Staging American play in Vietnam

Staging American play in Vietnam

One month ago, David Chapman embarked on a project to adapt famous American playwright Tennessee Williams Summer and Smoke to Vietnamese theatre and it has proven to be successful.

Games

Different from Vietnamese directors who often know beforehand whom they want to perform what role, David announced a public casting open to all acting students at the HCM City College of Theatre and Cinema.

During the casting, while students were all in a flutter, David asked them all to sit in a circle and play games. They were fun little games like looking into each other eyes or holding a thing and acting as though it was something else.

The anxiety melted away so fast that some students even forgot they came to compete against others and laughed and spoke freely. In a far corner, Karen, David colleague, silently observed how the contestants played their games and revealed their feelings and characters.

The games continued even after the actors had been chosen and throughout the practicing and rehearsing process. In one game, players imagined they were all sitting on a gigantic, balancing plate. They had to move in such a way as to keep the plate in a state of balance without tilting.

David said this game taught actors how to fill up unnecessary space on the stage and use meaningless sounds to convey meaningful messages.

Games sometimes went for so long that they took up time for practice. But no actors thought their time had been wasted.

Focusing on process

Graduating from University of Northern California, 25-year-old David Chapman came to Vietnam in September 2006 on an Asian Fund scholarship to study modern folk opera and theatrical activities in a country he had only known through œwar stories.

He later asked the Asian Fund to sponsor a Vietnamese-American theatre project. Summer and Smoke was thus translated into Vietnamese and adapted to the stage of The Gioi Tre (Young World) Theatre in HCM City.

David made a point of doing things in the œAmerican way: Signing contracts with all actors, requesting them to come on time and work in a professional, serious and enthusiastic way. Yet, not all actors regularly came to practice since they were either busy with families or other shows.

In the eyes of young David Chapman, process is more important than result, especially in theatre. He thus paid the same amount of money for actual performances as well as practice sessions.

On the first performance night, the team had to borrow such things as vests, wide brim hats, coats, bottles and glasses all from a team member since renting them from other official sources was too troublesome.

All troubles seem to have paid off because since its debut, Summer and Smoke, which is about a professor daughter one-sided love for a young wild doctor, has received positive reviews and been called a play that deserves to be watched and thought about.

The last three performances of the play will be at 8 pm on May 25-26 and at 5 pm on May 27 at Young World Theatre at 125 Cong Quynh, District 1, HCM City. Entrance is free.