This committee is responsible for managing, connecting, creating, organizing and operating festivals and international theater exchange programs of the World Theater Association.
Reporter: As the president of IFCPC/ITI, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
- Director LE QUY DUONG : I think that diverse and unique paths of cultural heritage and artistic creation will be opened and intersected, meeting so that people from many different civilizations and identities can directly share and accompany each other for common goals.
Why has Vietnamese theater not achieved many results in international exchange?
- Because the paths of international exchange and integration have not yet been truly opened, the doors of cooperation and creativity have not yet opened wide.
There are three reasons why our theater still faces many difficulties in international cooperation and exchange. First, it is the training field. As long as the curriculum system at theater training schools is not completed, supplemented and updated, our theater will fall behind. If it falls behind, it cannot integrate.
Second, is the mechanism for managing and operating the stage life. We seem to have only stage movements that focus only on competitions, performances, and festivals; we have not really focused on developing artistic creations aimed at the audience. The proof is that we have many stage artists with titles but the theaters are not lit up.
Director Le Quy Duong and Korean actors at the 36th World Theatre Congress in Fujairah City - United Arab Emirates. (Photo: TOM JOHNSON)
Third, there is still a very biased and distorted concept between state and private theater, between domestic and international theater; an equal atmosphere of theatrical creation in the country is difficult, so international integration and exchange is even more difficult.
In your new position, what will you do to continue to exchange and promote Vietnamese theater to the world?
- Ever since I was a student majoring in directing in Australia, I have worked on many theater cooperation projects between Vietnam and the world. The new position will help me have a more comprehensive and profound vision, absorbing the theater values of the nation so that colleagues and international audiences can understand the country and people of Vietnam with more refined and refined emotions.
I would like to emphasize that international friends, colleagues and audiences are extremely respectful, interested and curious when approaching Vietnamese theater. They do not just want to see a purely theatrical work but also want to find emotional paths, open new doors of perception to understand and approach our people and country in many different areas of cooperation. I will try to connect so as not to miss these opportunities.
In your opinion, in order to have a source of good scripts, should the scriptwriting camp model that we have been using for the past years change?
- Vietnamese theater is proud of the names of many great playwrights across the country. However, to have more good scripts, it is necessary to look at, evaluate objectively, fairly and have new training methods, encourage and motivate the team of young playwrights today. The requirements for having a good stage script require very specific principles. Current creative camp models need to change completely and add many new methods. There is a need for in-depth training programs on skills for promising young playwrights.
What specific mechanism is needed so that Vietnamese theater can interact and spread with international theater in the coming time?
- The principles that have become common in international theatrical exchanges and festivals are coordination and companionship. There are two forms of cooperation. The first form is commercial and profitable. The second form is non-profit cooperation.
What is needed here is a mechanism for human resources, finance and specific artistic products to build programs that are qualified to participate in large international professional theater playgrounds.
What projects are you planning for Vietnamese theater in 2023?
- Currently, some major international theater festivals in Africa, Europe and Asia have raised the issue of inviting Vietnamese theater performances to participate. I really hope that our theater will receive the common attention of the state, professional associations, public and non-public theaters, groups and even individual theater artists so as not to waste these opportunities.
How confident are you when the "Cultural Development Strategy to 2030" mentions "Vietnam will strive for the revenue of cultural industries to contribute 7% of GDP"?
- I think that belief must be based on a foundation of assessment and analysis of practical reality that is extremely objective, transparent and accurate. In the field of theater in particular, and culture and arts in general, I have strong belief that this strategy can be implemented by 2050.
Any industry needs professionalism. To be professional, it must be highly specialized. To be highly specialized, it must have people. People are always the central requirement and create the most core value.
Every day, international theatrical activities take place on all five continents. Therefore, the opportunities for Vietnam to cooperate with the world in theater are huge. Many international theater festivals want Vietnam to participate.
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