Hakchon hosted numerous concerts and plays, but the musical “Subway Line 1” (1994) became its signature production and was known as a launching pad for many prominent actors. In this photo from a 2003 performance marking the musical’s 2,000th show, Hwang Jung-min, left, then an emerging star, makes a special appearance as a con man who threatens subway passengers by deliberately injuring himself. Hwang first joined the production in 1995.HAKCHON
Kim Myung-hwa The author is a playwright and director.
When Kim Min-ki, an influential singer-songwriter and theater producer who founded and ran Hakchon, died in 2024, the small theater company and venue he had nurtured for decades also came to an end. Some hoped its repertoire, including “Subway Line 1” and “Gochujang Tteokbokki,” would continue there. But neither Kim nor his family wanted his legacy frozen in place or the theater preserved like a museum piece.
Instead, Arts Council Korea, which took over the venue, remodeled it as a theater centered on children, carrying forward Kim’s vision. After a public naming process, it reopened as Arko Kkumbat Theater, with “Kkumbat” meaning “field of dreams.”
I recently saw a family play there that brightened the hearts of adults as well as children. “The Song of a Grain of Rice” (2026), written and directed by Lee Si-won, dramatizes where the rice on our tables comes from, tracing a seed from a nursery bed to a rice plant in the fields.
Unlike family plays centered on children, this one focuses on a mother. While cooking rice with her daughter, she remembers her own father, who seemed indifferent to her because farm work always kept him busy.
Suddenly, she becomes a rice seed and experiences growing into a plant through her father’s labor. The production vividly evokes the process of taking root and enduring drought and torrential rain, while her daughter watches her transformation.
After all, why should learning and growth be necessary only for children? Inside every adult is a child whose growth stopped somewhere along the way. That is true not only of the mother onstage but also of many adults who brought children to the theater.
Only after becoming parents themselves do they understand that the father whose distant back once hurt them was silently devoting himself to protecting the family. Watching farming unfold onstage, children learn both the farmer’s heart and a parent’s belated growth. One day, they too will leave the nursery bed of their parents and enter the world.
Come to think of it, the theater’s names are deeply connected with farming. Hakchon, meaning a “field of learning,” reflected Kim’s philosophy: a nursery bed where people could learn and grow. True to its name, it trained countless newcomers before sending them into the world.
The metaphor fits both the production and the history of the space. On that same ground, I laughed and cried watching rice seedlings and human hearts grow together. Kim, who practiced theater with the heart of a farmer, seemed somehow present there too.
엄마, 볍씨가 되다
김명화 극작가·연출가
2024년에 김민기가 타계하면서 그가 운영했던 학전소극장도 사라졌다. ‘지하철 1호선’ ‘고추장 떡볶이’ 같은 레퍼토리를 학전에서 계속해야 한다는 바람도 있었지만 고인이나 유족이 박제화를 원하지 않았다. 대신 극장을 인수한 문화예술위원회는 고인의 취지를 살려 어린이 중심 극장으로 공간을 리모델링했고, 공모를 거쳐 아르코 꿈밭극장으로 명칭을 변경해서 운영 중이다.
최근에 나는 꿈밭극장에서 아이만이 아니라 어른들의 마음까지 환해지는 가족극을 한 편 관람했다. 식탁에 늘 놓이는 밥이 어디에서 왔는지, 볍씨가 모판을 거쳐 들에서 벼로 성장하는 과정을 극화한 ‘쌀알의 노래’(이시원 작, 연출·사진)다.
아이가 주인공인 보통의 가족극과 달리 ‘쌀알의 노래’는 엄마에게 초점을 맞추었다. 딸과 함께 밥을 짓던 엄마는 농사일로 바빠 자신에게 무심했던 친정아버지를 기억한다. 엄마는 문득 볍씨가 되어 자신의 아버지의 수고로움 속에 벼로 커가는 과정을 경험한다. 가뭄과 폭우를 견디고 뿌리를 내리는 과정이 연극적으로 구축되었고 딸은 그런 엄마를 지켜보았다.
하긴 배움과 성장이 아이에게만 필요할까. 어른의 몸 안에도 성장을 멈춘 아이가 숨어있는 법이다. 연극 속의 엄마만이 아니라, 아이를 데려온 대부분의 어른 관객도 그렇다. 어린 시절 섭섭하던 아버지의 뒷모습이 실은 가족을 지키는 무언의 헌신이었음을 이제 자식을 가진 부모가 되어 비로소 배운다. 아이들은 무대 위 농사짓기를 지켜보면서 농부의 마음과 뒤늦은 부모의 성장을 함께 배운다. 그리고 어느 날 그들 역시 부모라는 못자리를 떠나 세상으로 나가리라.
그러고 보니 극장의 이름이 농사와 인연이 깊다. 특히 학전(學田)은 김민기의 철학을 반영한 이름으로, 배우고 성장하는 못자리라는 의미다. 이름처럼 참 많은 신인을 훈련 시켜 세상으로 내보냈다. 그 극장의 터에서 벼 모종과 사람의 마음이 함께 성장하는 연극을 보며 웃고 울었다. 농부의 마음으로 연극을 한 김민기도 극장 어딘가에서 함께 했을 것 같다.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
