Yegreen awards to celebrate year in musicals

Amid the growing decline of theater award ceremonies in Korea, the Yegreen Musical Award, to be held on Nov. 7, is ready to welcome musical actors, producers, and crew to gather and celebrate.

The Yegreen Musical Award used to be a part of the Seoul Musical Festival, which was held annually from 2012 to 2015, under the name Yegreen Awards. This is its first year as a separate event under its new name.

“This is very special because the Korean musical industry is facing hardships these days,” said Yoon Ho-jin, a chairperson of the Yegreen Musical Award organizing committee at the press conference held on Monday. “I hope Yegreen Musical Award aids in supporting and developing Korean musicals. We will also work to make it into a continuing musical award event.”

Over the past few years, numerous major Korean musical award events have been minimized in scale or even stopped from being held due to social and economic reasons. The Musical Awards, first held in 2007, started facing difficulties in 2014 when a number of entertainment events were canceled after the Sewol Ferry disaster. The Musical Awards called off the ceremony and only announced the awardees. The ceremony was canceled again in 2015 due to financial reasons, and the awards, which used to be announced around June every year, didn’t take place this year. The Korea Musical Awards, first held in 1995, also halted in 2013 due to issues among its organizers.

As a promising step forward in the Korean musical world, the Yegreen Musical Award is expected to brighten up the mood by acknowledging musical figures for their hard work over the past year. There will be four categories of award; Best Musical, Best Actor, Creativity, and Yegreen Award. The committee is bestowing 20 awards in total. A three-hour musical gala will take place before the awards, creating a rather festive atmosphere for the ceremony.

“What’s different from last year is that we’re including not only pieces that were created in Korea, but also others like foreign licensed musicals,” said Kim Seung-eop, a chairperson of the Yegreen Musical Award.

The Yegreen Musical Award will be held on Nov. 7 at the Chungmu Art Center in Jung District, central Seoul.

BY SHON JI-HYE [shon.jihye@joongang.co.kr]