[EXCLUSIVE] INCANDESCENT 9th Spark - Adieu 2015, Adieu Dorothy
Branksome celebrated the end of 2015 in its very own way. The Wizard of Oz was culmination of 2015 at Branksome, as it involved one third of students and teachers’ efforts and talents. For this cycle, Incandescent meets Eun Byul Shin, also known as Dorothy or Dot from Kansas, to hear her personal stories and behind-the-production secrets of the Wizard of Oz. Platform Post Jeju and INCANDESCENT presents an exclusive interview with G11 Eunbyul Shin!
Welcome to INCANDESCENT, Eunbyul! You have now become a celebrity in school with the name of Dorothy. How would you describe Dorothy?
Dorothy is a young, naive girl who lives in a farmhouse of Kansas with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. One day, her house is whisked away by a tornado and she accidentally arrives in the mysterious land of Oz, and in her way to find the way back to Kansas, Dorothy meets new friends, each occupied with their unique problems that the Great Oz might find a solution to. With her friends, the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion, she sets off to find the Great Oz, the ruler of the land - where she discover the true meaning of love and friendship.
Dorothy is a character with unique, sparkling characteristics. In the beginning, she seems like a vulnerable, fragile girl who is fantasized with the rainbow, however, as the journey continues, she exercises her courage and intelligence to lead her friends and herself to the Great Oz. Do you see any similarities between you and your character? What are you and your character in common?
I do share many characteristics with Dorothy. She is a typical teenage girl who enjoys daydreaming, running around, and picking flowers for her family. Although now I am a bit more mature than her, I used to be the same kind of girl who enjoyed playing outside with my brother in the mountains and the fields. (Although I was more of a shy girl, compared to Dorothy.). She was born and raised in the countryside, and I was, too.
How the similarities helped you understand the character (Dorothy) and communicate to the audience?
In fact, I chose to rely on my previous experiences as a small girl to show her characteristics. These similarities I share with Dorothy were something I really loved about the character, Dorothy, but also what I really afraid of. Dorothy is quite a plain, explicit, traditionally-developed character. While she is a friendly, righteous girl with a true dream, she is also a strict follower of moral standards, which is certainly a positive feature but sometimes this can be reflected as a “boring” characteristic to the audience. I mean, it is true that the audience, even myself, enjoys more vivid, energetic, and humorous character with secrecy and internal conflict. However, even when neither Dorothy nor myself has a very good sense of humor, both of us had a pure determination and a force to drive us to achieve our dream. I realized that it was her sincere, artless love toward her dream, families, and friend that makes the people to be fell in love with Dorothy for such a long period of time - I tried to use this as the way to communicate her world, her genuine feelings to the audience.
As one of the big fans of yours, I think your strategy worked! Okay, let’s move on to personal stories.. more about yourself as an academic learner as well as an actor. Certainly, you spent a considerable amount of time and efforts to this production. What kept you from continuing the production and rehearsals?
As you would have guessed (very easily), I struggled mostly on the time management problem. As one of the singing and acting principal, I was expected to spend about 10 hours each week, in and out of school, to practice for the production. And at often times I was tempted to spend more than 10 hours on extra practice, such as singing, learning choreography, etc. and that really worn me out. Theater is, without any doubt, teamwork: the rehearsals require much of our time, a lot of pressure, responsibility, and we have to continuously challenge ourselves to make improvements. Now, in theory, I knew it because I had an experience in small plays and musicals; working in this huge group of people - nearly 100 of them - was different. Later, I realized that I did not recognize enough that participating in school production was such a great challenge for a DP student.
After every storm, the sun always shines. What have you gained from the ups and downs?
Still, being in the production as a cast member, especially Dorothy - I had to admit that I was very lucky. Although I have been in a few productions in and out of schools, I’ve never experienced the same amount of effort and care that our team had given into this production in the others. We did struggle, but I am sure that many of us truly enjoyed the process. Directors are crucial in this, but I think students learned more from each other. On stage, it seems like the cast members are the ones who do everything, but there are so many involved in the production who remain unseen: backstage crews, tech crews, choreographers, assistant directors, make-up crews, costume crews, set and design team, production managers, and so on. To be honest, I am not a very good collaborator (I am more of an independent, solo-play person), but it was these people who encouraged me to get in front and lead the group. I am grateful that I could work with such wonderful cast and crew members in the Wizard of Oz.
You are becoming a senior next year. Are you planning to join the forthcoming production?
I really am looking for the next production - next time, I would like to have an opportunity to work with the crew members.
Director Dot giving queues to her actors is, indeed, one of the things I would like to see. Thanks for taking your time for our interview! Any last word to say?
I would like to add that I was totally stricken by the affection and love that the audience members have given to Dorothy. I still remember those shy, little kids who never missed to say “Hi, Dorothy” to me when we met in the corridor or the bridge. Seeing the audience believing in the magic of the show, even after the production has ended, was very touching. I will never forget that.