An Actor Who Has Lived For 10,000 Years [EN]: Chapter 160

160. #29 – Something I Didn’t Know (3)

A small theater.

I compared the theater’s name to the address on the paper in my hand.

The street performer I’d met in Central Park earlier that day.

The evening performance pamphlet he’d given me.

“This is it.”

After confirming it was the right place, I hurried inside.

Seeing him perform on the street in Central Park, I hadn’t expected a very famous theater company.

I’d assumed they performed for free in the park to attract an audience.

But as soon as I entered, the theater was more crowded than I’d anticipated.

It seemed they performed in the park during the day specifically to draw a crowd.

I quickly bought a ticket.

There was no seat number on it.

“Excuse me, there’s no seat number on this ticket?”

I asked, showing the ticket to a staff member, and she smiled and replied.

“You can sit wherever you’d like.”

I nodded.

The staff member answered and quickly returned to her post.

“New York lets you choose your seat freely,” I muttered, looking at the ticket, and went inside to find a place to sit.

The seating area wasn’t that large.

But if it were full, quite a few people could enjoy the performance.

According to the short introduction in the pamphlet, it seemed like a lighthearted comedy.

But the genre didn’t matter to me at that moment.

I was already captivated by the actor’s performance from earlier in the day.

Just being able to see him act again, and having this spontaneous experience of watching a play in New York, was enough for me.

Soon, the entrance doors closed, and the lights began to dim.

“Looks like it’s starting.”

The murmuring crowd instantly fell silent.

I sat in the second row from the front, in the center, watching the stage with excitement.

Pop-!

The stage lights came on, and the actors I’d seen during the day came onto the stage, performing.

“Do you really think this life, where we can’t enjoy ourselves, is right?”

“Hmm… I’m enjoying it enough, Aiden.”

The actors were immersed in their roles from the start.

As if their acting was their real selves, I was drawn in, unable to take my eyes off them.

About an hour into the play.

“Brian, is it true that there’s a cop hiding here?”

“What…?”

The actors, pretending to be chased by the police, looked at each other, trembling.

“I heard it! The story that a cop is hiding and trying to catch us!”

“Haha, one cop? Well, there are two of us, so we can handle it, right?”

Brian, who spoke, punched the air as if he were boxing.

The audience burst into laughter at his ridiculous antics.

Then Brian frowned, looking at the audience.

“What, are you laughing at me? It seems like there’s a cop hiding among you?”

“That’s right. He must be in the front. Brian, why don’t you bring out the hidden cop?”

“Okay. I’ll bring him.”

Brian placed his palm on his forehead and came down into the audience.

“Haha.”

“Kyaa.”

As he came down, the audience burst into laughter and cheered to welcome him.

Brian was the actor who had handed me the pamphlet.

I watched him with a smile, enjoying his incredibly realistic comedic acting.

Suddenly.

Thud-!

“Found him, the cop…!”

Brian’s hand snatched my arm as I was laughing.

“Huh?”

Brian grabbed my arm.

“This cop was undercover in the park earlier today. I saw him clearly!”

I was surprised, and my eyes widened.

Then I realized that this was an interactive play.

I didn’t shake off his hand and stood up from my seat.

“Waaa!”

The people cheered as they looked at me.

No one knew who I was, that I was an actor from Korea.

It was just a cheer to encourage an ordinary person who briefly participated in the play.

Brian whispered very quietly in my ear.

“Just act like a cop. Any words are fine. We’ll take care of it.”

He was a veteran theater actor.

I, who had always only done scripted acting, found this situation so interesting.

I could feel a thrill running through my body.

And I opened my mouth with the same energy as him.

“Yes, I’ll do it.”

“The ending is us running away, so just do it until we turn around and run away. You can mumble.”

I nodded.

Brian shouted at the actor on stage.

“I caught the cop! As expected, there was only one hiding. What should we do now, Jenny?”

I was led by Brian’s hand and stepped onto the stage, and the moment I did, I shook off his arm and shouted.

“Did you think I couldn’t catch you guys if I was alone?”

I quickly immersed myself in the role of a cop and acted.

My eyes met theirs.

They seemed surprised by my sudden acting, but soon ad-libbed the next line.

“Ha, you don’t have any weapons. Do you think you can catch us with your bare hands?”

As Jenny finished speaking, I immediately interlocked my hands and extended my index fingers.

I made a gun shape and pointed it at them.

The audience burst into laughter.

“Ah… no. Don’t shoot!”

Brian waved his hand at my hand-made gun and trembled.

“You shouldn’t commit illegal acts while living in the world. Even if you want to enjoy life, you have to obey the law.”

“That’s… to find fun in life….”

Jenny raised both hands high in the air, surrendering and trembling.

I took a step towards them and opened my mouth.

“If you commit a crime, you’ll get caught like this. By a cop like me.”

And I stretched out my hand as if shooting a gun.

Then Jenny and Brian ran away behind the stage like arrows.

“Hahahaha!”

The audience erupted in cheers at their comical escape and my sudden performance.

“Waaaa!”

“Best, best!”

The stage lights flickered off, and the next scene was quickly being prepared.

Several tens of minutes later, the play ended, and the actors came onto the stage and bowed.

Clap clap-.

The applause was endless, and Brian looked at me and gestured for me to stand up.

As I stood, Brian asked.

“He is the number one contributor to our play today. Please give him a round of applause.”

At his words, the audience looked at me and cheered and applauded.

“Which country are you from?”

At Brian’s question, I shouted in a loud voice.

“I’m from South Korea, Korea.”

“Oh, I know Korea. K-pop [Korean pop music] is famous even in New York. I know so many K-pop singers!”

“Haha, thank you.”

Jenny, who was next to me, clapped her hands.

“Our play always communicates with the audience while acting, and the Korean who came today showed amazing acting skills.”

“That’s right. It wasn’t just laughter, but admiration poured out.”

Brian pointed at me.

“We scout you to our theater company!”

At his words, the theater was once again filled with laughter.

I shook my head and replied in a playful tone.

“I’m sorry. I have to go back to Korea. I’m a busy person there.”

“Hahaha.”

That’s how my acting, or rather their play, ended in great success.

***

A week has already passed.

If I go back to Korea, I’ll have to readjust to the time difference.

My body is completely adjusted to New York time.

I was enjoying the freedom here.

But one scene remains like an afterimage.

It was the day I went to see the play last week.

The ad-libbing, and the other actors responding to my ad-libs.

Even the cheers and applause that poured out on me.

I kept thinking about that scene, falling into the thrill of the play.

In the end, I changed all of today’s schedule to ‘play’.

It was a theater that a hotel employee, whom I often saw while staying in New York, had recommended.

He praised it, saying that this place was on a different level from ordinary plays.

I couldn’t resist my curiosity and immediately bought a ticket.

The price was very expensive, unlike what I’d expected.

But I thought it would be worth it and paid with a good feeling.

Looking at the ticket, there was no seat number here either.

“There’s no seat on this ticket either? Then where should I sit?”

The moment I entered, I was speechless at the sight before my eyes.

“What is this?”

A theater with as many as 5 floors!

There was one theater on each floor, so there were a total of 5 theaters.

As I tilted my head and looked around, an employee gathered people like me and began to explain.

“Hello. Thank you for visiting our theater. A total of 30 cast members participate in our performance.”

I gaped.

Is that why the ticket was so expensive?

“And they all have their own narratives. After watching the first play in Hall 1, you can follow the actor you want to Halls 2, 3, 4, and 5 to continue watching their narratives.”

She continued to explain brightly and slowly so that we could understand easily.

“And if you want to see the next story of the few actors who remain in Hall 1, you can stay in Hall 1 as it is. You can see the story of the character you want out of the 30 actors.”

I was shocked, as if I’d been struck in the back of the head.

A play unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Until now, I had always been curious about the story of only one main character.

Because there was no play where I could see and hear the stories of the supporting actors.

Soon the play began.

I focused on the stage, thinking about which actor’s story to follow next.

***

After the play ended, I took a walk along the night road, feeling a fresh shock from this new way of experiencing a play.

I returned to the hotel, but I couldn’t shake this pleasant excitement.

In the end, I headed to a quiet cocktail bar near the hotel.

“I can’t just pass by a night like tonight without having a drink.”

Because I was alone, I took a seat at the bar instead of a table.