We hope to see you there!

-Jessica

In the meantime, you won’t find any new content here, so please keep up with us on our Laughing Tree Facebook page (we’re on there far too much, really).

Thanks for being lovely. See you soon, when we’re sparkly and new!

-Jessica

We opened last weekend to two sold out shows on May 29th and 30th. It was great fun, and we’ve gotten some great reviews from our opening weekend:

The Korea Herald (who gave me special mention!)

…The show, directed by expat Margaret Whittum, far exceeded my expectations, nearing professional quality. Held at Roofers, a bar in Itaewon, I could’ve easily been in any of the numerous well-respected community theater spaces that I had frequented in Chicago. Korean friends that I went with said it was better than musicals they had paid upwards of 100,000 won to see…

…Although the entire ensemble was talented, if I had to pick a favorite, Jessica Lofbomm delivers an excellent performance as Olive Ostrovsky, a lonely girl whose best friend is her dictionary. In the beginning of the show, it may have been easy to overlook Lofbomm as each member of the cast shone in their own right, but Lofbomm’s clear soprano and heartfelt delivery was spot-on…

Seoul Style

…Don’t expect to see any small performances on stage for Putnam County. Each character has been meticulously developed. I could not find any wooden expressions and for that I have to tip my hat to the director and cast for the special attention they paid to the details. You are going to find some great characters brought to life by superb performances…

The Three Wise Monkeys

…The six main contestants in  Spelling Bee are well delineated against themselves. And in spite of the usually very true conclusion that the performers of a local theater company spend too much time vamping with each other, this Seoul Players production is able to avoid that and all histrionics from the cast actually goes for telling the story…

We have two more weekends of performances on Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm and Sunday evenings at 5pm through June 13th. This weekend is already sold out, and tickets for closing weekend are going quickly. If you’d like to reserve tickets, email seoulspellingbee@gmail.com. More event details are here.

We have created some funny character sketch videos to promote the show. Click here to view them all on youtube.

-Jessica

Now a month later, Adam will be trying on a new role as VJ. He’s stoked. Kachisan will be playing twice tomorrow in Seoul as part of the HBC Fest. They’ll be at the VFW in Haebangchon at 3:00pm and then at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon at 10:00 pm. Adam will be VJ-ing at both events. If you’re in Seoul, stop by to hear some great rock music combined with cool, atmospheric film manipulation. Here’s the event info.

HBC Fest will have tons of live performances all day and into the night at every possible venue around Haebangchon, so it’ll be more than worth the trip. Here’s the schedule.

-Jessica

Addendum: So, the venues aren’t set up well for the VJ-ing that Adam and the guys envisioned, so Adam is going to join them in a couple of weeks for some gigs in Hongdae. Kachisan is still going to rock it at HBC fest, though, so stop by!

Dear Kid from Hannah Shin on Vimeo.

What would you say?

-Jessica

Hye Sook Jung at Badabie in Hongdae

I am helping Hye Sook record at our home studio and am really enjoying trying on the role of engineer. More songs coming soon.

-Jessica

A print from Mike Stewart's "The Hard Way" exhibition

Mike also teaches fine art classes in English in Myeong-dong in Seoul… interested?

-Jessica

The animation for the “Your Car” video is by Soojin Kwon.

-Jessica

For more info about 8mm, the weekly vintage film night that we host in the Hongdae neighborhood of Seoul, check out the Facebook group and Adam’s blog post about it from this January.

-Jessica

This past Thursday we held our first evening of a new Laughing Tree sponsored event, ’8mm: Owl Bus Vintage Cinema,’ and it was lots of fun. (for more event info and a map, click on that link)

I’ve been into emulating vintage film looks with my digital photography work for a while now, trying to capture the delicious, muted tones and nostalgic feel produced by Holgas, and old 35mm film. Any of you that have kept up with some of the photos I’ve been posting lately are aware of this already. I think this retro fetish first began with my obsession with electronic duo Boards of Canada whose whole aesthetic is dripping with 70′s and 80′s vibes and was then further fostered and fueled by of my creative heroes, Scott Hansen of ISO 50 and Tycho fame.

Anyhow, this vintage fixation has begun to carry over into an interest in retro-styled moving images as well. I began collecting some home movie and other 8mm footage when I was working on ideas for the video for “All the Pretty Little Horses”, and I just got kinda hooked. Something about the gritty jumpiness and washed out colors felt so authentic and really transported me into another emotional space that slick, HD video and CGI just can’t match.

At first my collection was confined to home movies, and then started branching out into other genres like old animations, some experimental film, commercials from the 50′s and 60′s, and even some old ephemeral films produced for education and promotion. Video can fill up a hard drive quick, and soon I was wondering what I was going to do with all of this material. I’ve long had some latent VJ aspirations and considered getting into that, but honestly I still don’t have the time or money to really pursue that hobby just yet so I let that idea go. Then a few weeks ago I was talking to my friends Hyesook and Heejong at one of our favorite spots in Hongdae, Owl Bus, and they told me they were looking for a way to get more people in during the week. I told them I was looking for an opportunity to share my growing film collection with people, and we hatched a plan to do a weekly vintage film night there. Win-Win. Love it.

Well, we managed to pull it together the past Thursday and had a nice crowd of about 15 or 20 folks there throughout the evening. Just about right for an opening night when the kinks are still getting worked out.

I will be there at Owl Bus curating 8mm each Thursday night from 7-11pm from now on until it stops being fun, so I hope that you will come and join us some night soon!

-Adam