An international children’s theater festival starts next week in Seoul, with a varied schedule looking to arouse curiosity and imagination in young children Among those leading the ASSITEJ Korea International Summer Festival will be performances from Mexico, this year’s featured country. Tumaka’t Danza Contemporanea will be staging two shows, “Brins” and nonverbal performance “Tubos.” Both use dance as their main form of communication.“In ‘Tubos’ we use cardboard tubes to express that the discar

On a hot June afternoon, a dozen expats met at Hannam Station Exit No. 1 and took a short walk over to Yongsan Senior Welfare Center to strike up conversations with the middle-aged men and women there. They are a diverse bunch. Some are on working holidays, drawn to Korea by a fascination with K-pop. Others are between jobs, keen to verify the depiction of the Korean War in their textbooks with the generation who experienced that period in history. Inside the teaching room, they stood in single

Lisa Crone relished being greeted by a cheery Jindo dog near her Damyang home each morning, until she suddenly stopped hearing its yelps as she approached the rice farm where it lived. The puppy that usually licked her so effusively had been struck by a car. Named Elsa, she was found barely able to move, paralyzed in her hind legs and with an arched spine. The 5-month-old’s owner had assumed she would die soon. She was a fighter though -- remaining alive but limp after a week. Crone made it her

The Seoul Shakespeare Company will hold their “Shakesperiments” workshop on July 23. Actors perform scenes or monologues of their choosing and then receive constructive feedback from other attendees following their performance.   (Seoul Shakespeare Company)Although the workshops mostly focus on Shakespeare, performers may also select excerpts from other classic or modern texts. The event is free to attend but small donations of 1,000 to 5,000 won to cover venue hire are welcome. On July 16, ther

A controversial requirement for HIV testing of foreign language teachers has been scrapped, government officials confirmed to The Korea Herald on Thursday, almost 10 years after it was introduced.Testing for HIV and drugs began in 2007 in response to pressure from citizens groups angered partly by a website on which teachers bragged about debauchery and the news that pedophile Christopher Paul Neil had taught in Korea.The Justice Ministry confirmed that a revision to visa regulations on July 3 r

In a move away from the “bigger is better” trend theater lovers have come to expect, a local performance company is taking things back to basics this summer. In “Counterparts,” Gwangju Performance Project is staging two one-act plays in a tiny black box theater with a minimalist set and only four actors between them. It’s a change of pace for the theater company that usually uses a large cast in its productions. For instance, last year, it employed elaborate sets and tightly choreographed ensemb

Sarah Elizabeth Hale has taken this year’s Michael Simning Community Builders Award in recognition of her efforts as president of the Adopt-a-Child for Christmas initiative. The campaign, which began eight years ago, mobilizes the community to provide Christmas gifts to some of the 700 orphans in the Gwangju area. Last year, volunteers were able to buy, wrap and deliver presents, including padded vests and woolen-lined boots, to five local orphanages thanks to months of fundraising efforts spear

The Seoul metropolitan government said Sunday it will operate an inter-city bus connecting major tourist attractions in South Korea starting this week to provide visitors a chance to explore the many hidden treasures in the country.The "K-travel Bus" exclusively serves foreign tourists, residents and students who want to travel outside the capital city, to boost travel to smaller cities and rural areas, a municipal official said. The initial two-day tours will run till the end of the year.This p

Broadcasting from a studio above a punk club in Mullae, Seoul, Migrant World TV has been making media for a decade. And more recently, this migrants’ TV station has also been offering training to foreign residents to help them make their own programs and take more control over programming.Migrant World TV started out as Migrant Workers TV during a strike by migrant workers in Myeong-dong in 2005.People learn how to present radio broadcasts at the Migrant World TV Academy (MWTV)“At the time they

Korean author Bae Suah, the writer behind “Nowhere to be Found” and “Recitation,” will be discussing her latest works at the Seoul Book and Culture Club on June 10. The event, which will allow fans to get books signed, will be hosted by Sookmyung Women’s University English instructor Barry Welsh. It will include Korean interpretation and invite questions from the audience. Bae is one of the most highly acclaimed contemporary authors in Korea, having won both the Hanguk Ilbo and Tongseo literary