Gwangju Performance Project is returning for its first full production this year with a series of short plays and a bit of dancing.

“Ives Just Got to Dance” features four short comedies by David Ives, and a dance performance choreographed by GPP’s Angie Hartley.

“The themes are timing and miscommunication based on language,” said Travis Major, who is overseeing the production and directing two of the plays.

“That’s why we selected it, because we thought it was something a Korean audience would find funny, and also the foreigners here too.”

They’re very funny plays as well. They’re perfect for us because they’re really short and simple and minimalist.

Major said he had a selfish reason for choosing the format ― it reduced his workload ― but pointed out that there were other benefits to having several small productions.

“Because of people’s schedules here in Korea it’s hard to get more than two or three people together in the same room,” he said.

“Also I think it’s better for the audience because people have short attention spans. So it’s better to have the people on stage changing regularly as well as the topic.”

The dance element came after Hartley, who won awards last year for her choreography in the United States, approached Travis about a dance workshop.

Major said he found that they shared ideas about dance.

“The problem with dance is that it’s really pretentious and people feel like they can’t do it because it requires training and it has to be done a certain way,” he said.

“And (Hartley) wanted to create something that was about dance as expressive art rather than a polished technical thing.”

Hartley is one of several people to turn up out of the blue at just the right time.

“The project has been determined somewhat by the people who happened to contact us randomly,” said Major.

“And we’ve been pretty lucky. Every time we’ve needed talent for the group they’ve offered themselves up.”

He gave the example of needing someone to draw scale drawings for the stage, just as an interior designer asked if she could do anything. When they lost their sound technician, a woman with relevant experience working for PBS volunteered.

Long term, however, the project is looking for something more stable.

“We’re trying to do two things: We’re trying to find new people who might want to direct and have more responsibility later,” said Major. “We’re trying to figure out how to leave a bit of a legacy before we go. The other thing is building sort of an infrastructure.”

He says collecting information and putting it online ― and perhaps even creating a manual ― would help future organizers avoid making the same mistakes as them. The group has already put their accounting spreadsheets online so that others can use it as a model.

Other aspects are contacts with advertisers and theaters. Major said that language problems meant they paid double what they thought they would at their first theater, which refused to do anything when it flooded.

“Because we didn’t have a direct line of communication we couldn’t negotiate with them, we basically just had to say ‘oh well.’ Now we’ve found a theater that has English speakers, so that helps us a lot,” he said.

Another thing is knowing where to find supplies.

“At home it’s really easy. If I want to buy fabric, I know where to go, but here we could spend all day driving around looking for things,” he said.

For now the project is doing well, with tickets selling out fast. Major was pleased that many of those buying would be seeing GPP for the first time. He said he thought this was because they were offering something different for expats in the city.

“There’s nothing like that here in English, so it’s just a different kind of evening that they can’t get normally,” he said.

“Ives Just Got to Dance” runs May 5 at 8 p.m. and May 6 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Gongyeon Ilbeonji. Tickets are 8,000 won, but the May 5 show is already sold out.

For details on ordering tickets and theater location, visit www.gwangjutheatre.com.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)