Create all conditions to promote the strengths of the city stage...

With the determination to find new vitality for the stage in Ho Chi Minh City, the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City has created all conditions for art units to make creative efforts to bring traditional art forms closer to the public. People's Artist Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City, answered an interview with Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper:

Reporter: After the discussion "Current situation and solutions for developing traditional opera in Ho Chi Minh City" organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City in coordination with the Ho Chi Minh City Theater Association, along with the plan to organize the Ho Chi Minh City Theater Festival in 2024, can you tell us about the Department's orientation on solutions to improve the quality of current theater arts ?

- People's Artist NGUYEN THI THANH THUY: Currently, some orientations on solutions to improve the quality of art activities in general and traditional art in particular in the coming time have been planned. The Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City will systematize the contents proposed at the seminar, continue to research and organize specialized seminars such as script development, art design, music for reformed theater, including the art of reformed theater in classical drama; in the near future, the Ho Chi Minh City Theater Festival in the field of reformed theater will be organized, including a category on the topic of Vietnamese history.

The results of the discussion were the attention, the expression of concerns, the presentation of thoughts and aspirations, and the sharing of joy at the new signals of the traditional opera stage. More importantly, through the discussions and opinions, the efforts to build a new roadmap for the socialized traditional opera art units to strongly approach the trend of writing Vietnamese historical scripts were emphasized.

People's Artist Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism

To create a specific mechanism for the development of Ho Chi Minh City theater, what solutions are you interested in?

- The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council a policy of exempting corporate income tax for companies in the field of innovative startups. The Decree stipulates that innovative startups, science and technology organizations, innovation centers and intermediary organizations supporting innovative startups with income from innovative startup activities arising in Ho Chi Minh City are exempt from corporate income tax on this income.

Thus, socialized art units are considered enterprises with income exempted from corporate income tax as prescribed in this clause and must meet the regulations of the Ho Chi Minh City Arts Council on priority fields; criteria, conditions, content of innovative start-up activities... are all exempted from tax for business development. In addition, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports supports the promotion of performances of stage plays with high quality in terms of content and artistic value, focusing on Vietnamese historical themes.

. Among the groups of solutions that artists and theater researchers raised at the discussion, the issue of human resource training was mentioned a lot. Does the HCM City Department of Culture and Sports have a plan to promote this solution?

- The Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City is developing a policy to submit to the People's Council on support for training and development, including vocational training, policies for employing people with artistic talent; policies to support artisans and artists of various types of intangible cultural heritage. The issue of vocational training is very important.

Recently, when attending the discussion on the stage of reformed classical opera, all artists and researchers were moved and happy to see a new generation of young "child" actors inheriting the stage. It was a good sign when the children performing the excerpt "Gio vong co lau" were all between the ages of 7 and 12. In the Blue Sky group of Tran Huu Trang Theater, there are currently some children who are the sixth generation of the great Minh To classical opera family. They are all excellent students in primary and secondary schools.

Excerpt from “Wind Blowing Reed Flags” by Blue Sky Group - Tran Huu Trang Theater. Photo: THANH HIEP

. The 2024 school stage has started. To create a synchronous effect for promotional activities, introducing the basic characteristics of the fields: hát bội, cải lương, drama, circus, puppetry... to students, what orientation has the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City had?

- The Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City in collaboration with the Department of Education and Training has developed a plan to foster and introduce traditional and Vietnamese folk art forms into the school environment in the coming time. For public units such as: Tran Huu Trang Theater, Phuong Nam Art Theater, Ho Chi Minh City Opera Theater, Ho Chi Minh City Drama Theater... have organized the School Stage program, introducing the characteristics of each field of culture and art to students.

Non-public units such as: Sen Viet Stage, Lac Long Quan Stage, Ho Chi Minh City Small Stage Drama Theater... have been supported with funding to organize the School Stage program, creating efficiency in the past time and continuing to contribute to reaping many new achievements for the 2024 - 2025 school year.

. The Ho Chi Minh City Theater Festival promises to bring new achievements to the professional stage when more than 20 new works will be introduced to the public this time?

- The Ho Chi Minh City Theater Festival with the theme "Southern Aspiration" with the genre of spoken drama aims to practically celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification.

Through the festival, we will contribute to promoting the glorious revolutionary tradition, the great achievements in the construction and development of the city in nearly 50 years after the country's reunification. We will introduce the good values ​​of performing arts in general and the theater field in particular.

To have high quality works participating in the festival, the art council including directors, authors, artists, researchers... from the Art Council of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City, the Art Council of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association participated.

People's Artist Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy was particularly interested: "I spoke at the seminar on traditional opera, and what I am not the only one concerned about is the request to pay attention to the theoretical and critical work of the Ho Chi Minh City Council of Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts. At the same time, the field of theoretical and critical work in the media in the coming time needs to be focused on in depth and achieve higher efficiency."

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tao-moi-dieu-kien-de-phat-huy-the-manh-cua-san-khau-tp-hcm-196240924202302163.htm