Last Thursday evening, the Nanta Theater in Jeju, which seats 300 people, was crowded with foreign tourists mainly from Japan, China and Taiwan, who watched the show about a group of cooks who must hastily prepare food for a wedding banquet.

PMC president Song Seung-hwan poses in his office with the poster of 'Nanta' on the wall.

A Japanese tourist, Yoko Fujimura (59), said, “My daughter visited Korea on a school excursion, and she told me this show was the most interesting. Now I want to know more about Korea.” “The evolving rhythms of samulnori were attractive,” a Chinese woman said. “Korean culture seems profound and abundant.”

“Nanta” is the first case where an indigenous Korean art form has been successfully transformed into a commercial show. It was first staged in 1997, long before such leading lights of the “Korean Wave” as “Daejanggeum (Jewel in the Palace)” and the movie “The King and The Clown.”

Some 4.22 million people have seen it since, and 73 percent of the audience was foreigners. The performance even opened for a long run on New York’s Broadway. The Jeju Nanta Theater, which opened this spring targeting foreign tourists, is playing a big part in introducing Korea to the world.

Song is producing a sequel to be shown next year, and is trying to integrate Korean elements into it. Tentatively titled “Nanta 2,” the sequel is about a UFO that makes an emergency landing in an auto repair shop. He chose the repair shop because percussive sound is at the heart of "Nanta," so all the metal will come in handy.

A project to build a non-verbal performance using the traditional Korean Hahoe mask is also under way. Titled “Talchoom,” meaning “mask dance-drama,” this show is slated to open during the Andong Mask Dance Festival next fall. “While China is known for Beijing opera, and Japan for kabuki, we have talchoom. The large masks will make a fierce visual impact, and our ancestors’ sense of humor will also be reflected in the performance,” Song said.

(englishnews@chosun.com )