Honored Worker of Arts of the Kazakh SSR
1919-1999
Far East
In the post-war 1946, Te Den Gu, a graduate of the Alma-Ata Higher Party School, was appointed director of the Korean Theater. He proved to be a talented leader and a good educational psychologist and remained in the post of director for thirty-eight years.
In the 1930s, as a child he lived in the Far East with his cousin, an artist of the Korean Theater. During the war years, the theater was moved from Kyzyl-Orda to the Ush-Tobe station. Te Den Gu was a cultural worker on the collective farm in Karatal region, he later became an instructor of the propaganda department in the regional party committee, and had some relation to the theater as a cultural and ideological institution.
Te Den Gu’s name is associated with an upsurge in the development of the Korean Theater. On his initiative, a Korean department was opened at the Tashkent State Institute of Arts and Culture (its graduates include: V.E.Kim (“Peoples Artist”), “Honored Artist of the Kazakh SSR” such as A.Kh. Moon, O. Ch. Son, S. Pak and others).
The Korean theater was, largely due to Te Den Gu’s persistence, moved to the city of Alma-Ata, which was the capital at the time. During that period of time, plays were staged based on the works of world classics, Russian and Soviet drama, such as “Othello”, “Kremlin Chimes”, “Yegor Bulychev and the others”, “Thunderstorm”, “Khon Gil Don”, “Chunghyanden”, “Simchenden”. While he was still a theater director, Te Den Gu underwent an internship in Leningrad for 6 months, where he purposefully watched about 70 stage performances, studied the works of famous directors and artists, and successfully used the experience that he gained in his theater.
In 1967 he was awarded the title “Honored Artist of the Kazakh SSR”.