Mayor Baek Gyeong-hyeon: "We Will Develop into a Cultural City Where Literature and Arts Blossom"

Commemorative Reading Performance for the 14th Anniversary of Park Wan-seo's Passing
Guri City Successfully Hosts "Park Wan-seo, Re-read by Actors"
A New Interpretation of "Who Ate All the Singa?"

Guri City, Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Baek Kyung-hyun) announced on the 4th that it successfully held the thirteenth reading performance titled "Park Wan-seo, Re-read by Actors" at the Cosmos Grand Theater in Guri Art Hall on the 27th of last month to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the passing of writer Park Wan-seo and to honor her literary achievements.

Guri City successfully held the 13th reading performance titled "Park Wan-seo, Re-read by Actors" on the 27th of last month at the Cosmos Grand Theater in Guri Art Hall, commemorating the 14th anniversary of the passing of writer Park Wan-seo and honoring her literary achievements. Provided by Guri City

The Guri City Library has been holding memorial performances annually since 2012, the year following the writer's passing. This year, they reinterpreted the novel Who Ate All the Singa? and developed it into a complex artistic performance content, allowing the audience to experience the work through various senses and enabling a synesthetic reading experience, thereby offering citizens a new way to enjoy the genre of literature.

The performance was further enriched by the presence of Ho Won-sook, the daughter of the late writer Park Wan-seo who resides in Archiwool, Guri City, along with the bereaved family and longtime fans who love the writer’s works, intensifying the atmosphere of remembrance for Park Wan-seo.

No matter how much time passes, the sentences left by writer Park Wan-seo still warmly and delicately embrace us. The performance, composed of the actor’s reading and acting as well as live music, was reborn to provide the audience with literary inspiration and an immersive experience into the meaningful world of her works.

In particular, using AI technology, a customized video message was produced that recreated the late Park Wan-seo’s voice with natural speech to explain the work, offering the audience a touching experience of feeling closer to the late writer.

A citizen who watched the performance said, “I was heartbroken by the portrayal of Wan-seo and her family going through the war, and expressing those scenes through song gave me a deep resonance,” adding, “I will cherish the emotions I felt today and go to the library tomorrow to borrow and reread the original work.”

Mayor Baek Kyung-hyun of Guri City stated, “Writer Park Wan-seo is a cultural content that gives us deep resonance and empathy, as well as a pride of Guri City,” and added, “We will do our best to continue developing Guri City as a cultural city where literature and arts flourish.”