Reasons Why Urban Audiences Like to Go to Drama Theaters (Percentage)

The contrasts were assembled and placed side by side. The flowery literary words that should have been placed in an elegant, luxurious context, presented by educated people, were now expressed by a prostitute in a very "real" space. And the businessman, although he was looking for enjoyment, was able to recognize the girl's soaring words. And it was that contrast that created surprise for both the character and the audience. A small detail but skillfully applied the bricolage technique (assembly) created very charming laughter, not stiff, helping the performance become more lively. It made the audience feel excited.

For city drama stages, from content to form of expression, it clearly shows the richness, creativity and regional factors included in it. A land with favorable weather all year round, a young city full of dynamism and creativity, easy life, with favorable nature and climate leading to the material life and income of the people being at a fairly good level compared to the average level in the country. Therefore, people are always ready to welcome new things, accept experiments. Besides, city people have an open, liberal lifestyle, do not like to save, but on the contrary, they tend to live and enjoy for the present, willing to spend on themselves, especially personal entertainment needs. This is a favorable environment for drama stages to be born and develop. The public comes to artistic values comfortably and freely to be entertained and relaxed, so there is no hesitation in the cost as well as not being too harsh in the way of evaluating and commenting. They go to the theater because most of them love their idol actors and need to share, give, and donate rather than demand anything. What they desire is not too lofty, simply to enjoy works with relatively good artistic quality, creating a light and happy atmosphere and emotions. If we compare, we will see the difference.

There are differences between regions in both genre and audience. The weather in the North is not as favorable as in the South, and there is also a cold winter, so the stage cannot be lit continuously. Economically, it is more difficult for people to work to earn money. Therefore, when spending money, they have to weigh and measure carefully. They have high demands for the products they will enjoy. In addition, the remaining mark of Confucian tradition with its ideas of discipline, method, and stereotypes, etc., all have impacted and created a meticulous, careful, and profound mentality in the audience who go to see plays. And when the market economy takes place, when a work of art, from a certain perspective, can also be a product that creates commercial effectiveness, the audience will be even more disappointed if they spend money to buy tickets but the play is not as expected. At that time, hurt feelings, discomfort, and harsh condemnation are common cases.

Through some detailed analysis as above, it can be seen that the cultural life in Ho Chi Minh City has had an impact on the theater stages. Specifically, the most direct is the works. It makes the difference of the city's theater with other places.

To further strengthen the above statements, we continue to conduct audience surveys.

Among the reasons why audiences in Ho Chi Minh City like to watch drama, the number 1 priority is because the drama theme is close to life, with 54.0% of opinions agreeing and the highest rate of 26.0%, average score of 4.00. In addition, the style and form of performance suitable to the audience's taste is also the second reason why audiences in the city like to watch drama, with 56.5% agreeing, average score of 3.88. Finally, the variety of drama genres ranked number 3 among those reasons.

Table 2.3: Reasons why urban audiences like to go to the theater (percentage)

Content

Level of agreement 1. Strongly disagree, 2. Disagree, 3. Neutral, 4. Agree, 5. Strongly agree
1	2	3	4	5	Medium	Rank
1. Drama topics are close to life	2.5	1.5	16.0	54.0	26.0	4.00	1
2. Style and form of expression suitable for the audience's taste	2.0	2.0	21.0	56.5	18.5	3.88	2
3. Diverse drama genres	0.0	5.5	28.0	44.5	22.0	3.83	4
4. Rich and diverse team of artists	0.5	3.5	28.0	49.0	19.0	3.84	3

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(Source: survey results of PhD students)

2.3. The influence of drama on the cultural life of Ho Chi Minh City from the perspective of cultural needs

2.3.1. Drama stage and meeting the needs of Ho Chi Minh City people

According to the Vietnamese Dictionary , needs are understood as the essential demands of humans. Needs include material and spiritual needs. Eating, wearing, living, and traveling are essential material needs in daily life. In addition, humans also have other needs such as: reading books, watching movies, listening to music, composing, etc. These are cultural needs, needs of the spiritual world. They arise and develop on the basis that humans have satisfied to a certain extent the basic needs (eating, wearing, living), on the other hand, they are also needs originating from the human soul, in perfecting qualities, improving aesthetic and cultural levels. Cultural needs are closely linked to economic conditions -

social, human psychological characteristics.

In terms of cultural needs, in general, although there are differences, this gap is not too large. People, whether male or female, high or low social status, living in urban or rural areas, all have a basic, similar system of cultural needs. Differences between individuals or between groups are only characteristic differences determined by characteristics of: living standards, interests, occupations, ages, regions, religions, etc.

However, in reality, under the influence of the market mechanism, the large gap between regions has caused the cultural needs of people to be gradually pushed further apart, more strongly and deeply differentiated. Ho Chi Minh City can be seen as a very typical case. The cultural needs of the people here are very high. That is shown through the high density of art forms. At the end of each working week, they seek out different forms. Some people choose to approach literature by reading stories and novels; some go to the movies; some go to the theater to enjoy a certain play, etc. In short, they all aim at the need for entertainment and enjoyment of art.

The need for entertainment is like a mental rest, changing the body's state of activity from survival activities to physical, intellectual, and spiritual relaxation activities. It depends on free time, means of entertainment and the development of human aesthetic perception. The characteristic of entertainment needs is to bring relaxation, popularity, fashion, and mass. For the public of Ho Chi Minh City, the need for entertainment is a great, basic need, an indispensable thing in the cultural life of the people. Therefore, the existence and development of the drama stage in the City of course cannot ignore this important need. In fact, the entertainment needs of the city's people for the stage are a continuation from the past to the present. After the entertainment

release, the number of people going to the theater to enjoy professional theater is still quite large. But at this time, Cai Luong still attracts a larger audience. The operation of the drama stage at this time is still new. However, the fact that the television station produces and broadcasts many plays on television has contributed to expanding the scope of activities as well as bringing love for this subject to the city's people. Every Saturday night, the city's television station broadcasts a play and every two weeks on Thursday night, there is an additional comedy theater program Indoors and Outdoors that attracts a lot of public attention. The situations and dialogues in the plays have become stories and catchphrases of the people. The television station's art department has proactively reserved many programs created by the station itself, creating a number of dozens of plays that have been introduced to the audience each year. If the public is familiar with classical forms of entertainment such as reformed opera, music, singing and dancing, etc., then the appearance of radio and television drama has penetrated every corner and every house to attract a large number of viewers and admirers. From then on, watching drama gradually became a habit of the people here. Over time, the entertainment needs of the city's people for drama have increased and this art form has gradually won a certain number of loyal audiences.

In the context of the current market economy, the emergence of many types of cultural and artistic entertainment, therefore, drama stages in particular and cultural and artistic forms in general also face many risks and the danger of losing their own audiences. And to deal with this problem, many theaters have sought out audiences in many ways, in which creating comedies and getting the audience's laughter is considered one of the ways to "please" the audience of many theaters in Ho Chi Minh City. Pleasing the audience to enjoy art can be considered a necessity in

The current market economy. The public in the market has changed in nature with the previous meaning, the public runs after art, seeks art, in the market economy, on the contrary, the stage art must find every way to approach the public, win the public to its side [90, p.43]. However, art is not only running after the audience to satisfy their needs but also has to guide and attract the audience to follow it. Therefore, laughter must have intelligence, social meaning, humane meaning, and humanity. Comedies with educational content, causing laughter in an intelligent way, performed by real talents, have brought the audience a useful spiritual food, relieving the hardships after a day of struggling with life. Some favorite comedies can be mentioned as: "Devil's Wish", "Six Colors", "Ma Ma Su Phu " ( Hong Van Drama Stage ); “ My Soul, Your Body”, “We Don’t Belong Together”, “Mother-in-law Trouble ” (Youth World Theatre), “Beast Contract”, “Beauty Crushes Kindness” (Idecaf Theatre), etc. In city drama, even tragic plays still have to include comedic elements to meet the needs of the majority of the public. Life as You Wish, Carrying Mom to Play (Youth World) are plays that have won medals at the national professional theater festival, but still have comedic roles and comedic segments to make the audience feel happy and less stressed.

In the cultural life of the city's people, drama has become an important and meaningful art form in meeting the entertainment needs of the public. To some extent, entertainment is a truly necessary need for people after stressful working hours, a form of active relaxation. And it is also because the public here determines that going to see drama is for entertainment and stress relief. They like to participate in artistic activities, especially drama because it is easy to absorb, close, creates immediate effects, is fun, youthful, and highly popular. This is the reason for the birth and proliferation of comedy stages in recent times. Actors rely on the interests of many

number of audiences to build for themselves a popular, lively, easy-to-understand and approachable comedy style. A fresh feature on the city's drama stage was formed, thus attracting a large number of ordinary audiences. However, if we want to maintain sustainability, this is not a guaranteed way. It can be said that the City's drama is currently following the commodity law of the market economy. Academic plays that do not suit the taste will not attract viewers to the theaters. And producers and show organizers do not dare to take risks and invest in staging their stage repertoire. From that, we can see that the outstanding point of the city's drama is to meet the cultural and entertainment needs of the public. Drama stage is not a "dish" that is too sophisticated, luxurious, for those who are educated, knowledgeable, and have taste, but on the contrary, it is very close and familiar in the spiritual life of the city's people. Whether you are old or young, highly educated or not, just go to the theater and you can comfortably cry and laugh with the characters, and see the social issues that have happened and are happening outside of life. There is nothing difficult to understand, nothing that requires people to use their knowledge to receive, etc. The theater is simple, rustic, and touches the hearts of the audience, just like the daily life that is happening around us. If we look at it systematically, can we give an explanation for why, in Ho Chi Minh City, the need for entertainment is prioritized over the need for aesthetics? That is due to the influence of the cultural environment in the city. It will have its own characteristics, different from regions. In the city, in fact, urban people have relatively good economic conditions. They are willing to spend a few million a month to go to the theater, which is completely normal. Besides, this is also a locality that has early embarked on a market economy with fierce competition, all products can become goods that bring profits to investors. Therefore, when the socialization process takes place with the participation of individuals or non-public organizations, they understand this law very well. Drama at this time is not academic, scholarly, or lofty but is closely linked to reality, so it cannot be required to be too

Perfect, neat, and standard. In addition, the personalities and preferences of the audience here are not the same as those of other regions. They are open-minded and open in their thinking. They like lightness, freshness, youthfulness, and joy, and are afraid of anything that is formal, formal, or dogmatic. Going to the theater is to share, sympathize, have fun, and relax, without necessarily thinking too much. And the theater just needs to be tactless, not too bland, the content of the play closely reflects daily life, and the actors play their roles well, and that is considered satisfactory. The audience in the city, when going to the theater, often immediately expresses their opinions about whether they like or dislike the play. And in the rustic way of speaking of the South, there will be statements like: "I really like this play!" or "I really like this play!" That is the general mentality of the city's audience. Perhaps that is why, between aesthetic needs and entertainment needs, drama in the city tends to the second one and we can partly explain why satisfying entertainment needs is given priority on the stage despite many conflicting opinions.

Human cultural needs are limitless, so is the need for entertainment. It can be transformed from one form to another, when the old form does not meet the needs of people and the new era. This is also the reality of drama in both the North and the South. Since the country entered the market mechanism, international integration with many economic sectors, the audience has been divided, the law of competition, entanglement between subsidies and socialization, between serving politics and satisfying the entertainment needs of the audience, between tradition and modernity, between preservation and promotion, etc., a series of problems have arisen, making the problem of maintaining and developing drama more difficult than ever. With the constant development of entertainment forms, along with the level of understanding and awareness of the people has also been improved, it requires drama stages to provide a spiritual food of real value suitable for the present era. A reality is that the increasing appearance of diverse forms of entertainment has gradually captured the public, not a small amount.

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