I don’t remember myself growing up seeing a lot of professionally produced theatre pieces. I remember changing channels immediately if a staged drama was being shown on the TV screen – they seemed so boring to me. I still went through primary school happily discussing Disney movies with the girls, making online friends through K-pop fandoms during my secondary school years, before (finally) getting a glimpse of “theatre” in high school. It is not only common for people my age to have mostly no interest in theatre, but the fact that theatres in Vietnam have been receiving such a modest number of audiences also reflects the negligence of the public towards this performing art.
Last year, I got the opportunity to visit a public high school in Germany and attend some of its classes, among which surprisingly were a lot of Music periods. Music lessons designed for 14-year-olds are mostly approachable: basic music theories, some singing and most fun of all, introductions to world-famous musicals. Not everyone is gifted musically but watching a musical and discussing it is no rocket science, and to my witness, the whole class enjoyed this activity very much. Musicals play an important part in the curriculum of my German peers. Not only do they learn them in class but producing musicals has also become an annual activity.
Now, if you have ever been to a public Vietnamese school between grade 1 and 9, you would know that no one really pays attention in Music class, even if it were singing lessons or introductions to music theories and musical history. But we will discuss more thoroughly about music education in public schools in another piece. So stay tuned.
The point I want to address here is that while German youngsters are having every contact to the world of theatre, including learning about it, watching it and taking part in it whilst continuing to see their theatre industry blossom, the chances for their Vietnamese peers to get access to the same amount of resources and opportunities is much slimmer. Going to the theatre on the weekends doesn’t seem to be every family’s number-one choice when staying home doesn’t mean having zero entertainment anymore, and DVDs of recorded stage plays are not easily accessed. The situation is also that while adults are too busy to attend theatre shows, youngsters with loads of free time would not pick theatre as their main source of entertainment – when they do go to the theatre, the plots available are beyond their understandings and interests. That is one problem with the theatre industry in Vietnam nowadays – the key audience of the stage is mostly highly mature adults, who seem to have no time to pay a visit to the theatre.
When the theatre world is drifting further and further away from the lives of youngsters, it takes the youngsters themselves to pull it closer again. The rise of the internet does contribute to the decreasing popularity of theatre, but it also offers curious young people opportunities to educate themselves and explore new ideas. Not all of them found theatre among millions of terabyte of information, but when some of them did and got hooked, they started producing their own theatre pieces. While traditional stage plays are still following traditional methods and meanings without attracting new audiences, these amateur productions have no boundaries when telling a story. Theatre is truly a world with no limits at all, but it takes new minds with new perspectives to unleash new ideas.
Amateur productions play an important role in the development of Vietnamese theatre because it brings about a new breeze and engages the future generations in this form of art – they not only watch the play, but they also have the chance to participate in the making of the production. And who knows, someone might find their passion for theatre and continue renovating the theatre industry in Vietnam?