Arts Festival 2014 Review

A week of amazing events Friday june 20 - friday June 27

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This year’s Arts Festival 2014 has been a roaring success. The programme was exhilarating from the off as Shakespeare Rocks lit the touch paper and the fire burned right through to the Festival Concert.

Exponential is a word we have used to describe the improvements each year at NLCS Jeju and the Arts Festival was a perfect illustration of this. Every event exceeded our very high expectations and the brilliant visiting artists raised the bar yet again.

It was a perfect end to the year and as we look back at the pictures we cannot wait to compose ourselves for Arts Festival 2015.

The Arts Faculty

FRIDAY Shakespeare Rocks

Shakespeare Rocks Shakespeare Rocks is a humorous musical that gives a glimpse of Shakespeare’s life and his plays.

Shakespeare’s play, “Henry VI” was initially performed in 1592 in the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare Rocks picks up from this time, and runs through a snapshot of events at this time, making reference to many of Shakespeare’s subsequent plays.

The brief opening scene, which features a profile of Shakespeare studying in Stratford, introduces his “Book of Insults”, with such colorful phrases as “mouldy rogue”. Next was the highlight of the play – the sarcastic, sassy, flamboyant, portrayal of Burbage (performed by Geoffrey Kang) accompanied by the two equally flamboyant Nics (Tair Langsanam and Harald Park), each of whom were checking out the male actors planning to act as a girl acting as a man. As soon as they find out that two of the ‘male’ actors are girls, they portray their anger by singing the song – ‘No girls allowed’.

Next the show fast-forwards to the 2nd of May 1599 when The Globe hosts its first play Henry V. This was shown by another song, ‘Show in the Globe’, which demonstrated how skilled the year 6’s are when it comes to filling a space with talented voices. Following on from that another song was performed, “Don’t Mention Mac”, which again shows the year 6’s skill in singing, this time they show it through singing in canon.

The play ends with a bit more humor in which Shakespeare gets confused with which pencil to write with “2B or not 2B?”. With such a talented cast, under the expertise of Mrs. Reed-Clancy and Mrs. Duffner this show was a delight to watch.

Article by Jory Cooke, Year 8, Sarah

SATURDAY Opening Ceremony Rock on the Rock Factory Joseph K J3 Live!

Opening Ceremony Photography by JUSTIN CHO, Year 8, MULCHAT

Rock on the Rock The first ever Rock night was held in the PAC - it was a complete masterpiece. This show was put together by SONITAS, the school’s music society. Throughout the year, there have been band nights and this Rock night was the accumulation of all of them.

Many talented singers and instrumentalists were involved in this show, performing hit pop songs by popular artists. Even though it was the first Rock night in this format, the quality was great and the engagement between the audience and the performers was fantastic.

It wasn’t just the audience who had a great time, the performers also enjoyed the evening from backstage where they ended up dancing to the rhythm. The atmosphere was extremely hot and energetic by the time the show finished with the last song, ‘Oh my friend’ bringing the house down.

This performance was a very inspiring one because people from year 8 to 13 were involved and even the staff members showed off their skills. As one of the starting events of Arts Week, it was apparent that many aspects of the show such as the technology, the quality and the involvement were much improved on last year.

Article by Kay Nam, Year 8, Jeoji

Factory Visiting artists, Sarah Misselbrook and Chris Thornton, along with a band of students, created the ‘Factory’ assembly line on the ground floor of the boys’ school. Five of the participating students, dressed in rather fetching boiler suits, used a large volcanic rock to imprint patterns onto themselves and the next person along in bright red poster paint.

The result, after five rounds of this, was 5 boiler suits with individual patterns created by the volcanic rock and the bodies of the students. While this assembly line was in action, boys, girls and teachers from each of the five houses were asked to tread in black paint and walk along a long piece of white fabric, creating different pathways and patterns with their steps.

The physical act of making the art was explored through the participation of these willing students and teachers using their feet, and in some cases hands, to make distinct marks onto the material. Inviting the audience to join in created a group performance piece which will be part of the final exhibition, along with countless plaster casts of natural forms such as leaves, shells, and various body parts.

“The overall concept of the works is the connection between the natural environment and ourselves, our bodies taking inspiration from the flora and fauna of Jeju,” says Sarah Misslebrook. The boundaries between the artist, the maker, the viewer and the environment are subsequently distorted, becoming one autonomous and organic entity.

Article by Emily Monaghan, Year 11, Sarah

Joseph K Jospeh K begins with a fun party atmosphere for one man’s thirtieth birthday, but the ends with him being shot to death near the river. What is the connection between these two events? The conclusion seems a bit far-fetched - but in the end, each memory from his life eventually pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle.

This two-hour performance - packed with drama, suspense and surrealism - is partly based on Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel ‘The Trial.’ A man named Joseph K. orders some fresh food from Satsuma Sushi, but is instead greeted by two unidentified agents from an anonymous agency for an untold crime. And it is this very thing that sends Joseph K. into a spiral of problematic situations, ranging from internal conflicts to a ton of legal troubles. The downfall of a once successful banker.

What really stood out from Joseph K. was the fact that it was in the form of site-specific theatre - the audience actually got immersed in the plot while moving around to different places within the school building – The Drama Studio, Halla Square, Cafeteria, Art Gallery... This itself made the performance an outstanding piece of work.

The changing characters were also a thumbs-up aspect. This helped the audience to continually maintain their full interest throughout the show, as well as give us the opportunity to see great acting from younger colleagues and friends. It may seem like a strange mystery that’s a bit hard to understand but it is this nature that makes Joseph K another fantastic theatrical performance.

Article by Terry Kwon, Halla Photography by Justin Cho, Year 8, Mulchat

J3 Live!

On Saturday, 21st of June, three excellent guitarists performed some fantastic music for the Year 7 to 9 students in the PAC. The guitarists were actually the teachers of NLCS Jeju – they were Mr.Clancy, Mr.Graham and Mr.Sexton.

They all took took turns in singing. It was very brave of them to come out in front of the students to perform such wonderful guitar pieces. The guitar pieces were mostly rhythmical, with a great taste of blues within them. They gave us three of their best songs.

The students were thrilled to watch their teachers perform again in the PAC. A year 8 girl commented, “It was a really exciting, and fascinating performance. I really enjoyed it.” A group of year 7 girls also commented that, “It was an amazing performance, and it was really interesting to see teachers performing. I enjoyed watching the teachers give their best in their performance.”

After the forty minutes of performance, the three brave teachers received a huge round of applause from the crowd of students.

Big thanks to the teachers for their hard work, and their outstanding performances.

Article by Nancy Kwon, Year 8, Mulchat

SUNDAY Ubiquitous Gym Display Soniquad 6,000 Miles From Home

Ubiquitous ‘Ubiquitous’, a performance written by Ji Won Moon, explores the prevalent use of Social Network Service (SNS) in the modern society, the addiction to technology, and the potential social and mental risks interrelated with these rapid changes in society.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram … From the beginning, the performance was centered on the use of SNS. Teenage girls obsessed with Facebook, a boy who craves attention online, and the personification of major mass media such as YouTube and Skype, all link to the theme of presenting the fundamental dangers of the uprising digital revolution.

‘Ubiquitous’ successfully portrayed the concerning effects of the excessive use of SNS by adopting a unique style of performance; a rather surprising scheme, bringing the digital world to life. Considering the fact that the actions people take online may well seem increasingly abnormal in the real world, the performance utilized this aspect to promote the interest of the audience, ultimately arousing sympathy with the characters.

It was not only enjoyable, but also led the audience, members of the modern society, to reflect on their use of technology and further realise how life has been overwhelmed by the digital world. A Unique performance, with a unique theme, led to unique lingering imagery.

Article by Justin Yun, Year 11, Sarah Photography by Justin Cho, Year 8, Mulchat

Ubiquitous

Gym Display The Gymnastic Squad has returned with more advanced and exciting performances. They have been putting huge effort into practicing for several weeks, since last half term.

The performance was held in the gym, with considerable support from the audience. There were a total of three performances, with the fusion of a group contemporary dance, an acrobatic trio and most importantly the gym performance as a whole.

There were constant gasps and applause as the squad performed skillful techniques that required flexibility and stamina. Although there may have been invisible mistakes, performers kept great big smiles on their face and went on with their astonishing balance and movements.

The acrobatic trio was the last performance, which was the only performance that included one of the dance teachers: Ms Philps. Those three dancers performed almost as well as real acrobats, and the performance ended with the loudest around of applause.

Students and staff of NLCS are already looking forward to the next gymnastic performance.

Article by Elly Jung, Year 10, Geomun Photography by Hojun Lee, Year 10, Geomun

Soniquad At 8pm in Halla house, SoniQuad’s performance began with a round of applause. It was an event of amazing background music played by the Sonitas band and songs sung by singers – all were absolutely fabulous.

Gabbie Yu (year 11), who performed on her own and also with Lizzie Cho (year 11) chose a challenging choice of song but was brilliant.

Eva Choi (year 11), who performed two pieces by herself, was half excited and half nervous because it had been quite a long time since she had performed on stage at this school. She just wanted to thank everybody who had come to see ‘us’, and other people who had performed.

There was a fantastic atmosphere where we had a chance to relax and listen to a variety of music. On a personal note, having attended every Sonitas concert, it was thrilling to watch such the enhanced quality of the performers and band.

Article by Jiho Choi, Year 11, Mulchat Photography by Hojun Lee, Year 10, Geomun

6,000 Miles From Home 6,000 Miles from Home is a thoughtful and beautifully put together documentary about Jeju’s Irish Catholic Priest, Father Michael Riordan. The film was, unbelievably, the work of first-time documentary makers and members of the Documentary Club, run by Mr Taylor and Miss Breckner.

This premiere was wonderful for many reasons. Firstly, guests were greeted with cups of the organic milk from Father Michael’s farm, St Isidores. Then we were treated to a professional introduction from Chris Lee and Edwin Jung, who explained that this was their first foray into the world of documentary making. Edwin comically introduced us to his partner, the boom mike, before we sat down to enjoy the film.

The documentary was moving and engaging. Not only were viewers wrapped up in Father Michael’s amazing journey from Ireland to Jeju, but also in the sensitive and professional way that the narrative had been packaged.

This project involved many, all of whom should be congratulated for their artistic prowess. I won’t be surprised to see their names up in lights in the near future.

Article by Mrs Monaghan Watch the film on this link

www.bit.ly/6000miles

MONDAY Creature Story Homeage Grand Summer Concert Premieres The Fall of the House of Usher

Creature Story Photography by Will Stocks

Homage Homage, meaning ‘dedication’, was an activity in which we paid tribute to Mr Daly. With Jessie, the gap assistant from Jeoji, in charge, the students progressed towards the final stage of painting the portrait of Mr Daly, using oil paints.

To get to this point, we explored various art forms such as quick sketching and sculpting. To start off, the students found pictures of Mr Daly, taken from different perspectives. Then they practiced some quick sketches that took a minimum of one minute and a maximum of two minutes. This helped the students to develop their ability to draw in proportion and ratio. After doing some sketches, they sculpted clay into the shape of Mr Daly’s face.

All of the close investigation into Mr Daly’s face led to the point where students adapted to a new artistic skill and created a final piece. Using their skills that they built up during the few days, the students involved produced a wonderfully diverse set of representations of our departing principal.

Article by Eunice Kim, Year 8, Mulchat Photography by Zi Won Kim, Halla

Grand Summer Concert On the 23rd of June, 2014, the audience at the Grand Summer Concert saw countless numbers of excellent performances. The music included pieces from a variety of time periods and styles, such as Jazz, Pop, and Classical. The Cello Trio (members including Janice Kim, Eugene Yang, and Leah Lee) performed ‘Spring’ from the ‘Four Seasons,’ composed by Vivaldi, whilst the Junior Trio (flute accompanied by piano, members including Sarah Kim, Chloe Moon, and Isabella Park) performed ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ It was not only the students who enjoyed the show but also the parents who also came to watch their children play. It was indeed one of the best performances put together by the students and staff so far during the Arts week.

This amazing show was so superb that it was actually quite unbelievable that it was the students of NLCS Jeju who were performing onstage - it seemed as if it were professional instrumental players. For example the Second Orchestra even announced the start of the Grand Summer Concert, and although extremely young (consisting of Juniors only, with an exception of AJ Jung and Jamie Sohn) they were excellent and showed a high quality performance for all of the spectators.

This year’s show stunned the whole school and the students and now we have very high expectations for next year’s Grand Summer Concert!

Article by Gabriella Kim, Year 8, Mulchat Photography by Brian Lee, Halla

Premieres As the name itself shows quite blatantly, Premieres, was NLCS Jeju’s first ever “student-composition” recital that comprised music solely composed by the talented students of NLCS Jeju. It featured a wide variety of genres, ranging from contemporary jazz to pop songs and folk music. Each and every one of the pieces reflected the individual students’ styles and characters, giving the audience an insight into the vast amount of creativity and talents possessed by their fellow students.

Many of those who were at the recital, would agree that the real merit of the Premieres’ lay in the fact that the event offered not only written compositions, but improvisatory performances as well. These improvisations, played spontaneously by the students, once more displayed the students’ musical talents, but only better, as it was topped with a touch of their spontaneous wit.

The Premieres was “a first”, and it is with high expectations that we wait for sequels of the recital, in which even greater musical talents will be discovered and displayed.

Article by Yoojin Song, Year 10, Jeoji Photography by Zi Won Kim, Halla

The Fall of The House of Usher As Edgar, a good-mannered, educated gentleman leads his way into the melancholy house of Usher, the audience is taken out on a journey to meet Roderick and Madeline Usher, the owners of the house.

There is something special about them: they are DECAYING. Their bodies and their minds are full of terror and uncontrollable delusions, and they struggle to live a life that Edgar and the audience recognise.

The house, represented by the dancers, is considered to be alive. Roderick Usher insists that the house is eating him, bit by bit, and causing him to go crazy. At last, when Edgar starts to realise the grotesque atmosphere inside the house, Usher and Edgar bury Madeline’s dead body in a vault in one of the main walls of the house – and this event turns Usher into a complete madman.

I played the role of Roderick Usher, screaming and panting like a crazy person. Although as an actor I have seen this play a thousand times, every time the show is rehearsed, a new feeling of iciness and horror fills me. Playing the role of Usher can be quite embarrassing at first, but once you get into the character, the beautiful dances and lighting really forces you to feel what Usher might be feeling.

The wonderful lighting, splendid beginning, and the spooky atmosphere created by the dancers and the actors are enough to pop your eyes out of their sockets. It is almost as if you can feel the house touching you and pulling you into the play itself. The company has worked really hard to put the show together, along with fantastic Mrs Taylor and Miss Beyer.

Article by Cion Choi, Year 8, Geomun Photography by Emily Monaghan, Year 11, Sarah

Tuesday Opalescent An Audience With Chanwoo Rogeri Professional String Trio Canons Follies Horror Night

Opalescent

Photography by Jory Cooke, Year 8, Sarah

An Audience with Chanwoo

Photography by Donghyeon Seo, Halla

Rogeri Professional String Trio Photography by Zi Won Kim, Halla

Canon’s Follies A mixture of drama sketches, dance, videos as well as singing. A variety performance highlighting parts of never-seen-before student life, with a bit of light-hearted satire and humour.

NLCS Jeju’s FIRST-EVER Canons Follies was a smashing hit. Mr. and Mrs. Monaghan started off with such an interesting conversation about the event, which was immediately followed by Black Eyed Peas’ ‘I Gotta Feeling’ music video starring numerous teachers and even the Senior Team. The crowd cheered and screamed - which already meant that the audience were immersed in all the fun. Who would have thought they would see Mr Daly dance around in his office in his sunglasses?

This was closely followed by a mock whole school assembly by the School Heads and Vice Principals.

Yulgog’s imitation of Mr. Hewlett’s “Narcissus” pronunciation made everyone break out into peals of laughter, while Lizzie’s rap-like speech as Mrs. Chandler-Thompson brought out cheers.

The Open House sketch would have made all students relive the day when a thousand emotions whizz through their heads - especially when hearing end-of-term grades and comments. Ashley Kim showed superb acting skills as Chang-hun’s mother - a typical Korean parent who wants her son to go to a prestigious university and have a wealthy career.

The Language Games, which was a parody of ‘The Hunger Games,’ was full of drama and suspense as students who mistakenly spoke in Korean language were eliminated one by one. Joanna and June were among many of those that shone thanks to their brilliant acting skills.

Article by Terry Kwon, Halla Photography by Brian Lee, Halla

Horror Night

Photography by Jeeho Kim, Halla

WednES DAY Janice Kim Cello Recital Fantasy Fashion Continuum - Future Dance I Am Here Move the Crowd

Janice Kim Cello Recital

Photography by Justin Cho, Year 8, Mulchat

Fantasy Fashion Photography by Chrissy McAdams

Photography by Brian Lee, Halla

Continuum - Future Dance Many talented dancers at NLCS worked with Claire Benson, our visiting dancer from the famous dance company in the UK called Motionhouse. They put their work together into an amazing show that many are calling the best dance performance yet.

To start off, there were six performances of IGCSE dance work. The dances were inspired by professional dance pieces, poems, photographs, and paintings and were purely choreographed by the students, with a little help from Mrs. Taylor. All dances were outstanding, and the reactions from the audience were very positive.

The final piece “Tectonics,� was a piece that was inspired by the volcanic landscape of Jeju Island.

Students worked together with Claire through workshops and rehearsals, creating a wonderful piece that everyone enjoyed.

Congratulations to everyone who was involved, and thank you to Claire and the teachers for their contribution.

Article by Minha Kim, Year 10, Jeoji Photography by Brian Lee, Halla

I Am Here - Frantic Assembly

Photography by Brian Lee, Halla

Move the Crowd Originating from hip-hop night, this week’s Move the Crowd was even better than before; there were loads of people cheering and getting ‘pumped up’ for the new act from ‘Moonstruck’ (a crew of talented rappers including Jay Park, Peter Kim, James Kim, Woojin Kim, Jay Lee and Ryan Kim), year 10 Jeoji girls and our old MC, Daniel Peck. As my roommate agreed, we had a “good time”, having fun until the clock struck twelve.

This was a different opportunity to other events in Arts Week; it was when we could all go crazy without worrying about anything.

Started off by Moonstruck, the party began. Drinks were served and everyone jumped to the beat.

As we realized the show was over, I thought of the phrase, ‘time flies when you’re having fun’; it was the best way to describe how we felt. And then, we ended up pounding the front door to call our housemaster / mistress to open it, craving for a good night’s sleep.

Article by Scott Oh, Halla Photography by Donghyeon Seo, Halla

THURSDAY Festival Concert

Festival Concert

Photography by Brian Lee, Halla

FRIDAY Fete Bones

Fete

Photography by Donghyeon Seo, Halla

Fete Arts Week finished with the closing ceremony and the terrific Summer Fete that Mrs. Waterson organized again this year.

It should have begun at 10 o’clock, but students were so eager that we all started early! Tutors and Tutees were given time before to set up their stalls, which took place all over from the Girls School to the BLT, and which also went into the Sixth form block to the main entrance to the school.

Every tutor group organized an activity for the Summer Fete, which included cheap food that only cost about two or three tokens, such as ‘Noro Bokki’, ‘Smoothie Queen’, and ‘Bacon Brunch’. There were also lots of fun games that were set up to entertain the students, such as ‘Big mouth’, ‘Fruit Bowling’, ‘Splat the teacher’ and even ‘Tarot card reading’, which read the fortune of the students. Some of the activities that were organized even included ways for us to say farewell to the leaving teachers and students, such as the ‘Flower Boutique’, ‘Post office’, and ‘Harry Photo’.

Also, for charity, there were lots of visitors and parents who had also prepared a stall to sell unworn school uniforms and snacks for the students. There were also visiting clowns and sellers who came to sell the products of Jeju.

Everyone enjoyed the Fete, which gave a bright, happy feeling to everyone. Everyone was laughing, and enjoying the joy of the end of the year, and it was also a good way to send some of our beloved teachers to a new school, as the Summer Fete gave us all good memories to keep.

Thank you for all the staff who helped us students to have such a wonderful Fete, and thank you to all the departing teachers, who have given us such a wonderful time during their stay at NLCS Jeju.

Article by Nancy Kwon and Rachel Cho, both Year 8, both Mulchat

Bones

D esign J i w o n J i h o

M o o n , C h o i ,

assistants Ye a r Ye a r

1 1 , 1 1 ,

G e o m u n M u l c h a t

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