THEATRE, DRESSING, ETC

Theatre-lovers are really excited that the new theatre season has started in Azerbaijan. Although there are not many plays being premiered at the present time, they are as usual being performed to full houses. As always there are regular theatre-goers who cannot imagine life without the theatre. No other artistic genre is as varied and multifaceted, embodying numerous different elements. In the theatre the actors' talents can bring together a variety of elements like opera or drama, puppetry or pantomime. The art of the theatre embraces a collective, uniting the work of the actors, the playwrights, the costume designers and all the stagehands. Since the beginning of the 20th century theatrical performances have been referred to as productions, because producers came on the scene to ensure that performances were more cohesive. Altogether there are 17 major theatres in Baku, permanently offering their repertoires. What problems are Azerbaijan's theatres facing today? What could make things better for them at the present time? Regionplus has put these questions to the artistic directors of three theatres.

Audiences need something new

Director of Azerbaijan's State Russian Drama Theatre Adalat Hacyev, has explained to our correspondent the importance of taking every opportunity to improve the skills of his co-workers. "We try not to miss any opportunity to work together with colleagues from abroad," the director says. "For example, quite recently at the international forum organised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the staff of our theatre got to know Irina Krushilina, a costume designer from the USA, and offered her a contract." The director told us that she had already designed costumes for the production of "Mirandolina", based on the play by Carlo Goldoni. "Now, since the summer holidays we have been working with her on a production of Mikhail Lermontov's "Masquerade", to mark this Russian writer's bicentenary," Adalyat Gadjiyev continues, adding that "stunning, beautifully designed, new costumes had been created as a result of this productive co-operation with her."
The theatre is also working together with the British consulate. "The premiere of their production "Streets full of animals and children" is to take place in October. The British experts are also holding coaching sessions, and those participating in this production are going to share their experience with the staff of our theatre," says the director. He informed us that "Alexandra Kalyagina, a young actress from the Khazar Agayeva Theatre, had recently returned from summer school, having further polished her skills."
Nevertheless, Adalyat Gadjiyev notes, the theatre continues to suffer from a shortage of certain types of skilled hands. "There's no problem getting top quality directors and actors, but we simply do not have enough good lighting experts, costume and set designers," Adalyat Gadjiyev admits. "Our regular theatre-goers get tired of seeing the same old stage sets and costumes. We need to get new ones. We definitely have good artists, but they have their own style and manner of creating sets and costumes, so after four or five performances a new look is needed." Gadjiyev also commented that these days the Russian Drama Theatre needs a good sound director. "We have plenty of directors and actors as can be seen from the number of guest tours they go on abroad," he stresses.

New performances

"The YUG performing arts centre is a rather exceptional one, so we try to ensure that our productions are not just routine ones," the theatre's artistic director Tarlan Rasulov tells us. "Some spectators don't understand us. The most forthright of them just walk out, saying they don't like it. It is not our aim to please everybody, but there are those theatre-fans who enjoy our performances and get hooked on them."
YUG was set up 25 years ago under the auspices of the Azerbaijan State Drama Theatre on the initiative of [Azeri actors] Vaqif Ibrahimoglu and Hasanaga Turabov as a broadly experimental theatre which demanded a great deal of improvisation on the part of the actors. "Many of our actors have trained with foreign coaches, but the first requirement of our theatre is that they should truly love what they are doing and naturally be aware of their creative potential as individuals," Tarlan Rasulov says. "In big theatres attention is frequently focussed on special effects and computer-generated lighting. The actor sometimes has to be in a strictly indicated spot on the stage according to a minute-by-minute schedule, so that the spotlight falls on him, but this type of acting is somewhat robotic and mechanical and there is little room for creative freedom."
Tarlan Rasulov recounts that many stage actors have not only trained at theatrical colleges, but have also studied acting in Turkey, Poland and Russia. "The trouble with the actors is not that they are badly trained, but that they do not grasp what is poetic and the manner of interpretation at the YUG theatre," he believes. "On the contrary, its actors do not need to stick to what they have learnt, but to be prepared to experiment with what is new and unusual."
In the new season YUG is putting on a production of "House on the border", staged by the Polish director Tomasz Leszczinski, based on the play by Slawomir Mrozek. This project is being realised within the framework of the international producer project sponsored by the Polish Embassy in Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, the YUG Theatre, the International Production Company AR Productions, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the producer ?Sabukhi Mamedova. We launched this production at the beginning of June, and it turned out to be the last time that it was staged in the world during the lifetime of this brilliant playwright and writer," the artistic director noted.

Integration

 In the last few days the Theatre of Young Spectators has opened for its 86th season. The theatre's director, Mubariz Gamidov, told Regionplus that many of the new season's productions are the outcome of productive international co-operation.
The Theatre of Young Spectators will soon be putting on "Golden Key" or "The Adventures of Buratino" based on the fairy tale of the same name by the Russian writer Aleksey Tolstoy. Our young audiences will certainly enjoy this gentle and instructive fairy story, produced by the Croatians stage director Ivitsa Simich, artistic director Dinka Zherichevich and the composer Igor Karlich.
"A British theatre director who is coaching some of our actors and is going to work on a new production, is expected to arrive in the second half of October," the theatre's director tells us. In this connection, we are planning to stage this production at the annual theatre festival in Great Britain. It will be a production by a British writer, with a British director and Azeri artistes." But this does not mean that we do not have our own good directors. "Bakhram Osmanov, the best known of our directors and the former director of the Azerbaijan State National Drama Theatre, is an experienced and well recognised master of his art," Mubariz Hamidov says.
He recently staged a production of "War" by the Swedish writer and playwright Lars Noren, which caused a sensation in the theatrical world, the director continues. The staff at the State Kalmykia Theatre, who recently visited Baku, found this play to their liking. The Theatre of Young Spectators now plans to go on tour with "War" in the Russian city of Astrakhan, where there is an Azeri diaspora and then in Kalmykia.
"By decree of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, a state programme of support for theatres for 2009-2019 has been signed. The programme not only envisages the reconstruction of theatres, but also the introduction of new repertoires, the training of young specialists and the study of world-wide theatrical practices," the theatre's director recounts. "Within the framework of this programme we are constantly looking for new playwrights, actors and other types of skilled stagehands and are actively attending international training courses. It is our general aim to integrate Azerbaijan's theatre into world theatrical life."