Understanding Fandom

About the Play

A solo drama dedicated to your fandom

Understanding Fandom is a creative play that focuses on the contemporary phenomenon of ‘fandom’, delicately untangling the emotional threads connecting generations, families, and society. While ‘stanning’ or obsessive fandom is often dismissed as a personal preference or a trivial hobby, it actually embodies love, solidarity, passion, and, for some, a narrative of healing. Treating fandom culture with careful respect, Understanding Fandom received widespread empathy and critical acclaim during its premiere in early 2025.

Synopsis

Streaming, collecting content updates, joining fan club memberships, chatting with fandom besties.. Kim Jeong-soon, a university professor teaching traditional Korean music, is as active in her fandom as ever.

However, her daughter Hayoon suddenly returns home from the dormitory without taking a leave of absence, finding her mother’s fandom embarrassing and awkward. The rest of the family also looks on with growing worry and concern.

After fierce competition for ticketing, will Jeong-soon be able to secure tickets to the kids’ final concert before their military enlistment and achieve her dream of becoming a successful fan?

Viewpoints

Cultural communication utilizing music, respect, and skill. The premise of a traditional Korean music professor obsessed with K-pop idols brings a diverse array of music into the play. From ‘Jeongga’ (vocal genre), the protagonist’s major, to folk songs sung alongside the audience, a Buddhist chant invoked to change her daughter’s mind, a karaoke showdown with her trot-fan older sister, and the actual album tracks of the K-pop idols in the story, audiences can joyfully immerse themselves in the play through familiar tunes.

Technical minimalism that stimulates the imagination Video panels and screens are arranged three-dimensionally to effectively create a stage where the real world and virtual world coexist. Acting as a giant home theater, a pre-recorded broadcasting set, and a concert venue as if a smartphone had been brought onto the stage, they play a supportive narrative role.

Dull-of-life character transformations It vividly embodies the multi-layered world of fandom through diverse character transformations and bittersweet emotional textures. Charming characters appear, including late-blooming fan ‘Kim Jeong-soon’ who tries to understand the world through fandom, trot fan ‘Kim Gyeong-soon’, baseball fan ‘Kim Deok-soon’, Jeong-soon’s daughter ‘Hayoon’, and fandom mentor ‘Chojo’. The journey in which these colorful characters connect with the world and understand each other through ‘fandom’ in their own ways brings laughter and emotion to the audience.

Producer’s Note

Is your fandom being understood?

While it ostensibly talks about fan passion, it deeply delves into the essence and value of love. - Kim O-mi, Gangwon Ilbo -

Actor Kim Dong-soon’s hip solo drama, an introductory guide to Korean society’s fandom culture. - Theater Critic Kim Geon-pyo -

Although it deals with the subject of fandom, it carefully weaves in the values of ‘love’, ‘empathy’, ‘respect’, and ‘self-expression’. - Naver Rom* -

A time to realize once again how precious the ‘freedom to love what I love’ is. - Naver Dam* -