Playwright Kim Soo-hee Wins 19th Cha Beom-seok Playwright Award for Trilogy on Disappearing Places and Women
Creatrip Team
4 months ago
Kim Soo-hee (pen name Guduri), director and playwright leading the Mijin theatre company, won the 19th Cha Beom-seok Playwright Award for her three-play cycle “Places That Disappear and Women” — Geumseong Inn, Suseong Café, and Hwaseong-gol Girl. The works focus on women and vanishing urban and rural spaces, developed from on-site research: a 50-year-old inn in Inje during COVID (Geumseong Inn), an old tea room in Euljiro facing redevelopment (Suseong Café), and stories of sex workers and hidden counselors that emerged after meeting nuns who help former sex workers (Hwaseong-gol Girl). Kim says her pen name honors her late grandmother, who supported her writing; she draws inspiration from marginal lives and identity struggles, including themes of AI and divided Korea in other plays. Her goals are clear: make theatre that precisely faces its audience and is enjoyable enough to bring them back. Judges praised her for walking into lives ‘‘with her feet’’, turning lived encounters into urgent, humane questions. (Guduri: Kim’s pen name taken from her grandmother)
