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| Seen is "The Pamela Hat" statue made by Spanish artist Manolo Valdes installed in front of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Seoul, Sept. 2. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Park Ji-won
Theaters in Seoul are causing confusion with their different COVID-19 measures following the tightened social distancing measure by the city government amid the coronavirus cases spike.
"I am confused as the public cultural facilities give different guidelines over shows in the pandemic," said a 58-year-old Seoul citizen who booked a ticket for a Dec. 8 show by the National Theater of Korea. "The Seoul government said cultural facilities will not be opening for two weeks. But I wasn't told anything about the cancellation for the ticket I reserved. I am not sure if I am okay to go to watch performances in the theater."
The remarks came after the Seoul city government gave an order on Friday for city-run cultural facilities such as theaters, museums and public libraries to be closed for two weeks starting Saturday to prevent further infections. Some private-owned facilities such as movie theaters, supermarket and computer cafe have also been ordered to close after 9 p.m. in the same period.
Following the city's tightened measures, small and big art facilities such as the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, the Seoul Museum of Art, the Seoul Museum of History, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, the Seoul Metropolitan Library and Gyeonghui Palace will not operate until Dec. 18. Some of them canceled entire shows or delayed performances or exhibitions while partially canceling some other events during the closure period.
It was one of the most unexpected decisions applied to those cultural facilities because the closure measures were announced a few days beforehand.
The measures don't limit the operation of non-state-run theaters, but musicals made by private companies such as "Ghost," which has been held in D-Cube Arts Center, and "Monte Cristo," which has been held in LG Arts Center, will be suspended until Dec. 19 and 20, respectively.
The measures were announced independently from the central government which raised the social distancing measures up to Level 2, the third-highest in the five-tier system, for the greater Seoul area starting Nov. 24. Level 2 includes the suspension of entertainment facilities, such as nightclubs.
The measures were made as the number of cases are spiking in the metropolitan area. The country added 631 COVID-19 cases as of Saturday night, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), returning to over 600 cases per day.
However, as the closure measure was so far applied only to city-run cultural facilities, other state-run cultural facilities run by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism such as the National Theater Company of Korea and the National Theater of Korea are still presenting shows as usual, causing confusion among the government-run facilities as well.
"We were not asked to close our facilities by the culture ministry. We are waiting for the ministry's guidelines which will be made after the KDCA's measure," said an official working for one of the state-run cultural facilities.
