Chapter 009

<Episode 9>

Strictly speaking, the actors’ acting was not what attracted attention at first.

What caught everyone’s attention was their appearance.

Young, energetic men crowding the stage.

Some of them even took off their tops.

Their torn muscles were writhing as if they had just exercised, and their skin was glistening with sweat.

But what caught my attention more than anything was their warm appearance.

‘Ugh…!’

The slightest moan must not escape.

Elise, the good daughter, covered her mouth.

At that moment, Elise had already forgotten that this was a play.

To be exact, almost all the audience members there were like that.

Everyone gathered here was so distracted by the lighting, which they had never seen before, and the good looks and energy of the male actors, that they forgot their original purpose of criticizing the play that Louisa had created.

Of course, just for a moment.

It was a moment.

Soon, the audience member who had been looking at Louisa’s ugly face spoke with great dignity.

“As expected, these are the men Louisa chose.”

Even as Elise heard those words, she could not take her eyes off the male actors on stage.

I didn’t want to miss every single line they said.

“Montague.”

“It’s Capulet.”

“Those idiots.”

“You idiots.”

But something was a little strange.

This was different from the plays she knew.

Of course, she hadn’t seen many plays. The normal plays she knows are those performed in the backyard of an inn with commoners gathered together.

However, some of the actors who performed there were quite successful.

They spoke most of the time very kindly, looking the audience in the eye, and would often speak loudly and exaggeratedly, emphasizing each word.

Like the bard actor who appeared earlier.

But these young actors only talked among themselves. Looking into each other’s eyes.

Occasionally, she would look at the audience, but even then, Elise spoke in a simple, non-exaggerated voice, like she did when talking to people around her.

Still, I could hear it well.

That made me feel even more strange.

A voyeuristic sense of immersion, as if you were eavesdropping on the conversation of handsome, young men talking in front of your house.

Without realizing it, she became more and more drawn into the play.

“This is exactly what the princess likes!”

It was then. Someone shouted again from behind.

Elise was angry.

While Elise was thinking of numerous curses in her mind, a woman who was clearly thinking the same thing shouted out.

“Let’s be quiet! It’s distracting!”

“Well, it’s a great play, so be quiet!”

That was when someone shouted.

Young people from two camps bickered noisily with each other on stage.

So, Capulet in red and Montague in blue drew their swords as if they were going to fight each other at any moment.

But the gentle-faced Benvolio Montague was trying to stop it.

“It’s the Capulets and Tybalt!”

Someone shouted on stage.

At the same time, a man wearing red clothes symbolizing the Cepulits appeared on stage, driving the red-robed Cepulits.

A man who exudes a dangerous and seductive aura from his slitted eye corners and long, thin lips.

Tybalt Capulet exudes inexplicable arrogance.

“……!”

A red light flashed briefly above it.

Red lighting.

Symbolizing Capulet.

At the same time, the audience became quiet.

This time, no one spoke about Louisa’s taste in men.

As expected, it would be a bit ambiguous to say that this man was handsome. He was handsome, but not handsome enough to be mesmerized.

If I had to be honest, I could say that the extras around him were more handsome.

But strangely enough, it absorbed people’s attention. Wearing red clothes and having an arrogant expression, you could tell at a glance that he was a major character.

Even the red light made it known.

The man who appeared with a red light pulled out his sword in an arrogant voice and challenged the Montague guys to a duel.

“Cowardly Benvolio. Take out your sword right now.”

At the same time, a sword fight took place on stage between Benvolio and Tybalt.

It was a real sword fight.

Rather than choreographing a dance with exaggerated movements like I saw at the inn, it was aimed directly at the person’s ribs and ulna.

‘Is this really acting?’

For just a moment, Elise wondered if she should get up and save the actors.

In particular, actor Benvolio strangely caught my attention!

Even the audience who had previously shouted, ‘Shut up, it’s a great play!’ also muttered.

“Shouldn’t I stop you?”

Even though everyone was whispering, the play continued.

Fortunately, all the actors were safe, and soon the local lord appeared and stopped the young people from fighting.

People almost forgot that this was a play.

“If anyone in Verona draws a sword again, I will execute them immediately.”

As the actor who spoke in a stern voice left and the unrest calmed down, sighs came out from all over the audience.

“Phew….”

Of course, that relief didn’t last long.

This was because an actor soon appeared.

He appeared at the edge of the stage, leaning crookedly against a market stall with an expression on his face that showed no interest in all this unrest.

But that alone was enough to make everyone look at him.

Unlike other actors, he has his hair loose and stands still with a defiant look on his face.

‘This is handsome on a different level.’

It was like that. What I said earlier about the actors being handsome was all a lie.

Elise realized.

If the word ‘beauty’ were made into a person, wouldn’t it look like this?

This time, Elise couldn’t hold back her moans either.

“Ugh….”

It didn’t matter whether my father was present or not.

Next to her, she heard her father click his tongue in disapproval, but Elise didn’t even look in that direction.

She just focused on the fact that that man was Romeo, the next head of the Montague family.

A man who doesn’t get involved in stupid fights.

A man who looks like a statue and has a rebellious spirit.

“Is it still early in the morning?”

The man muttered.

Romeo looked up, as if lost in his own world.

It was a moment that took everyone’s breath away.

* * *

‘The reaction was much more intense than I expected.’

I was a little embarrassed watching the audience’s reaction from backstage.

Not surprisingly, during the fight scene, several audience members tried to invade the stage, and when Romeo appeared, some women actually moaned.

‘I forgot for a moment.’

In this world, people have never seen acting like this.

I’ve never seen lighting like this before.

‘I am the first director in this world to use pin lighting.’

Thankfully, there was no place that sold it, so I had to work hard to make it myself.

The light I used today was made from ore.

Ore.

It was a strangely glowing stone that existed in this world without light bulbs.

However, there were not many places that handled this ore.

To begin with, since it was a rare and expensive item that came from places like ancient caves, candles were mainly used in ordinary homes.

It means that efficiency is low.

But I knew of one place that handled this product.

‘Buying ore? From me? Other than this and that weird stuff?’

Rudy’s night bar.

Here, the auction was held in a windowless basement.

People would suffocate if candles were used in that underground cave, so ore was mainly used.

Rudy looked upset when I told him I would buy ore.

It was natural that ore was a relatively cheap product compared to the products handled in this store.

‘Okay. And ask the blacksmith you usually go to when making strange things to make a black blackout barrel. It has a glass in front and it looks round like this. Ask for colored glass to be installed on two of them. A red one. A blue one.’

A blacksmith.

I couldn’t believe it even as I said it.

Normally, this kind of thing is easy to find if you go to Cheonggyecheon.

An object that collects light by placing a light bulb in a blackout container and placing a glass in front of it.

These are pin lights and baby lights.

It was like that.

This was theatrical lighting, something that didn’t exist in this damn old-fashioned era.

In the first place, the ‘pin lights’ and ‘baby lights’ I was looking for were available as finished products all over Cheonggyecheon in Korea.

‘No, it’s not about money. Why should I listen to such a request? Plaguy?’

Rudy spoke harshly, but I knew how to get him to move.

‘That’s because I know that you touched a woman you should never touch. Should I go and talk to her husband?’

Rudy is a man with many weaknesses.

It will be useful in the future.

‘No. I will go and request it right away. Do you need anything else?’

‘Men. A lot of guys with good bodies. And a few guys who seem to be interested in acting and fame.’

The next thing left was the audition.

For roles such as older actors and bards, I just had to draw from among the original actors in the theater company.

It didn’t matter that they were acting expressively.

The bard had to find a beautiful off-white actor to portray Shakespeare’s famous sonnets.

But young actors were different.

‘You have to please the audience when you first appear.’

While a little admiring Luisa Mecenat’s insight, while also secretly criticizing her, I couldn’t help but be drawn into it.

The extra male actors were filled with good-looking and fit guys.

But Tybalt, Benvolio, and Mercutio needed faces that fit the roles.

Like Leo Peer, his slightly lacking acting skills had to be made up for by the overwhelming aura that his appearance gave off.

If I had not understood Shakespeare’s script and had no clear directing direction, casting could have been difficult.

Shakespeare’s script was so poetic that there were productions that were difficult to properly understand even in modern times.

They look at the numerous reinterpretations of Shakespeare that have come out and try to roughly imitate them, only to fail.

They are only looking for people who are similar to existing actors.

But I am different.

I knew which Tybalt, Benvolio, and Mercutio I wanted.

Tybalt, the arrogant Capulet who hates Montague more than anyone else.

Benvolio is a docile man who calls himself a pacifist but has a cowardly side who does not take anyone’s side.

Although Mercutio is a playful person, he is actually cowardly and weak on the inside.

I found the three and had them practice acting.

‘The acting was only about 80% of my expectations.’

Even though I had almost no expectations in the first place.

Tybalt was an actor with poor memorization skills, so he had to miss his lines a couple of times.

When I saw the state of rehearsal, I thought the audience would be dissatisfied.

But what is this?

“Tybalt you bastard! But you look good!”

The audience cheered for Tybalt.

It was like that.

There is still no standard for evaluating method acting for this audience.

People didn’t even notice Tybalt’s mistake, let alone complain.

It was because I was so absorbed in it.

‘I was completely immersed.’

I clenched my fists as I looked into the eyes of the people who were staring straight ahead.

It worked.

Everything I directed was just as I wanted.

An exhilarating feeling of joy penetrated my entire body.

Every time people were surprised, laughed, or wondered at the direction I helped direct, I felt like I had become a god.

With the weapon of the stage, I was able to make so many people laugh and cry.

That was me.

Me, Shingeum.

A woman who loves and knows theater better than anyone else.

“…Are you nervous?”

And then, someone whispered behind my back.

It was Leo who came backstage briefly.

He looked like he wanted to make fun of me while I was busy opening the curtain and looking outside.

Actually, I was really nervous.

I shook my head.

“No. It’s not like that.”

“……?”

“It’s crazy good. I didn’t know it would be this good until now.”

I looked at Leo quietly.

“Good.”

For a moment, Leo’s eyes wavered.

An unknown expression spread across his face.

But I couldn’t afford to worry about him.

It had to appear right away.

Juliet by Luisa Mecenat.