Three actresses best known to Vietnamese viewers from prime-time television dramas, Nguyễn Huyền Trang, Việt Hoa and Nguyễn Thùy Dương, have won gold medals at the 2026 Hanoi Open Theatre Festival (Liên hoan Sân khấu Hà Nội mở rộng), Thanh Niên reported on 25 October 2026. Huyền Trang was honoured for playing Trâm in Lưu Quang Vũ's Cô gái đội mũ nồi xám, Việt Hoa for Hương in the Vietnam Drama Theatre's Ảo ảnh, and Thùy Dương for Kim Oanh in the Hanoi Drama Theatre's Ai là cha tôi. The newspaper said the festival had just closed with awards for a range of productions and performers, but it did not give the festival's dates or the total number of medals awarded.
Three gold medals
Compiled by KBVN+ from Thanh Niên's report:
| Actress | Company | Play | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nguyễn Huyền Trang (born 1991) | Youth Theatre (Nhà hát Tuổi Trẻ) | Cô gái đội mũ nồi xám (by Lưu Quang Vũ) | Trâm | Her third medal in spoken drama |
| Việt Hoa | Vietnam Drama Theatre (Nhà hát Kịch Việt Nam) | Ảo ảnh (Vietnam Drama Theatre) | Hương | Her fourth gold medal, she says |
| Nguyễn Thùy Dương (born 2003) | Hanoi Drama Theatre (Nhà hát kịch Hà Nội) | Ai là cha tôi (directed by Lê Thiện Tùng) | Kim Oanh | Her first festival since joining the company a year ago; her first gold medal |
All three divide their careers between the stage and television. Huyền Trang and Thùy Dương both graduated from the Hanoi University of Theatre and Cinema, and both appeared in the series Đấu trí.
Nguyễn Huyền Trang
Huyền Trang has mostly played supporting parts on television, in series such as Đường lên Điện Biên, Lựa chọn số phận, Đấu trí, Hành trình công lý and Biệt dược đen, often as sharp, strong-willed women. In Hành trình công lý she was Hà, whose relationship with Hoàng (Việt Anh) threw his marriage to Phương (Hồng Diễm) into turmoil. Her biggest step forward came as Đào Mỹ Trinh, chairwoman of the Trinh Tam Group in the political drama Lằn ranh: a successful, shrewd and ambitious businesswoman with tangled ties to powerful figures. Thanh Niên counts it among her longest and weightiest screen roles.
She told the paper that stage and screen both bring heavy pressure, but of very different kinds. In the theatre, a forgotten line, a dropped prop, a dead microphone or a stumble all happen in front of hundreds of people, and an actor must hold a character together for two to three hours with no pause. A play, she said, can take one to three months of rehearsal for only a few performances, so expectations for each night are very high. Television shoots, by contrast, can run 12 to 16 hours a day for months, sometimes starting at 4am, with closing scenes occasionally filmed before opening ones, and constantly stepping in and out of a role is mentally draining.
Việt Hoa
A member of the Vietnam Drama Theatre, Việt Hoa previously won gold at the 2020 national young talent competition for spoken-drama actors, as Phồn Y in Lôi Vũ. She said the medal for Ảo ảnh is her fourth gold and a memorable milestone after years of hard work.
On screen she first drew attention as the sharp-tongued Đào in Cô gái nhà người ta, followed by Yến in Trở về giữa yêu thương, Lệ in Anh có phải đàn ông không?, Hân in Mình yêu nhau, bình yên thôi and Diễm, a woman pulled into dangerous relationships, in the crime drama Độc đạo. In Gió ngang khoảng trời xanh her character Ngân was one of three female leads, alongside characters played by Phương Oanh and Quỳnh Kool. Most recently she played Mai in the crime series Lửa trắng, an undercover policewoman living as a drug lord's daughter, a part with many action scenes.
Nguyễn Thùy Dương
Thanh Niên places Thùy Dương in a younger generation than the other two. Born in 2003, she graduated from the drama and film-and-television acting faculty of the same university. Before landing bigger parts, she had supporting roles in Đấu trí, as a two-faced, pleasure-seeking daughter of a sub-department head, Không ngại cưới chỉ cần một lý do and Cha tôi, người ở lại. She won viewers over as Ngọc Ngà, a fashion-shop owner, in Đi giữa trời rực rỡ. Her first substantial role after graduating was Vân in Gia đình trái dấu, a headstrong young woman whose five-year romance with Đức (Thừa Tuấn Anh) meets family opposition. For Mùa hè năm ấy she changed her look, with a blunt haircut and large hair clips, to play the naive, impulsive but kind-hearted Yến Nhi. In the film Thanh âm vượt đại dương she plays Tâm, a đàn bầu (monochord) player who disguises herself as a nurse named Mây to secretly help soldiers, a role for which she learned French dialogue, the đàn bầu, xẩm folk singing and swimming.
According to Thanh Niên, the Kim Oanh role brought her first gold medal. She described the theatre not as a place of pressure but as one that nurtures young actors, and said the festival was her first opportunity since becoming a member of the Hanoi Drama Theatre a year earlier. Every first time is the most memorable, she said, with nerves and worry, but above all a desire to give her all.
What comes next
Viewers can see Thùy Dương in Xóm nhỏ, which began airing on VTV1 on 21 October 2026. She plays Duyên, an older woman from the same home village as the lead character Trâm (Lê Lưu Ly). In the early episodes, Trâm moves to Hanoi to find Duyên and start an independent life, only to discover that Duyên has fled her debts and taken the money Trâm had left with her, leaving the young woman penniless in the city. Thanh Niên did not say whether the award-winning plays have further performances scheduled.