The “School theatre” project was approved by Prime Minister and co-conducted by Ministries of Culture-Sport-Tourism and Training & Education in the last 10 years (2001-2010). Binh Dinh is one of the project’s beneficiaries.
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Pupils from Quang Trung Secondary School (Quy Nhon city) were performing an excerption of play Tiet Cuong – Lan Anh. |
Initial results
The project was officially implemented in Binh Dinh in August 2003. A group of artists from Dao Tan Tuong (classical drama) Theatre was started to teach excerptions of some famous, educational plays at schools.
Devotion of the artists, active responses of the schools and strong commitment of their pupils enabled feasible implementation of the project. The pupils under the project had chances to not only understand about unique, special characteristics of Tuong drama but also get more historical knowledge through historical plays.
In the first phase (2011-2005) of the project, the pupils could perform Tuong drama fairly well. Pupils from Quang Trung Secondary School at Quy Nhon city performed excerption of “Ho Nguyet Co turns into fox” and Tay Son fighting drum playing with 12 drums. Pupils from Binh Dinh town Secondary School at An Nhon district performed excerption of “The two Trung (Zheng) sisters rise in arms (against Chinese Han Dynasty invaders)”.
Pupils from Binh Tuong Secondary School at Tay Son district performed excerption of “Nguyen Hue declared himself Emperor Quang Trung”. The pupils also learnt to perform excerption of other plays out of framework of the project with aims to know more about the traditional drama.
Binh Dinh pupils had played well the difficult excerptions of the traditional drama plays, said Professor Hoang Chuong – Vice Chairman of the project’s steering committee – in a wrap up evaluation ceremony of the project’s first phase. It was undoubted that implementation of the project was exactly right and reaped encouraging results.
Expect the project to continue
Since the 2007, the project has no longer received funds from central government as it is in the second phase.
In spite of financial straits, the schools under the project in the first phase try to maintain the performances of the excerptions on occasions of festivals or galas. Particularly, Quang Trung Secondary School (Quy Nhon city) holds periodical shows of folk songs and the Tuong excerptions, including the “Ho Nguyet Co turns into fox” performed by Nguyen Kieu Oanh. Her performance is so good that the national VTV3 channel decides to record for broadcasting.
In this mid-August, the Performing Arts Agency under Ministry of Culture-Sport & Tourism and the National Centre for Cultural Research, Preservation and Promotion co-organized a workshop on the project’s final evaluation over the 10 years (2001-2010) at Hanoi.
The workshop reviewed positive influences of the project and predicted potential hindrances of maintaining and expanding the project’s activities.
Mr. Van Trong Hung, Director of Binh Dinh Department of Culture-Sport & Tourism, one of the workshop’s participant said: “Preservation and development of the traditional drama aren’t simply restoration of specific plays or studies. It is necessary for the drama goes into hearts of the public, particularly the youth. We suggest that the project should be carried out in continuousness at localities, including Binh Dinh. There should be detail action plans and targets for each types of drama in the next phase of the project. There should be close cooperation with education agencies in following the project’s implementation; there should be timely praises and rewards for good doers and reward.”
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