Actor Yun Seok-hwa, who died on the 19th, will be laid to rest on the 21st.
At 9 a.m. that day, a funeral procession for the deceased will be solemnly held at the funeral hall of Severance Hospital in Sinchon, Seoul. Family members and fellow artists are expected to attend and see the deceased off on the final journey. Before the procession, a church-style memorial service will be held at 8 a.m.
After the procession, around 9:30 a.m., a shamanic memorial rite will be held at the Daehangno site-specific theater Jeongmiso (now Han-ye Theater). This is the venue the deceased personally operated from 2002 to 2019. Until it closed due to business difficulties, it presented various works to audiences, including "19 and 80" and "Wit."
The memorial rite will be organized by the Korea Actors Welfare Foundation, where the deceased served as board chair from 2017 to 2020. Gil Hae-yeon, board chair of the Korea Actors Welfare Foundation, is scheduled to read a eulogy. In addition, junior performers, including musical actor Choi Jeong-won, plan to sing "In the flower garden," which the deceased often performed on stage, in tribute. Choi Jeong-won has ties to the deceased, having appeared in the musical "Saturday Night Fever," produced in 2003.
Born in Seoul in 1956, Yun Seok-hwa died on the 19th. After performing in the play "Hamlet" in July 2022, Yun underwent surgery for a malignant brain tumor in Oct. that year and had been battling the illness. After disclosing the illness, Yun made a roughly five-minute cameo in the play "Toccata" at LG Arts Center Seoul in 2023, which became the last stage appearance.
The deceased debuted with the play "Taste of honey" in 1975 and appeared in "Agnes of God," "Hamlet," and "A letter to my daughter." Beyond plays, Yun worked across genres, appearing in the musicals "Guys and dolls" (1994) and "The last empress" (1995), and the drama "The miracle we met" (2018).
The government is pushing to posthumously award the Order of Cultural Merit in recognition of the deceased's contribution to the development of the theater community.