Desire to elevate puppetry

In his career of preserving, developing and promoting puppetry art, People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung has gone through a 26-year journey with many memories.

People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung. (Photo: Viet Cuong)

People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung is a familiar name to those who love the art of Vietnamese puppetry. Currently, besides his role as Director of the Vietnam Puppetry Theatre, he is also a talented puppeteer, a teacher of many actors and artists in the puppetry industry.

Inheriting the family legacy

Born and raised in a family with an artistic tradition, Nguyen Tien Dung was exposed to various forms of performing arts, especially water puppetry.

Growing up in the Theater Collective, his childhood memories are associated with images of puppets, folk plays, and the cheerful laughter of his peers. That was the first step in his life that helped him understand and love puppetry. From practical experience, the movements and skills of puppetry gradually seeped into his blood.

However, People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung's career did not start with puppetry. He joined the Army Drama Theater as a drama artist and achieved certain successes.

Fate brought the young man back to puppetry and became an actor at the Vietnam Puppetry Theatre in 1998. With his love and diligence for puppetry, he quickly conquered this art form.

Besides self-improvement and training, the “family tradition” factor is an advantage that helps him easily grasp the knowledge and skills of water puppetry. He quickly approached and mastered the puppetry genres and has his own unique performance methods.

In 2007, he majored in directing. From a puppeteer, he gradually asserted himself as a director, bringing unique creativity and new vitality to this traditional art form.

Preserving national quintessence

On the journey to preserve this traditional art form, People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung has contributed to bringing puppetry to cover most of the S-shaped strip of land, from big cities to remote areas.

In particular, the Vietnam Water Puppetry Theatre has preserved and promoted 16 typical ancient puppet plays of traditional craft villages. At the same time, artists have also created and improved these plays with higher techniques, suitable for the tastes of modern audiences while still maintaining national identity. Thanks to that, the art of water puppetry has increasingly developed sustainably, becoming the pride of Vietnamese culture.

Besides the advantages, the Theater faces many challenges from operating costs, performance conditions... to the current trend of young people being less interested in traditional arts.

Recalling the difficult period of the Covid-19 pandemic, People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung said: “For two years, the Theater had to freeze all performance and practice activities and almost its existence, the development path seemed to have stalled. The question for colleagues and directors like me is what will happen next, how will it recover? However, after overcoming that period, the Theater's artists continued to release new products, hone their skills and constantly strive, continue to be creative to preserve national art."

It can be seen that the 26-year journey of People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung accompanying the art of puppetry is like a play with full range of emotions "joy, anger, love, hate". On that path, he has experienced countless challenges, but with love and ambition put into each puppet, he remains steadfast in the journey to preserve traditional Vietnamese art.

Some overseas tours of People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung with the Vietnam Puppetry Theatre. (Photo: NVCC)

Ambition to bring puppetry to international level

Water puppetry has always been unique because it originated from daily working life and has been elevated to become a unique performing art form of Vietnam. It is also a source of pride for artists when they bring bells to strike other people's water, bringing national identity to the world.

People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung shared: "When going to other countries, from the atmosphere to the way people welcome and express their admiration after each performance... it's really wonderful."

He said the Vietnam Water Puppetry Theatre has set foot in more than 70 countries and territories, organized hundreds of performances abroad and attracted thousands of audiences each night.

On the other hand, foreign tourists when coming to Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular always find ways to see and enjoy with their own eyes that Vietnamese performing art.

When asked about his memorable moments while performing abroad, People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung shared: “The most memorable times were in Croatia and France. When we were taking down the performance set to set it up, we discovered that the water tank was missing. How can we perform water puppetry without a water tank?

That very night, the entire Organizing Committee had to meet and find a solution to find a water tank, and that very night, the brothers used iron swords, wooden swords… or any other usable objects to tie it together. The next day, we created a standard water tank for the artists to perform, without affecting the progress of the art program.

In recent years, water puppetry has fallen into a saturation phase. People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung said: "No matter how delicious a dish is, if you eat it many times, you will get bored... So we need to re-cook this dish in a new way to better suit the tastes of the international public."

According to him, to create a more perfect appearance for the art of Vietnamese water puppetry in the context of global integration today, the requirement for those in the profession is to breathe a contemporary breeze into the art of puppetry; to be more flexible in controlling and performing techniques; to be more elaborate in exploiting the shape and anatomy of the puppet apparatus and to be more delicate and sensitive in conveying traditional music.

That process is certainly a long journey ahead for water puppet artists like People's Artist Nguyen Tien Dung. They need young people who have passion and ambition for traditional arts in general and puppetry in particular, to become the next generation, continuing to bring Vietnamese puppetry further to the international stage.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/nghe-si-nhan-dan-nguyen-tien-dung-khat-khao-nang-tam-mua-roi-294690.html