The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major changes to how musicians and performers practice, and has brought many live performances to a halt. Therefore, as soon as Da Nang's social distancing mandate has been loosened, local performing arts units promptly have practised and staged new shows and performances no matter how hard they are in order to serve the public’s demands in the upcoming time.

Actors of the Nguyen Hien Dinh ‘Tuồng’ Theater was rehearsing an excerpt from "Ngon Lua Hong Son" play to perform in the near future. Photo: XUAN DUNG

Numerous performances convey bold artistic and humanistic values

Nguyen Hien Dinh ‘Tuong’ (Vietnamese classical drama) Theater’s artistes are overjoyed and excited as allowed to practice at the stage after a long time. Thanks to maintaining practice to keep their body shape as well as voice, all of them are ready to back to their flow of works as before.

For the time being, artists, actors, and musicians here are actively trying to rehearse exemplary Tuong excerpts in tandem with building new repertoires carrying diverse attractive content as well as having bold artistic and humanistic values so as to convey positive life energy for audiences. At the same time, 12 newly recruited actors have been also guided following Central Viet Nam's performance style to be introduced to the audience once the stage reopen.

In addition to re-editing and enhancing a number of outstanding Tuồng play excerpts that have made a great impression, the artists and actors here are also focusing on composing a number of folk dance performances, ethnic ancient music, puppetry, vaudeville, short folk plays to suit the tastes of children and tourists.

According to Mr Tran Ngoc Tuan, Director of the theatre, he had considered conducting live stream performances for the public to enjoy during the time staying at home. However, because of the nature of the traditional art form that is picky about the audience so it would attract very few viewers. Therefore, the unit decided to temporarily not implement this plan.

Currently, the theatre has fully prepared for welcoming audiences to the theatre to watch live performances as soon as being allowed. In the time ahead, when the transportation between provinces is more convenient, the unit will invite more talented content creators from Hanoi and Binh Dinh to Da Nang to continue to complete the play "Reverse the wave"  for soon release.

Fully prepare to meet the demands of cultural enjoyment

Once the stage lights are back on, COVID-19 transmission risks for those working in the sector, and for audiences attending performances is still existing, putting many challenges for performing arts units, especially how to attract audiences to the live stage at this time.

Recently, Trung Vuong Theater has submitted to the Department of Culture and Sports an art show organizing plan with the theme "Four Seasons Melodies", performing weekly for people on both sides of the Han River. In addition, monthly performances with their own impression are prepared in order to bring a unique music experience to the audience.

Over the past time, Trung Vuong Theater has always been dynamic and creative to organize a host of art programs and contests such as the live-streaming program of cultural exchange "Message a little love" or the contest " “2021 Singing with family " receiving a large number of viewers and participants via virtual platforms.

According to artist Quang Hao, Director of Trung Vuong Theater, along with issuing safe pandemic prevention solutions at stages or performance venues, the unit also focuses on coming up with high-quality, attractive scripts, and new staging methods in each play as well as each performance to attract more audiences.

As scheduled, the theatre has been drafted a series of music programs named " Diverse colours of Trung Vuong" maintained monthly with a different theme each month. The first program themed "City in the heart" with about 15 works praising the city and paying tribute to the frontline forces fighting in the pandemic prevention and control battle is slated to be live-streamed on October 25.

“Trung Vuong Theater is always ready to serve live audiences with a bunch of high artistic quality performances. For the time being, in addition to the above-mentioned weekly and monthly programs, we also plan to organize art shows for upcoming holidays, especially Tet. We hope that these efforts will create a unique musical playground to fulfill people's demands for cultural enjoyment in the future," said artist Quang Hao.

Reporting by XUAN DUNG- Translating by T.VY