Minister Choi Hwi-young Expresses "Heavy Responsibility" over Appointment at National Children's and Youth Theater Company

"I feel a heavy sense of responsibility that someone who could have been universally understood and supported was not appointed."

On September 16, Choi Hwi-young, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, made this remark regarding the recent appointment of Eo Yeon-seon as the inaugural director of the National Children's and Youth Theater Company at the 4th meeting of the Performing Arts Subcommittee of the Cultural and Arts Policy Advisory Committee, held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Branch.

On September 11, Minister Choi appointed Eo Yeon-seon as the inaugural artistic director and director of the National Children's and Youth Theater Company, which was newly established this year. However, after the appointment, members of the theater community began voicing concerns about Director Eo's lack of expertise in the field of children's and youth theater, calling for the appointment to be withdrawn and sparking controversy.

The National Children's and Youth Theater Company was newly established this year by expanding and reorganizing the Children's and Youth Theater Research Institute, which had originally launched in 2011 within the National Theater Company of Korea.

Minister Choi said, "I thought that, in order for the National Children's and Youth Theater Company to get off to a smooth start, experience in various areas such as budgeting, administration, and networking would be necessary, and I judged that among the candidates, Director Eo Yeon-seon was best qualified." He added, "Many people have expressed disappointment and criticism over the result, so I feel very burdened."

Director Eo Yeon-seon, who comes from the theater group "Hyeonjang," served as team leader of performance planning and head of the traditional Korean music business team at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, and served as CEO of the Gwangmyeong Cultural Foundation from 2021 to 2023.

Bang Ji-young, director of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) Korea, who issued a statement immediately after the appointment calling for the withdrawal of Eo's appointment as director and artistic director of the National Children's and Youth Theater Company, again demanded the withdrawal at the meeting.

Director Bang emphasized that children's and youth theater is an art field in which expertise must be accumulated through years of research and hands-on experience, and she argued that such expertise was not evident in Director Eo's career.

Director Bang stated, "Artists in the children's and youth theater field have learned firsthand what works elicit responses from children, what language and forms are needed, what should change depending on age group, and what young audiences and their guardians want. This appointment fails to sufficiently respect the expertise and history of Korea's children's and youth performing arts scene, which has been built up over 40 years since ASSITEJ Korea was founded in 1982."

She added that, as cognitive and emotional characteristics of child and youth audiences vary greatly depending on age, specialized expertise is required to carefully address these differences. ASSITEJ is an international network for theater and performing arts for children and youth, with 87 member countries around the world.

Minister Choi explained, "It is not the case that the appointment was made without standards. I want to clarify that the decision was based on evaluating the candidate's career as an arts administration professional." Regarding the calls for withdrawal, he said, "I will consider the concerns," but also added, "Since there has been a lot of feedback from the theater community, I will make sure Director Eo is well supported in fulfilling her role."

Minister Choi also noted that next year's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism budget has been significantly increased and announced plans to expand support for basic arts, including theater. He stated, "The entire ministry budget for next year has been increased by about 22%, marking an unprecedented rise and the second highest among all government ministries." Minister Choi pledged to use this expanded budget to strengthen safety nets for artists' creative activities and to support regional performing arts distribution and youth artist job creation.

Minister Choi explained that the budget for creative production in the performing arts had been stagnant for the past decade, but this year has been increased from 39.1 billion won in 2024 to 51.7 billion won for 2025. The budget for the artists' creative safety net, including emergency living funds and artists' mutual aid, will increase from 34.5 billion won to 96.6 billion won; the regional distribution support budget covering local performances by national arts organizations will increase from 70.4 billion won to 96.9 billion won; and the budget for youth artist job support will go from 15.3 billion won to 26.9 billion won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.