Create space for quality performances

By always covering the promotion after the festival's entries are evaluated, Ho Chi Minh City has supported the stages in introducing the internal strength of each drama brand.

Public and non-public artists are looking forward to the Ho Chi Minh City Theater Festival with more than 20 plays competing on the stage of each unit. More excitedly, the City People's Council has approved the plan to organize the festival every two years, including financial support to promote high-quality works to audiences in suburban districts.

Solve difficult problems

In recent days, when the Arts Council of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City began to attend the performances to assess the artistic quality before 20 units entered the competition season, the theater artists in Ho Chi Minh City were excited to know that in addition to the program to promote typical literary and artistic works, with practical content on "Studying and following the ideology, morality, and style of Ho Chi Minh", after this festival, the 20 participating plays will be "chosen" to serve in many localities, units, and schools in Ho Chi Minh City.

People's Artist My Uyen, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Small Stage Drama Theater, said this is a good sign, helping to solve the difficult problem of audiences. When performing on-site through many shows, the number of viewers will decrease, but the promotion will bring a positive effect, attracting a large audience, thereby spreading more artistic values ​​to the public. "Specifically, my unit has the play "Dầu cũ" which has been performed more than 100 times, each show is supported with 50 million VND. We have brought the work to performance venues far from the center, to the provinces of Binh Phuoc and Binh Duong. This also promises to promote the art units after participating in the festival, promoting the work to a large audience" - People's Artist My Uyen said.

Artist Binh Tinh, Head of the Huynh Long Traditional Opera Troupe, said that after the festival, there will be a second promotional performance under the direction of the HCM City Department of Culture and Sports, aiming to connect and promote not only public art units, but also socialized theaters to bring high-quality cultural and artistic works to the public. "The Huynh Long Theater has planned to stage Vietnamese historical plays such as: "The Century Night Sun", "The Coal Seller Hero"... to participate in serving the community in creating a cultural and artistic space in HCM City" - artist Binh Tinh said.

In the first phase, there were a total of 30 performances, of which 10 were for the dance work "The Legend of Sac Forest" (Military Zone 7 Performing Arts Troupe) and the dance drama "Fatherland" (Ho Chi Minh City Dance College); 20 promotional performances for 4 plays: "The Journey to Find the Portrait" (Ho Chi Minh City Drama Theater), "Fiery Field" (Quoc Thao Drama Theater), "Rang Tram Bau" (Trinh Kim Chi Theater) and "Dai Nao Long Cung" (Small Stage Drama Theater). People's Artist Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports, said that the first phase included plays that had won high prizes at festivals and performances, impressing the audience with their content depicting a heroic period of the nation, and at the same time being unique with their creative staging. "It is expected that the results of the Ho Chi Minh City theater festival will create momentum for the second round to be organized to promote the plays that won high awards, and at the same time open a performance period to serve young audiences at schools," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy.

A scene from the play "The Last Dream" by Hoang Thai Thanh Stage participating in the 2024 Ho Chi Minh City Stage Festival

Dedicated midwife

The participation of the HCM City Department of Culture and Sports' Arts Council in the appraisal and discussion with the creative team to help the unit improve the artistic quality is considered a responsibility for the theater festival after 20 years of being held in the city. Meritorious Artist Ca Le Hong said that in addition to supporting the cost of organizing performances, the State also plays the role of "midwife" by giving direct feedback to improve the artistic quality of each unit.

Director Meritorious Artist Le Nguyen Dat (Sen Viet Stage) said: "From the professional perspective of the council consisting of prestigious directors and experts, the suggestions of the Art Council have improved the quality of each play, aiming at the goal of effectively promoting the play."

Sharing with reporters after the first round, People's Artist My Uyen expressed: "The majority of young audiences from the suburbs who saw the play for the first time were very excited, proving that students are lacking an artistic playground, so the second round of promotion needs to be organized more widely. Notably, the socialized theaters have been supported with funding to bring their works to the majority of audiences, which is a meaningful thing to do after attending the festival."

According to People's Artist Trinh Kim Chi, this is also an opportunity for actors to interact with the public and introduce quality stage works. "The attention given to socialized theater is a motivation for us to boldly invest in more plays on historical and revolutionary themes. Because before the plays came to the festival, the Arts Council gave responsible comments," said People's Artist Trinh Kim Chi.

A scene from the play "The Last Dream" by Hoang Thai Thanh Stage participating in the 2024 Ho Chi Minh City Stage Festival

People's Artist Giang Manh Ha - Vice President of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association, member of the Council for the Evaluation of the Quality of Plays Participating in the Ho Chi Minh City Stage Festival - excitedly said that the city was very thoughtful in its organization. Gathering more than 20 quality plays to participate in the festival, and also organizing support to promote and purchase the plays to bring them closer to the public in the city, that is a very humane way of doing things.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tao-khong-gian-cho-vo-dien-chat-luong-196241008210049103.htm