In performing arts festivals, programs are the measure to assess the attributes and directivity of the festival and also a domain that determines the factors of success. Festivals can be planned with different kinds of programs such as introducing wor...
In performing arts festivals, programs are the measure to assess the attributes and directivity of the festival and also a domain that determines the factors of success. Festivals can be planned with different kinds of programs such as introducing works by many different artists or by creating and presenting new works of art. However, a majority of the performing arts festivals in the country chose to go by the method of selecting works or artists verified for the quality of works or amusement and aligning them in a row, so it was assessed that the programs are unified and standardized.
In this situation, the researcher focused on < Yeowoorak Festival>, a festival that was started by the National Theater of Korea since 2010, and how the festival consists of various festival programs and is known for its high competitiveness, recording 96% of average seat share ratio over the past 10 years. ‘Yeowoorak’ is the abbreviation for ‘here, is where our music is at.’ and the festival was planned to provide a chance for our generation to listen to our music centered on Korean traditional music.
This study intended to focus on the case of <Yeowoorak> and identify how the festival program organization method affects the formation of competitiveness for the performing arts festival. For this, reference materials and preceding research were analyzed and derived the types of programs following by the organization method of the works and the key attributes that reveal the competitiveness. The program types of the performing arts festival were classified into ‘invitational type,’ ‘developmental type,’ and ‘production type,’ and the key attributes were classified into ‘artistry,’ ‘festivity,’ and ‘identity.’
Subsequently, the program types and key attributes derived through a theoretical consideration were applied to the case of <Yeowoorak> and the correlation was analyzed. Before conducting the analysis, the researcher supposed that the key attributes of the festival will be reinforced and appear in the ‘production type’ out of the three program types. The researcher revealed that it is because preceding researches about <Yeowoorak> mutually stated that the distinctive competitiveness of <Yeowoorak> is the production of works through collaboration, and this applies to the ‘production type’ as deduced earlier.
To prove the hypothesis, 92 charged indoor performances of <Yeowoorak Festival> throughout 2010 to 2019 were classified based on the program types and the works categorized by types were analyzed from the aspects of the three key attributes. <Yeowoorak> first began as an ‘invitational type’ festival in the early stage by selecting and introducing existing works for the arrangement of the program. However, the festival gradually evolved into ‘developmental type’ where an attempt was made for partial transformation based on the existing works and aimed for ‘production type’ with a new arrangement in the festival like the integration between genres or collaboration among artists
Based on the aspect of the key attributes of <Yeowoorak> based on the program types over the last 10 years, the three program types contributed differently to the festival performances. The details of the research findings are as follows.
First, ‘invitational type’ introduced artists recognized for their skills or works proven to carry amusement and secured the initial program level of <Yeowoorak> and contributed to building audience reliability and festival awareness. Second, ‘developmental type’ reinforced festivity with variable and atypical properties from the aspect of partly attempting some new changes based on the previously completed works. Third, ‘production type’ consists of works that are made by initiating new artistic experiments and attempts in the festival and actively contained the artistic directivity or vision of the festival. The collaboration between different genres and artists emphasized the festivity of the programs such as diversity·unexpectedness, and the new works that closely considered the directivity of the art director from the planning stage shaped sparse values and contributed to the formation of the festival identity. Especially, out of the key festival attributes, the identity was most noticeable in the ‘production type’ performances.
Even in the aspect of charged seat share ratio, the ‘production type’ performance displayed prominent performance out of the three types of programs. It is analyzed that this result reflects on the curiosity and expectation about the premiere performances that are only available in <Yeowoorak> as well as the desire to discover new creative works. In addition, the works that are made into ‘production type’ programs led to various forms of influence even after the festival, and <Yeowoorak> was established as a center of creation and production that leads artists and also as a platform. Based on the analytical findings, it was identified that when festival directly produce the programs, it is effective for revealing the artistic directivity and identity of the festival and also securing notable values and competitiveness.
This study is meaningful because it suggests a single viewpoint that identifies the competitiveness of performing arts festivals through the three key attributes like artistry, festivity, and identity. Considering the domestic situation where a majority of performing arts festivals organize programs by selecting and introducing performances and artists verified for the quality of works and amusement, it is anticipated that examining the program organization method and the outcomes will suggest an implication about the intrinsic meaning and functions of the performing arts festivals. In particular, the ‘production type’ program was identified to cause the greatest influence on the formation of the key attributes, and it not only shapes the intrinsic identity of the festivals but also function as a strategy for festivals to be the active production agent in the performing arts market in the aspect of market expansion by developing new groups or works.