‘Gag Concert’ Simgok Police Station Team Joins in Saving Gwangju Theater
KBS ‘Gag Concert’‘s ‘Simgok Police Station’ team. Photo courtesy of | Empathy Manse
According to the social enterprise Gonggam Manse on the 30th, Song Pil-geun, Lee Soo-kyung, and Hong Hyun-ho helped support Gwangju Theater through the Hometown Love Donation System.
Opened on October 1, 1935, Gwangju Theater was the first theater in Honam established and operated by Koreans, and is also the only large-scale art theater in the country. It was a cradle of the anti-Japanese spirit that staged films and art performances and held lectures and night classes even under Japanese censorship, and has a meaning that goes beyond just being a theater. However, its existence has recently been threatened due to aging facilities and financial difficulties.
Accordingly, the ‘Simgok Police Station’ team and Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City have taken on the preservation of Gwangju Theater through the Hometown Love Donation System. Last year, approximately 85 million won was raised through the private platform Weeb fundraising box of the Hometown Love Donation System, and as of the 29th of this year, approximately 65 million won has been raised. With the donations, safety diagnosis and exterior wall repairs will first begin for the theater, and plans are in place to promote registration as a cultural property.
Song Pil-geun said, “As a comedian, I feel incredibly sad that the stage of history is disappearing,” and “I learned that the Hometown Love Donation System is a system where you can actually receive benefits by donating 100,000 won and receiving 130,000 won in return. I donated myself, and I was able to easily recommend it to my fans, so it was easy to come to Gwangju Theater.”
You can watch the journey of comedians Song Pil-geun, Hong Hyun-ho, and Lee Soo-kyung to the Gwangju Theater on the YouTube channel ‘Yoon Hyoung Bin’.
Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com
