2020 Asia Directors Exhibition... Introduced with Israeli Play Reading Performance

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The "2020 Asia Directors' Festival," hosted and organized by the Korea Directors' Association, will be held from November 3 to 8 on the small stage of Arko Arts Theater.

Since its inception in 2005, the "Asia Directors' Festival" has established itself as a platform for mutual exchange among prominent directors from Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, India, and Vietnam, providing opportunities to advance to the global stage.

At the "2020 Asia Directors' Festival," three plays will be presented as reading performances: two Israeli plays and one Chinese play, along with one domestic group's work performed live. Originally, excellent performances from China and Israel were to be invited, but due to the spread of COVID-19, these plans were canceled. Instead, with the cooperation of the Embassy of Israel in Korea and the Korea-China Theater Exchange Association, the performances were replaced by domestic theater groups' reading performances.

On November 3, the reading performance "The Nirvana of Grandpa Gaeddong (written by Liu Jinyun, translated by Oh Soo-kyung)" will be presented. This work was written in 1985 by Chinese playwright Liu Jinyun (劉錦雲). Recommended by the Korea-China Theater Exchange Association, the creative group Choke24 (directed by Jang Tae-jun) is in charge of production. Set against the backdrop of the Communist Party's victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the land reform movement in 1959, the Great Leap Forward in 1964, and the reform and opening-up movement in 1980, the play deeply explores the life of Chinese peasants through the protagonist Gou Er Ye (Grandpa Gaeddong).

On November 4, the reading performance "The Last Son of the Jew (written by Yoav Michaeli, translated by Lee Dan-bi)," recommended by the Embassy of Israel in Korea, will be presented by the creative group GEO (directed by Hwang Tae-sun). The play begins at the end of the 1949 Independence War (the First Arab-Israeli War) and focuses on the life of Jews who lost their children in the Middle East wars.

On November 5, the domestic performance of the new play "Burdened Life (translated by Lee Dan-bi)" by Israeli director Hanoch Levin, originally scheduled to be invited, will be performed by the Nomad Theater Company (directed by Kim Min-kyung).

Finally, on November 7 and 8, the prestigious theater company (directed by Kim Won-seok) will perform "Oedipus" live.

The three reading performances at the "2020 Asia Directors' Festival" are free of charge, and tickets for "Oedipus" are 20,000 KRW each. Tickets can be reserved through the Arko and Daehakro Arts Theater websites and Playticket.