Theater - Where is Saigon's movie theater now?: When will the theater light up again?

SAVE THE THEATRE FIRST

What should be done to prevent the cultural institution of theaters from dying out? People's Artist Kim Cuong answered briefly: "Turn off the lights and do it again."

"To have a performance, there are three indispensable elements: one is actors, two is audience, three is theater. If there are actors and audience but you go to the market to perform, it will not be a performance. Bringing the Kim Cuong troupe to the market to perform will not be a performance. And if there is a theater and actors but no audience, it will not be a theater. Theaters are the holy places for people to come to learn good and beautiful things. The sad thing that everyone sees is that the Southern theater seems to no longer exist for nearly 20 years. The previous generation trampled on humiliation and poverty to create the theater, but now that they have run out of money, the theater is gone? Why was it that when there were dozens of theaters and dozens of troupes after liberation, there was not a single night with seats for people to watch? Did you know that Kim Cuong's play La Durian performed at Hoa Binh theater with more than 2,000 seats and was still sold out for 6 consecutive months?

People's Artist Kim Cuong at the interview

Now, if we want to revive the theater, the only way is to turn off the lights and do it again. We have to gradually attract the audience to come and see the play again. If possible, you should give us a budget for 10 days of performances a month, invite the audience to come and see without paying tickets, and have the budget for the artists to make really good plays. Theaters abroad are not dead because the government takes care of everything to preserve them. They perform for about 6 months a year, 3 months of rehearsals, 3 months of preparation for the show. Nowadays, a play can only be rehearsed for a few weeks before it is performed because the troupe is in trouble. The Kim Cuong troupe at that time had to rehearse for at least 1-2 months because this is a comprehensive art form, it cannot be done by standing up and saying no and then it becomes a play. It has to be combined with lights, music , and scenery, and just rehearsing to get that right would take months. We have to prepare first-class food like this to invite people to spend money to watch... The stage is like a cat, it doesn't die from one wound but from many wounds combined: the state doesn't invest appropriately, the audience doesn't pay attention, the artists don't care about their profession...

I went to Hanoi to meet with leaders to give advice on preserving the theater, I said we must save the culture, save the young generation. Think about it, we sing and people buy tickets to watch. But now there are movies on the internet that play stupid comedy, go straight into people's beds, the children and the husband and wife sit there and hear them swearing and the kids are like dough and don't know anything, seeing a woman chasing her husband with a broom and the whole family laughing, what good is that? And why don't you have any attitude? A play corrupts a whole young generation and you don't see it? If you want to save the theater, you have to save the theater first," People's Artist Kim Cuong shared.

Mr. Le Hoang

CHANGE FUNCTION TO DEVELOP

Ho Chi Minh City used to have a vibrant entertainment and cultural life from 1954 until the 1990s. Contributing significantly to that cultural institution was the life of cinemas and theaters. Mr. Le Hoang, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Book Street Company Limited, who served a term as Chairman of the Advisory Board of Saigon Cultural Corporation, the unit that managed a number of cinemas in Ho Chi Minh City during the period 2010 - 2014, shared about the current state of cinemas after 1975.

"After 1975, cinemas were assigned to state cultural units for management. At first, the Department of Culture managed business activities in addition to state management. Later, business activities were separated from state activities, meaning that the Department of Culture no longer managed business activities, and transferred to a new unit, the Saigon Cultural Corporation. Some cinemas were transferred to district cultural and information offices. The Saigon Cultural Corporation managed no less than 10 cinemas, and the rest were assigned to districts. Cinemas specializing in showing movies were facing too many difficulties, so many had to stop operating and change their functions.

From here, the management of cinemas must change for two reasons: One is the weak cinema industry. Two is that people have changed the way they watch movies. Before, they went to a cinema with thousands of people, but now the demand is to go to a cinema with only about 200 seats, 100 seats, 50 seats, located in a commercial complex. That is, independent cinemas are not maintained as before. Tickets are also divided into tiers, people with a lot of money can "book the cinema", which is more individual. Therefore, the situation of cinemas is preserved and promoted in a new way. For example, Dong Da cinema on Tran Hung Dao street, people built a new cinema with 3 - 4 floors, the bottom floor can hold 300 or 500 people, preserving almost the same area. The first floor is divided into several small cinemas, the second floor can be used for other types such as weddings, or singing stages, the third and fourth floors are cafes.

The second type, like the multicultural complex at the old Van Hoa Da Kao cinema, Tran Quang Khai street, District 1. It is now a multicultural complex, with studios, cinemas, and television headquarters. The third type is the cultural-office complex, because it has dozens of floors. It still preserves the cinema, with office buildings. Like the Mega S cinema on Cao Thang street, District 3. There are other types of complexes, like the Saigon Casino cinema, now the Liberty Hotel, which cooperated with the Tourism Corporation to build a hotel, with 1-2 floors above for movie screenings.

"Thus, cinemas are built into complexes, in which cinemas still exist along with other types of culture and services. Thanks to that, cinemas attract people, not being abandoned and wasted away," Mr. Le Hoang told Thanh Nien reporter.

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