The squeaking from the rubber bottomed shoes on the waxed court, the chants from hormone filled teenagers, and basketball. It is this time of the year when high school basketball fans cheer for their teams, boo the others, and stuff their mouths with an endless supply of hotdogs mixed with other beverages. However, because of this hype, it is also inevitable that many students miss out on other equally exciting events. Events, like sports, that also require teamwork, hard preparation, and interactions with other international schools to share a common passion they too strongly want to show and share.

On the 4th of this February, I was able to participate in the annual Arts Society of International Students (ASIS) Collaborative Theatre Festival hosted by Yongsan International School of Seoul (YISS). This event required a variety of international schools in South Korea to gather together to put on one big show. This year was Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

There were 9 schools that participated in this event:
1.   Korea International School Pangyo (KIS P)
2.   Korea International School Jeju (KIS J)
3.   Chadwick International
4.   Branksome Hall Asia (BHA)
5.   Seoul International School (SIS)
6.   Cheongna Dalton School
7.   Dwight School Seoul
8.   Gyeonggi Suwon International School (GSIS)
9.   YISS
 
Like the name, “Collaborative Theatre Festival,” each school was assigned a scene or two from “Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass” and was expected to interpret each scene in their own style. By taking such an approach, not only stayed true to the strange and unrealistic nature of  the story, but also allowed the audience and students to see the different interpretations and styles each school decided to take on. These styles included genres from jazz musicals all the way to Japanese traditional theatre.
 
In addition to having a collaborative theatre, another unique characteristic about this performing arts festival was the fact that the majority of the production was run by students rather than faculty. Although there were one or two teachers from each school, their role was mostly simply being the supervisors for the students. The majority of the other roles such as being the actor/actress, sound technician, lights technician, makeup artist (which was my role in the KIS P crew), staff, and in some instances the director were all students. Such a decision, made by the creators of the festival as well as the participating students, might seem like a risky move on the school's side but was overall a success. It allowed students to take responsibility in the product they have created and collaborate with other school students much like what they would have to do in the real world.
 
What started off as taking over a friend who could not be at the festival for personal reasons turned out to be one of the most inspiring experiences I had. The idea of having to collaborate and share one’s ideas with other students was truly an eye-opening and empowering event that made students respect each other’s work and discuss their thoughts about the topic. However, unfortunately many people did not know about because of other events such as sports, math competitions, choir/orchestra concerts. Even I did not know about the event until my friend had explained it to me. If only we could get more people to be interested in school theatre, this experience, could truly be a heart racing experience as well as an event that everyone would look forward to.
 
 
 
 







Eu Dahm Jahng
Grade 11
Korea International School
Copyright © The Herald Tomorrow, All rights reseverd.