VietNamNet Bridge – Aaron Toronto, a 37-year-old director from Arizona, believes he has karma with Vietnam which has kept appealing him for 10 years through ups and downs of many careers like film directing, acting, stage directing, teaching and TV hosting.

American director Aaron Toronto.

The karma began when Toronto started to learn Vietnamese with the help of friends in the U.S. in 1996. Then he decided to visit Vietnam in 2002 and has stayed here since 2004. Local people might remember Toronto as he directed winning music video “Uoc mo cho ngay mai” (a dream for future) for HCMC-based popular band MTV at VTV-Bai hat toi yeu music award in 2005.

With a good command of spoken Vietnamese, he was invited to play in numerous popular TV films like Cam bay (trap) in 2005 for Binh Duong Television, Gio Thien Duong (heaven’s wind) in 2005 and Chuyen tinh dao ngoc (a pearl island’s love story) in 2009. The latest work is My nhan Sai Thanh (Saigon’s belle) by veteran director Le Cung Bac.

He also served as vice director in some movies like Saigon Yo, De mai tinh, and Chuyen tinh xa xu (Passport to Love).

Toronto was also cast in some independent foreign movies like The Crossword Monologues (2007) (U.S., Japan) by Hideaki Kataoka, The Prince (2013) by Son Pham, and Speak Low (2013) by Travis Dunaway.

“At first my goal to come to Vietnam was making films. But now I have found a deep passion for drama and building a professional stage for dramas in English in Saigon is my priority,” Toronto said.

Toronto, together with Nicaraguan director Jaime Zuniga, established Dragonfly Theatre Co., a professional English language theatre in HCMC, in 2011. This is one of the rare stages performing dramas in English, especially with local artists performing. “Saigon has numerous entertainment places for locals but just a few for expats. To answer the demands of these target audiences as well as locals who wish to improve their English is our goal,” he added.

They have played, directed and written scripts for four works that have gained positive responses from audiences, including The Importance of Being Earnest (2011), The Last 5 Years (2012), The Little Prince (2012), and Dangerous Liaison (2013).

In particular, Dragonfly is going to stage the Blue/Orange directed by Ryan Burkwood, producer of Aporia Theatre Collective and used to work with The Royal Shakespeare Company, from May 16 to 18 at Cargo Bar in HCMC’s District 4.

The award winning Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall is about a young black patient (Peter Muruako) in a psychiatric hospital and his two doctors (Aaron Toronto and Ryan Burkwood) who argue whether he is sane enough to be sent back into society.

The play turns the spotlight on racial prejudice and how people take care of those with mental illnesses. It won the Laurence Olivier Award in the UK in 2001 and has been adapted into a film by the BBC.

According to Toronto, this is a hard-to-watch drama and is totally different from Dragonfly’s previous works as there are just three characters on stage trying to deliver a message about people’s soul and how people treat each other. The play shows Dragonfly’s ambition to create quality works with profound content to drama lovers in Saigon.

Toronto is now working on a ghost story in Vietnamese named “Biet thu cuoi con duong so 13” (a villa at the end of road No. 13).

“I haven’t had any intention yet to leave Vietnam as the country offers a lot of opportunities for me to do my favorite job in the field of art and I believe the karma between me and the country hasn’t stopped,” Toronto noted.

Source: SGT