2024-05-06 09:16:31
When I was in high school, Pirang held a theater festival in Busan.
Debut in directing in college… Reporter-Producer
Sanullim Theater Company won the 23rd Dong-A Theater Award
Build a small theater and live on the 3rd floor
The man who waited for Godot for half a century has left. Lim Young-woong, CEO of Sanullim Theater Company, a giant in the Korean theater industry, passed away on the 4th due to old age. He died at the age of 88.
The deceased’s son, Lim Soo-hyun, artistic director of Sanwoollim (professor of French literature at Seoul Women’s University), said in a phone call with the Dong-A Ilbo on the 5th, “My father, who devoted his life to theater, passed away after fighting the disease for nearly a year,” and added, “It is a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Sanwoolim Small Theater, which opened in 1985. “Yes, we were preparing for an event next year, but it’s a pity that we won’t be able to see it.”
The deceased, born in Seoul in 1936, was a bold and talented boy who held a theater festival during his second year at Whimoon High School when he fled to Busan due to the Korean War. He made his directing debut in 1955 with the play ‘The God of Death’ while he was a student at the Department of Theater and Film at Seorabeol University of Arts. After graduating, he worked as a newspaper reporter and then as a producer at Donga Broadcasting and KBS. In an interview with the Dong-A Ilbo in 2016, the deceased said, “I worked as a producer at Dong-A Broadcasting and directed plays at the same time,” and “I think the company and my seniors and juniors were sponsors until I got to where I am today.”
What changed the deceased’s life was the play ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), a representative writer of the theater of the absurd. This is a work in which two vagabonds have a nonsensical conversation throughout, waiting for an unidentified person named ‘Godo’ to arrive. The deceased founded the theater company Sanullim in 1970, taking advantage of the success of this work, which premiered in 1969. The premiere actors of ‘Waiting for Godot’, Kim Seong-ok, Ham Hyeon-jin, Kim Moo-saeng, Kim In-tae, Yoon Yeo-jeong, Park Jeong-ja, Son Sook, Yoon So-jeong, Sami-ja, and Kim Yong-rim are founding members of Sanullim. Over the next 50 years, over 220,000 people saw the deceased perform in over 1,500 performances. The deceased said in 2012, “Neither I nor Sanullim Theater Company nor Sanullim Small Theater can talk about Godot without mentioning it.”
In 1985, the deceased opened Sanullim Small Theater in Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul with his wife Oh Jeung-ja (89), professor emeritus at Seoul Women’s University, and his personal wealth. It was a small space with 74 seats on a 23㎡ (approximately 7 pyeong) stage. In order to maintain a small theater with no labor costs, the deceased lived on the third floor of the theater building until the end of his life. His son, who grew up on the third floor of the theater building, is the artistic director of Sanullim, and his daughter is the director of Sanullim Theater, continuing his father’s dream.
Sanullim is called a ‘theater school’ and has produced numerous directors and actors. In particular, plays featuring women as the main characters were performed during the day on weekdays and were popular with housewives. Representative works include Park Jeong-ja’s ‘Woman in Crisis’, Yoon Seok-hwa’s ‘Letter to a Daughter’, and Son Sook’s ‘Smoking Woman’. Actress Son Sook said on this day, “Sanullim brought housewives into the theater scene that was previously occupied by male actors, and opened the golden age of female actors.”
The deceased received the Dong-A Theater Award for Directing for his masterpiece ‘Waiting for Godot’ in 1985. In addition, the theater company he led, Sanullim, won the Dong-A Theater Award a total of 23 times, including the grand prize in 1986 (‘Woman in Crisis’). The deceased, who was a member of the Korea Academy of Arts, received the Korea Culture and Arts Award (1987), the Korea Arts Academy Award (1995), the Dongrang Theater Award (1995), the Archangel Cultural Merit (2004), and the Brass Crown Cultural Merit (2016). He became the first Korean to participate in the 1989 Avignon Festival in France. He also worked as an administrator, including as a director of the National Theater Company, chairman of the Korean Theater Association, and the first president of the Korean Theater Directors Association. The deceased said in 2019, “Theatre is an art that depicts humans,” and “I did what I had to do after following a single path for half a century.”
Survivors include his wife, Professor Oh Jeung-ja, his son, Sanullim Artistic Director Soo-hyeon, and his daughter, Sanullim Theater Director, Su-jin. His funeral was held at Seoul National University Hospital, and his funeral took place at 8 a.m. on the 7th.
Reporter Hojae Lee [email protected]
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
-
- great
- 0dog
-
- I’m so sad
- 0dog
-
- I’m angry
- 0dog
-
- I recommend it
- dog
Hot news now
2024-05-06 09:16:31