Park Ji-won had this story in The Korea Times. Here is an excerpt:

Between May 18 and 27 in 1980, citizens of Gwangju, South Jeolla Province stood up against the martial law imposed by the military junta led by then-President Chun Doo-hwan. About 200 people, including 22 soldiers on the government’s side, are known to have been killed during the military crackdown. The 10-day Gwangju Uprising played a key role in igniting the pro-democracy movement in Korea and thus helped move the country’s democratization forward.

“Gwangju,” a musical marking the 40th anniversary of the uprising, was created in 2020 to remember the event from the perspective of ordinary citizens who were forced to take desperate measures to survive during that turbulent period of Korean history.

“The musical is trying to show the nature of the past of Gwangju which is to tell the truth,” Koh Sun-woong, artistic director of the show said during a press conference, Thursday. “It is the story of ordinary people who happened to be there in Gwangju at that time … The key message is to ‘Stand up, sing, dance and love.'”

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