MANILA -- The name Duk-Hyung Yoo, president emeritus of the Seoul Institute of the Arts , may not ring a bell to most Filipinos but he’s done a lot in shaping Korean contemporary theater arts and popular culture.
“To get in, it’s difficult. There have been cases when students took three to four years to get accepted. They keep on trying to get in. The number is like for every 350 students only one is able pass the screening process. That is the ratio for the applicants. Very difficult. Same with music, film, dance…,” Yoo said, explaining how SeoulArts screen their student applicants and the quality of graduates they produced.
Yoo served as SeoulArts president from 1971 to 1994. While studying and training in the US, he also served as member of the board of directors. He became president again in March 2007 to July 2019. He retired in 2019 and was given the title of president emeritus. His son, Tay Guhn Yoo, has since taken over as SeoulArts president.
His innovative approach to directing and lighting, coupled with his unprecedented contributions to amplifying Korean culture around the world have earned him numerous lifetime achievement awards including the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award, the Journalists Federation of Korea Annual Award for True Education, Donga Daily Inchon Award, and joint ITI-NCCA Lamp of Culture and the Arts Special Award, to name a few.
She is founder of the 56-year-old Philippine Educational Theater Association , TV Radio Balintataw and the UNESCO Artist for Peace-recognized group composed of Persons With Disabilities and indigenous peoples called the Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble. “Duk is dedicated to expressing our shared humanity through the arts. As president of SeoulArts for more than four decades, he emphasized the importance of an interdisciplinary arts education and provided an open environment where students could fully explore their creative expression,” Guidote-Alvarez said.
The 85-year-old Yoo has returned to the Philippines for a lecture forum at the PETA Theatre Center at 6:30 p.m. on November 15, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals Resili-Art Program under UNESCO patronage.Garrucho was a student of Yoo in 1971 during the First Third-World Theater Festival along with PETA stalwarts Felix “Nonon” Padilla , now US-based Lily Gamboa-O’Boyle, Lutgardo “Gardy” Labad, Katsch Catoy, the late Soxie Topacio, Frank Rivera, among others.