Taiwanese and Korean playwrights will share their respective creative backgrounds and writing approaches, engaging in an exchange on the perspectives and concerns of contemporary playwrights from the vantage points of different cultures and theatre environments.
Moderator:
Wu Cheng-han Artistic Director of Prologue Center for New Plays (Taiwan)
Panelists:
Choi Chieon Writer of A Crazy Play (Korea)
Pai Sam-shik Writer of A Woman from Afar (Korea)
Yun Mi-hyun Writer of Texas Aunt (Korea)
Lee Mee-kyung Writer of But That’s Not It (Korea)
Mun Ui-young Writer of Cherry Blossom Theatre 1937 (Korea)
Wei Yu-chia Writer of Air Raid Siren (Taiwan)
Chen Chiao-jung Writer of The Thousand-Year Itch (Taiwan)
Lee Cheng-jung Writer of Between Classes (Taiwan)
Lin Kuan-ting Writer of Long Live the Mango Tree (Taiwan)
Choi Chieon
Choi Chieon is a Korean playwright born in Jeollanam-do in 1970. A graduate of the Department of Creative Writing at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, he began his literary career by winning the Dong-A Ilbo Spring Literary Contest in 1999 for poetry and the Segye Ilbo Spring Literary Contest in 2001 for fiction. He debuted as a playwright in 2003 after winning the 13th Woojin Creative Award for Drama. His distinguished career includes winning the Daesan Literary Award for Playwriting in 2011, and the Grand Prize at the Korea Theatre Awards in both 2014 and 2020. His major works include A Crazy Play, The Feeling of Walking Over the Youngdong Bridge Alone on a Rainy Night, Insufficiently Mourned Sadness, and The Sisters.
Pai Sam-shik
Pai Sam-shik is a leading contemporary Korean playwright and a professor at the School of Drama, Korea National University of Arts (K-ARTS). He made his professional debut in 1998 with the play White Circle and became the resident playwright for the Michoo Theatre Company in 2003. His works are considered pillars of modern Korean drama, earning him the Daesan Literary Award and the Dong-A Theatre Award for Best Play for Inching Towards Yeolha (2007), followed by another Dong-A Theatre Award for White Cherry (2009). He also received the Cha Bum-suk Playwriting Award for A Woman from Afar (2014) and the Association of Theatre Critics’ Best Play of the Year for 1945 (2017).
Yun Mi-hyun
Yun Mi-hyun is a playwright based in Korea. After writing fiction and poetry in her early career, she debuted as a playwright in 2012 with the one-act play Can We Meet?, which won the New Play Award from the Korean Playwright Association. Her major works include The Vegetable Garden Killer (2012), Young Husidin: A Love Story (2014), Chulsoo’s Rebellion (2015), Texas Aunt (2017), and The Wooden Boat (2019). She has also written books and lyrics for numerous new musicals and operas. Her plays have won many awards, including the Byeoksan Drama Award, Best Play at the Donga Theatre Awards, Best Play at the Seoul Theatre Festival, and the Presidential Award at the Korean Theatre Festival.
Lee Mee-kyung
Lee Mee-yung is a playwright known for her sharp dialogue and narratives that explore emotional conflicts in contemporary society. She debuted through the Chosun Ilbo Spring Literary Contest in 2013. Her writing has been recognized with numerous honors, including the New Play Award from the Korean Playwright Association (2011, 2015) and the Gold Prize at the Wonju Cultural Foundation Creative Playwriting Contest (2016). She has also won the Best Play award at the Dong-A Theatre Awards (2012) and the Grand Prize at the Korea Theatre Awards. Her representative works include But That’s Not It, Unfreezing the Mammoth, Be Furious, and The Truth Will Set You Free.
Mun Ui-young
Mun Ui-young is a Korean playwright currently serving as the resident playwright of the Chungbuk Theatre Company and the artistic director of the Youth Theatre Company. Her play Sook-hee’s Bookstore won the Grand Prize at the Chungbuk Theatre Festival and the Silver Prize at the Korea Theatre Festival in 2019. Her major works include Sook-hee’s Bookstore, Breath of a Thousand Years, and The Proper Way to Eat Pork Belly. Her creative focus lies in local history and collective memory, exploring the evolving significance of regional spaces in contemporary Korean dramatic literature.
Wei Yu-chia
Yu-Chia Wei is an award-winning Taiwanese writer who writes for the stage, television, and cross-media performances. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Taiwan Literature Award, the Taipei Literature Award, the New Taipei City Literature Award, and others. Two of her works—A Fable for Now and Big Zoo—have been translated into English and performed in New York. She holds an MA in Playwriting from National Taiwan University.
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Chen Chiao-jung
Chen Chiao-jung is a versatile storyteller active across Taiwan and Macau, with her work spanning theatre, musicals, and manga.
In Taiwan, her play The Thousand-Year Itch won the 2025 Taiwan Literature Award, while My Sister’s Keeper was a finalist for the same award in 2015. Her prominent musical credits include i WEIRDO and I Hate Musical.
In Macau, her practice focuses on local identity and socio-historical narratives. Notable works include Sunset at the Shipyards and The Flying Fisherwomen. Her plays Sunset at the Shipyard and Let No One Sleep were both selected for the Macao Arts Festival. She published her first collection, Flâneur on the Sea: Two Plays by Chen Chiao-Jung, in Macau in 2024.
Beyond the stage, Chen is dedicated to exploring new frontiers in narrative through interdisciplinary experimentation. Her collaboration with manga artist Monday Recover, titled Sea You There and Us, was awarded the Silver Award at the Japan International Manga Award. The work has been licensed and translated into Japanese, English, French, Russian, Malay, and Vietnamese.
Lee Cheng-Chun
Cheng-Chun Lee is a playwright-director whose artistic practice investigates the intersections of local history, geopolitics, and the nuances of the urban experience in Taiwan. He is also Co-founder and Director of The Double Theatre.
His play The Way Back (Taipei Children’s Arts Festival, 2022) was shortlisted for the 21st Taishin Arts Award. Between Classes received second prize at the 2024 Taipei Literature Awards, while The King of Happiness won first prize in the Playwriting Contest for Children's Theatre at the 2024 Taipei Children’s Arts Festival. In 2025, How I Learn to Dance received the Annual Selection Award from Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre.
Lin Kuan-Ting
Lin Kuan-Ting is a Taipei-based playwright, translator, and dramaturg. His writing credits include Long Day’s Journey for a Duck and Long Live the Mango Tree; the latter was selected for Korea’s Chungju International New Play Reading Festival and subsequently transferred to the Seoul Arts Center as part of the RE:BOUND Festival. As a translator, he has brought Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing and Lungs to local audiences. Lin holds a B.A. in English with a minor in Drama and Theatre from National Taiwan University.
Organizer
