{"id":7893,"date":"2026-10-10T15:04:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=7893"},"modified":"2026-10-10T15:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:04:03","slug":"transgender-performers-50-years-on-nightclub-stages-come-to-life-in-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=7893","title":{"rendered":"Transgender performer’s 50 years on nightclub stages come to life in play"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Saek-ja,<\/picture>
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Saek-ja, left, the star of \u201cYou Can’t Make a Life Out of Not Getting Slapped in the Face,” and director Khoo Ja-hye \/ Courtesy of Seoul Performing Arts Festival <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Korean society in the 1970s and 1980s was rife with violence and control masked as institutions and social order. At 16, the world saw her as a boy, but she already knew who she was. At a time when even the term \u201ctransgender\u201d did not exist in common parlance, she performed on nightclub stages, singing and dancing in heavy makeup. She even underwent a risky, illicit gender-affirming surgery under only local anesthesia in a motel room. Her life was likely a relentless succession of discrimination and anger, difficult to imagine today. Yet even amid the violence and suffering that were commonplace at the time, she never lost faith in her choices.<\/p>\n

A one-person play portraying the fearless life of 69-year-old transgender performer Saek-ja, who spent five decades singing and dancing on nightclub stages, will meet audiences at the Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) on Oct. 15 and 16 at the small venue of Arko Arts Theater in Jongno District, Seoul.<\/p>\n

\"Saek-ja,<\/picture>
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Saek-ja, the star of \u201cYou Can’t Make a Life Out of Not Getting Slapped in the Face” \/ Courtesy of Seoul Performing Arts Festival <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Titled \u201cYou Can’t Make a Life Out of Not Getting Slapped in the Face,” the play was first presented at the Feminism Theater Festival in 2024 by Khoo Ja-hye, 44, a playwright and director with the theater company “Theatre, Definitely.” Saek-ja herself takes the stage and recounts her life with a lively, candid storytelling style. The Hankook Ilbo met the two women on Sept. 30 at the Korea Arts Management Service in Jongno District.<\/p>\n

The two first met in 2021 when Khoo directed Saek-ja in \u201cDrag X Male Impersonator,\u201d a play featuring a diverse range of queer characters. Their relationship did not get off to a smooth start. Saek-ja was disappointed that she received little direction compared with the other cast members. Khoo\u2019s response was, \u201cYou\u2019re so good that there\u2019s nothing for you to practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, Khoo texted Saek-ja saying she had \u201cwritten something\u201d and sent her the title. The title of the current play was taken from a line in an earlier work about queer teenagers. It conveys the idea that a reduction in physical violence does not necessarily mean that society has created the conditions for people to be fully recognized and accepted as they are. \u201cI burst into tears because the title fit me perfectly,\u201d Saek-ja recalled.<\/p>\n

Although she describes herself as someone who has \u201calways been confident,\u201d memories of discrimination remain vivid. Saek-ja, who had been recounting her past in her boisterous manner, peppering her speech with colorful language, became tearful when recalling the time she was arrested for \u201cpublic indecency\u201d and nearly died after being confined in a police transport van on a sweltering summer day. Her offense was being a man who wore makeup and sold alcohol.<\/p>\n

Saek-ja still uses an identification card bearing her legal name, Yeom Gyu-sik. \u201cChanging my resident registration number wouldn\u2019t mean I\u2019d really be living as a woman, and even though there are more people who accept me, this still isn\u2019t an ordinary life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Director<\/picture>
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Director Khoo Ja-hye of \u201cYou Can’t Make a Life Out of Not Getting Slapped in the Face” \/ Courtesy of Seoul Performing Arts Festival <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bringing Saek-ja\u2019s life to the stage also brought major changes to Khoo as a director. For more than a decade, Khoo had viewed theater as a medium of resistance against discrimination and exclusion. But just as she began to feel that this perspective was becoming a fixed artistic framework, she met Saek-ja.<\/p>\n

She described the encounter as becoming \u201cthe driving force of my life\u201d and said, \u201cMy perspective as a director has changed a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment you put someone\u2019s life onstage in the name of art or directing, objectification comes into play,\u201d Khoo said. \u201cBeing overly cautious because it is a life you haven\u2019t experienced can itself become a form of othering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, she found the key to the work in Saek-ja\u2019s personality \u2014 someone with an instinct for the stage who reveals her life without waiting for anyone to ask.<\/p>\n

There was also the question of representation involved in putting Saek-ja\u2019s life onstage. While Saek-ja cannot represent all transgender people, she inevitably takes on that role the moment she steps onto the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaek-ja cannot help but carry that representation, but at the same time she shouldn\u2019t have to,\u201d Khoo said. \u201cWalking that tightrope made me feel the existence of people outside the theater much more vividly.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was, she said, a process of recognizing that while the play presents one person\u2019s life, there are also lives that cannot be explained through that one person.<\/p>\n

Saek-ja likewise rejects being described as a \u201cfirst-generation transgender person,\u201d saying, \u201cI left home when I was young, but there were already older people who came before me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Just as working with Saek-ja marked a turning point in Khoo\u2019s own development as an artist, the director said many audience members have drawn strength from the performance.<\/p>\n

She recalled cases in which young audience members struggling with their identities saw themselves in Saek-ja and came to a new understanding of who they were.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheater is important as a way of enjoying culture and the arts, but there are also cases where simply having a particular person stand onstage can give someone strength,\u201d Khoo said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/picture>
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A scene from the play \u201cYou Can’t Make a Life Out of Not Getting Slapped in the Face” \/ Courtesy of Seoul Performing Arts Festival<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saek-ja recently brought her 50-year career on nightclub stages to an end and is expanding into theater and film. She also plans to start a YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

Asked what she would say to her 16-year-old self, she said, \u201cYou were wonderful. You were brave.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she especially wanted to leave a message for young people struggling with their gender identity: \u201cWe are not sinners. Find the courage to come out into the world. There are so many people waiting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Saek-ja, left, the star of \u201cYou Can’t Make a Life Out of Not Getting Slapped in the Face,” and director Khoo Ja-hye \/ Courtesy of Seoul Performing Arts Festival Korean society in the 1970s and 1980s was rife with violence and control masked as institutions and social order. At 16, the world saw her as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-korea","category-trending-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t