Korean puppet theatre. Orit-Kwangdae (also written Eolit Gwangdae) was founded in 1979 by Lee Kyung-hee (Yi Gyeong-hee), honorary president of UNIMA-Korea, which she founded in the same year (1979), and UNIMA Member of Honour. The first performance of Orit-Kwangdae Marionette Theatre was Yangju Byeolsandae (Yangju Mask-Dance, 1980, performed at the Space Theatre), a performance for adults using string puppets to retell the tale from the traditional masked dance drama with the same characters and choreography.

Orit-Kwangdae has performed in a number of festivals, including an Institut International du Théâtre (ITI, International Theatre Institute) festival, the Third World Theatre Festival held in Seoul (1982), the Dresden International Marionette Festival (1984), the Nagoya International Puppet Festival, to which the South Korean company also presented an exhibition (1988), and the Ljubljana International Marionette Festival (1992). The company also participated in international festivals in Seoul in 1988 and 1991 organized by UNIMA.

Orit-Kwangdae has also performed for children the play Kochu-mokko mammam (or Gochu Meokgo Mammam) with which it participated in the Workshop for Children’s Education, sponsored by the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People/Association Internationale du Théâtre de l’Enfance et la Jeunesse (ASSITEJ-Korea), as well as giving several performances of puppetry for Children’s Day at the National Theatre in Seoul (1981-1982).

(See Korea.)