English Drama Club Unravels The Hardships Backstage
A group of young students dressed in sweats, pant, sweat and gasp for air as they roll about the wooden floor. It may remind you of a yoga class, but these girls are about to turn the modern day campus into Shakespearean times.
They are all members of "Beings" the Division of English Language & Literature"s English Drama Club. The name "Beings" the plural form of being means exactly what it says: "Being someone else, referring to the whole new side of you that is found through theatrical performance."
Beings is one of the oldest clubs at Ewha. It first started out as a mandatory English drama class for the Department of English Language & Literature in the 1920s and was first established as a formal club in 1930. Beings has been putting on regular annual performances ever since.
Beings puts on two regular performances every year. One is the Beings annual performance which takes place every March in the Alumnae Building, and the other is the shorter event at the English Language & Literature"s annual get-together.
The first Beings performance was Sir Walter Scott"s Ivanhoe in 1931, and the club has continued to capture the eyes and ears of its audiences ever since.
"The stretching and exercise before practice is essential because, in order to perform on stage, you need to open up your pelvis so that you can let out your loudest voice. Exercise not only does that, but also warms up and softens your body before you actually get to the line-reading," explains Lee Joo-young (English Language & Literature, 2) a senior member of Beings.
"Performing in front of an audience is never easy, even for a professional actor, but having to act in English takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, and puts, needless to say, a great deal of pressure on us. Without a passion for the theater, and the intimate relationship between the members, it wouldn"t be possible," says Lee.
The strong dedication of the members is one of the biggest merits of Beings. Due to its long history, Beings has produced many graduates in a variety of fields, including professors here at the school who, in turn, give current members their full support.
Because the club solely consists of English Language & Literature majors, there are no separate divisions that handle the costumes, stage props or lights. All the members of Beings take part in their share of the work, taking care of every single matter themselves. "It can be tough, doing all the work by ourselves all the time, but all the same it"s more rewarding. When I hear the audience applaud at the finale of the play, I feel like I have really made something out of myself," says Kim Ji-yeon (English Language & Literature, 1).
Every year, many freshmen who want to apply to the club hesitate because of the fact that you have to perform in English, but Lee says that fluency in English is not a mandatory skill at all. "What we are looking for is someone with the will and effort to work hard and enjoy themselves. The door is wide open for anybody with eagerness to participate."
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