[News Culture] A festival built around the voices and emotional lives of teenagers is set to return to Seoul this summer.
Salmwi Theatre Company will hold the “2026 Fifth Cheongcheong-ro Festival: Self-Loathing and Light” from Aug. 6 to 8 at Geukjeok Geukjeok Arts Space in Mapo, western Seoul.
The annual event invites young people to explore the pressures and insecurities they face through theater. This year’s theme, “Self-Loathing and Light,” traces the emotional distance between turning against oneself and learning to accept both oneself and others.
Each day begins at 2 p.m. with an intergenerational arts workshop. Teenagers, local residents and audience members will share experiences shaped by different stages of life and develop them through theatrical exercises.
The workshop is designed less as a formal class than as an open exchange. Participants will compare the emotions they have carried through adolescence and adulthood, turning personal memories into material for conversation and performance.
At 4 p.m., the focus shifts to a two-part stage program featuring a youth ensemble and a team of professional artists.
The teenage actors will perform stories drawn from their own perspectives, followed by a production in which established artists approach the same theme through a different theatrical vocabulary. Placing the two performances side by side allows the audience to see how age and experience can reshape the meaning of a shared emotion.
Over its first four editions, the Cheongcheong-ro Festival has worked to move youth theater beyond performances made only for young audiences. Its programs bring teenagers, adults and working artists into the same room, using the stage as a place for exchange rather than separation.
That approach remains at the heart of this year’s festival. The candid energy of the young performers and the craft of professional artists come together in a program that looks directly at self-rejection while leaving room for empathy, connection and change.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
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