Meritorious Artist Tran Ngoc Tuan, who is Director of the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong (Classic drama) Theatre cum Chairman of the municipal Theater Artists’ Association, has been acting as a person who “light a fire” among the young to study, preserve, and promote the values of Tuong.

After nearly 15 years of working as a theatre leader, Mr. Tuan has brought the art of traditional Tuong into a popular cultural product.

Meritorious Artist Tran Ngoc Tuan

Bringing Tuong closer to the public

After nearly 15 years of managing the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre, the thing Mr. Tuan is most interested in is to bring Tuong closer to the public.

There are two big milestones of the theatre that he is always proud of. In particular, the theatre has organised the street Tuong programme since 2015. Also, the theatre has started to become partially autonomous since 2019.

The street Tuong programme was first launched to the public on July 12, 2015, drawing much attention from the public. As a result, the city decided to invest funds to maintain street Tuong performances to serve locals and tourists.

The second milestone is when the theatre begins to be partially autonomous, a key factor that helps the theatre "keep its lights" on regularly. Meritorious Artist Tran Ngoc Tuan said that at that time, the theatre sold tickets for a show for only VND50,000 per person, very low but still had few customers. In the long run, if this situation continues, artists and actors will certainly become discouraged and even leave.

With the suggestion from the city's leaders, Mr. Tuan and staff of the theatre developed a project to improve the efficiency of theatre operations by 2025, with a vision towards 2030.

When the project was approved, the theatre focused on building quality art programmes to create products to serve people and tourists, especially international visitors.

The art programmes of the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre are getting closer to people and tourists. Photo: X.D

Since then, the theatre has launched fascinating general art programmes such as 'The Soul of Viet Nam', ‘Han River Sediments’, ‘Colours of Viet Nam’ and ‘Heritage Road’, all contributing to increasing revenue for the theatre and ensuring income for artists and actors.

Every year, the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre offers an average of 200 Tuong performances and shows for locals and tourists. In addition, the theatre still maintains a programme of bringing Tuong to schools with excerpts related to historical figures to educate the younger generation about traditions.

​"Conductor" of Tuong stage

Despite being originally a musician and having never performed Tuong, Meritorious Artist Tran Ngoc Tuan is especially knowledgeable about this kind of traditional art, memorising every song and dance movement in Tuong extracts. The main reason is thought to be that he has a special love and passion for Tuong, so he always learns from generations of artists and actors.

While working as a manager of the theatre, he directly conducts the orchestra, and organises important Tuong programmes and festivals across the country.

Tuong performances by actors and artists of the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theater at cultural - tourism festivals and events in the city. Photo: X.D

“Tuong is a part of my life. Therefore, I think that I must do my best for the theatre and for the kind of traditional art. I often ask the treatre’s staff to bring Tuong closer to the public because this is the best way to preserve and promote traditional Tuong art" Mr. Tuan expressed.

Thanks to his great efforts, Mr. Tuan significantly contributes to making the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre become the first unit in the Da Nang cultural industry to be awarded the First-Class Labour Medal in 2017, and win many awards at competitions, shows and festivals at regional and national levels.

In the context of traditional art units seriously lacking young actors, Meritorious Artist Tran Ngoc Tuan asked for permission from the city to train and recruit 12 young actors.

As working at the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre, young actors receive professional training from previous generations of artists and actors, as well as have the opportunity to perform and compete at regional and national art competitions and festivals to hone their stage performance experience.

“I believe that the Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre will develop well in the future" Mr. Tuan affirmed.

​Reporting by KHOI NGUYEN - Translating by M.DUNG