Korea Arts Management Service, in partnership with Darwin Festival, OzAsia Festival and The Arts Centre, has organized Centre Stage Korea in Australia 2010, an event presenting Korean contemporary theatre, children’s theatre and multidisciplinary works from August to October 2010.

Centre Stage Korea is an international market and audience development effort for the Korean performing arts, initiated and organized by Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) and supported by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In partnership with various international arts centres and festivals, KAMS has designed Centre Stage Korea, an annual programme to support the international presence of the Korean performing arts. For 2010, KAMS is presenting a series of Centre Stage Korea performances, workshops and forums in South America (Brazil/Colombia, August to September), Australia (Adelaide/Darwin/Melbourne/Sydney, August to October), Georgia (Tbilisi, October) and the USA (New York, January 2011).

 In the private and public sectors of the performing arts, Korea and Australia have partnered in a continuous relationship to generate fruitful developments.

Australian performing companies visit Korea every year to delight Korean audiences. Most recently, Korea has staged BOOM BAH! by Windmill Performing Arts(2009), Check Out! and Tooth & Claw by Polyglot Theater(2010), Forest in the Night by Snuff Puppets(2009), The Field by Strange Fruit(2009), etc. at Korean festivals/venues such as Ansan Street Arts Festival, Chuncheon International Mime Festival, Goyang Arts Center, Youth Performing Arts Festival(National Theater of Korea), Uijeongbu Music Theatre Festival, and so on.

Korean performing companies have also been visiting Australia to thrill audiences there. Performances presented in Australia in recent years include A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Yohangza Theater Company (Sydney Riverside Theatre/ Adelaide Play House/Octagon Theatre, Perth, 2007), BINARI by Dulsori (Adelaide Festival Centre, 2007; Darwin Festival, 2008), Woyzeck by Sadari Movement Laboratory (OzAsia Festival, 2009).

Meanwhile, the artistic exchanges between Australia and Korea and their attempts to produce a creative collaboration have grown up so far. To mention a few examples, Australian dancer and choreographer Tony Yap has collaborated with South Korean company Theatre Nottle and Indonesian dancer Agung Gunawan in 2009 to create The Buddha My Body – A Palimpsest. Noridan(Korea) and Steve Langton from Hubbub(Australia) meet every 2 years for a co-workshop since 2005 and design new recycle musical instruments.

The support from public sector gives traction to the reciprocal exchanges between Australia and Korea. Performing arts professionals from both countries have been making reciprocal visits to the Performing Arts Market in Seoul and the Australian Performing Arts Market since 2005. The Australia Council for the Arts operates an International Performing Arts Markets Travel Fund, which coordinates an Australian presence at the Performing Arts Market in Seoul (PAMS, Seoul, organized by Korea Arts Management Service) to increase touring opportunities in Korea for Australia’s contemporary performing arts. In 2009, the Australian Council for the Arts visited PAMS with around ten Australian producers under the auspices of this funding programme. Korea Arts Management Service, with performing arts practitioners from Korea, is continuously represented at the Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM, Adelaide) as well. In 2010, approximately 20 practitioners from Korea participated in APAM.

Since the first launch of PAMS in 2005, KAMS has broadened its close connection with Australian festivals and venues; as part of this, KAMS welcomed OzAsia Festival during PAMS 2008 (7 to 10 October) and Darwin Festival, The Arts Centre and Sydney Festival during PAMS 2009 (12 to 16 October). This inter-organizational networking, and the connections between Korean performing works and Australian programmers, led to the development of Centre Stage Korea in Australia 2010.

Centre Stage Korea in Australia 2010 will feature 4 performances of 3 Korean performing companies; When His Watch Stopped (Australian premiere) by Sadari Theatre Company, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Australian premiere of Hamlet by Yohangza Theatre Company and Jump (Australian premiere) by Yegam.

Presented at the Darwin Festival, Sydney Opera House and OzAsia Festival, Sadari Theatre Company’s When His Watch Stopped compassionately confronts the difficult theme of war. Making use of masked performance, mime and imagery, it tells the heart-wrenching story of a young couple in war-stricken Korea, struggling through traumatic times and dealing with love, loss, and the very personal price of war. As part of the House:Ed program at Sydney Opera House, When His Watch Stopped will be performed for children along with the combined excursion, from 25 to 27 August.

Yohangza Theater Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet are respectively being presented at the Arts Centre’s Kenneth Myer Asian Theatre Series and OzAsia Festival. In Hamlet, which has its Australian premiere, the Yohangza Theatre Company faithfully recreates the tragedy and drama of Shakespeare’s original play in contemporary Korean language, where Hamlet meets Asian shamanism. The Hamlet performance at OzAsia Festival will be followed by a forum on ‘Intercultural Shakespeare’ with the participation of Mee Won Lee (Professor, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul) and Michael Morley (Professor, Flinders University, Adelaide).

With a one-year-long show in Off Broadway (Union Square Theatre, 2007-2008), a season repertoire over four years in the West End (Peacock Theatre, 2006-2009), an appearance at 'The Royal Variety Performance' (The London Coliseum, 2006) and a sold-out show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning the Box Office No. 1 and Comedy Award in 2005 and 2006, the worldwide performance JUMP has been shown internationally to more than 2 million audience viewers in around 40 cities in more than 20 countries. Now it’s coming to the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide for its Australian premiere!

Information on each performance can be found respectively at the presenting festivals’ and venues’ website; Darwin Festival(www.darwinfestival.org.au), The Arts Centre(www.theartscentre.com.au), OzAsia Festival(www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/ozasia) and Sydney Opera House(www.sydneyoperahouse.com). Please refer to the Annexes for the event schedule, Korean performing companies and their performances)

For more information, please contact:
Hyojin Kuh
International Development Department, Korea Arts Management Service
Tel. +82(0)2 708 2282 / E-mail: hyojinkuh@gokams.or.kr