During recent years, the entertainment sector has seen many other modern and highly competitive interpretations that seem more appealing to the public, taking audience away from traditional stage plays.
Additionally, dramatists and prominent actors would gravitate towards newly released gameshows, TV shows or movies which makes it difficult for theaters to recruit them.
Furthermore, old-school theaters still lack the proper facilities to put on convincing acts despite producers’ efforts to intrigue audience with topical scripts.
There was a time when performance art theaters were much more well-known with old and young audience alike, making breakthroughs thanks to comedic plays and the participation of famous stars. Seats were full and most shows were sold out.
Idecaf seems to be the only stage theater that can still stand firm, seeing frequent ticket sellouts. This is thanks to the seasoned impresario Huynh Anh Tuan’s influence in retaining veteran dramatists.
However, Tuan expressed that the theater still struggles sometimes when actors are busy with filming or hosting TV shows and cannot clear their schedule. “This is the usual state of most theaters, and we just have to bear with it”, he said.
