Phú Nhuận Drama Theatre was launched in 2001 at Hồ Chí Minh City's Phú Nhuận District Cultural Centre by the acclaimed Small Stage Drama Theatre. Offering a much-needed second stage for that company's activities, it operates on a weekly basis with plays being presented in repertory. The company draws on the human resources of Small Stage Drama Theatre, one of Hồ Chí Minh City’s leading theatre institutions, which traces its origins back to the early 1980s when a group of young southern theatre practitioners set up the Director’s Club (Câu lạc bộ đạo diễn) with the aim of working together as directors, writers and managers. The Club was subsequently offered a home by the Hồ Chí Minh City Stage Association (Hội Sân khấu Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh) at 5B Võ Văn Tần Street, and in 1984 a 200-seat theatre was opened at that address under the name 5B Võ Văn Tần Experimental Stage Club (Câu lạc bộ Sân khấu Thể nghiệm 5B Võ Văn Tần, fore-runner of today’s ‘Small Stage’ Nhà hát Kịch Sân khấu Nhỏ). Thereafter the club organised two highly successful experimental theatre festivals (1989 and 1993) at which a many new local and foreign plays were staged. In 1997 the club became the Small Stage Drama Theatre (Nhà hát Kịch Sân khấu Nhỏ). Since its inception Small Stage has played a crucially important role in the development of theatre in the southern capital, pushing back the boundaries of theatre art and influencing the establishment of numerous other popular mini-theatres such as the Institut d’échange culturel avec la France (IDECAF) Salle de spectacles and Sài Gòn Theatre. Over the years it has staged scores of different theatre styles, attracting large audiences of predominantly young people and touring extensively overseas.