Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, Disabled Theater Playground Presentation

The play "Dreaming of a World Without Prejudice and Discrimination," created based on the real experiences of people with disabilities, made its emotional debut.

Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, announced on the 2nd that it held a performance presentation of the Disabled Theater Play Yard at Suwan Culture and Sports Center on the 1st.

The event was organized to share the results of the "Theater Play Yard" program conducted by the Gwangsan-gu Disabled Welfare Center as part of the Gwangsan-gu Disabled Lifelong Learning City operation project.

The Theater Play Yard is a program where people with disabilities take the lead in creating theater performances, and it has been ongoing for seven years since 2016.

This year, with the participation of 10 people with developmental disabilities, a human rights theater education program aimed at restoring self-esteem, improving social skills, and supporting the advocacy of the rights of the participants was conducted from May with the support of the Gwangju Talent Lifelong Education Promotion Foundation.

The title of the work, created over six months, is "Dreaming of a World Without Prejudice and Discrimination."

It depicts the process of a person with a disability who suffered violence during school years due to their disability and continued to be haunted by nightmares as an adult, meeting love and friends, and growing into a confident and autonomous individual.

All the dialogues were written directly by the participating people with disabilities based on their real experiences.

On the day, they transformed into actors and performed their first show in front of many citizens and people with disabilities.

Although awkward, the sincere acting and authentic lines that unfolded stories from the heart received a round of applause from the audience.

Director Won Kwang-yeon, who participated as the instructor and director of the Theater Play Yard, said, "This work contains various prejudices and uncomfortable truths about people with disabilities disguised as consideration and kindness," and added, "I hope this play will encourage more active attempts to seriously contemplate a world where people with and without disabilities live together without discrimination and prejudice."

Before the presentation, congratulatory performances were held by the "Wesong Band" (Cha Jin-hwan and one other) and the Gwangsan-gu Disabled Welfare Center Ocarina Club "Haullim" (Jo Kyung-boon and eight others), along with a screening of a video documenting the creative process of the work.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.