The stage made by two writers, two theater companies, and 17 teenagers...2025 Youth Drama Creative Belt Reading Performance
Oct 20, 2025
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'Youth Drama Creation Belt' is a creative program project of the National Theater Company's Children and Youth Drama Research Institute, which has been conducted since 2012 with the aim of 'developing youth drama through cooperation with youth'. Major works discovered through this process include 'I Like You', which received enthusiastic praise from audiences and critics in 2017, and 'Youngji', which has established itself as a repertoire of youth plays by the National Theater Company in succession in 2019 and 2020.
The biggest feature of the 2025 'Youth Drama Creation Belt' is that teenagers participated as equal creative colleagues from the early process of creation. Unlike last year, which was a way to collaborate with theater companies and teenagers based on the completed draft of the play, this year, teenagers put their heads together with the writer based on treatment (synopsis and character composition). During the first half of the year, 17 writers and teenagers imbued contemporary youth's senses and language into their works through eight workshops and weekly mentoring of Dramaturg. In the process of completing the work, the creative process was newly designed so that meeting with the youth could become a driving force to change the narrative, the character, and the artist himself, not just an advisory. In the second half of the year, the process of enhancing the completeness of the play was continued through collaboration with participating theater companies. The two new works created in this way were able to permeate the script and the bottom of the stage with vivid eyes, realistic language, and sensitive problem consciousness.
First, 'Summer Sand Garden Ghost Stories' (author Doeun, creative group, etc.) is set in the rural village of Musan-ri, and depicts the process of collecting legends and ghost stories by teenagers gathered in a club called 'Ghost Stories' in summer. As the two main characters, Summer and Garden, encounter a series of mysterious ghost stories that are calm and sometimes creepy, the process of encountering the shadow of reality that has been turned away is meticulously developed. Ghost stories are not just the subject of fear, but function as mirrors that reveal the appearance of adolescents in reality. Writer Do-eun, who has depicted delicate human relationships such as 'This is not a love story' and 'Other Booyoung', and the 'Creative Group Ditty', whose motto is to challenge the topic of the times and dramatic style, meet to portray the confusion and hope felt by teenagers with a variety of senses.
The following performance is 'Frechture' (writer Yevandi, Jungle Project) 'Can I Save You? Can you save me? Can I save myself?It began with the author's question of '. After the accident that penetrates daily life, the protagonist begins his journey of newly recognizing daily life by encountering 'another me' within him. The desperation of adolescents who are frustrated in reality and the complex world of their inner world are compressed through SF sensitivity and humorous lines. Through this work, Yevandi says "I wanted to write a story about children saving them" and will dramatically unfold the fantastic world and contemporary youth with the collective group "Jungle Project", which was formed with interest and passion for creating youth dramas.
All seats are free of charge, and one ticket per person can be pre-booked on the National Theater Company's website. In particular, after the end of the performance, 'Expanding Belt: Conversations with the Youth Theater Audience' will be held with 17 teenagers who cooperated in the creative process as the main players. 'Summer Sand Garden Ghost Story' will be held in each auditorium after the performance on the 31st and 'Frechture' will be held after the performance on November 2. It is expected to create a venue for expansion that connects creative staff and audiences beyond performances centered on teenagers.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
