The first Seoul Playwriting Award-winning work, 'Berliner,' is being produced as a play and will open on the 10th at the Daehangno Theater Quad, operated by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. It is the first production presented by the Daehangno Theater Quad this year and will run until the 20th.
'Berliner' is an original premiere based on a play by emerging playwright Lee Silron. It depicts the brief stay of people stranded at the airport of a fictional country due to an unexpected incident. The story crosses time and space to show the people who try to cross the border from one side to the other, expressing the intersection point where those attempting to cross the border temporarily stay through grand stage direction and music.
Kim Jaeyup, who directed the play 'Death of a Salesman' performed earlier this year at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, is directing this production.
The seven lead actors were all selected through an open audition. Yang Dongtak (as Haeseok), Kwon Seula (as Woohee), Choi Hoyoung (as Taejo), Park Sujin (as Ingrid), Kim Sehwahn (as Klaus), Park Heejung (as Yuri), and Lee Hujing (as Busker) overcame a competition ratio of 45:1 to join the production. Choi Hoyoung received the Dong-A Theater Award for Best New Actor this year.
The Daehangno Theater Quad, operated by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, plans to strengthen the role of public theaters this year by discovering excellent domestic and international works and providing more performance opportunities.
Through the 'Quad Choice' open call for works titled 'Please Reproduce,' the theater supports the revival of outstanding original creative works that have not had the chance for re-performance for various reasons after their premiere.
Through the Quad Choice international invitation, which introduces globally acclaimed works, in June, the theater will present 'Concerned Others,' a work that caused a sensation at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, for the first time in Asia. 'Concerned Others' is a multidisciplinary art piece that creatively addresses drug addiction issues by combining miniature puppet theater and multimedia.
Additionally, in September, the theater will stage 'End Wall - What's Beyond That Wall?,' the second Seoul Playwriting Award-winning work. The play is inspired by the 2021 incident at Pyeongtaek Port where a young worker died after being trapped under the wall of an open container. At the time of the award, the work was praised for its dignified language that newly interprets social issues, artistic merit, and potential for stage adaptation.
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