Innovation to keep children's theater always vibrant

Recently, the puppet show 'Flock of Swans' in the Hai Phong Television Stage program in September received enthusiastic response from young audiences.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Director of Hai Phong Traditional Theater.

Many audiences expressed their wish that children's theaters would have more programs year-round, instead of mainly in the summer. Hai Phong Newspaper, Radio and Television reporters had an interview with Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Director of Hai Phong Traditional Theater, the main unit that stages plays for school-age children, especially in the puppetry genre.

- After the success of "The Swans", how do you evaluate the need for art enjoyment of young audiences today?

A scene from the play "The Swans".

- The success of the play shows that children's need to enjoy art is very large and diverse. Children not only want to see an interesting story but also need a well-organized, emotional and age-appropriate art space. When exposed to quality works, children are excited and respond very positively. This proves that children's theater should not just stop at the entertainment level, but also need to be seriously invested in content, art and educational messages. This is also the motivation for us to continue to create, making art a familiar part of children's childhood.

- As the leading force of Hai Phong children's theater, what outstanding activities does the Traditional Theater have to bring art closer to young audiences?

- We always consider bringing art to children as a core task, also a way to implement the policy of enhancing cultural and artistic education in schools, helping students develop comprehensively. In addition to staging plays such as “The Swans”, the theater organizes many mobile performances with plays such as “The Adventures of Men the Cricket”, “The Story of the Axes”, “The Green Frogs”… right at schools, cultural houses, and residential areas, so that children can access art in a familiar environment.

After the show, the children also had the opportunity to chat with the artists, explore the backstage, and even try out roles in some segments. Thanks to that, each performance is not only entertainment but also becomes a creative educational experience. This activity also contributes to the realization of the project "Hai Phong - City of Music ", building a rich cultural life for children, nurturing a love of art from an early age.

Traditional Stage Theater participates in the parade program to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Hai Phong liberation.

- Puppetry is the theater's forte. What plans do you have to maintain the appeal of this art form all year round, not just in the summer?

- Hai Phong Traditional Theater was established on March 1, 2025, on the basis of merging three long-standing traditional art troupes of the city, in which puppetry is the closest art form to children thanks to its innocence, intuition, and ease of understanding.

To maintain the attraction, we focus on two directions. Firstly, creating new scripts related to contemporary life, integrating values ​​such as life skills, love for the homeland, and environmental protection awareness. Secondly, innovating the performance form: combining puppetry with music, modern lighting and creating direct interaction with the audience.

In addition, the theater also organizes regular programs every month, instead of concentrating on the summer. We want puppetry to not only be a summer memory, but also a companion in the process of growing up of children.

The performance at Hai Phong Book Street 2025 attracted a large audience. Photo: DO HIEN

- Besides puppetry, how does the theater plan to exploit cheo and cai luong to suit young audiences?

- We are strongly oriented in bringing traditional arts closer to children. While puppetry is a familiar strength, Cheo and Cai Luong open up a rich artistic space, rich in education and emotions for children. We will choose plays that are close, easy to understand, edited briefly and staged to suit children's concentration ability. Before the performance, the theater also organizes exchanges and introduces Cheo and Cai Luong melodies so that children can get acquainted with traditional rhythms and singing styles. Thanks to that, traditional arts are no longer strange but gradually become a part of the cultural life of Hai Phong children.

- When staging plays for children, what difficulties does the theater encounter?

- Just like theaters and art units, when staging plays for children, we encounter difficulties in all three stages: script, human resources and budget. There are not many quality scripts for children today, while they are a very sophisticated audience - if the story is not attractive, they will easily lose interest. Creative human resources specifically for children's theater are also lacking, requiring artists to be both professional and understand children's psychology. To stage a quality play with vivid scenery, costumes, and music, the cost is not small, especially for modern plays that use a lot of technology.

To overcome this, the theater commissions new authors, encourages young artists to try their hand at children's themes, and invites psychologists and education experts to provide advice. Regarding funding, in addition to the budget, we promote socialization to bring art to schools regularly and sustainably.

Artists practice to prepare for the 3rd Hai Phong Puppetry Festival - 2025.
Photo: PHAM HUY

- How will mobile programs in schools and residential areas be expanded, madam?

- The results are very obvious. The number of students accessing the stage has increased dramatically, many of them are very excited to see a live performance for the first time. Teachers and parents also appreciate it, because the stage is both entertaining and carries a humanistic message, helping to develop life skills and artistic aesthetics.

From this result, the theater will expand the mobile model in both scale and frequency. We will coordinate more closely with the education sector to make performances a regular extracurricular activity, and at the same time build specialized program packages for each age group and each festival occasion of the year, so that children always have new experiences.

This is also a way to concretize the project "Hai Phong - City of Music", forming the habit of enjoying art from an early age, building the children's stage into a familiar cultural meeting place, with a long-term attachment to future generations of audiences.

Thank you very much!

HUYEN TRAM

Source: https://baohaiphong.vn/doi-moi-de-san-khau-thieu-nhi-luon-soi-dong-521020.html