My precious experience in the Hanyang Drama club

Dong Hun Lee

As a high school student, I’ve always wanted to join a club in college, especially drama club. Without any hesitation, I joined a drama club in Hanyang University called “Deulkkot.” In the drama club, there was a mentoring program. My mentor was Seonghyuk, who was also studying in the business school. I became very close with him.

We went out and hung out riding bicycle and grabbing beer out. It was a great time together, very relaxing afternoons after class. Hanging out with Seonghuk, and other drama members every day, brought me such satisfaction in the drama club. My experience there was much more than “drama.” It was such great time. Before the actual drama starts, there are two events, audition and monologue recital. The audition was my first time to act in front of other people. We just got 15 minutes to prepare and start acting in the spotlight. That was my first time standing in the spotlight, and I can never forget this experience. It was an experience I would never forget. Acting in front of a crowd, was a bit burdening at first, but when I actually got the spotlight, I could not see anything in front of me. I felt alone, acting alone.

After the audition, there was the monologue recital. I had a week to prepare for monologue rectial. I had to choose a script with my mentor. I chose a chairman character of <은혜의 땅> by Kang Jiho. It was a very short monologue with about a minute long. I had to write an analysis of the character. It was a great chance for me to think very deeply about the character. I even had to find out the character’s family, exact age, job, background and even tiny details like the hair color. I had to really deep-dive into the character and be the character before acting.

After the monologue recital, the “Garden Party” team was formed and there were eight students for the actor. I was one of them. When I saw the practice schedule, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

We had to practice and prepare for the show every day from Monday to Sunday. I had to give up other activities that I planned in the semester.

The practice was tough. We had something called “relax.” It sounds very easy, but it is totally different from what it is. In one “relax” session, we have thirty minutes of working out, and thirty minutes of exercise such as vocalization. I still don’t understand why it is called “relax.” We start the work out by stretching. My body lack in flexibility. From the first step, stretching, it was tough. Then we spend the next twenty minutes working out. In workout session we do buffy test, push ups, plank, leg raise etc. Working out every day was a tough experience. When I woke up on Saturday morning, I remember the hatred of going to practice. Thanks to “relax,” I gained a lot of strength and lost weight.

Our play was “The Garden Party” by Václav Havel

Working out every day, practicing every day without any breaks was tough. Thanks to my friends – I guess, they helped me get through the practices. There is nothing very special about practices. It is repetition of working out and scene practices. Two weeks before the performance, we get to practice with the costumes and makeup. We also took profile pictures for the pamphlet. The first makeup workshop was very interesting. It was my first time putting makeup.

A week before the performance, we make the stage. There is a small theater in Hanyang Plaza. We have to make the whole stage from nothing. It is a tough experience. There is a lot of hammering, and we have to be careful. After building up the stage, we paint them.

Once the stage is finished, we send the poster out. We print out the poster and put them in different school buildings as well as restaurants at Wangsimni.

After all these steps, we finally get to be on the stage. I can vividly recall that day of the performance. Once we wear the costumes and makeup, we quickly get dinner. Then we gather up shout out “fighting” and got to the backstage. In the back stage, I could feel something that I cannot express in words.

As I heard the sound saying “let the audience in!” and the music start, and the audience buzzing, I can feel the different atmosphere between the audience and the backstage. It was a very thrilling experience. After about 10 minutes, lights off and everything turns dark. I had to quickly move up to the stage and prepare to act out the first scene. Then the spotlight turned to me, and I spoke out my first line. Looking at the audience seat, I can vaguely see my friends and family sitting looking at me. The play was about 90 minutes long. The time passed very fast. After the performance, there was the curtain call. That moment, I felt thousands of different feelings in a very short moment. This was how the drama ends.