NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 178

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 178. Play “Mirror” Rehearsal

 

At Yeon-woo’s words, Im Seong-su asked back with an expression that showed he didn’t understand.

 

 

 

“Huh? Theater company?”

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo confirmed with Im Seong-su once again.

 

 

 

“Director, you still haven’t found a side job in Daehangno, right?”

 

“Yeah. That’s right. There’s no new program I’m joining right now, and the movie I’m scheduled to join won’t start filming for another six months, so I came out thinking I’d do something in the meantime.”

 

“Six months is perfect. Then shall we go inside and talk about it?”

 

 

 

Im Seong-su nodded and followed Yeon-woo up to the theater company’s office.

 

 

 

Im Seong-su, who had followed up in bewilderment, sat on the office sofa as Yeon-woo made a cup of instant coffee and handed it to him.

 

 

 

“Yeon-woo. What is this office, and what’s this talk about a theater company?”

 

“Well, you see.”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo briefly explained the work he was currently preparing and asked for Im Seong-su’s opinion.

 

 

 

“So you’re saying you started a theater company with your friends and are planning to put on a performance soon?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Wow… Is it because you’re young? How did you come up with such an idea? A small theater play at this point in your career.”

 

 

 

Director Im Seong-su, who had watched Yeon-woo debut fresh out of high school, nodded saying that geniuses really do think differently.

 

 

 

“I’d be grateful if you’d hire me.”

 

“Okay. I’ve secured the best lighting director too.”

 

 

 

At Yeon-woo’s words, Im Seong-su chuckled.

 

 

 

“If you ask them to work with you, a truckload of lighting directors would come running.”

 

“Practice is almost at the final stage now, would you like to start working from today?”

 

 

 

When Yeon-woo asked while pointing to the stairs going down to the basement, Im Seong-su quietly stared at his fingertip.

 

 

 

Like other middle-aged people his age, as he got older, he did fewer things impulsively.

 

 

 

As the head of a household with people to take care of, he had been getting tired of the daily routine that always went around like a hamster wheel.

 

 

 

It had only been a few minutes since he met this young actor after a long time and started talking, but in that short time, he felt like he had been invited to some unknown world.

 

 

 

And Im Seong-su stood at the entrance leading to that unknown world and nodded.

 

 

 

“Let’s go. What did you say the theater company name was?”

 

 

 

Looking at such Im Seong-su, Yeon-woo grinned.

 

 

 

“New Star. ‘Theater Troupe New Star.'”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Following Yeon-woo, Im Seong-su entered Theater Troupe New Star’s small theater.

 

 

 

“Yeon-woo, where did you suddenly go… Who is the person who came with you?”

 

“Oh. This is the lighting director who will be in charge of our theater company’s lighting from now on.”

 

“…Suddenly from where?”

 

 

 

The friends were flustered seeing the lighting director Yeon-woo had brought out of nowhere, but they greeted him first.

 

 

 

“Hello!”

 

“Ah, yes yes. Hello.”

 

 

 

Then the small theater door opened and Jin Yu-han entered.

 

 

 

“Sorry I’m late. Yesterday I absolutely couldn’t leave, so I drank until dawn…”

 

 

 

The members nodded saying it was okay.

 

 

 

As of yesterday, Jin Yu-han’s musical “Dejandor” had its final performance, and it would be ridiculous for Jin Yu-han, one of the lead actors, to skip the final company dinner, so they thought he might come late in the evening today.

 

 

 

“Still, you came earlier than expected. You said musical team dinners are tremendous.”

 

 

 

When Yeon-woo asked, Jin Yu-han shook his head with a disgusted expression.

 

 

 

“I still feel slightly nauseous.”

 

 

 

Then Director Im Seong-su poked his head out from behind Yeon-woo and looked at Jin Yu-han.

 

 

 

“…Yu-han?”

 

“Hm? Director Im?”

 

 

 

Director Im Seong-su and Jin Yu-han seemed to know each other too.

 

Yeon-woo looked at the two and nodded.

 

 

 

‘Well, both of them have been working in the industry for years, so they must have worked on projects together.’

 

 

 

Im Seong-su looked back and forth between Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han.

 

 

 

“…So you two are going to be on the same stage? And in this small theater?”

 

“Ah, I forgot to mention Yu-han since I came in right away.”

 

“What is this…”

 

 

 

From behind, the friends and the two theater actors quietly nodded as if they understood Im Seong-su’s reaction.

 

 

 

Yeon-woo looked at Im Seong-su, whose mouth was agape.

 

 

 

“Director. Let’s watch the rehearsal first.”

 

“Hmm…”

 

 

 

Im Seong-su, who had been looking back and forth between Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han, came to his senses.

 

 

 

“···Since we’re doing this anyway, we should do it properly. Starting from today, come to work. Who’s the person handling this console?”

 

 

 

At Im Seong-su’s question, Ha Jae-hoon, who was dispatched from Jeong Cheol-min’s theater company, raised his hand.

 

 

 

“I learned by watching over someone’s shoulder, but I’ve been doing it in a makeshift way.”

 

“That must have been difficult. May I go up to where the console is and take a look?”

 

“Oh, of course. Director. You can go up this way.”

 

 

 

Im Seong-su followed Ha Jae-hoon up the stairs behind the audience seats of the small theater and stood in front of the lighting console in the control room.

 

 

 

“I need to think about how to do the memory work while watching the play from here.”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo smiled as he heard Director Im Seong-su’s words standing in front of the console.

 

 

 

Memory work refers to adjusting the brightness and color of lighting equipment according to scenes and storing them in the console.

 

 

 

With an expert attached, they would definitely be able to deliver scenes more effectively to the audience.

 

 

 

As Im Seong-su looked down at the stage from above, the actors took their positions.

 

 

 

Im Seong-su felt bewildered that he had simply come out looking for some side work to do, and now he was standing here watching small theater performances by the most successful young actors in South Korea these days.

 

 

 

Boom─.

 

 

 

With a simple sound effect announcing the start of the stage, dispatched actor Ha Jae-hoon made the first start.

 

 

 

“The ship is departing now. Is there anyone who hasn’t boarded yet?”

 

 

 

Then Jin Yu-han came running urgently from the right end of the stage, which was dark and invisible, raising his hand.

 

 

 

“Me! I need to board! Please wait a moment!”

 

 

 

Im Seong-su, watching this scene, shook his head.

 

 

 

‘The audience seats will go wild from here. Jin Yu-han burst out from the very beginning.’

 

 

 

And he simulated the situation in his mind.

 

 

 

‘Hmm, if they deliver the next line immediately, it won’t be heard because it’ll be drowned out by the screams of the audience who came to see Jin Yu-han. I need to control the tempo by following the lighting slowly from a distance.’

 

 

 

Im Seong-su began earnestly writing something in the notebook placed next to the lighting console.

 

 

 

And the play’s content progressed further, the location changed to the ship interior, and all the main characters revealed themselves.

 

 

 

Lights came on across the entire stage, revealing the appearance of the set.

 

 

 

‘Oh, they arranged it this way to simply represent the ship interior.’

 

 

 

And as the content progressed, Director Im’s eyes shone with increasing interest.

 

 

 

Yeon-woo had met Director Im on a drama filming set, but Im Seong-su had decades of experience rolling around in the theater world, starting as the youngest member of the Seoul Arts Center lighting team in the late 90s.

 

 

 

Although he had never formally studied theater or stage composition, his experience learning through field work was no less than that of a professional.

 

 

 

Originally, you see as much as you know, so various reasons for why they arranged things this way came to mind.

 

 

 

‘They’re naturally handling character entrances and exits by opening and closing the doors of each ship cabin. And that’s not all. It seems like they thoroughly calculated even the structural aspects. Who conceived this stage?’

 

 

 

The play’s content progressed further, and Woo Seong-sik, who played the captain, was found as a cold corpse in the captain’s cabin.

 

 

 

“Now, the corpse must absolutely not move. Don’t even twitch.”

 

 

 

Kim Ju-hyeong, whose character’s turn hadn’t come yet, watched Woo Seong-sik from the audience seats with a writer’s eye and instructed him to stay still.

 

 

 

“B-bring the guest from Cabin 4! When I talked to him briefly earlier, he definitely said his profession was a detective!”

 

 

 

Then Kim Jun-su, who ran to Yeon-woo’s room installed separately at the front of the stage, flung open the door.

 

 

 

“Detective! I think you need to come quickly!”

 

 

 

And Im Seong-su, who was watching the performance, tilted his head.

 

 

 

‘That guy shows signs of having little acting experience, but it’s not that bad? Did they bring acting academy students?’

 

 

 

The acting skills of the three friends weren’t bad either, considering they were playing minor roles with few lines.

 

 

 

Of course, Jin Yu-han’s blood, sweat, and tears were entirely melted into raising their skills to that level, but Im Seong-su didn’t know that.

 

 

 

When the rehearsal that was progressing this way reached about the middle of the play, they took a brief break.

 

 

 

And Im Seong-su, who had taken extensive notes, came down from the control room to the audience seats.

 

 

 

“First, although I haven’t watched this play to the end, I have a few questions. Is it okay if I ask?”

 

“Yes, Director. And please speak comfortably. We’re family on the same boat now.”

 

“Ah, would that really be okay?”

 

 

 

When Im Seong-su, who was obviously old enough to be their father, asked, everyone nodded.

 

 

 

“Who composed this stage···?”

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo raised his hand.

 

 

 

“It was me.”

 

“Oh, Yeon-woo?”

 

 

 

Im Seong-su was slightly surprised.

 

 

 

When they introduced themselves earlier, he had heard that Ha Jae-hoon and Kim Se-yeong had done theater in provincial theater companies, so he thought one of them had done it or they had called in an expert.

 

 

 

“This structure of expressing the ship cabins with partitions lined up in a row was partly to make the actors’ entrances and exits easier, but I think it might have been intentionally…”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo nodded at Im Seong-su’s words.

 

 

 

“Yes. I structured it that way because of presence.”

 

“Ah, I thought so.”

 

 

 

Then his friends tilted their heads in confusion.

 

 

 

“Huh? You never told us that. What do you mean because of presence?”

 

 

 

Then Im Seong-su answered instead.

 

 

 

“Looking down at the stage from above, I felt that Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han’s presence was so strong that if we weren’t careful, they might overshadow the supporting actors’ presence.”

 

“Ah…”

 

 

 

The friends nodded at Im Seong-su’s words.

 

 

 

They immediately understood because there had been more than a few times when they felt that even while they were delivering their lines, Yeon-woo or Yu-han, who were just standing quietly in the background, naturally took control of the stage.

 

 

 

“But in a structure with partitions, when the door opens, the power of that structure naturally draws attention primarily to the person inside. I think if we add appropriate lighting to this, we can solve that presence problem to some extent.”

 

 

 

While Director Im was speaking, Ha Jae-hoon, who was looking through a notebook filled with notes, expressed his admiration.

 

 

 

“Wow. You came up with this much memory in such a short time?”

 

“Hmm, well, this is my job after all.”

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo nodded.

 

 

 

“You’re the best lighting director.”

 

“Ahem, don’t make me fly like that…”

 

 

 

Im Seong-su, who was scratching the back of his head embarrassedly, continued speaking.

 

 

 

“And you pulled only Yeon-woo and Yu-han’s rooms forward and arranged them without walls…”

 

“Yes. There are many scenes where they deliver monologues alone in their rooms.”

 

 

 

Then Im Seong-su grinned and looked at Yeon-woo.

 

 

 

“That’s not the only reason, is it? The balance of power. It’s completely symmetrical.”

 

 

 

You might not notice it from the audience seats, but the stage scenery viewed from the high control room clearly had a certain form.

 

 

 

“Yes. I used an ellipse.”

 

“I knew you structured it intentionally like this. I thought so.”

 

 

 

Then the friends, hearing this for the first time, tilted their heads again.

 

 

 

“No, this is the set we use every day, so why can’t I understand any of this?”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about either. What’s this about an ellipse all of a sudden?”

 

 

 

When Jun-su and Seong-sik looked at Ju-hyeong, the writer, he shook his head.

 

 

 

“Huh? I don’t know either.”

 

“What do we do if even the writer doesn’t know?”

 

“We should ask the theater company director.”

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo scratched his cheek and answered.

 

 

 

“No, well, it wasn’t really necessary information so I didn’t mention it. Usually, Korea’s stage structures tend to be arranged in a circle to focus on the protagonist. A circle has one center point.”

 

“So arranging it in an ellipse means there are two center points?”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo nodded.

 

 

 

“Right. An ellipse is a shape with two center points, and when arranged like this, as we naturally progress toward the latter half, Yu-han and I, standing at those center points, will oppose each other and the conflict structure will intensify.”

 

 

 

Then his friends clicked their tongues.

 

 

 

“…Are you secretly going somewhere to learn directing?”

 

“Mm, I’m very interested in theater.”

 

 

 

The period I spent watching all kinds of theater overseas is longer than your ages.

 

 

 

Im Seong-su’s eyes lit up at Yeon-woo’s answer.

 

 

 

“This is going to be worth doing lighting focusing for.”

 

 

 

Im Seong-su felt the passion he had only felt in his youth rising again.

 

 

 

“Well then, shall we start practicing the latter half again?”

 

 

 

Everyone nodded at Yeon-woo’s words and found their positions to move again.

 

 

 

 

 

And after that, for the theater company members who had been handling a packed schedule every day without time to waste, the day of their first performance finally approached.

 

 

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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