Vivid Testimonies from 1960s Theater Stages to Be Preserved as National Records

[Financial News] The University of Seoul said on the 20th that Professor Baek Du-san of its Department of Korean Language and Literature had donated four videos of oral-history interviews containing vivid testimonies from members of theater troupe Sanha, which led Korean modern theater in the 1960s and 1970s, to Arts Council Korea. The donation will expand public resources with accounts and records of theater artists from that era that are difficult to verify through written sources alone, and make them available to the public.
The donated videos are digital records that Professor Baek personally collected during research conducted as part of the National Research Foundation of Korea’s Early Career Researcher Support Program, which he has been carrying out since June 2024. Troupe Sanha, formed in September 1963 around playwright Cha Beom-seok and bringing together postwar-generation theater artists and actors from broadcasting and film, among others—the so-called April 19 generation—was a leading theater company that helped popularize theater in Korea and remained active until April 1983.
A comparative analysis by Professor Baek of oral testimonies, records of performances from the period, plays, and censorship documents found that troupe Sanha gave young directors independent authority even under a strict censorship regime. This production environment enabled the company to stage experimental works that got past the censorship of the time, such as the translated play “Entertaining Mr. Sloane,” which dealt with homosexuality, and the original play “Nobi Munseo,” with its theme of resistance.
The oral-history videos transferred to Arts Council Korea are expected to be used in a range of cultural, artistic, and academic fields, including public access, exhibitions, publications, and online publication.
Professor Baek Du-san said, “I hope that the interview materials collected while shedding light on theater history in the 1960s and 1970s will not remain within the research lab, but will be shared with society through Arts Council Korea and used in a variety of ways as foundational resources for future theater-history research and related fields.”  

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter