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오지게 재밌는 가시나들

2025

とっても楽しいお嬢さんたち

Granny Poetry Club (오지게 재밌는 가시나들) is a Korean original musical based on a documentary and essay about literacy-school grandmothers who discover the power of reading, writing, and poetry late in life. Developed by Live Corporation as a cross-generational “granny musical,” it opens in Seoul in February 2025 and is later introduced to Japanese audiences through the 2025 K-Musical Roadshow in TOKYO.

오지게 재밌는 가시나들

English:

Granny Poetry Club

Korean:

오지게 재밌는 가시나들

Country: Japan | Language: Korean

🔗 All images are linked to their original sources or articles. No copyright ownership is claimed.

ORIGIN

Granny Poetry Club (오지게 재밌는 가시나들) is adapted from the 2019 documentary film Granny Poetry Club (칠곡 가시나들) and the essay collection 오지게 재밌게 나이듦, which portray grandmothers in Chilgok learning Korean literacy and writing poetry in their eighties. The musical is developed through the Glocal Musical Live Season 7 program run by Live Corporation and is selected for Arts Council Korea’s “2024 Performing Arts Creation – This Year’s New Work,” securing national support as a notable new creation. With book by Kim Hajin, music and music direction by Kim Hyesung, direction by Oh Kyungtaek, choreography by Shin Sunho, and producing and artistic oversight by Kang Byungwon and Kim Jaehwan, it premieres at the National Theater of Korea’s Haneul Theater in Seoul from February 11 to 27, 2025, produced by Live Corporation.

STORY

In the fictional village of Palbok-ri, grandmothers Yeong-ran, Chun-sim, In-soon, and Bun-han attend a local literacy school after a lifetime of being unable to read because of poverty and gender. Every day they walk to class to learn Hangul from their teacher Ga-eul, hoping to read signboards, write letters, and finally keep up with their grandchildren.

One day, Seok-gu, a hard-nosed investigative documentary director, hears their story on the radio and visits Palbok Literacy School just as budget cuts threaten its closure. Ga-eul suggests filming the grandmothers as they write their own poems to show the value of literacy education, and although the women initially protest that “ordinary people” cannot write poetry, they begin searching for poetic images in their everyday lives when promised a field trip after they complete their poems.

As Seok-gu’s camera rolls, their handwritten verses become musical numbers accompanied by a five-piece band, turning the classroom into a stage where late-life learning, dignity, humour, and grief are sung aloud. The show celebrates second chances and portrays how the grandmothers reclaim their voices and write themselves into the centre of their own stories.

POSTER COLLECTION

Poster images are shown for documentation only. All rights belong to the original creators and producers.

KOREAN RUNS

2025 – premiere (Live Corporation)
From February 11 to 27, 2025, Granny Poetry Club had its world premiere at the National Theater of Korea’s Haneul Theater in Seoul as a selection of Arts Council Korea’s “2024 Performing Arts Creation – This Year’s New Work,” giving around 22 performances. It attracted a wide audience that included many viewers in their 50s–70s alongside younger spectators, and was noted for its cross-generational appeal and musical settings of poems written by real literacy-school grandmothers.

2025 – regional tour (Live Corporation)
After its Seoul debut, the production toured to Chilgok, where the original documentary was filmed, and to Changwon as part of a regional distribution program for performing arts administered by the Arts Management Support Center. These performances reached local literacy schools and cultural centres through large group attendances and connected the stage version directly back to the communities that had inspired the original film.

2025 – cinema screening (Live Corporation / ARKO LIVE × CGV)
A performance-capture film of Granny Poetry Club was screened at 13 CGV cinemas nationwide from July 23 to August 5, 2025, in collaboration with the ARKO LIVE initiative. Recorded with fourteen cameras and edited partly from the onstage “documentary director” character’s point of view, the film achieved a 98 percent CGV egg rating and drew numerous group bookings from senior centres, welfare institutions, lifelong-learning facilities, and literacy schools.

GLOBAL STAGINGS & ADAPTATIONS

Japan, 2025
Showcase – Korean-language digest performance at 2025 K-Musical Roadshow in TOKYO
On November 12, 2025, Granny Poetry Club was presented at Hulic Hall Tokyo as one of five official works in the 2025 K-Musical Roadshow in TOKYO, an international showcase organized by Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Arts Management Support Center. A roughly 20-minute digest performance and presentation introduced the musical to local audiences and industry professionals under the Japanese title とっても楽しいお嬢さんたち, alongside segments from The Watermelon Seed, Three Winds and One Tree, The Dandelion Flute, and Narcissus and Goldmund – Knowledge and Love.

REFERENCES

The Musical – Articles related to the musical Granny Poetry Club

https://www.themusical.co.kr/News/Detail?num=14286

     

Seoul Culture Today – “Musical Granny Poetry Club ends its run while expanding its audience demographics… ‘Plans underway for a filmed performance screening in the second half of the year’”

http://www.sctoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=44651

     

Jongno Senior Club – “Musical Granny Poetry Club takes over the big screen!”

https://jsc.seoul.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=JLS_3020&wr_id=55&me_code=3020

     

NewDaily – “Musical Granny Poetry Club to participate in the ‘K-Musical Roadshow in Tokyo’ this November”

https://www.newdaily.co.kr/site/data/html/2025/06/27/2025062700030

     

K-Musical Market 2025 – Producers’ Pitching: Granny Poetry Club (오지게 재밌는 가시나들)

https://k-musicalmarket.kr/2025%20K-MUSICAL%20MARKET%20Program%20Book.pdf

     

PR TIMES – 2025 K-Musical Roadshow in TOKYO event release

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000011.000119114.html

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