Part-time Suite#2 off-off-stage

Part-time Suite#2 off-off-stage 2009 ⓒ Parttime Suite

Part-time Suite#2 off-off-stage
—
2009. 9. 10 – 2009. 9. 26
7:30 – 10:30 pm
An empty lot at 160-1 Sinmunro, Jongro-gu, Seoul
Sponsored by Arts Council Korea

Parttimesuite.org / parttimesuite@gmail.com

–

An unoccupied ground is a space which is useless yet. No official convenience is given.
The ground, seemingly doing nothing, causes delay in the rule of the city that everything must prove its own utility, which makes us just pass by it instead of paying attention. However the ground produces a space so secret and sometimes dangerous when the night falls and darkness occupies the place which seems wide open, but also chary at the same time. The place provides an atmosphere which seems to urge your secrets to be revealed, and that state of mind is willingly sought by those who enter the ground. When they cross the invisible border of the ground, a kind of acute sensitiveness is generated, which is also connected to the unoccupiedness of the ground.

The 2nd exhibition of Part-time Suite is held at an unoccupied ground right in the heart of Seoul City. The ground is certainly unoccupied in spite of its small size, it has multiple proprietors without a certain future development plan. And it is divided by a wall from another vacant lot which is now a private property. We draw a hanging screen here, making the place a stage which reminds unoccupied grounds hidden at various location of the City. An audience who visits the stage, isolated from external sounds, will become an offhand performer who saunters the ground without a purpose. Then the performers will recall in what manner a place without a purpose or a use exists, while they cast lights on the silent ground. And they will also witness the other vacant lot over the wall, which lost its nature as an unoccupied ground by being incorporated into a specific area while it still remains unoccupied physically.

The ground will tentatively be a site for exhibition only at night; during the daytime it will be left as it is, unoccupied.

off-off-stage
(2009)

The story consists of only two acts, and there is no conclusion.
The play starts in the darkness at the moment when the curtain falls, and
anybody who enters becomes a performer.
There isn’t any instruction, and all possible cases are allowed.
The stage is planned as three sets- Set1, Set2, Set3 (or two pairs of double-sided sets).

Set1 and Set2 are attached to each other with a curtain dividing them.
Without passing through the curtain, Set2 won’t be revealed. Anybody can pass the curtain.
The dimension of Set1 depends completely on the imagination of the audience.
(Actually, Set2 is enclosed by Set1.)
Set2 and Set3 are attached to each other with a wall dividing them.
Set2 is as large as Set3.
Set3 only turns up through the wall between Set2 and Set3.
Passing through the wall is not allowed.
Set1 can appear from anywhere.
While existing like a background, Set3 can appear suddenly.
Set1 is shining all the time; Set3 is dim all the time.

Act: Set1 -> Set2
Before the curtain falls:
Everyday way of speech, rhythm of the building is repeated. This sound goes on during the entire act.
The stage waits for the performers, They can enter Set2 from Set1.
When the curtain falls:
The sound fades down. The voice from Set1 can’t be heard, it is only seen as a background. However the scene doesn’t disappear.  The lighting is concentrated but incoherent all the time. – Light and shadow, darkness and thicker darkness – The darkness never disappears completely from the stage. Sometimes it gets thicker, and it gets brighter at some other moments.

A: How are you doing?  (Because he/she has moved)

A: You look different every time.

B: (Silent.)

(A spotlight is on, and it lights the stage up. At this moment the light is connected to the eyes of the performers. They look around as if they have never seen. They stroll around. There is no arranged path for them.)

A: What are you looking for? What are you trying to hide?

(Tinkle-)

B: Can you see me?  (When he/she moves his/her feet, it tinkles again.)

(The sound fades down. It is now far away and now undistinguishable. The tinkle sound is very faint. But in Set1, this can make a certain suspicion. There is a role named ‘Security Guard’ in Set1.)

B: Do you hear the tremor, the breath, and the saliva swallowed or gathered? It this your sound?

A: (To him/herself) “Hu-sh”

B: Furtively, I have been here. I also passed by here a few moments ago, it was so narrow then.

A: Dull fights take place freely. You can visit here as you please. you can hide here as you please. Some extent of darkness is necessary for that purpose.

B: Sneaking in is dangerous. Either leave very quickly or stay for a long time, or you will be detected. Hush! (The performer spoke out so, out of habit.)

Everybody: (Silent)

(A’s suspicion and B’s adds up. The performer is so quiet that he/she looks rather daring. The lighting doesn’t stop moving until the end.)

Act: The front side of Set3, up on the wall.
When the red carpet is placed in front of the performer:
The wall gets lower and lower, and then disappears under the feet. It is hard to tell this wall is a fence or a curtain. However the performer can’t enter beyond the wall. The play has to be paused.

A: (Looking at Set3) There also had been performers here, and occasionally some plays were run actually. Most of them are what we really don’t show or pay attention to.

(Pause)

A: The performers always entered slipping off each other’s time, dividing, yielding, and protecting (or fearing) each other’s stage.

(When the performer tries to cross the wall – that is, tries to start the play again – it rises up. He/she can’t enter Set3, so the play has to be paused.)

B: When you turn a small corner, when you lean against the coarse surface of a wall, most of it is dust, you sit side by side with ordinary trash. It is a kind of politeness. Being alert like a wild beast. Admitting everyone’s solitude, no matter how dull it is.

(When Set3 is lit up, it has indicated paths of movements. The performer wants to start acting right now.)

Set3 is not open to the end. The performer gets off from the red carpet, and then the play starts again. Set3 sinks down under the wall. Now the lighting doesn’t hesitate. The performer changes his/her direction from Set2 to Set1.
The light of Set1 is bright.

Everybody: (silent)

A: (At Set2 yet) Can you hear me?

B: Hush!

(When the curtain rises and the sounds become clear on Set2, exeunt the performers.)          

-The End-

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