People’s Artist Huynh Nga's real name is Huynh Van Thach. He was born in a poor family in 1932 in the Mekong Delta province of Long An's Moc Hoa District.
In 1944, he got a job as a servant at a great house of a rich counsellor who secretly joined the revolution. He won the confidence of the counsellor for his good behavior. The artist helped him to carry letters and documents from revolutionaries in Long An to Saigon (now HCMC).
Since then, he followed the revolution. In 1945, he joined a movement to seize power of an existing government in Long An's Thu Thua District. In 1947, he joined the Zone 8 drama troupe of the department of political propaganda under the 8th Military Region in the Dong Thap Muoi Revolutionary zone. In 1954 he regrouped to the North as a member of the Battalion 311.
In 1957, Huynh Nga and eight other arists established a southern drama troupe in the northern region.
In 1968, the artist was assigned to study theatre directing in Romania. Nga returned home in 1972 and became the director of the Hanoi Drama Troupe and head of Hanoi's School of Art and Reform Theatre's Drama Department. He came back to the South and continued pursuing his love for cai luong.
The director has arranged nearly 300 works, including outstanding plays such as Doi Co Luu (Ms Luu's Life), Tam Cam, Tieng Sao Dem Trang (Flute under the Moonlight), Tim Lai Cuoc Doi (Seeking Life) and among others.
Huynh Nga has also trained talented cai luong artists, including Le Thuy, Ngoc Giau, Thanh Tong and Minh Vuong.
His body is being kept at the Ho Chi Minh City Funeral House and then taken to his homeland for burial in Long An province’s Moc Hoa District.
