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The program, free to all university students, is the latest effort of Youth Theatre to introduce theatrical works aimed for social changes that question unquestioned moral values and challenge long-established social stigmas, such as those attached to HIV for years.
In 2006, the well-received drama series Stereo Man exploring homosexuality and related social issues in contemporary Vietnam was the theatre’s first social project that has paved the way for its recent work.
Tuoi Tre spoke to Bui Nhu Lai, director of these theatrical programs about his latest works on HIV and their effects on students in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.
You brought a person living with HIV (PLHIV) on stage to perform with other actors, what do you think is the effect of this experimentation?
While working on this project, we had a chance to get to know the life and stories of many people living with HIV through a self-help group named For a Bright Future. At first, they just remained in the audiences and helped us answer the students’ questions at the end of each performance. Later, a member of the group joined our troupe to perform with us. There were many touching stories that emerged from our Q&A session with the audience.
Last year, when we were in Ho Chi Minh, a student came on stage after the show, held our special actor’s hands, and apologized for the prejudice he had held against PLHIV up to then.
Why are you targeting only students and young people, but not other audience groups?
First of all, because they are young adults who are open-minded and easily accept new ideas. They also belong to the most vulnerable group. Imagine if someday they have the misfortune of contracting this disease and most of them still have not had sufficient understanding of HIV.
Through our project, we want to prove that HIV is not as horrible as many may think. It’s just an infectious disease that we can well prevent. Even PLHIV can give birth to perfectly healthy babies.
Besides our stories on stage, there are many other real life stories that were told by members of the For a Bright Future group in a Q&A session after each show. One of them is from a woman, who does not contract the virus after marrying a PLHIV. The couple now has a healthy 13-year-old son.
What about the stories that you bring to students?
There is a school principal who accepts a girl with HIV into his school despite fierce objections from other parents. There is a brokenhearted woman finding out the truth many years later that her boyfriend left her because he had HIV without telling her. What she said at the end of the play - “If only we had known more about the disease...” – can resonate with many of us.
How did you come to address the topic of HIV?
Like many people, I thought it was a terrible disease at first. But since a friend of mine was infected, I got to know about it more. Working here on community development projects, I met a lot of PLHIV and addressed many other social issues such as homosexuality, prostitution, and drug addictions through my works.
After university students, who will be your next audience group?
At the end of this year, we will perform at industrial zones and factories where most of the young workers have little access to informative and entertainment programs.
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| Actor Tran Hoang (R) |
“Don’t wait until tomorrow” will be performed at Kontum, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa’s universities from March 28 to April 8.
Tran Hoang, 36, used to take part in many theatrical and propaganda programs on HIV before joining Youth Theatre on stage in the role of a PLHIV like himself.
“I decided to join the project hoping it will produce more widespread social effects and to prove that despite my health condition, I am living well and in full control of to my own happiness,” Tran Hoang said.
“Young people nowadays know more about HIV, they want to help and support PLHIV instead of discriminating against them as before, which is exactly what the project is about,” he concluded.
source: tuoitrenews
Posted in: Experimental Society
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