Scriptwriting: Need to aim for real life

For many years, stages in Ho Chi Minh City have been struggling to find good scripts to stage. Although many scripts from creative camps have been highly rated, it is not easy to produce them into plays. To quickly resolve this problem, most artists in Ho Chi Minh City believe that it is necessary to change the way creative camps are organized and operated in order to find quality scripts to meet the needs of the public.

People's Artist Tran Ngoc Giau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Theater Association, worries: "Currently, not many artists, directors, and authors are willing to sit through another troupe's plays to summarize their strengths and weaknesses. This is very harmful because it will lead to artists, directors, and authors gradually losing their critical thinking. Not taking this seriously will easily lead to subjective thinking. If you don't put yourself in the audience's shoes, how can you write a sophisticated script?"

A scene from the play “The Beggar’s Day” by author Tran Dang Nhan. After winning an award at the writing camp, this script was staged and attracted a large audience at the Young World stage. Photo: THANH HIEP

In order to practically improve the shortage of good scripts, the Ho Chi Minh City Theater Association is preparing to organize a writing camp with the participation of many authors. Accordingly, the goal of this stage script writing camp is that the scripts will be directed towards real life, positively reflecting today's life.

According to those in the industry, when composing, putting yourself in the audience's shoes is not enough. The author must also put himself in the shoes of the director and producer to understand whether the script he writes can be staged or not. In addition, it is necessary to put the timeliness of the script's story into consideration and consider which perspective to reflect life from, so that the story is not forced...

Many veteran artists believe that to have a good script, the author must put himself in the character's shoes, live with the story he has built, let the character act convincingly instead of saying empty words. The script will fail if the way the character's psychology is built is not subtle, based on self-imposition; subjective arguments will lead to awkwardness...

H.Thuan

Source: https://nld.com.vn/van-nghe/sang-tac-kich-ban-can-huong-den-doi-that-20230606214845505.htm