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Making splash
A private water puppetry
troupe will, for the first time, present the traditional art at an international
festival in Japan.
An art form unique to Vietnam that makes waves wherever it goes will reach the
shores of Japan this week.
Two tons of equipment including dozens of puppets and even a pool had been
shipped to Japan several weeks ago to present to Japanese audiences, especially
children and the youth, authentic water puppetry performances.
Seventeen members of the Ho Chi Minh City-based Rong Vang (Golden Dragon) Water
Puppet Theater will take part in the Kijimuna Festa 2009, a prestigious art
festival for children and young audiences held in Tokyo and Okinawa.
The delegation, comprising of one producer, three directors, six musicians and
seven actors, will present 18 performances spread over seven shows from July 20
to August 6.
Huynh Anh Tuan (photo), owner of the Golden Dragon theater, told the Tuoi Tre
newspaper the performances will introduce Vietnamese customs, folk activities
and daily life in rural areas. The dragon and phoenix dances, rearing of ducks,
fishing and boat racing are some of the scenes that will be enacted.
Traditional music including cheo (northern folk opera) will accompany the
performances, bringing to the audiences another fascinating, long-established
folk art from Vietnam, Tuan said.
The shows will also feature the famous legend of King Le Loi (1385-1433) and the
Sword Lake in Hanoi.
Legend has it that the king had been lent a magic sword by the Golden Turtle God
to defeat the Chinese Ming invaders in the 14th century, and after he
accomplished the task, he returned it to a turtle in the lake, giving it its
name.
Happenstance
The Kijimuna Festa organizers, while making a survey of Southeast Asian
traditional arts in November 2007, visited HCMC and were attracted by Golden
Dragon’s performances, Tuan told media in a press briefing last week.
They invited the theater’s managers to attend last year’s event to learn about
the festival, Tuan said.
“I’m very happy and proud to present Vietnam’s unique water puppetry to young
Japanese audiences.
“I hope spectators will be amazed by the vivid wooden puppets and the technique
of decorating them with lacquer,” he said.
Water puppetry has been showcased to foreign audiences many times but only
through tours by state-owned troupes like the Central Water Puppet Theater and
the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater.
Luck played a part in helping Golden Dragon break the tradition, Tuan said, as
the festival organizers came to the theater’s performances by chance during
their November trip.
The Japanese had also visited other theaters in Vietnam before selecting his,
Tuan added.
“Maybe they liked the colorful and festive atmosphere of Golden Dragon’s shows.”
Kijimuna Festa is an annual art festival held in Okinawa in the summer, mainly
to entertain children and young audiences and introduce them to different kinds
of art forms including dramas, puppetry and music, as well as exhibitions and
comics.
The festival is open to participants of all ages, from below 5 to 12 and above
with a wide range of activities tailored for each age group.
Organizers also aim to promote cultural exchanges between nations with various
seminars and workshops held during the event.
This year’s event will be held in Okinawa and Tokyo with 63 performances from 13
countries and territories including France, Australia, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam
and hosts Japan.
Tuan said he admired how Japan spent money and effort to introduce the younger
generations to art.
“Japanese children are so blessed, being educated to appreciate beauty and art
from a young age,” Tuan said.
“I think we need to learn that from Japan.”
Puppeteer of the show
Tuan has dedicated most of his art managing career to entertain young
audiences and rescuing water puppetry from falling into oblivion in modern
times.
The IDECAF Theater – a familiar venue for HCMC drama lovers established by Tuan
in 1997 and located inside the Institute of Cultural Exchange with France – has
dedicated much time to children’s plays and produced hits for the younger
audience almost every summer.
“I love seeing young faces light up with joy at art works meant especially for
them,” Tuan told Thanh Nien Daily in a recent interview.
He collaborated with the Cultural Labor Palace in opening up the Rong Vang Water
Puppet Theater, Vietnam’s first private water puppet theater, at 55B Nguyen Thi
Minh Khai St., Dist. 1, in 2007.
“Several water puppetry groups had been formed around the country, but they all
ended in failure. Many, therefore, considered my decision to begin the theater
risky and irrational.
“But I don’t fear difficulty. I love water puppetry and I believe it’s a
traditional Vietnamese feature that must be preserved by all means.”
Since its opening, the theater has received some 200 visitors per night, half of
which are foreign.
In Vietnam, traditional water puppetry was originally performed in rural
villages in the Red River Delta some 1,000 years ago.
It was not until 1958 that water puppetry was first displayed in Hanoi and the
first state-run puppetry group was established to serve public audiences in
1973.
Vietnamese water puppetry was introduced abroad for the first time in France in
1984. Since then, this original art has traveled to many places around the world
including the US, Mexico, Korea and Japan.
Source: VietNamNet/Thanh Nien |
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