NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 96
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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 96. Musical 「Dejandor」 (1)
“We’ve arrived.”
“Thank you for your hard work. You’ve already talked to them, right?”
“Of course. I spoke to the Operations Team. Jin Yu-han doesn’t know though.”
At Min-su’s answer, Yeon-woo got out of the car.
“Yeon-woo!”
“Ju-hyeong came.”
Click─.
Then Min-su opened the car trunk from the driver’s seat, revealing many lunch boxes divided into several bags inside.
Soon Min-su got out of the car and walked toward the trunk, and Yeon-woo introduced Kim Ju-hyeong.
“Min-su hyung, this is my college classmate Kim Ju-hyeong.”
“Ah, nice to meet you. You spoke with me on the phone at the beginning of the semester, right?”
“Yes, Manager. Hello!”
Yeon-woo took out the bags from the trunk and distributed them.
“Please help out today, Ju-hyeong. It would have been difficult with just two of us, but the three of us should be enough.”
“Come on, this isn’t really hard work.”
The three of them headed to the elevator, each carrying several bags in both hands.
“What floor was it?”
“5th floor.”
“Wow, so they practice in a place like this.”
Kim Ju-hyeong had tilted his head in confusion because it looked like an ordinary building from the outside.
He had vaguely thought that musicals were practiced in theaters.
“Right, this is my first time seeing theater company practice too.”
As they chatted about various things, the elevator opened and a staff member from the theater company’s operations team was there to greet them.
“Hello. Thank you so much for such an important person coming to this humble place.”
“Not at all.”
“Please, this way. Everyone probably thinks the food they ordered for delivery is arriving after practice.”
Yeon-woo and his group followed the operations team staff down the hallway, and a hall-type practice room with quite high ceilings appeared.
When the staff opened the door, Yeon-woo took the lead and entered first.
“Food delivery is here.”
When Yeon-woo entered with a smiling face holding bags, the theater company members who were hurriedly getting up thinking delivery had really arrived widened their eyes in surprise.
“What! What’s this?”
“Isn’t that Ryu Yeon-woo?”
“What is this? A hidden camera?”
The members buzzed with surprise at the unexpected situation.
Meanwhile, Jin Yu-han, who was wiping his sweaty face with a towel, heard Yeon-woo’s name among the buzzing and quickly turned his head toward the entrance.
“Huh? Yeon-woo?”
When Ryu Yeon-woo really walked in, Jin Yu-han got up in surprise and hurried over.
“It really is Yeon-woo! What brings you here?”
“I came to support the musical. Hello. I’m Ryu Yeon-woo, Yu-han’s friend.”
Waaah!
Amazing!
When Yeon-woo greeted the musical actors who were frozen in surprise behind him, cheers erupted.
“Yu-han, your arm’s going to fall off.”
He playfully held out a bag to Jin Yu-han, who was equally surprised, and Yu-han hastily took it.
“These are lunch boxes for today’s lunch.”
“Why did you buy all this? I feel bad.”
When Jin Yu-han accepted the lunch box, Kim Ju-hyeong, who had been standing behind Manager Min-su, peeked his head out.
“Yu-han. I came too.”
“Huh? Ju-hyeong!”
Still, as a comrade(?) who had fought together and a friend who had recently traveled together, Jin Yu-han smiled brightly and welcomed Kim Ju-hyeong.
“Everyone please come and eat. I brought some simple lunch boxes.”
“Wow, thank you.”
“You’re handsome!”
As the group put down the lunch boxes they brought and Yeon-woo spoke, the musical actors applauded and gathered around.
“Wow amazing. It’s beef sushi.”
“The team leader went out saying he was ordering jajangmyeon, but Ryu Yeon-woo came with sushi···.”
The members thanked Yeon-woo and scattered to sit comfortably and eat the sushi.
The group also sat cross-legged on the stage with Jin Yu-han and opened their lunch boxes.
“Yeon-woo, if you take care of me this well, I’ll feel burdened about what I should do for you later.”
“Well, wouldn’t preparing some lobster be enough?”
“Lobster, okay.”
“Yu-han, I’m joking.”
Yeon-woo had jokingly responded to Jin Yu-han who was apologizing, but when he saw him quietly muttering and nodding, he hurriedly stopped him.
“Wow, but I’ve never seen musical practice before, so this is where it happens. How fascinating.”
Kim Ju-hyeong kept looking around while picking up and eating sushi.
Seeing Ju-hyeong like that, Jin Yu-han smiled brightly and opened his mouth.
“If you have time, would you like to watch us practice after we finish eating? Having an audience definitely gives us more energy.”
“Really? I’m totally fine with that…”
Kim Ju-hyeong nodded vigorously and looked at Yeon-woo.
“Yeah, I’m fine too. No filming today. It’s my day off.”
“Yes!”
Seeing Kim Ju-hyeong happy like a child, Yeon-woo also chuckled.
Then the musical PR team leader approached Jin Yu-han and whispered something to him, making Jin Yu-han look troubled.
“Um, Yeon-woo, would you like to try matching our breathing during practice? It sounds fun, but it might be too much to ask?”
The Operations Office’s obvious intention to capture Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han in a making film for noise marketing on NeTube was transparent.
However, Jin Yu-han, who wanted to match breathing with his friend on the musical stage even briefly, couldn’t refuse and conveyed the PR team leader’s words to Yeon-woo, while several musical actors sitting nearby eating sushi perked up their ears and chimed in.
“Amazing, I want to see Ryu Yeon-woo’s acting too!”
“Wow, then we’d actually see the Jin Yu-han, Ryu Yeon-woo ‘Beyond the Garam River Stars’ combination.”
Yeon-woo broke out in a sweat from the expectations pouring in from around him.
Though he desperately wanted to do it since it was his favorite musical…
“It’s a musical though. I’d like to try being on stage, but I’m tone-deaf and can’t sing at all…?”
“Hmm, right. You did say that.”
As Jin Yu-han stroked his chin thoughtfully at Yeon-woo’s words, another actor sitting behind them spoke to Jin Yu-han.
“How about scene 16 then?”
At his colleague’s words, Jin Yu-han clapped his hands with an “Ah!”
“Scene 16 is where ‘Ezel’ appears, and it’s a scene without singing. You memorize scripts instantly anyway. The senior playing Ezel couldn’t make it today due to circumstances.”
Yeon-woo stroked his chin after hearing Jin Yu-han’s words.
If there was no singing, he could manage it by studying the script for about 30 minutes.
Since 「Deandor」 was Yeon-woo’s favorite musical, he had actually memorized the dialogue in various languages, so he just needed to familiarize himself with the Korean adaptation.
‘If it’s Ezel’s entrance scene, it’s probably the argument between the factory people and the Detroit gang group.’
After thinking for a moment, Yeon-woo nodded.
“Alright, let’s do it. I’ve always wanted to try this work on stage at least once.”
At Yeon-woo’s answer, Jin Yu-han smiled and the nearby actors cheered.
And the PR team leader who was filming the making film for YouTube quickly picked up his camcorder and captured Yeon-woo’s image.
‘Yes! This will secure millions of views.’
Then another actor eating a lunch box from behind looked at Jin Yu-han and the PR team leader with bewildered eyes.
“Come on, no matter what, does it make sense to go on stage after briefly looking at a script? This isn’t child’s play.”
Hearing this, the PR team leader quickly approached that actor and whispered something.
Judging by his expression and lip movements, he seemed to be saying that even if the acting wasn’t good on the practice stage, they could edit it roughly and it would be good enough for noise marketing.
“Geez, in my time, even beginners couldn’t even think of going on a practice stage, but Jin Yu-han suddenly appeared from nowhere and snatched the lead role, and now his friend is going up too. Do whatever you want.”
He seemed to think he was speaking quietly enough that Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han wouldn’t hear, but Yeon-woo, who was intently watching their conversation, heard it clearly.
He had heard that in musicals and theater, there was some territorial behavior or unfavorable views when actors from TV or film crossed over to musicals or theater, and it seemed not all theater company members viewed Jin Yu-han favorably.
However, unlike the unfavorable looks from some actors, the office side was grinning from ear to ear.
Both Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han were celebrities who would be hurt to be called second in terms of buzz.
The thought that Ryu Yeon-woo, who creates buzz with every work and every move these days, would visit his equally popular friend Jin Yu-han’s practice room and spontaneously match acting, made the operations team happy just thinking about how to utilize this content.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“Thank you, actor Ryu Yeon-woo.”
“Not at all. I’m grateful that you allowed me to visit today.”
Soon after finishing their meal and exchanging greetings with the musical actors, Jin Yu-han approached and handed Yeon-woo a script.
“Yeon-woo, it starts from this part. We’ll be practicing the previous scenes, so you’ll probably have about an hour. Think you can manage?”
“Mm, since it’s a musical I know the content of, I think I can do it.”
“We’re just doing this for fun, so don’t feel pressured. But this will really be interesting.”
Jin Yu-han was excited at the thought of matching stage acting with Ryu Yeon-woo, not on screen or TV.
“As expected of the acting genius.”
Meanwhile, the pension part-timer was just as excited as the acting genius and couldn’t hide his excitement.
“Wow, this is amazing.”
This was beyond A-grade seats – it should be called SS-grade seats.
Kim Ju-hyeong was thrilled at the thought of watching directly as if he had chartered the whole place.
Yeon-woo skimmed through the script while focusing on the stage.
He had natural talent for memorization, and since he had watched the original several times, even though it was his first time seeing this script, acquiring the dialogue wasn’t actually difficult.
Rather than that, Yeon-woo concentrated on carefully observing how the actors’ breathing worked, how much their expressions were exaggerated compared to dramatic acting, and what the intervals between voice projection and dialogue were like.
Finally, the stage began.
Since this was the first time showing their work to someone outside the theater company, the musical team looked somewhat nervous.
First, Jin Yu-han, who played the role of ‘Shane Dillinger,’ the boss of the Detroit gang, walked out in sync with footstep sounds coming through the speaker.
“Let there be light!”
With his words, a single spotlight dropped down.
“Jane. Do you know why light exists?”
As if responding to Jin Yu-han’s question, another actor walked out from behind.
“There’s light because the sun rises. You always say weird things, brother.”
“No, Jane. Light has to exist so that gold and diamonds can shine beautifully.”
Then Jin Yu-han took two more steps forward.
With a cynical smile on his face, he swept his icy gaze across the audience seats.
“On this Detroit land, you see, there are pigs full of greed swarming everywhere. But their greed is very important. Without greed, there’s no hatred, and without hatred, we Detroit mafia can’t do business. Ironic, isn’t it? We need hatred to have happiness.”
It was an acting technique that clearly showed the character by emphasizing important words with a vocal technique distinctly different from dramatic acting.
With just about three lines of dialogue after coming out, Shane Dillinger’s character seemed to be strongly etched in one’s mind.
He lifted the gem-studded gold bracelets dangling from his arms and gave a chilling smile.
“Look at this. Happiness is sparkling and shining as it catches the light.”
The spotlight then moved to the actor playing his younger sister ‘Jane Dillinger,’ who stood behind him.
“Brother, you seem like someone who’s always being chased.”
“Me? There’s no one on this land who can chase me. I’m the wolf of this jungle.”
“But you always look anxious.”
After that, Shane Dillinger’s famous solo song and the first song of this musical, 「Wolf of Detroit」, began to flow.
A clean voice and solid vocal projection.
It was a voice that matched well with Jin Yu-han’s usual acting style and appearance.
Yeon-woo quickly memorized the script while closely analyzing the actors’ performances.
‘Since the lighting is shining from that side, he’s angling his face diagonally.’
‘He’s projecting even stronger than typical musical vocal technique, probably to draw more attention since there are many characters.’
Of course, when learning from Jeong Cheol-min, since it was an academy that operated its own theater company even though it was a small theater, he had learned everything about acting on stage.
But what he had merely learned was different from actually performing, and fine adjustments were needed according to the content, the setting, and his scene partners.
“I can’t just stand by and watch anymore. Darkness, you see, is only tolerated when it stays in dark places like this. When those mouse-like creatures keep crawling out into the sunlight and start making things that kill people, that’s when society develops problems.”
For Yeon-woo, who had always watched performances in foreign languages in foreign lands, it was refreshing to see his favorite musical 「Dejandor」 right before his eyes, and with his friend’s voice no less.
‘I always wanted to try it someday, though I thought it would never happen since I can’t sing…’
Having watched and analyzed it so many times, he was confident he could play any role as long as he memorized the Korean-translated dialogue.
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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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