
According to the citizens, several roads have developed potholes and causing hazards for commuters. When I started thinking like that, I was cast as Elphaba.The residents of several city areas have demanded the authorities concerned to pay attention on urgent repairs of broken roads which are not only causing traffic jams but also endanger public safety. For example, when I didn’t get a role, I began to think it wasn’t because I’m not talented, but because the role isn’t for me. After so many failed auditions, I thought about scrapping my dreams and becoming a music teacher or just staying in bed for months, hating myself.Īfter some stormy years, I began to empty my mind and change the way I think. I really wanted to make a name for myself as an actress.īut it didn’t work out as I would have liked for so many years, and I began to blame myself for being not good enough. Elphaba was discriminated against all her life, but later, she flies high up into the sky.

So you think your voice being similar to Menzel got you the role? Well, the American music director told me also that he saw Elphaba in me. It was only later that I found out it was Idina Menzel who sang the English version of “Let It Go.” Menzel played Elphaba in the premiere of “Wicked,” and I guess we had some similarities. I just sang like I always do, and the Korean staff sent the recording to The Walt Disney Company to get approval, which was sort of an audition. I just went to the studio to earn some money. What do you think made you land the role of Elphaba? That’s correct, I did small, original Korean musicals before “Wicked.” I think what made me get cast as Elphaba was the tone of my voice, which is quite similar to the sound of Elphaba from the original production.Ībout a week before the opening of “Wicked” in 2013, I went to record a Korean version of the song “Let It Go” from the animated film “Frozen.” Back then, I didn’t know how famous the song was, or how famous it would become. Before then, you only performed in small theaters. “Wicked” was your first large-scale musical. When I told them the news, they were like, “Oh really? Cool… Come home sometime. I think this kind of characteristic runs in my family. In 2013, people around me jumped for joy, and some even came to me in tears, but I was rather calm. I don’t think one’s life transforms dramatically just because you did a show that’s popular. I made my debut in 2006, so it’s been 10 years. Now, you’ve become one of the most popular musical theater actresses in Korea. Before “Wicked” in 2013, your name was unknown to most people. To hear more about Park’s dramatic transformation as a musical theater actress, the JoongAng Ilbo recently sat down with Park for an interview. “I had to start from the very bottom again, and this time, I was even more nervous.” “I don’t think they were thinking about giving me any advantages for being Elphaba for the last production,” Park said. It benefitted her in 2013, but it also meant that this time around, Park had to undergo the same rigorous auditions. The audition process, according to Park, used a new system that gave equal opportunities to both stars and unknown performers. Still, she said she was frustrated that the production team never asked her to read the lines to see her acting until the very end.įinally, she was given a chance to show everything in front of the show’s director - and then land her first leading role. Park said she began to have hope that she might get a leading role this time.

There were more dances, more singing… seven different times.” Then a few days later, they asked me to come in for another audition. “But the next day, they told me to come in and sing one of the main songs. “On the first day of the audition, they asked me if I could dance, so I showed them and that was it,” Park said. In fact, until the Elphaba role in 2013, Park said she half-jokingly told her friends that going to auditions was her “hobby,” attempting to downplay the number of auditions she attended compared to the number of actual parts she landed. Instead, she hoped only for a spot in the ensemble. Remembering her first audition for the show in 2013, Park said she had not dared to dream she would land a lead role. Park will be painted green again this summer for the “Wicked” run scheduled to kick off at the Seoul Arts Center on July 12.
