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Young Hee Park, Theatre Fellow

Welcome to Young Hee Park

During Autumn Session of 2009, the Faculty of Creative Arts is proud to be hosting Young Hee Park, a Korean performer, who will be working with the School of Music & Drama and the aspiring young performers and stage crew who make up the Performance program. For many years, Young Hee has been involved with Australian actors undergoing study in Korea, and is now assisting in the development of the Faculty’s Performance students.

This extract from the Proposal presented to the Faculty by Young Hee Park highlights her extraordinary career and training in the Performance art.

“From the age of sixteen my life has revolved around theatre. From Gae-won Arts High School, to Seoul Institute of Arts and then into the professional world, I have always wanted to be involved in the performing arts. Much of my training has been focused on traditional Korean performing arts and I have been fortunate enough to study under some of the greatest performers in Korea (they are known as National Living Treasures). Through my masters, I have found a great passion for the traditional performing arts that continues to inspire me and push me forward in my search for improvement.

Performance has always been in my blood, my grandfather was a Pansori singer (story telling through song) and my grandmother was a shaman who performed traditional rituals and ceremonies in her youth. I believe that my love of theatre and the traditional arts has been passed down from them.

My time in Mokwha Repertory Company was a great training period, before Mokwha I was a small lotus bud, but through the help of Oh, Tae Sok and my senior actors I grew into full bloom. Year by year their trust in me increased and I was given bigger and bigger roles. I was lucky enough to play alongside some of the greatest actors I have ever known, sharing the stage with them and making the audience laugh. I was also lucky that Oh, Tae Sok appreciates traditional Korean performing arts and would ask me to sing traditional songs in some of the most emotional scenes in his performances. One of my greatest memories of my time with Mokwha is standing on stage during a production of “Romeo and Juliet” at the Bremen Shakespeare Festival in 2002 and singing a traditional funeral song as the bodies of Mercutio and Tybalt were carried away. Even though I was singing in Korean, I could feel the audience hold their breath and join me in my grief.

As I got older my interest in the backstage workings of theatre grew and whenever we had a break from performing I would spend my time as part of stage crews for various festivals and performances.

In 2005 I was lucky enough to join Latt Children’s Theatre. One of my dreams had always been to perform for children and this was the perfect opportunity. It was a great challenge to start acting in English, but a rewarding one. After over three years of working in Latt, I relish performing in English and really enjoy the opportunity to work with artists from all over the globe. I’ve had the chance to play a crazy rabbit (Twelve Animals), an old style villain (Shadow Thief), a sweet little dragonfly (Little Dragon) and a transgender ringmaster (Five Fools). I’ve been given the opportunity to play around with old school slapstick, to jump into the audience and get them on their feet and dancing, to master different kinds of puppetry and to be remembered by children all over Korea. These things would never have happened to me in my time before Latt.

Mokwha and Latt are worlds apart, but both have brought so much to my life and have helped to improve me as an actor and as a human being. Now I’m looking across the ocean for a chance to share my experiences and everything I have learnt in my studies of traditional theatre. My passion as an artist grows stronger and I hope to continue to explore the ever-expanding world of performance.”

Faculty of Creative Arts
University of Wollongong
March 2009