South Korean theatre and performance maker and composer Jaha Koo is to receive this year’s International Ibsen Award. Jaha Koo graduated from DAS Theatre in 2016, the Master’s programme in Theatre from the Academy of Theatre and Dance (AHK). The award, often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize of theatre’, comes with a cash prize of nearly 230,000 euros. Koo has been affiliated with Theater Utrecht since 2023.

The award ceremony will take place during the International Ibsen Festival at the National Theatre in Oslo in September.

From the Committee statement:
"In a world too often positioned through the ‘for’ and ‘against’, The International Ibsen Award 2026 rewards the imagining of theatre as the space in-between - as a site for assembly, a place to envision and inspire what we might not yet know. The practice of theatre made through compassion and kindness, so critically needed for our times. The experience of art as a reminder of the human capacity to nurture and share beauty, hope and joy, as new ways of being and seeing.

Theatre forging time and space for the reflection of the ongoing quiet works that are democracy in action. This vision is personified in the world of South Korean theatre and performance maker, music composer, and video artist Jaha Koo.

In a world where bigger and louder are often equated with best and usually lauded, Jaha presents alternative ways of seeing the world. He eschews the loud and the bombastic in favour of the intimate, the delicate and the small: almost akin to an elegant chamber orchestra, but often providing sharp socio-political critique and expansive reflections on identity, displacement, and the erosion of democracy."

https://internationalibsenaward.com/winners/jaha-koo