The Acting That Instantly Immersed the Audience
It was an acting prowess that instantly drew the audience in.
One couldn't definitively confirm it from just a single scene—a mere fragment—but it was undeniably, strikingly different from what the previous actors had shown. The performance immediately revealed how the actor commanded and dominated the expansive stage. Moreover, he even threw in ad-libs not in the script, seamlessly blending into the story's flow without a hint of awkwardness, carrying through to the end like a smooth stream.
The four minutes of magic continued. The members of Actor's Yard watching, along with the judges, were left unsure whether the auditionee's performance had ended or not. Then, the "young man" bowed and said, "Thank you."
It was a signal announcing the end of his stage. And as he returned to being actor Baek Woojin...
Clap clap clap clap clap! The audience, mouths agape, erupted in applause that echoed through the theater.
Jeong Jae-min, the troupe leader, and Oh Tae-hyeop, the director, raised their thumbs and joined in the clapping. But...
"......"
Only playwright Ma Seol-ah reacted differently. With a dazed expression, she silently stared at Auditionee No. 7 on stage. Her mind was flooded with question marks she couldn't pin down.
Thoughts... no, when the "young man" had let out that scream echoing through the entire theater from behind the stage, Ma Seol-ah had felt like she'd been struck hard on the back of her head.
The latter half of the scene he'd improvised matched the original script of Saw the Pheasant? almost perfectly.
'......'
To be certain, she'd never shown the original draft to anyone but Oh Tae-hyeop, and he was absolutely not the type to leak a work-in-progress script to actors.
So, 'How did he know?' She couldn't believe this situation.
The flow of the scene? Fine, whatever. Even if the title was Saw the Pheasant?! How could one explain ad-libbing a word like "kkaturi"—something rarely used in everyday speech?
One could accept roughly nailing the scene's structure with its rise, development, turn, and conclusion. But matching the minute details of dialogue, or even key keywords pivotal to certain lines? Impossible.
If the original Saw the Pheasant? were light everyday drama, maybe. But it tackled heavy themes and atmosphere, with a script far more intricate and challenging than it seemed. How could he nail this?!
So, 'He took a mere two-page audition script and constructed the story's arc exactly as I envisioned...'
'Unless he's peeked inside my head, how is that possible?!'
Ma Seol-ah was utterly baffled. Baek Woojin might be capable of it, yet absolutely not—it was a paradox swirling in her mind.
"That was impressive. Thank you for the great performance; as a judge, I appreciate it first. Shall we move to Q&A?"
"Yes, please."
At Jeong Jae-min's words, Ma Seol-ah finally closed her wide-open mouth.
She immediately raised her hand. "Then, may I ask the first question?"
Usually, she waited for the leader and director to finish before adding her thoughts, but not this time. Her eager eyes and expression shone plainly on her face.
Seeing this side of the youngest playwright for the first time, Jeong Jae-min and Oh Tae-hyeop nodded with pleased smiles.
Ma Seol-ah grabbed the mic. "How on earth did you analyze it?!" Her voice brimmed with excitement. If you held a finger under her nose, you'd feel her thrilled breath.
"What do you mean exactly...?" Woojin asked cautiously.
Ma Seol-ah hurriedly continued. "Oh, sorry. My question was too vague, right? So, um... how should I put it."
"Hmm, are you referring to the scene I added at the end on my own?"
"Yes! Exactly! What kind of character did you interpret the 'young man' role as, to add those lines at the end?!"
Questions she couldn't hold back swirled in her mouth. She couldn't calm her excitement.
Jeong Jae-min lightly patted her shoulder. As Woojin gathered his thoughts, Ma Seol-ah's sparkling gaze fixed on his lips.
Finally, "After getting the script, I spent two days just reciting the lines over and over."
The actor under the spotlight spoke slowly. "When you keep murmuring them to yourself, the picture draws itself."
"Picture meaning...?"
"Backstory. What events happened, and the causal relationships stemming from them. Applying that creates my own character. Audition scripts give only a snippet, so it's free to fit the character into the story I envision."
Woojin continued in a low voice. "And the audition script has clear hints. The 'young man' has the trauma of vividly witnessing his 'mother's' death in childhood right before his eyes. It's obvious the person who drove her to death was his 'father.'"
Basic analysis anyone could infer from the script led into deeper layers. "That heartbreaking backstory spills out like a soliloquy. But I judged this line, which looks like a monologue, isn't actually one."
"Meaning there's an interlocutor?"
"Yes, that's what I thought."
"Who?"
Ma Seol-ah's gestures grew animated again— a sign she was swept up in excitement and thrill.
"I could be wrong, but..." Woojin paused, then said, "I thought it was his 'father's' close friend from the past, or someone extremely intimate."
Thwack! Ma Seol-ah smacked her knee without realizing.
At the same time, "In other words, from the 'young man's' perspective, an accomplice. Someone complicit with the 'father' who caused his 'mother's' death."
Woojin's lips curved slightly upward. It was a smile born of ironclad analysis, tremendous effort, rigorous practice, and the confidence in the unique character he'd fleshed out with imagination.
With Ma Seol-ah's first question opening the floor, Auditionee No. 7's Q&A drew the crowd even deeper. "At that moment, the 'young man' vowed. Someday, he would surely get revenge on those who caused his 'mother's' death."
"Exposed to severe domestic violence since childhood, the 'young man' had only his 'mother' to lean on. With even her gone from the world, imagine the intensified abuse he endured. From his only blood relative, the 'father,' he suffered even harsher treatment."
It felt like everyone huddled around a jeon-gisu storyteller from old times, hanging on every word.
"Only after the alcoholic 'father' passed away could he finally break free from his shackles. But the 'father's' death also meant the loss of his revenge target."
What a tragic fate. Born into chains and prisons that bound him cruelly from the start—he should rejoice at freedom, yet with his target gone and his sole kin vanished...
Where could a child without a place or reason to live possibly go?!
"...At that point, one thought must have flashed through the 'young man's' mind. If it were me, that's what I'd think."
"Wh-what?!"
"Wait, there's still... one left, isn't there?"
"......!"
Woojin flashed a sinister smile. It was chilling. The actor, back in reality as No. 7, had seamlessly armed himself with the 'young man's' emotional line while unraveling his tale—like flipping a switch, in the blink of an eye.
"The ringleader may be dead, but the accomplice lives. So the boy, thinking he'd lost his way, sets off anew. He's found a destination again."
Gulp. Ma Seol-ah swallowed dryly, then Jeong Jae-min did, Oh Tae-hyeop followed, and even Choi Yeong-do gulped.
"If there's a farmer named 'young man' sowing seeds of revenge, there must be soil named 'accomplice' to nurture them. Here, I added one more setting. The hint? The role names themselves. The main roles are 'young man' and 'old man.' So the accomplice who doomed the 'mother' is the 'old man' character."
The lone jeon-gisu on stage didn't pause. "Another hint from the names: the title itself. Why ask if they've seen the pheasant? I pondered that deeply, and by the finale, this setting emerged."
"What is it?" Choi Yeong-do shot to his feet.
Bright pin lighting overhead cast shadows, making the jeon-gisu's eyes hard to discern from the audience seats. His head tilted slightly toward the standing listener. A gaze unmistakably aimed at Choi Yeong-do, though blurred. The answer flowed in recitation.
"Their occupation."
"...Occupation?"
The era: 1970s-80s. Living in remote mountains, free from prying eyes or interference. A backdrop of physical and environmental coercion trapping the victim in prolonged violence. To cap it all...
"Yes. I figured the 'father' and 'old man' who doomed the 'young man's' 'mother' were at least poachers, at most professional hunters."
The 'father' and 'old man' as pheasant hunters or poachers. That was Woojin's interpretation, piecing together the blanks like a puzzle.
Assuming his research and analysis held true.
"With this grand framework, I embodied my 'young man.' Like you actors here, I strived to immerse in the character. Once the emotional line formed, those ad-libs were inevitable. I didn't prepare them. Backstage, I just... couldn't hold back the anger."
The jeon-gisu's recitation neared its close. "Male pheasants are called jangkki, females kkatur i. Thinking of the 'old man,' you'd seek the male, right? But why, in that moment, did my 'young man' search for the female instead?"
The actor on stage posed the question to judges and fellow actors. The jeon-gisu to his audience. Or the 'young man,' purple tears streaming, to the void!
Silence lingered. No one but Ma Seol-ah and Oh Tae-hyeop, who knew the original, could answer.
Woojin withdrew his gaze from the air. "Kkatur i is..." His eyes gleamed.
"The 'old man's' wife. To mirror the pain—the loss of his one sole refuge, his 'mother'—he must inflict the same on the 'old man.' That's the 'young man' character."
As the jeon-gisu bowed his head, the natural recitation ended.
At curtain call, "......!" The youngest playwright, mouth agape once more, couldn't close it this time.
Baek Woojin's expansion of the two-page audition script for Saw the Pheasant? deviated not one inch from the original.