Special water puppet performance for APEC leaders’ ladies

24/11/2006
Fifteen wives of APEC leaders will watch water puppetry on November 19 at the Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre.

Actually, the special water puppetry programme will make its debut o­n November 15 at the theatre to welcome international visitors to the APEC Summit. The performance, with the participation of 20 puppeteers from the theatre who control around 100 characters, will surely make a good impression o­n visitors.

The performance includes 14 of the best traditional water puppet performance pieces such as the Dragon Dance, Dragon Boat Racing, Children of the Fairy and the Dragon. Most of these performances have won prizes at festivals at home and been performed abroad.


To welcome special audiences, the theatre has invested more than VND200 million (US$12,500) to install new chairs and increase the number of seats from 250 to 300. Red carpet has been also laid from the corridor to the hall. 


The show for APEC leaders’ wives will last from 30-45 minutes, and include 14 pieces reflecting Vietnamese folk culture like Teu, The buffalo boy playing flute, Beating the fox who catches ducks, Farm works, Fishing and the Incense burning ceremony, which is a new item. 


According to Vu Tung, who is in charge of performances at the Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre, the item named “Incense burning ceremony” has been added to the show to commemorate the ancestors of the water puppetry art and to celebrate the country’s traditional fondness for learning. 


 Ảnh minh họa
 Water puppetry stage at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
The show for APEC leaders’ ladies o­n November 19 will be the largest so far, with the participation of 12 outstanding artists who were selected from the two water puppetry troupes of the Thang Long theatre. All of the items in the show have been checked by the Foreign Ministry’s Board of Ceremonies and the wife of President Nguyen Minh Triet. 


Before watching water puppetry, APEC ladies will visit the Museum of Ethnology. The museum’s director Nguyen Van Huy said that the museum hadn’t arranged the museum differently to welcome APEC guests. 


The museum currently displays nearly 1,000 objects. Its outdoor area has ten folk architecture works, such as houses of Viet and Cham people. 


The number of foreign visitors visiting the museum will be very high in the coming days. Visitors will have the opportunity to view the special exhibition about the lives of Hanoians during the subsidy period. 


To help visitors understand Vietnamese culture, the museum has invited craftsmen nationwide to come to the museum to perform water puppetry, make conical hats, embroider and make Dong Ho paintings.  

Source: VNE

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