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.