Abstract
This paper logically emphasized the contradictory statements described in the White paper of Blacklist as close to the truth as possible, and sought to reach the substantive truth that the White paper of Blacklist had not yet reached by mobilizing all relevant data. As a result, the newly revealed blacklist execution patterns of the National Theater Company of Korea in this paper can be summarized as follows. First, the revision of the ending of director Park Geun-hyung's "Frog," which was the starting point of the blacklist incident, may have been executed by voluntary censorship by artistic director Son Jin-chaek before some orders were issued from the Blue House and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In the statements of victims, Park Geun-hyung and Kim Jae-yeop, it is commonly confirmed that the request for revision of the ending was during the practice period before the opening of "Frog", and officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism consistently state that they had not ordered Son Jin-chaek to revise the contents of the work. Second, it is highly likely that the "script with a straight-drawn red line", received by director Nam In-woo, ahead of the performance of "Cloud" was also carried out by self-censorship by artistic director Son Jin-chaek. Director Nam In-woo said he received a red line script from the secretary-general of the National Theater Company of Korea at the time, and the secretary-general stated that he received the script from artistic director Son Jin-chaek. If art director Son Jin-chaek is not the one who drew the red line, he can only be free from the charges by stating that the red line was drawn down from the Blue House or the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Third, artistic director Kim Yoon-cheol mostly staged the 2015 repertoire under the understanding of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, but from the 2016 lineup, he planned it in a way that avoids the risks of the blacklist as much as possible. As a result, domestic directors were thoroughly excluded, and instead, a large number of overseas directors were invited to entrust the directing work. Fourth, in the creative play development project "Playwright's Room," which newly emerged in 2016, there were remarks that severely restricted freedom of expression by self-censorship from National Theater Company of Korea. The "Playwright’s Room" planning itself was a method to avoid creating problems with strong awareness of the government's censorship. Fifth, the fact that the magazine “Theatre”, which was a regular publication of the National Theater Company of Korea in the early days of artistic director Kim Yoon-chul, has ceased publishing, seems to be related to the blacklist. This can be reasonably inferred through the circumstances in which most of the editorial committee members were blacklisted. It seems that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism was conducting certain censorship of the publications of the National Theater Company of Korea, or at least the National Theater Company of Korea's self-censorship mechanism was working. The reason why blacklist execution was triggered by the National Theater Company of Korea and the most active performance groups was that the National Theater Company of Korea has not secured autonomy and independence as an affiliated organization of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and this problem has been persisting for more than a decade. In order to prevent the recurrence of the blacklist, the current administrative organization and system that are thoroughly managed and supervised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, including the right to appoint an artistic director, must be drastically reformed. In all of these aspects on execution, it can be found that the blacklist execution at the National Theater Company of Korea was particularly strongly operated by the mechanism of 'self-censorship'. In addition, the most regrettable thing about verifying the execution of the blacklist in the National Theater Company of Korea is that none of the members of the National Theater Company of Korea resisted against the blacklist. It will remain the most shameful in the history of the National Theater Company of Korea that art administrators, who should be thoroughly on the side of artists, have obeyed the government's external pressure without much resistance. This is a different level from the submission of government officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and employees of the Korean Culture and Arts Committee. This is because employees from artists who have been engaged in the theater field for a long time as directors, critics, and producers participated in excluding their colleagues.
Translated title of the contribution | A Study on the Blacklist Execution in the National Theater Company of Korea |
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Original language | Korean |
Pages (from-to) | 109-156 |
Number of pages | 48 |
Journal | 한국연극학 |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 80 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2022 |