Theatre for children and young people
During the colonial period numerous children's plays were written for the classical and folk theatres
tuồng,
chèo and
cải lương, but spoken drama for young audiences did not appear until the 1960s, when established playwrights such as Nguyễn Vũ and Nguyễn Văn Niêm (b 1919,
Đội kịch chim chèo bẻo, 'The Chèo bẻo Bird Drama Troupe' and
Búp trên cành, 'Bud on the Branch') turned their hand to writing plays for children; Vũ and Niêm were followed by a host of other playwrights including Kính Dân, Trúc Đường (b 1911), Phạm Hổ (Hồ Huy, b 1926), Minh Lương (b 1935), My Lan (b 1911) and Trần Thanh Địch (b 1916).
A dedicated Children's Theatre Company (Nhà hát Thiếu nhi) was established in Hà Nội as early as 1967, but this was dissolved four years later due to the war. Then in 1978 the Youth Theatre (Nhà hát Tuổi trẻ) was founded by directors Hà Nhân and Phạm Thị Thành; in 1983 this institution became a full member of ASSITEJ. Since that time the Youth Theatre has pioneered the development of children's and young people's theatre in Việt Nam, presenting foreign works in translation and premiering many new works from Vietnamese writers such as Đỗ Diệp Khang (b 1938, Chú ve màu hạt cườm, 'Young Cicada Coloured like Glass Beads'), Hoài Giao (Tấm cám, 'Folk Story'), Tất Đạt (Hoàng tử học nghề, 'The Apprentice Prince'), Nguyễn Khắc Phục (Kết bạn với thiên thần, 'Making Friends with an Angel') and Lưu Quang Vũ (Mùa hạ cuối cùng, 'The Last Summer', Lời nói dối cuối cùng, 'The Last Lie' and Tin ở hoa hồng, 'Believe in the Rose').
Within recent years too, a number of municipal puppetry theatres in Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City have also begun to develop special programmes of glove and rod puppetry in the western style, aimed at young audiences.
