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The Study on the Publicness of Drama Centre in Norris Houghton’s Report

  • The Journal of Korean drama and theatre
  • 2020, (69), pp.59-97
  • DOI : 10.17938/tjkdat.2020..69.59
  • Publisher : The Learned Society Of Korean Drama And Theatre
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Other Arts and Kinesiology
  • Received : August 9, 2020
  • Accepted : September 3, 2020
  • Published : September 30, 2020

Kim, Jae Suk 1

1경북대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In November 1965, the JDR3rd Fund in the United States decided to send Norris Houghton to Korea. In response to Yoo Chi-Jin's request for continued funding, it was intended to directly check whether the Drama Centre had the ability to contribute to the development of Korean theater. Norris Houghton, who stayed in Seoul from June 18 to 29, 1966, visited the Drama Centre and wrote a report on Yoo Chi-jin and the Drama Centre, based on the results of meeting a number of people in charge of theater and cultural officials. In the Houghton report, the Drama Centre was monopolized by Yoo Chi-jin and it was found that the Drama Centre had reached the point where it was impossible to restore publicness. Norris Houghton discovered that Yoo Chi-jin was virtually privatizing the Drama Centre by taking over the board of directors of the Korean Research Institute for Dramatic Arts, an incorporated foundation and he judged that Yoo Chi-jin ran a Drama Centre leaning on factionalism. As a result, it was impossible for many young theatrical people to use the Drama Centre. So it became impossible to achieve the original purpose of contributing to the development of Korean theater through “combination of school and theater.”Norris Houghton pinpointed the Yoo Chi-jin's concealed desire. He judged that Yoo Chi-jin was no longer thinking of contributing to the development of Korean theater and tried to use the funding to solidify ‘his Drama Centre.’ The reason why Yoo Chi-jin was negative about securing publicness by reorganizing the board of directors of the Korean Research Institute for Dramatic Arts was that he could not give up important tools to protect his Drama Centre. It was proven by the fact that although it became a Drama Centre for the Korean Research Institute for Dramatic Arts, an educational foundation in November 1963, the request for funding was made under the name of a chairman of the Board of the Korean Research Institute for Dramatic Arts, an incorporated foundation. In the Houghton report, Yoo Chi-jin's perception of the publicness of the Drama Centre is special. He built the Drama Centre at the expense of his personal sacrifice with his ‘sense of duty to the development of Korean theater,’ and he regarded maintaining ‘his Drama Centre’ as his deserving task. Thus, the Drama Centre had to be operated in a closed way, and the publicness of the Drama Centre was gradually damaged. The JDR3rd Fund acknowledged this fact by rejecting Yoo Chi-jin's request for assistance.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.