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A scene of “Dien Vo Dinh” play performed by artists from Dao Tan Tuong Theater. Photo H.V |
Dao Tan Tuong (classical drama) Theatre coordinated with Ha Noi University of Theatre and Cinema held a seminar on “Dao Tan Tuong art- preservation and development”.
Improve training quality
Six courses with nearly 40 students have opened so far, but only 10 was selected to work at Dao Tan Tuong Theatre.
It is now more difficult to recruit new students to attend Tuong courses. It’s a pity that those who have natural aptitude for performing Tuong couldn’t meet academic standards.
Owing to defining characteristics of Tuong training, Tuong artists are assigned to teach students. However, the teaching and learning still face many difficulties due to the limited syllabus, let alone low honoraria (roughly US$2.5 per period).
Despite a small number of students, the training couldn’t go into detail; therefore, unqualified artists going on the stage is unavoidable, said the Theatre director, Hoa Binh.
“If the Theatre is not cautious about assigning roles to young artists, the audience could be disappointed,” Binh added.
The Theatre, thus, suggested that Ha Noi University of Theatre and Cinema should coordinate with the province’s Art and Culture Secondary School to open a course at the college level, aiming to attract students and improve the training quality.
Which way to go
At the seminar, participants talked about the issue of whether contemporary and fictional plays should be continued. Some worried that focusing on contemporary and fictional plays may make distinctive features of ancient drama disappear.
“To preserve Tuong art, it’s crucial to keep model roles of ancient drama alive first,” artist Trong Que emphasized. “The contemporary and fictional plays will be performed later; if not, those who well know Tuong art will be disappointed.”
The others also hoped that ancient plays should be performed before writing new ones.
However, the restoration of ancient tuong is facing challenges in translation for there are variant forms of an ancient play written in Chinese characters. Using contemporary words will lose the abstract feature of ancient drama; on the contrary, not many who enjoy Tuong plays could understand if they are translated literally.
The Theatre also carried out the model of san khau hoc duong (school theatre) at Quy Nhon University few years ago, aiming to bring traditional theatre and young people together, musician Gia Thien said.
But the project had to stop one year later due to the lack of money, he sadly talked to us.
Anyone understands it’s necessary to preserve and develop tuong art, but there is no one measure for all issues.
Hopefully, the seminar will offer a “way out” for Tuong art to some extent.
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