NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor

Lim Seong-su asked with a puzzled expression, not understanding Yeon-woo’s words.

“Huh? Theater?”

Yeon-woo then confirmed with Lim Seong-su again.

“Director, you haven’t found a part-time job in Daehangno yet, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. There are no new programs I’m joining now, and the movie I’m scheduled to join won’t start filming for another half year, so I was thinking of doing something in the meantime.”

“Half a year is perfect. Then, shall we go inside and talk?”

Lim Seong-su nodded and followed Yeon-woo up to the theater office.

As Lim Seong-su, who had come up somewhat unexpectedly, sat on the office sofa, Yeon-woo made a cup of instant coffee and handed it to him.

“Yeon-woo, what’s this office, and what’s all this talk about a theater?”

“Well, you see…”

Yeon-woo briefly explained about the project he was currently preparing and asked for Lim Seong-su’s opinion.

“So you’re saying you and your friends started a theater and are planning to put on a performance soon?”

“Yes.”

“Wow… Is this because you’re young? How did you come up with such an idea? A small theater play at this point in your career.”

Lim Seong-su, the lighting director who had watched Yeon-woo debut as a high school student, nodded, thinking that geniuses really do think differently.

“Well, I’d be grateful if you’d hire me.”

“Okay. Looks like we’ve secured the best lighting director too.”

Lim Seong-su chuckled at Yeon-woo’s words.

“If you ask me to join, a truckload of lighting directors would come running.”

“We’re almost at the end of rehearsals. Would you like to start working from today?”

As Yeon-woo pointed to the stairs leading to the basement and asked, Lim Seong-su stared blankly at his fingertip.

Like his middle-aged peers, as he got older, he found himself doing fewer things impulsively.

As the head of a family with people to be responsible for, he had been growing tired of the daily routine that went on like a hamster wheel.

It had only been a few minutes since he started talking with this young actor he met after a long time, but in that short span, he felt like he had been invited to an unknown world.

And Lim Seong-su nodded as he stood at the entrance to that unknown world.

“Let’s go. What did you say the theater name was?”

Watching Lim Seong-su, Yeon-woo grinned.

“New Star. ‘New Star Theater’.”

===

**

===

Lim Seong-su entered the small theater of New Star Theater, following Yeon-woo.

“Yeon-woo, where did you suddenly go… Who’s the person who came with you?”

“Oh, this is the lighting director who will be in charge of our theater lighting from now on.”

“…Where did you suddenly find him?”

Yeon-woo’s friends were surprised by the lighting director he had suddenly brought, but they greeted him first.

“Hello!”

“Ah, yes, yes. Hello.”

Just then, the door of the small theater opened and Jin Yu-han entered.

“Sorry I’m late. I couldn’t possibly miss yesterday’s event, so I was drinking until dawn…”

The members nodded, saying it was okay.

Yesterday was the last performance of Jin Yu-han’s musical “Deyandor,” and it would have been unthinkable for Jin Yu-han, one of the lead actors, to miss the last dinner, so they thought he might not show up until late this evening.

“But you came earlier than expected. I heard the musical team’s dinner was intense.”

When Yeon-woo asked, Jin Yu-han shook his head with a nauseated expression.

“I still feel a bit queasy.”

At that moment, Director Lim Seong-su peeked out from behind Yeon-woo and looked at Jin Yu-han.

“…Yu-han?”

“Hm? Director Lim?”

It seemed that Director Lim Seong-su and Jin Yu-han knew each other as well.

Yeon-woo looked at the two of them and nodded.

‘Well, they’ve both been working in the industry for years, so of course they must have worked together on some projects.’

Lim Seong-su looked back and forth between Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han.

“…So you two are going to be on the same stage? And in this small theater?”

“Ah, I forgot to mention Yu-han because we came in right away.”

“What in the…”

Behind them, the friends and the two theater actors quietly nodded, seeming to understand Lim Seong-su’s reaction.

Yeon-woo looked at Lim Seong-su, whose mouth had fallen open.

“Director, shall we watch the rehearsal first?”

“Umm…”

Lim Seong-su, who had been looking back and forth between Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han, came to his senses.

“…If we’re going to do this, we should do it properly. You said I start work from today, right? Who’s in charge of the console here?”

In response to Lim Seong-su’s question, Ha Jaehoon, who had been dispatched from Jeong Cheolmin’s theater , raised his hand.

“I’ve been handling it in a makeshift way, just learning by watching over shoulders.”

“You must have had a hard time. May I go up to where the console is?”

“Oh, of course, Director. Please come this way.”

Lim Seong-su followed Ha Jaehoon up the stairs behind the audience seats of the small theater and stood in front of the lighting console in the control room.

“I’ll need to think about how to do the memory work while watching the play from here.”

Yeon-woo smiled as she listened to Director Lim Seong-su’s words as he stood in front of the console.

Memory work refers to adjusting the intensity or color of the lights according to each scene and saving it to the console.

Now that an expert was on board, they would certainly be able to convey the scenes more effectively to the audience.

As Lim Seong-su looked down at the stage from above, the actors took their positions.

Lim Seong-su felt slightly dazed that he had just come out aimlessly looking for some part-time work, and now he was standing here watching some of Korea’s hottest young actors perform in a small theater.

Baam─.

With a simple sound effect signaling the start of the stage, the dispatched actor Ha Jae-hoon kicked off the first start.

“The ship is now departing. Is there anyone who hasn’t boarded yet?”

Then, from the dark right end of the stage that couldn’t be seen, Jin Yu-han rushed in urgently with his hand raised.

“Me! I need to get on! Please wait a moment!”

Watching this scene, Lim Seong-su shook his head.

‘The audience will go wild from this point. Jin Yu-han popped out right from the start.’

And he simulated the situation in his head.

‘Hmm, if the next line comes immediately, it’ll be drowned out by the audience’s screams upon seeing Jin Yu-han. I should adjust the tempo by following slowly with the lighting from a distance.’

Lim Seong-su began to write something diligently in the notebook placed next to the lighting console.

As the play progressed, the setting changed to inside the ship, and all the main characters made their appearances.

As the lights came on across the entire stage, the set was revealed.

‘Oh, so they’ve arranged it like this to simply represent the ship’s interior.’

And as the content progressed, Director Lim’s eyes gleamed with increasing interest.

While Yeon-woo had met Director Lim on a drama set, Lim Seong-su had decades of experience in theater, starting as the youngest member of the lighting team at the Seoul Arts Center in the late 90s.

Although he had never formally studied theater or stage composition, his hands-on experience was no less than that of a professional.

As one sees as much as they know, several reasons came to mind as to why the stage was arranged this way.

‘I see, they’re handling the characters’ entrances and exits naturally by opening and closing the doors of each cabin section. And that’s not all. It seems they’ve thoroughly calculated even the structural aspects. I wonder who designed this stage.’

As the play progressed further, Woo Seong-sik, who was playing the role of the captain, was found as a cold corpse in the captain’s cabin.

“Now, the corpse must not move at all. Don’t even twitch.”

Kim Joo-hyung, whose role hadn’t come up yet, instructed Woo Seong-sik to remain still, watching from the audience seats with a writer’s eye.

“Qu-quick, call the guest from room 4! I remember he mentioned earlier that his profession was a detective!”

Then, Kim Junsoo, who ran to Yeon-woo room set up separately at the front of the stage, flung open the door.

“Detective! I think you need to come quickly!”

And Lim Seong-su, who was watching the acting, tilted his head.

‘That friend shows signs of limited acting experience, but it’s not too bad? Did they bring in students from an acting academy?’

The acting skills of the trio of friends weren’t bad either, considering they were playing minor roles with few lines.

Of course, Lim Seong-su didn’t know that it was entirely due to Jin Yu-han’s blood, sweat, and tears that their skills had been honed to this level.

As the rehearsal progressed to about the middle of the play, they took a short break.

And Lim Seong-su, who had taken copious notes, came down from the control room to the audience seats.

“First of all, although I haven’t seen the entire play yet, I have a few questions. Is it okay if I ask?”

“Yes, Director. And please speak comfortably. We’re all in the same boat now.”

“Ah, but is that really okay?”

When Lim Seong-su, who was clearly old enough to be their father, asked, everyone nodded.

“By any chance, who designed this stage…?”

Then Yeon-woo raised his hand.

“It was me.”

“Oh, Yeon-woo ?”

Lim Seong-su was slightly surprised.

During the introductions earlier, he had heard that Ha Jae-hoon or Kim Se-young had done theater in local troupes, so he thought one of them had done it or they had called in a professional.

“The way you’ve expressed the ship’s cabins with these lined-up partitions is partly to make the actors’ entrances and exits easier, but I think it might also be intentional…”

Yeon-woo nodded at Lim Seong-su’s words.

“Yes. I structured it that way because of presence.”

“Ah, I see.”

At this, the friends tilted their heads in confusion.

“Huh? You never told us about that. What do you mean by ‘because of presence’?”

Then Lim Seong-su answered instead.

“Looking down at the stage from above, I felt that Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han’s presence was so strong that it might overshadow the supporting actors if we’re not careful.”

“Ah…”

The friends nodded at Lim Seong-su’s words.

They immediately understood because they had felt more than once that even when they were delivering their lines, Yeon-woo or Yu-han, who were just standing quietly at the back, naturally took control of the stage.

“But, in a structure with partitions, when a door opens, the power of that structure naturally draws attention to the person inside first. I think if we add appropriate lighting to this, we can somewhat solve that presence issue.”

While Director Lim was speaking, Ha Jae-hoon, who had skimmed through the notebook full of notes, exclaimed in admiration.

“Wow. You’ve programmed so many memories in such a short time?”

“Hmm, well, this is my job after all.”

Then Yeon-woo nodded.

“That’s why you’re the best lighting director.”

“Ahem, you don’t need to flatter me so much…”

Lim Seong-su scratched the back of his head bashfully and continued.

“And you’ve placed only Yeon-woo and Yu-han’s rooms at the front without walls…”

“Yes. There are many scenes where they monologue alone in their rooms.”

Then Lim Seong-su grinned and looked at Yeon-woo .

“But that’s not the only reason, right? It’s about the balance of power. It’s completely symmetrical.”

While it might not be noticeable from the audience seats, the view of the stage from the high control room clearly showed a certain form.

“Yes. I used an ellipse.”

“I knew you had designed it intentionally like this. I thought so.”

At this, the friends who were hearing this for the first time tilted their heads again.

“Wait, we use this set every day, but why can’t I understand any of this?”

“I don’t know what they’re talking about either. What’s this about an ellipse all of a sudden?”

When Junsoo and Seong-sik looked at Joo-hyung, the writer, he shook his head.

“Huh? I don’t know either.”

“If even the writer doesn’t know, what are we supposed to do?”

“We should ask the troupe leader.”

Then Yeon-woo scratched his cheek and answered.

“Well, I didn’t mention it because it’s not really information you need to know. Usually, in Korean stage structures, they arrange in a circular shape to focus on the protagonist. A circle has one center point, you see.”

“So does arranging it in an ellipse mean there are two center points?”

Yeon-woo nodded.

“That’s right. An ellipse is a shape with two focal points, and by arranging it like this, naturally, as we move towards the latter half, Yu-han and I, standing at those focal points, will be in opposition, intensifying the conflict structure.”

At this, the friends clicked their tongues in amazement.

“…Have you been secretly studying directing without us knowing?”

“Well, I’m very interested in theater.”

I’ve been watching all sorts of plays abroad for longer than you guys have been alive.

At Yeon-woo answer, Lim Seong-su’s eyes lit up.

“This is going to be fun to focus the lighting on!”

Lim Seong-su felt the enthusiasm he had only experienced in his younger days rising again.

“Well then, shall we start practicing the latter half again?”

At Yeon-woo words, everyone nodded and moved back to their positions.

And after that, the members of the troupe, who had been following a packed schedule without a moment to waste, finally saw the day of their first performance approaching.