Including performances by Sesame Seed Theater

The Ansan City is hosting the 10th annual Ansan International Street Festival 2014 at the Ansan Arts Center in Ansan City on the southern outskirts of Seoul on May 3-5, 2014 for three days from Saturday through Monday.

Held on the theme of “Happy Encounter on the Street,” the Festival has many interesting programs of performances taking place on the street. In particular, the Festival this year will feature small incidents that happen in everyday life in society and they will be presented in the normal city street space by turning it into a stage of performing art. This is done for the citizens to commit to their memory the image of a new city for a long time.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Festival this year, the organizers have prepared the Festival in such a way that it will be enjoyed by everyone and satisfy the demand of both the artists and the common people so that the citizens will actively take part in the Festival at the Ansan Arts Center and in various other places in the city.

Following the opening ceremony on May 3, 2014, there will be a performance by Envolee Chromatique of the Aerosculture as the opening performance. For three days from May 3 to 5, a total of more than 60 performances will be presented from six different countries of the world.

There will also be an active networking arrangement between the producers and artists in order to seek the possibilities of expanding the street festival to provide a common ground for meeting between the citizens and performing artists. This is aimed at inducing the participation of the citizens into the Festival.

Some new programs will be presented this year with an eye to promoting not only the networking between the Korean and international artists but also introducing a form of installation art.

This year, there will be Ggoldabang Tea House for free use by the citizens and artists arranged by the Momggoli Festival House which is a resident organization of the Ansan Culture Foundation. A wide variety of snacks and refreshments will be prepared at the Ggolddabang Tea House to be used by the artists and citizens based on an established timetable.

Organizers of the Ansan Street Festival have established three creative plans for the development of excellent street performing arts.

One of them is the Ansan Republic which shows what the state is, how it was born and how it is maintained--with a view to finding out what the problems the ‘Republic’ has and various different ways of life of the community. It also shows the possibilities of other ways of life and poses questions on why people are indifferent to such possibilities.

The other plans include a program that humorously treats dilemma between an individual and the broad masses of people.

The last plan is the Sound Picnic of Ansan designed to produce a real city festival with music and dances.

The 2014 Ansan International Street Festival, where people meet with one another in many different places like flash lights, has various well-planned programs. Wherever is laid a red carpet it is turned into an impromptu stage for music and dance performances and this can take place anywhere in the city - be it the city plaza or any other space that is available.

And then no sooner has the carpet been rolled back and removed than comes to normalcy the city street.

Thus performances take place anywhere on the street without any advance notice and then come to an end, which is expected to offer the citizens a lot of fun and excitement.

Sesame Seed Theater offers a festival within festival, which is a small and yet big theater

The Sesame Seed Theater of the 2014 Ansan International Street Festival is a small and yet big theater that offers a festival within a festival taking place in a very small space in the Ansan City. It arouses interest in small plays that are becoming forgotten as they are dwarfed by big ones on which the people’s attention is concentrated. The Sesame Seed Theater will visit various places of the city throughout the period of the Ansan Street Festival.

The Sesame Seed Theater offers fun and excitement to anyone who remembers the imaginations one had while young--under the desk, inside the wardrobe or under the wall of a house. The theater is small but the story told is very big.

A total of eight different teams take part in this program, including Park Young-hee’s ‘Culinary genius and the Giant’ and Lee Mi-la’s ‘Donkihonja.’ They visit different places of the Ansan City, which offer a snug and charming space. The Sesame Seed Theater offers not only creative plays but also a cozy atmosphere created through active networking by the artists.

저작권자 © The Korea Post 무단전재 및 재배포 금지