A state-run agency tasked with supporting Korean arts said Thursday it has canceled a new play directed by Oh Tae-seok, who has been accused of sexual misconduct. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 8 (Korea Bizwire) — A state-run agency tasked with supporting Korean arts said Thursday it has canceled a new play directed by Oh Tae-seok, who has been accused of sexual misconduct.
The Arts Council Korea (ARKO) said it won’t run “Sandglass,” which had been set to premiere next Thursday at its theater in Daehangno, Seoul.
“Neither we nor his theater company have been able to reach producer Oh Tae-seok. Having said that, it is impossible to run the play. The company agreed,” an official from the agency said.
The play is sponsored by the agency’s cultural support program, which has awarded Oh’s company Mokhwa 100 million won (US$93,414) for production. Part of the award money will be reclaimed later, the agency said.
Oh hasn’t issued a statement and has vanished from the public eye after a female student at Seoul Institute of the Arts, where he works as professor, and an actress from his company claimed last month that the producer had sexually harassed them.
The school’s student council demanded the 78-year-old man resign his professorship in the college’s theater department.
(Yonhap)
