Nghe An Traditional Arts Center faces difficulties in training next generation artists

Need new, young faces

During the reportprogram "Source of Vi and Giam"Serving political events, serving the people in 2025, many artists of the center took on many roles from antiphonal singing, choir singing and accompanying dancing. They performed excellently in their positions. The program also left many unforgettable impressions about the creative innovation in songs and folk song combinations, receiving many positive responses from the Arts Council. The audience was also delighted by many eye-catching scenes and elaborate stagings by the Center's brothers and sisters.

However, there are still many opinions that are not satisfied, that is, the lack of freshness, the attraction from the participating actors. In performances such as "Dawn in the countryside", "Remembering the sound of buffalo bells" or "Village festival", or the supporting dances of the duet performances, if there were more young forces, a few new faces, the program would certainly be more attractive.

I remember the time when the Center coordinated with director Meritorious Artist Bui Nhu Lai - Vice Principal of the University of Theatre and Cinema to stage a play condemning the evil of human trafficking called "The Sinful Goods", in which the female character was a student who was tricked by human traffickers and sold across the border. This female student character was only 14-15 years old, but the Center could not find any young person to take on this role. And so the female artist born in 1978 of the troupe had to take on the role. Although the role portrayed the character's psychology excellently, the audience and the program crew still felt a bit regretful because the female character did not reach the "youth" level required by the script.

When commenting on the play, director Bui Nhu Lai said: "I wanted the female character to be about 10 years younger, but the entire Center did not have anyone at that age to be suitable for the role."

People's Artist Minh Tue - a veteran actor of the Center, who participated in famous plays of the past, said: Currently, the youngest actor of folk opera at the unit is 38 years old (there are only 3 people), the rest are 42 years old or older... Therefore, for a long time, the theater plays of the center only have actors in their 40s, but they have to play the roles of beautiful girls and boys in their eighteens and twenties in the theater plays. So the effect of the play is of course very difficult to achieve as desired.

People's Artist Minh Tue also expressed that in the 80s, 90s and early 21st century, the Provincial Traditional Arts Center was always a formidable opponent of theaters nationwide. Because the center used to have beautiful and talented faces. However, for a long time the center has not been able to recruit any young faces. It is not that there is a lack of talented young people, but they are not interested in professional theater. "In the past, when we went to the countryside to recruit students, there were many candidates coming to audition and among them, there were many key players selected. However, later we could not recruit anyone because most of the talented children joined schools recruiting preschool teachers or other professions, not following professional art troupes," People's Artist Minh Tue said.

According to information from the Center's veteran artists, the salary and bonus system for actors and singers has long been too low. An actor's rehearsal only costs 60-80 thousand VND, the main actor only gets 200 thousand VND, but there are no more than 5 main actors. Besides, many actors have been in the center for a long time, have both talent and beauty but have not been established. The Center has up to 6 actors who have been awarded Meritorious Artist, but among them, 4 Meritorious Artists still only receive the salary of a 4th class actor. Therefore, attracting young talents or gifted students to the troupe is very difficult.

Musician Quoc Chung - Director of the Provincial Traditional Arts Center said: The performing arts field is a special field in terms of talent, short career age, long training time and very expensive, there are many majors that train from 12 years old and perform from 16 years old, while there is no specific policy on retirement age for this field. For women around 40 years old, men around 45 years old have started to go to the other side of their career. Thus, without a specific mechanism and policy for the profession, it is impossible to be allowed to recruit young people, let alone attract them.

Proposed mechanism

Recently, the province has paid attention to supporting training to improve the qualifications of artists according to Resolution No. 29/2021/NQ-HDND, but this resolution will also expire at the end of 2025. According to the level of support, it is only a small part of the cost compared to the cost of attending a part-time university class. In addition, the number of artists at the unit is seriously lacking, so according to the Board of Directors of the Center, if actors are sent to study, there will not be enough human resources for the unit to implement the professional plan.

Musician Quoc Chung also regretfully recounted that in 2015, the center had coordinated with the College of Culture and Arts to open 4 classes, each class training 15 students in folk songs and drama. However, up to now, no one has been able to stay and work at the unit.

“If the current personnel mechanism remains the same, in about 5 years, the professional music and dance stage will face many difficulties and may not be able to meet the requirements to build art programs that ensure high professional quality. In the field of folk music and drama, if in the next 1-2 years there is no specific mechanism to attract human resources, then in 5 years this art form will not be able to exist because there is no human resource to operate,” said musician Quoc Chung - Director of the Center.

Currently, the Center has 58 singers, dancers, theater actors and musicians. Of which, the Vi Giam troupe has 21 theater actors and 8 musicians. The traditional music and dance troupe has 9 singers, 13 dancers and 7 musicians. Although the total number is not lacking, if we look at the average age, it is an alarming number. Many of the actors are almost past their working age but have not reached retirement age. Many young people have the ability and passion to work but their qualifications are not guaranteed (only intermediate level or vocational training). If the labor contract is for professional work, it is against the regulations.

To have an open direction in training the next generation for the Provincial Traditional Arts Center. Musician Quoc Chung - Director of the Center proposed: "In the immediate future, we hope to recruit enough staff compared to the assigned quota; Be allowed to use 10 contract workers to do professional work, with the provincial budget supporting the salaries for these contract workers; Be supported with training costs to create on-site resources to select the next generation to send to formal training facilities for training".

Besides, the delegation also needs a mechanism for socializing human resources in important programs serving political events and serving people on major holidays, in order to rejuvenate the team.

Regarding this issue in a meeting, a representative of the Department of Culture and Sports said: "The Department has also made recommendations to the National Assembly Delegation to adjust some regulations on recruiting and attracting human resources to join the special unit, the Provincial Traditional Arts Center. Only then can we hope to have a young successor team, and have talented young actors for the art fields of the Provincial Traditional Arts Center."