The play is known as a classic battle of the sexes comedy, but when the Busan English Theatre Association stages “The Taming of the Shrew” from Sunday, the battle lines will be a little more blurred than usual, with some gender-swapped roles.And for director Patrick Sanders, the 400th anniversary of the bard’s death was an opportunity to take BETA back to its roots, having started out with Shakespeare productions in the park. But the main thing for Sanders was his affection for its timeless – an

As a tale of lovestruck Italian nobles, some may mistake “Much Ado About Nothing” for one of the bard’s lighter plays -- but remember things are not always as they seem. Seoul Shakespeare Company’s annual main stage production is stuffed with acting robust enough to go beyond frivolity -- doing justice to a script that, while never short on wit, travels from love to sterner matters of shame, honor and death. Young count Claudio loves the fair Hero, while sharp-tongued Beatrice and Benedick swear

Seoul Shakespeare Company will be staging the bard’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” from this weekend.The play, a blend of silly humor with ideas about honor, shame and politics, is a turnaround from last year’s production of the dark and brooding “Titus Andronicus,” something director Michael Downey says was a deliberate decision."We like to change things from year to year. But I think this production is also completely different from all our previous ones,” he said, pointing out that they had

From lips sewn shut to lonely roads, the imagery in the exhibition “A Place Called Home” is stark.Busan artists group Exotic Beasts will be holding the exhibition, themed on “home,” to highlight refugee issues and raise money for a local support center.“There’s a concept of home that people have. There’s an expat community (here) and for them, it’s always going to be where they come from,” said exhibition organizer Niall Ruddy “But there’s an estimated 60 million people that don’t have a home.”T

The Washington State University Madrigal singers and Concert Choir held a choral exchange concert Sunday with local music group Camarata Music Company.The U.S. Choir is in Korea as part of a performance tour of Washington and South Korea and contacted the local group, performing at the Chung-dong First Methodist Church in central Seoul.Washington State University professor Lori West conducts the WSU Concert Choir at Chungdong First Methodist Church on Sunday. (Paul Kerry/The Korea Herald)The con

(The Korea Herald)The month of May is a time for university festivals. While these festivals are mainly student-organized, with unique games and cultural performances of all sorts, there are also high-profile K-pop celebrity stages which help attract people other than university students to visit and add to the atmosphere. The celebrity line-ups often remain a secret until the day of the festival to rally up excitement among speculative visitors. The Korea Herald has compiled the dates of each u

The 19th Korean speech contest took place on Thursday at Kyunghee University’s Crown Concert Hall in Seoul, with the best prize going to Uzbekistan student Rakhimboboev Bakhtiyor.According to the Institute of International Education at Kyunghee University, 1,325 people from 43 countries applied to participate in this year’s event. From this number, 68 made the cut at a preliminary round last month.(Yonhap)A majority of them were international students studying in Korea, but some were practicing

The 10th rose festival at Ulsan Grand Park will open next Friday. According to the Ulsan city government, it is the largest festival of its kind, with more than 263 kinds of roses that will be arranged for the occasion in a space larger than 44,000 square meters.  (Yonhap)The city said it has prepared a parade and a musical as part of efforts to establish its festival as a prime rose festival of the country. The opening ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. with a “Rose Queen Fantasy Parade” and a

Serial drama to bring together expat, international talent for global audienceA new audio drama is set to start this month, bringing a host of expat actors together with international performers in a nine-part podcast about criminals trying to take over the Internet.“Big Data,” which features guest spots from the likes of Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), Paul F. Tompkins (Mr. Show), and Amy Stoch (Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure), is the brainchild of Busan writer Ryan Estrada.The p