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| yna@yna.co.kr 2022-07-08 11:55:11
SEOUL, July 7 (Yonhap) -- "Let's blow away the midsummer heat by immersing ourselves in the feast of theater."
The 40th Korea Theater Festival Miryang, the nation's largest theater competition festival, begins on July 8 in Miryang city, South Gyeongsang province.
A great opportunity to enjoy high-quality plays will be held in Miryang city until July 30.
The Korea Theater Festival began in 1983 with the National Local Theater Festival in Busan.
Through its 40-year history, it has grown into the largest theater festival in Korea with the participation of representative theater troupes from 16 cities and provinces nationwide.
The theater festival officially opens at 7 p.m. on the same day at the Miryang Arirang Art Center.
The opening performance will be "Again, As if Seeing a Flower on the New Year's Eve," which features a member of the Gyeongnam branch of the Korea Theater Association.
The play, "Again, As If Seeing a Flower on the New Year's Eve," is about welcoming everyone one meets with the power of people, stories, and plays in Miryang, where bright imaginations are possible.
The theater festival is centered on the main competition, networking festival, and masterpiece one-act play exhibition.
First, theater teams representing cities and provinces across the country will perform at the Miryang Arirang Art Center and the Miryang Youth Training Center from July 10 till July 28.
Representative theater troupes from 16 cities and provinces of the Korean Theater Association, including "Hyunjang Theather" in Gyeongnam and "Hyeolwoo Theater" in Seoul, will be performing the representative plays.
After performing one work a day, at the closing ceremony on July 30, group awards (Grand Prize, Gold Award, Silver Award) and individual awards (Director Award, Acting Award, Rookie Award, etc) will be awarded.
The Networking Festival was planned as an effort to revitalize the network of performers, while the Luxury One Act Play Exhibition was planned as an attempt to encourage the creation of original one-act plays.
Miryang City and the Korea Theater Association significantly lowered the barriers to entry to performances by providing free performances except the final competition, networking festival, and the prestigious one-act play exhibition.
Paid theater performances can be reserved through Naver.
Another highlight of the theater festival is "Fringe."
The Fringe began with spontaneous performances of small performance teams that were not invited to the Edinburgh International Festival in England in 1947.
Unlike official performances, the fringe team is not afraid to perform anywhere.
The invited teams for Fringe use the streets as their stage to make the festival more exciting.
During the Theater Festival Period (July 10 till 23), the Marionette puppet show, violin/cello string instrument and guitar performance centered on Haecheon Outdoor Performance Hall, the mixture of famous Korean songs and Spanish traditional dance flamenco, the fusion collaboration of hip-hop, B-boy, and Korean music, string and furoshiki Street performances of various genres including drama, magic, circus dramas, mime performances and many more will blow away the heat.
Miryang City will be holding the Miryang Performing Arts Festival at the same time as the Korean Theater Festival.
This festival is the representative festival of Miryang city, celebrating its 22nd anniversary this year.
The venue for the festival is Miryang Stadium (formerly Miryang Theater Village).
The play "Come Back," which won the Excellence Award and Directing Award at the 36th Seoul Theater Festival in 2015 and the Gold Award in the competition section of the 41st Montreal World Film Festival after it was released as a film in 2017, will be performed at the Seongbyeok Theater in the Miryang Stadium at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Until July 29, the Miryang Performing Arts Festival program will be filled with popular performances along with the Korean Theater Festival.
70 teams will perform 75 times at the Miryang Stadium, centering on 7 invited works including "Save the Earth" and "Fish Man," along with 3 recommended works such as "Our Neighborhood Sports Festival," and 3 local works such as "Fireworks."
"I hope that the Korean theater festival along with the Miryang Performing Arts Festival will provide an opportunity to open a new renaissance of theater for those working in the theater industry while also providing a time of relaxation and healing in daily life for citizens and spectators through high-quality works," said Park Il-ho, mayor of Miryang.
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