A Story of Birth, Death, and Rebirth

A long time ago, an enormous television tower stood as an artwork inside a museum. A doctor at the museum known as a ‘conservation scientist’ stumbles upon a television set that has been left in storage for years, and starts CPR to bring it back to life. Is it part of the artwork, or just a discarded monitor? What does the conservation scientist who is left all alone in the ruined world wish to keep?

[Changzak Gonggam: Writers]

Writer No. 2 Yoon Mi-hee’s Conservation Scientist

Yoon Mi-hee, who has consistently explored the theme of ‘extinction’ in her previous works, detects infinite vitality in conservation scientists. Together with director Lee Insu, whose in-depth research as a translator and dramaturg has elicited much empathy, she presents Conservation Scientist on the stage. What should we leave behind, and what should we ‘conserve’? Past, present, and future. The encounter across time asks us some fundamental questions ‘today’.

Synopsis

In a future where most of the old things have lost their shape or turned into cosmic dust, experts debate whether they should stop preserving useless things. In the meantime, Conservation Scientist 1 strives to get closer to the truth of ancient and insignificant objects.  

Here is a family. The father sits in front of the television all day. The eldest daughter is unable to find a job after failing in business. The second daughter is on the verge of giving up because her dreams seem impossible to fulfil. The third daughter works on a job that is unrelated to her major just to make ends meet. They each fight against their own door.

The story unfolds in front of a door that came into existence a long time ago. The door is repeatedly knocked down and rebuilt. Soon, temporal boundaries become blurred, and they become each other’s stories.

Written by Yoon Mi-hee

Yoon Mi-hee is a young playwright who has successfully established her own unique theatrical world through abstract and allegorical works rather than realistic ones. Her works have been selected for the ARKO Performing Arts Creative Project Playwriting Competition in 2020 and 2021, and the 2021 Seoul Theater Festival Short Play Competition. She claims that the only keyword that best describes her is ‘play’. Through Conservation Scientist written for Changzak Gonggam: Writers, Yoon hopes to tell the story of extinction and preservation in the endless journey of searching for meaning.

Major Works

<I Can Only Imagine>, <Transparent House>, <I Have No Hands That Caress My Face>, <A Very Trivial Decision for Marie>, <To You Sitting in the Raging Waves>

Other Achievements

2022 ARKO Literature Creative Fund

2021 ARKO Performing Arts Creative Project Playwriting Competition (Ipanggom Mulsaengmi)

2021 Seoul Theater Festival Short Play Competition runner-up (To You Sitting in the Raging Waves)

2020 ARKO Performing Arts Creative Project Playwriting Competition (Inside the Fish Belly)

Directed by Lee Insu
Lee Insu excels at unravelling texts in depth through translation and dramaturgy. Her works boast a high level of completion and delicate interpretation. Lee navigates [Changzak Gonggam: Writers] Conservation Scientist based on a profound understanding of the text and extensive research, thereby breathing life into the play and sharing her own unique interpretation with the audience.

Major Works

<Radiant Vermin>, <That Woman’s Story>, <Opera Charlotteronique>, <Class>, <A Story about Existence, Survival, and Selfishness>, <ANAK>, <Therapy>, <We’ve Met for the First Time or We’ve Known Each Other for Too Long>, <Two Rooms>, <The Pillowman>

Translations

<Vincent River>, <Oil>, <Consent>, <Queen and Nightingale>, <A Steady Rain>, <This Isn’t Romance>, <Gloria>, <The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time>