Having worked in the field of theater for 46 years, Chang is a respected senior actor. Some of his major accomplishments include his entrance to New York in 1978 as the representative of Korea. There he was recognized on Broadway as the best actor, receiving the best review from The New York Times. In spite of the brilliant career he established in the following years even after his return from the States, Chang expressed his humble feelings toward his life as an artist. “One might think of 46 years as long, but I do not. Though I have worked in this field for over 45 years, I still feel like I am at the early stage. Once I work for over 90 years will I be able to say that I know what acting is.”

 

Chang claimed that he has been interested in acting and directing since the early years of his life. “I think I did have the traits of a director since childhood,” said Chang, as he reminisced about his childhood. “I loved to create plays with my friends. I would come home with friends and assign each one their roles—my friend would be the vicious Japanese and I would be commander Yi Sun-shin, for example,” he chuckled. “From back then, I think I carried the sense of a writer, actor, and director, because I knew how to keep people entertained. I never left my friends bored.”

 

However, dreaming of becoming an actor and taking the path to become an actor were two different stories. He wanted to get directly into the study of theater, but he had to face his parents’ strong disapproval. “I preferred to get into the school of arts to start right away, and yet my parents insisted that I graduate from a good university with a marketable major first.” Not wanting to disobey his parents, Chang had no choice but to concentrate on his studies through his high school years, and fortunately, he made his way into KU as a Korean Language and Literature major.

 

Having satisfied his parents’ wishes, Chang started to pioneer the field of his sincere interest. He first became a member of the KU Theater Club as an actor. “I literally lived in that club. During lectures I read only books of plays. I was scolded by professors many times, but that…I really did not care. It was the play and drama that got adrenalin pumping in my blood.” He spent days and nights in the club room trying to accomplish a spiritual connection with his assigned character. With all his efforts, he received an explosive response right after his first official show in the club. “Compliments really encouraged me to keep up the hard work,” Chang said.

 

With persistent and steady work in the theater club, Chang received offers from professional theater production companies. “The offers were tempting, but I do not regret my final decision to first graduate,” claimed Chang. “The Korean Language and Literature course enabled me to gain a deep understanding of my language which is the fundamental tool of drama. Being able to speak the language clearly with proper intonation is crucial for an actor, and I was able to master that through the linguistic education I received at KU,” said Chang.

 

After graduating from KU, Chang enrolled in Seoul Institute of the Arts and studied dramatic performance and dance. At the same time, he attended Dongguk University Graduate School Department of Theater and Film and completed a year when he unexpectedly received an invitation from the United Nations (UN) to take part in a project in the Unites States (U.S.) as the representative of the Republic of Korea. Chang said that he was unbelievably grateful for the opportunity which opened doors to the next stages of his career. The collaborative theater atmosphere in the U.S. was a culture shock to Chang. Being further impressed by the extremely systematic nature of the theaters, Chang decided to stay abroad longer. During his career abroad he met countless foreign artists who inspired him in a way Korean artists could not. Jersey Grotowski was one of them.

 

Chang took a deep breath before explaining his collaboration with Grotowski, as if he was recalling an old teacher of his. Didymus—directed by Grotowski—was the piece Chang chose as the performance of his life. “Didymus is a 36-hours play with two intermissions of one hour each in between. It is a story of two people who believe in the Gospel,” introduced Chang. “The characters came in deep in my heart and the spiritual meeting was emotional,” Chang continued after a short pause, “and another thing that was special about the director was that he never wanted the actors to just speak. Actors were required to sing or chant the lines, and I cannot forget the communion between Grotowski and me while materializing the abstract imageries of the script. We had shared views, and I was very much inspired by him,” said Chang.

 

 

Recently, Chang took part in a production of Cherry Blossom Hill, which was performed by the KU Theater Club Alumni. Chang expressed his personal affection towards the making and performing of Cherry Blossom Hill. “I discovered a kind of energy that I have never experienced in other professional theater teams through the recent Cherry Blossom Hill performance by the KU Theater Club Alumni. Students of KU seem to carry massive energy inside them,” he said. “Students of KU are people who will do better and better as time goes on. What I really want to tell them is not to despair after only a few years of trying. I am more than sure that the students of KU will be able to achieve their goals in the long term.”