First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the organizing committee for inviting me to participate in the theatre for young audiences this time. This is the first time I can join as an invited guest to learn about how to create a theatre festival for children.

Here are some of the results I have obtained from attending ricca ricca*festa:

1. The festival has brought about a great link between theatres and performance troupes, for the first time, I attended a festival where many performance troupes from around the world were participating. This enabled a diverse range of performing styles, creating a network of theatres for young audiences. And in the future, from this link, there shall be more and more festivals for young audiences.

At this festival, with cross-cultural activities of Europe and Asia, we had a chance of sharing and introducing the works to the countries we were working with. Experiences were shared in the ebullient atmosphere of the workshops.

2. Size of the festival – it's actually a challenge for other organizations to be able to hold a similar festival. ricca ricca*festa was held in a very professional manner, and with a network of supporting staff and volunteers to assist the artists joining the performances.

In addition, the organizing committee also managed to hold in many different places the performances of many works of different genres. This is very important in organizing theatre festivals, as it creates an open space for artists’ creation.

3. Audience activities were really excellent, at many shows, all the seats were filled up, and the attendees sometimes had to wait until the next shows to be able to enjoy them. For many other festivals, the lack of audiences has become popular. And the resonance the festival has created and is cared for by audiences is a very big success.

4. Works performed at the festival were actually plentiful. Compared with many of the festivals I attended, this festival was more diversified than all the others. Not only plentiful in terms of genres and forms of performing but also profuse in respect of audiences. The works here were a mixture of the different genres in the performing arts, from pantomime to circus, spoken plays, dance plays, contemporary dances, which kept audiences ever being surprised.

Additionally, the numerous artists at different ages also made the festival to be diverse, multi-colored, with very impressive appearances.

5. Towards the future is an interesting question of my own, it is certain that the festival has an enormous influence on my creation later on, the performing styles exceeding the language barriers having been being from around the world, which changes both audiences and creators. This makes creators feel a challenge when confronted with it, and also helps me to form a new way of thinking in producing and arranging works of art in the future.

Thank you very much and hope to see you all in the near future.

Bui Nhu Lai

Director, Leader of Drama Troupe 1,
Youth Theatre of Vietnam