Chapter 11.4 - Act 11: Slowly 4 (1/2)

Act 11: Slowly 4

“To be exact, we’ll start by choosing the main actors.”

Main actors. When we remained silent after hearing that word, teacher Kwak Jungsoo looked across the room and reopened his mouth.

“Was that too sudden? Then let’s start from scratch, about the current situation of the society.”

Saying that, he started slowly walking back and forth.

“I heard you were doing a musical. I was wondering what you were talking about despite not being a musical club but… you were originally from this side?”

In response to the teacher’s question, Yun Soojin-sunbae replied with a faint smile.

“Yes. Last year we did a play and the year before we did a musical.”

“A play… good. In this festival, you were doing a musical right? Then we need to allocate members to their roles but… how many students here can sing?”

Yun Soojin-sunbae quickly counted with her fingers and replied.

“First off, there are two students from the second-grade that are from the Opera Department. They said they could sing already and the rest… hmm… they focused on making costumes and setting the stage last year so I think they will be supporting from the back.”

Hearing that, I gave a nod. Right, it was natural that not every member from the society would like to stand on the stage.

Although there were those that loved being embraced by the lights on top of the stage, there definitely were some people that found it burdensome. Especially for normal people, compared to a play that only focused on acting, a musical in which you must also sing probably had a higher difficulty barrier inside their hearts.

‘In any case, only two volunteers huh…’

The numbers were too few and performing a musical piece itself was questionable at this rate.

I heard Song Mirae did it well here in the past so I joined it without any worries but…

Glancing my eyes around, I was reading the mood when Yun Soojin-sunbae quickly added more words after seeing teacher Kwak Jungsoo’s indifferent expression.

“Actually I’m more towards supporting but… if there’s not enough members, I will learn as much as I can and…!”

The teacher nodded his head after seeing Yun Soojin-sunbae making a tight fist and turned his gaze over to the freshmen students gathered in one spot.

“Good. Singing can be taught after all. So that means there are three volunteers instead of two. What about you guys?”

“I will participate.”

When I gave an immediate reply, teacher Kwak Jungsoo watched me with a strange light in his eyes before turning to others.

“…Alright. And you?”

The recipients of his gaze, Song Mirae and Han Dasom replied as if in competition.

“I’ll do it too!”

“Me too…”

And as three of the freshmen members were decided to be on the stage, it was Chloe’s turn to answer.

When the eyes of everyone gathered at her, she lowered her gaze in deep contemplation before carefully opening her mouth.

“Won’t it be late if I start learning singing now…?”

Hearing that, I came to a sudden stop.

Singing? Was she interested in it as well?

Although it would be good for me if she entered the stage, I thought for sure that she would be playing the accompaniment, since she loved piano. I tilted my head feeling it was weird as teacher Kwak Jungsoo crossed his arms.

“Late? Since the festival is during the end of November, there is around three months left and it would be quite rough. Although third-graders have done a musical before, you should’ve at least started preparing from the first semester to have some leeway.”

Yun Soojin-sunbae made an amiable smile in response.

“There were way too few people during the first semester…”

“It’s okay. Although three months is short, it won’t be completely impossible. The important thing here isn’t time.”

“…”

Tapping the whiteboard, teacher Kwak Jungsoo raised a marker with his hand. He then threw it into the air before grabbing it again while opening his mouth.

“A festival; you said you were presenting it at a festival. What I want to warn you guys about is that it won’t be easy just because it is an enjoyable, fun festival. In fact, satisfying the audience who has ‘entertainment’ as their objective… is very difficult.”

“…”

Slowly starting his words, the teacher blankly looked at the air as if he was reminiscing something.

“Back when I was in high school… Although I’m not from Future Arts High, I had been a part of a band during school. It wasn’t bad. Since it was an extremely popular society back then, there were tons of guys asking to join just to hit on some girls.”

…Teacher Kwak Jungsoo in a band huh.

With that visual, he definitely did suit rock bands. A full-on russian style even.

I glanced down at his massive build as he continued his words.

“Every member was chosen after countless skill checks so they all flooded with skills and confidence. Then, we decided to participate in a festival to boast of our skills… A vocal soaring through high notes and a long guitar solo, plus a drum being played crazily. What do you think was the result?”

Judging from the context of the question, it probably wasn’t great. Seeing our expressions, teacher Kwak Jungsoo gave a grin.

“Yes. It naturally wasn’t good. It seemed like the audience could tell its difficulty, but didn’t like the sound of it. Because festivals are for fun, its level of entertainment is more important than how complete it is as a music piece.”

Dropping his hand on the table with a gentle thud, teacher Kwak Jungsoo looked into our eyes.

“Plays including musicals and operas are the same. Singing? It’s good to be better but that isn’t the end. The audience are not judges – stableness of voice, uniqueness of expression, magnificence in comprehension of the song… these aren’t the things they are after. The sole aim they are after is entertainment.”

“…”

“But that also doesn’t mean that it’s easy to be on the stage. You must not make any visible mistakes at the very least to not make an unpleasant sound. To do that, you must repeat practices upon practices to rid yourself of mistakes. Besides, that isn’t everything and you must act as well. Yes… there is nothing more ambiguous than a fun performance. It’s better for your mind to be at a concour where good singing equals good marks.”

Lowering my head, I slowly thought back about my past.

Audience huh…

Thinking back, I had never thoroughly contemplated the audience before.

In the past, there was my position in my family to consider, so I had focused more on ensembles that gave stable incomes. At an ensemble where you could just randomly sing and receive salary, there was no reason to worry too much about the audience.

Back during college and after leaving the ensemble, I did sing in front of an audience by myself but that was literally just singing, and I did not have a mindset of ‘I must satisfy the audience!’ during performances.