The 24-day run of college theater students from across the country in Yongin, Gyeonggi, came to a close.
According to Yongin Special City on the 4th, the closing ceremony of the 3rd Korea College Theater Festival was held on the 2nd at the Grand Eoul Madang of the Yongin Lifelong Learning Center. About 400 people attended the ceremony, including Yongin Mayor Lee Sang-il, college students who advanced to the finals, figures from the theater community, and citizens.
Mayor Lee Sang-il said, "Over more than 20 days, the stage you created showed passion, imagination, and emergence for acting, and each stage was a universe of its own," and "With performances that artificial intelligence (AI) can never imitate, you deeply moved citizens who love theater."
The mayor continued, "It is sad to part like this, but the college theater festival will continue next year and the year after," and "I hope we meet again in Yongin every year while you are in college. Yongin City will support you so you can continue to develop the theater you love."
This year's festival received applications from 49 teams nationwide. After screening, 14 teams advanced to the finals and performed across Yongin. All final-round performances sold out in the advance reservation stage, and the average seat occupancy rate was 89.2%.
At the closing ceremony, five teams—Kyunghee University, Chung-Ang University, Dong-Ah Institute of Media and Arts, University of Incheon, and Kyungsung University—received the "Best 5" award as the top-rated among the 14 universities in the finals.
The ensemble award went to Dongyang University in the stage acting category and Daejin University in the stage staff category. The networking award, which evaluated participants' collaboration and exchange, went to the "Pallang-gwi" team (experimental mindset category), the "Il-nael-bundeul" team (creative mindset category), and the "GO-sari Biksari" team (collaborative mindset category). The special award chosen directly by participants went to Kim Gyeonghun of Kyungsung University and Jeong Dae-eun of Chung-Ang University.