything went on as planned and nothing on toward happened during the performance. We were done 1pm, and it was time for lunch, relax for a little bit and then to get ready for the next run which was at 4pm sharp, with all the checks, dress up's and warm up's for the next run, we had to be back at the theatre by 2pm. The 2nd show, also sold out by Korean children and their parent's, mostly recommended to watch the show by their friends who attended the earlier show, also celebrated us with a standing ovation while singing and dancing along to the cast and having a good time, all and all it was a very good first day for all of us and a very well deserved rest to look forward to the next day, as a dark night was prepared for us to go see the sights Gwangju had to offer. We were done by 6pm and the cast were asked to hold photo sessions and also an acting workshop which was to be done in Korean, of course with the help of a group of local translators that is, the cast thought the children how to react and move like the animals that were portrayed in the musical and played simple games with their given characters.

To no surprise, nobody went home early that night, everyone went back to wash up and got changed and immediately out for dinner, drinks and a night out around town. Fried Chicken and beer or popularly known as 'Chimak' by the locals lasted for hours and hours, with varieties of differently grilled, barbecued or fried chicken. The night ended late with a walkabout through town, bright light's, Kpop and Chimak pubs, with nothing to wake up early to the next morning, we explored the nightlife of this not so little Korean town and took ton's of pictures, too many to post all in this chapter but hopefully will do n the next.

More on our day off and final days in Gwangju, before i eventually end my Gwangju experience and head off to Seoul city on my 1 nighter solo trip in part 3. Till then Ahnyeonghaseyo..

Zak Zebra does Korea Part 1

Zak Zebra Malaysian Safari the musical

This time my work brings me to South Korea with the cast and crew of a Malaysian children's theater musical called Zak the Zebra. An arts festival held in Gwangju South Korea to mark the opening of their new Arts facility. My job as the main Sound Engineer for the tour is to make use of all audio equipment provided by the venue to make this production a success. Hence our journey begins.

As we boarded our midnight flight in KLIA, welcomed by the greetings of "Annyeonghaseyo" by the Korean Airlines staff, i did not know what to expect from South Korea whatsoever. The truth is that, i had no idea what South Korea was all about, Being a fan of Japan, it's food, it's culture, music and arts, Korea was in fact Alien to me in every way. I liked nothing Korean, food, language, music, kpop and lifestyle, oh how i wish we were headed to Japan instead. With a cast & crew of 14 Malaysians, headed to Gwangju Soth Korea for the opening of their Asian Cultural Centre, an arts centre so big, one could get lost just by looking for the theatre venue you were going to watch. Performers from all over the world were invited to perform for the one month long opening festival of the arts village. Performing Zak Zebra the musical which was 1st performed at the Pentas 2 of the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre KLPAC. Now with a twist in the tale and a slight change of casts we were going to perform to an audience of non English speaking Koreans.  

But this wasn't a problem we were all worried about during this tour, this time, a member of our cast,

not just an ensemble member or an extra, it was our main character Zak the Zebra herself who is suffering from Tourette's syndrome, for those who do not know what it is, this syndrome which is by birth, forces it's patients to scream or shout uncontrollably at random which means how frequently and what comes out from the mouth too cannot be controlled, there is no known cure for this syndrome, so patients who suffer from it will have to live with it all throughout their lives, to make things worst is that at times these outbursts of verbal emotions are followed with violent actions of slaps or punches to the faces or bodies of anyone within reach, i myself have taken a few hits here and there, but for the love of my friend i consider it friendly fire and accept all of it however much it hurts with open arms (more like closed arms cause sometimes the hits can get below the belt). With her on board the flight we new we were in for a long and rough journey, we new what we were getting into, so we were prepared, 

we printed out google translated documents in Korean which were properly checked of it's contents, explaining what Tourette's syndrome is all about, just in case we were confronted on the matter. And true enough an hour past on board our flight, many screams and shouts later, the many Korean passengers on board started getting hostile, they stood up in numbers, those seated from back rows got up and came forward wondering what the commotion was all about, some thought she was struggling and fighting with someone on board or being sexually harassed, some just thought she was purposely being annoying and disturbing people of their sleep. Most of the air crew  were already informed of her condition, but they themselves were clueless and wasn't expecting such a violent and uncontrollable behaviour by a patient with such a disorder, they too found it hard to control the bombardment thrown by the Korean passengers, they tried their best to explain about her condition and to try to calm everyone down, but to no avail, as the hostile Korean passengers came and started shouting and hurling abuses at her as though she was doing it on purpose.

Slowly the flight staff went from seat to seat to explain to everyone regarding the matter and calmed the situation down. After awhile things started to get better and more under control, soon after she fell asleep after swallowing 2 Xanax's during the commotion, Sleeping pills she brought along just in case such a things happened, and only waking up again after we landed at Incheon International airport South Korea. 

As we were met by our hospitality guide Ms. Yong Jong at the arrival hall, she split us up into 2 groups which were split into 2 public busses, to be driven to our destination which was a 5 hour journey south of Seoul. Our cast of 10 took the 1st bus, and the rest of the crew including myself took the 2nd bus which was 2 hours later. Why the wait was because we were asked to wait for the arrival of our most dearest Singaporean neighbours who were arriving only 2 hours after us. 

 

All in all our journey took 6 hours from Kuala Lumpur, 2 hours at Incheon and 5 hours to Gwangju.

A max total of 13 hours journey from point A to point B. To make matters worst, as soon as we arrived in Gwangju we had to wait for our pick up from the bus stand which lasted another hour and a long walk around the bus stand just to locate our van. Soon we were on our way but this time, one more stop, our Singaporean friends get's to check into their hotel 1st as we were not rooming together, thank god for that. But suddenly, we were left waiting in the van by the side of the road for quite awhile, curious we started speaking to the driver, not understanding a word, after translations from some Korean website's, he manages to explain to us that we will have to wait for the Singaporeans to freshen up and change and then join us to the theater venue for a meet and greet network party with all the participants, how convenient as we miserable Malaysians who had to wait all morning for these bastards, have to wait some more so that they can freshen up while we stink up the van, Muther TOOT!! The things we have to do for these guys, as though we owe them years and years of lost history or something, we were up to our balls with them from day 1, although we didn't have nice things to say to them or about them, the van remained silent the rest of the journey back to our hotel.

Gwangju Bus Terminal

On the other hand, out other team who left 2 hours before us, got themselves into the same problem we got on the plane, we received whatsapp messages from them telling us about how the whole bus just stopped by the side of the highway just to resolve the Tourette's matter. It seems the locals, again, just couldn't accept the existence of Tourette's in the world. The bus was stopped by the passengers and a heated exchange of verbal abuse happened on board and believe it or not they tried to throw them out the bus, our cast not speaking a word of Korean, only armed with the google translated explanation of Tourette's couldn't do much to control the situation. Then soon enough, just like what happened on the flight, the heat just cooled itself down, she soon fell asleep and that was it, back to normal again.

Having Tourette's is not at all easy, travelling with Tourette's or with someone suffering from Tourette's is hard as it is, but being in a country that doesn't understand Tourette's is the worst thing of all one has to go through. All hell can break loose and there is nothing whatsoever that can be used to calm things down during commotions. If you were someone suffering with Tourette's, my advice would be to travel in big groups of friends that understands you and love you enough to protect you under any circumstances and be by your side at all times, the screaming in the ears, hitting & bitting when it happened, i accepted it all without complain, and i hope you would too.

This is part 1 Zak does Korea, Part 2 will be out real soon. Cheers and Annyeaonghaseyo.