HCM City (VNA) - A new exhibit hall featuring information and images about cai luong(reformed opera) will be opened in September by the HCM City-based Tran HuuTrang Cai luong Theatre, one of the region’s leading traditional arttroupes. 

The hall will display photos, books, documents and videos featuring the historyand development of cai luong, a traditional genre of southern theatre whichbegan in the early 1920s in the Mekong River Delta region.

Images of Cai luong Nam Bo Troupe, which opened in 1950 and attracted artistsin the revolutionary movement in South Vietnam, will be highlighted.

The troupe joined the National Music and Theatre Fesival in Hanoi in 1955 afterthe 1954 Geneva Agreement on Indochina was signed. It played a very importantrole in the theatre’s developments in the South. Its shows portrayed patriotismand Vietnamese culture and characters. Its talented artists, such asMeritorious Artist Le Thien and Ca Le Hong, still work to keep their art aliveand show it to younger artists.

“Our hall aims to honour cai luong and its veteran artists who used their artto encourage southern people and soldiers during the country’s two wars ofresistance and national construction,” Meritorious Artist Le Thien, Director ofTran Huu Trang Cai luong Theatre, said.

“Through the images and objects, we hope visitors, particularly young people,learn more about the country’s heroic history and the great contributions thatsouthern artists made to the country and people,” he added.

Thien and his colleagues worked with Tran Huu Trang Cai luong Theatre to offertraining tom young artists because they hope their students will “follow theolder generations’ footsteps to preserve and develop cai luong,” Thien said.

Thien’s theatre,Tran Huu Trang Cai luong Theatre, was named after lateplaywright Tran Huu Trang, one of the region’s foremost artists in cai luong.

Trang, a son of My Tho province (now Tien Giang province), began hisprofessional career in 1928 working for leading troupes owned by Tran Dac, NamPhi and Nam Chau, great veterans of cai luong.

After the August Revolution in 1945, Trang joined the revolutionary cause andworked in Saigon-Cho Lon. He was a member of the National Front for theLiberation of the South. He died in 1966 in a battle. His body has never beenfound.

He created more than 30 plays which all feature Vietnamese patriotism andcharacteristics. Most have been staged many times by different generations athome and abroad. For his contributions, he was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize bythe Government in 1996.

“Trang’s career highlights will be displayed at our hall,” said Thien.

The theatre’s exhibit hall will open on National Day, September 2, at 515 TranHung Dao street, District 1./.