South Korean director Yang Jung-ung's career has spanned several continents. From his theater work, with casts of numerous nationalities, to his role as artistic director for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, it's clear he has long had the world in his sights.
"I've always been drawn to experimental, intercultural directors such as the Italian Eugenio Barba, who is based in Denmark, Poland's Italy-based pioneer Jerzy Grotowski and the great globe-trotting German modern dance icon Pina Bausch," he says.
Recently, though, the 48-year-old dramatist has been working out of a rehearsal studio at Setagaya Public Theatre in Tokyo, where he is set to stage Henrik Ibsen's 1867 masterpiece "Peer Gynt" with 15 Japanese and five Korean actors. It's at the theater that Yang tells The Japan Times that his international outlook led him to work for years with artists in Europe and across Asia before he founded his Yohangza (Voyager) Theatre Company in Seoul in 1997.