Theater without actors and actresses

The Series of Unrespected Death

The Series of Unrespected Death’ (plan/writing/directing: Park Kyong Ju)’ refocuses on migration and death and has dealt with stories of Korean miners dispatched to Germany, foreign migrant workers in the Yeosu Detention Center, one migrant woman who died after international marriage like human trafficking, and ‘refugees’ and ‘people on the margins’. The series that migrant people themselves, not professional actors, have told their stories on the stage will close its theatrical experiment by refocusing on the issue of multiculturalism.

The Series of Unrespected Death that Park Kyong Ju, an artist, made with Salad, the first multicultural theater in Korea, is a series of creative performances covering the stories of Korean miners dispatched to Germany whom she had met while studying in the country, migrant workers residing in Korea whom she had met while covering the fire incident occurring in Yeosu Foreigners’ Detention Center, a migrant woman who came to Korea through a brokerage of a human trafficking type international marriage and fell to death, and refugees in Korea whom she had met while covering their stories.

Park Kyong Ju made ‘the persons who experienced the incidents’ play as ‘actors’ on the stage on purpose in all performances of the series. Survivors from the fire in Yeosu Foreigners’ Detention Center and the director of the counseling center in charge of their counseling, Korean male victims of international marriage, refugees in Korea, marriage migrant women, etc. participated in theatres. It was an experimental performance that gave discomfort the audience with the trustworthy voices of the parties involved in the incident.

While the Series of Unrespected Death was performed, diverse episodes were created. Survivors from the fire incident who delivered their stories on the stage shook with anxiety and left the theater when watching the scene where migrant actors and actresses of Salad represented the fire after finishing telling their stories and did not come again. At that time, survivors just stayed uneasily in Korea without a visa. This performance had been played in front of diverse audiences in Offices of Education, Multicultural Centers, etc. One teacher watching the performance threw away a steel-barred window that actors grabbed because the teacher could not ignore the actors’ shouting “Open the Door” One audience watching a talk show about male victims of international marriage left the theater, saying that the audience was likely to vomit and another audience cried, listening to ‘the letters sent to wives who left’ that male victims read.

On the other hand, the Series of Unrespected Death have faced harsh criticism. ‘Acting but not acting’ done by ‘migrant actors and actresses and the persons experiencing incidents who were not good at delivering lines compared to Korean actors has been the most critical problem and a director’s capability of completing performances with ‘involved persons’ not with ‘actors and actresses’ also was judged.

Park Kyong Ju defines the Series of Unrespected Death as a theatre without actors and actresses. The most important factor of theater is the actor. However, if persons involved in incidents instead of expert actors or actresses who have been perfectly technically trained deliver their stories on the stage, is it called theater? Is ‘theater without actors and actresses’ possible? What is theater? What is art? Where is the borderline between art and life? Isn’t it possible that life becomes closer to art and art becomes closer to life? Park Kyong Ju now wants to frankly talk with audiences about theatrical experiments and achievements that Salad, the first multicultural theater in Korea, has done for the last four years through ‘ ‘Theater without Actor.’

series sequence	Year of production	Title	Director	actor and actresses
The Series of Unrespected Death Ⅰ	2010	Do you remember me?	Director: Park Kyong Ju	About 40 miners and nurses who returned from dispatch to Germany are in the audience. Two migrant female actors participated as performers.
The Series of Unrespected Death Ⅱ	2010	Yeosu, Beginning, Middle and the End	Director: Park Kyong Ju	3 injured in the Yeosu Foreigner Detention Center fire disaster, 1 psychotherapist, acting by multinational migrant women and migrant worker actors
The Series of Unrespected Death Ⅲ	2011	Lan’s diary	Director: Park Kyong Ju	Participation of actors of migrant women who entered Korea through international marriage, Migrant workers, foreign students
The Series of Unrespected Death Ⅲ upgrade (2011)	2011	Lan’s diary upgrade	Director: Park Kyong Ju	Participation of actors of migrant women who entered Korea through international marriage, A theater workshop, and a performance by 10 Korean men who were harmed after getting married through an international marriage broker.
The Series of Unrespected Death Ⅳ (2012)	2012	Future story	Director: Park Kyong Ju	Refugees residing in Korea participate as actors in the performance. A total of three refugees, including a North Korean defector actor, a Korean-Japanese actor, and a political refugee from Myanmar, participated, and migrant women and migrant worker actors also participated in the performance.
Final part of the series of Unrespected Death	2013	Theater without Actor	Director: Park Kyong Ju	‘Migrant women, migrant workers, migrant artists, and refugees participate as actors.