Tran Huu Trang Troupe has invited cai luong aspirants across Vietnam to sign up for a free three-year training course it plans to revive next year after 10 years.

Candidates will be required to sing vong co (popular cai luong melody) and act out drama excerpts in two rounds of selections that will take place throughout October.

Successful candidates will be trained at the troupe’s headquarters on Tran Hung Dao Street, District 1, with students coming from afar having their rent and living costs subsidised.

“We are resuming the training course because the art faces a grave shortage of performers,” Huynh Mai, head of the troupe’s artistic department, said.

Highly experienced artists like Bach Tuyet, Thanh Tong, Diep Lang and others would be invited to impart their skills and to the students in addition to the troupe’s teaching staff, he said. The troupe has conducted four training courses in the past, catapulting the careers of people like Thanh Thanh Tam, Kim Tu Long, Thoai My, Chi Linh, and Van Ha who are now well established on stage.

This year, it hopes to recruit around 25 students aged 15 to 22.

VietNamNet/VNS