Day 9 in South Korea: Miso

미소 (miso) means 'smile' in Korean.



On my 9th day in South Korea, we went to 정동극장 (Cheongdong Theatre) to watch this musical.
The storyline is a lot like Romeo and Juliette and is modeled after the traditional Korean story of 'Chunhyang', which I have been curious about for a year or so now. Surprise; it's a story about love and jealousy!
Here is a better summary of the story from the Official Site of Korea Tourism-The 2010 version of Miso is the story of Byeon Hakdo’s intense jealousy of Chunhyang and the enduring love between Chunhyang and Monryong (based on the Korean folktale ‘Chunhyangjeon’). The heart-warming tale of the couple’s trials and triumphs is told through traditional Korean dance, Pansori (traditional vocal performance with drum), and Samulnori (traditional percussion quartet). The saga of the two lovers is portrayed through the efforts of 80 actors and actresses, including 37 dancers, 21 instrumentalists and 13 Samulnori players. 
It was a beautiful performance that I can't explain without videos-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvUPBavWB18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX8zF37KF2g

I also very much liked the music and costumes. :)

On our walk to the theatre.

The theatre.

Place to take pictures outside the theatre.

Before the curtain rose.  After this, we were no longer allowed to take pictures.

But we got pictures of the actors after the show!

Aren't their clothes beautiful?

They were bowing because they were going to leave then. My friends got a picture with them just in time!

Everyone received a flyer, but I received the handkerchief because I was selected to go on stage during the intermission performance of the drummers. I actually have a picture of these kinds of drummers as my phone background. I was so happy to be selected! They were doing plate balancing tricks at the time and I got to toss one of the plates from the stick I was balancing it on to one of the performers. My toss was not very good but he caught the plate perfectly anyway! 

After the performance, my friends and I went to eat grilled meat in Myeongdong.

Our yummy banchan.

Meat grilling at the table

Bibimbap and seafood jeon.

I will upload some videos of the food being cooked later! I still don't have them on YouTube so it might be a few days.

Anyway, enjoy the videos of Miso and the pictures!

Day 10 coming soon,

-Argentia Krystofel