ALL KINDS OF FESTIVALS ARE IMPORTANT

A vexed old lady, who had to change from the stalls to the stage in the intermission before the third act of the play "Zoyka's flat", thought to herself that she could not understand why we need such festivals where people are driven from place to place. And they've invented God knows what. It was different before: a theatre visited on a tour, performed and left. Everything is done in a normal way and people, as expected, are sitting in the stalls. And the tour lasts a month. But the theatre comes, stages a show and leaves. You do not even get a chance to remember the actors! It was different before ... She growled and grumbled. Her neat friend in glasses nodded and played along, while her husband carefully looked at the programme: it was evident that he did not want to agree with her at all... I witnessed this scene at the International Theatre Festival in Yaroslavl (November 2011 - Ed.). But now there are many such festivals in Russia. These are international, regional, provincial and municipal festivals. Quite recently, Baku, too, started to hold international festivals. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism opens a new path for the integration of our culture into the world community. Last year, an international conference dedicated to the development of modern theatre was held. Two international festivals were held - theatre of the new wave and puppet theatre.

Indeed, what do we need theatre festivals for? And who are they for? Are they for actors and directors, who stage their own performance and leave without watching the works of their colleagues from other theatres? Are they for critics who will "evaluate" the achievements of theatres from different Russian regions and foreign countries? And what does it mean to "evaluate" the results of someone's artistic endeavours at a time when many theatres were pushed several decades back in their development after the collapse of a country where everything was subordinate to a single ideological principle? Or are they for spectators who fill the halls at festival for 7-10 nights? Probably, for everyone. For actors and directors who need to experience the "breath" of another audience. For critics who can "evaluate" not only the level of relations in the playwright-director-actor structure at production and thematic levels, but the overall level of theatrical affairs in the region or country from which the theatre comes. This allows us to understand what is going on with theatre as an art form at this stage of its development. What sort of theatre does the modern audience accustomed to video clips need? And is there some happy medium for the evaluation criteria to develop a concept for the theatre of the new century? But this is for theorists. But for the audience there is always one evaluation criterion - "like" or "dislike". Then the question arises: what does the viewer dislike in the modern theatre? As a rule, he likes what is devoid of emotion and meaning. What does not capture his mind, heart, eyes and does not attract his attention keeping him at the level of the intensifying interest. But how many of such productions are there? And are there many theatres that managed to establish a permanent dialogue with their audience? Therefore, festivals are needed to understand what this dialogue should be like.

The "international" status draws attention not only from the world's cultural community, but investors from outside. After all, a country, a region or province that invests in culture becomes a guarantor of reliable relations. But at the same time, each festival has its own "face", traditions, priorities and subject matter.

Here's an example. The International Volkovskiy Festival is different from many others. The subject is Russian classics in the interpretation of modern directors. There is no jury or expert group of critics here. There are no daily discussions on performances viewed the day before. There are no sad directors who do not know what to do with their imperfect, but nevertheless popular brainchild. And there are no disappointed actors, who may have been told at other festivals or in their hometown that they are great in the role of N or NN, but critics of another team evaluate their performance in the exactly opposite way! And the fact that there are no such discussions seems very attractive to me. Well, it is true! Imagine that a person, who has long been successful in his profession as a director, is suddenly told: "You know your play is about the wrong thing! This is because the critic understands this play differently! And your main character wears the wrong dress. And the suits are not right! And what kind of mise-en-scene do you have? What is it for? It should be quite different..."

Of course, I'm exaggerating, but I've heard something like that many times. This caused confusion and questions: why then don't these critics themselves stage it as they see it? It is true. Unwillingness or inability to analyze within the framework of someone's production concept and an attempt to substitute it with one's own interpretation is bad rather than good for any theatre. There was nothing like that at the Volkovskiy festival. And a feeling appeared that critics who should be hated and feared are really busy conducting serious research. They watched performances, and then, communicating with each other, looked for the truth of the elusive concept. Of course, there was no unity! This is normal, good and right. Evaluating another person's work is always a subjective opinion based on their own level of attitude, erudition, breadth of vision and, eventually, viewers' experience. And it is also an art form! And it's great that afterwards, their thoughts, experiences and opinions will appear in the "Kultura", "Teatralnaya Zhizn", "Strasnoy Bulvar", "Prostsenium", etc. But the festival area acquired some new status. For me, at least. And this status is probably dictated by time. And it requires new rules of the game and changes in everything, including in the approach to festival experience. I asked the artistic director of the festival, Olga Nikiforova, about the feasibility of holding such festivals.

- There are a great many of international festivals in Russia today. Is there a need for another one?

- There are never too many festivals. The city needs our festival. To enhance the aesthetic boundaries of its own theatre, it needs to bring other theatres here. Our viewers have to see what's happening in the theatre world in general. Theatre changes in time together with society. And it's important not to lose contact with this process.

- The International Centre of Kostya Treplev works as part of the festival programme "off". What's he doing?

- Stage readings and laboratory studies of the principles of existence in new dramatic forms.

- What are the benefits?

- A lot. Sometimes something we initially could not even imagine. For example, we include an avant-garde play in the programme of the centre, which must be played from paper in the process of one or two rehearsals, that is to say to make a sketch of the show based on intuition, improvisation and cursory analysis. And in the course of such work, actors get rid of established clich?s, often open up new images and get the roles they could not even dream of... In addition, these laboratory readings allow them to get rid of the old forms of existence, find new forms and modes of existence in space or onstage or in any other place...

- This experience already has its own history?

- Yes. It's small, but already history. Laboratory readings of Polish and Dutch plays have already been held, and now, under the theme "Classics on the contrary" - readings of contemporary plays by Russian and Ukrainian playwrights are being held.

- Do you involve only young actors of your theatre?

- Not only. The older generation, too. We invite filmmakers from St. Petersburg and Moscow. As a rule, such projects reveal the talents of young directors. The result of the laboratory work of this festival was sketches by the directors Semyon Serzin (a graduate of St. Petersburg State University, Filshtinskiy's course) on Natalie Vorozhbit's play "Viy" and Sergey Karpov (a student of Yaroslavl Theatre Institute) on Nekrasov's story "Generous Act". The chief director includes them in the plan of production work in our theatre. This is an example of how laboratory designs opened the path to the profession for many young directors. They will not have to wait 40 years to enter the profession "young"...

It's true. We can already see today that they have their own production "style" and their own understanding of performing arts today. And this is great. Because they will not have to prove that they have a right to this profession. Chekhov's character Kostya Treplev will not have to prove that modern theatre requires new forms, and hence, change. But all this is part of the programme "off". In the mandatory programme, there are 14 performances. Three of them are "Summer Residents" by Omsk Theatre, "Krechinskiy" by Zlatoust Theatre, "Omnibus" and "Imaginary Patient" by Saratov Theatre of the Young Spectator - were awarded the Fyodor Volkov Prize by the Russian government in 2011. This is the choice of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Russian Federation on the results of the work of Russian theatres in the season 2010-2011. Our country, too, has this practice - to sum up the results of the season. And the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan established the award "Zirva" ("Peak") for theatres that reach new artistic and professional heights. In the last season, the winner was the Russian Drama Theatre with the play "Midsummer Night's Dream".

With regard to theatrical life in Baku, we work intensively to find new forms, new themes and new ideas. In early November, performances of puppet theatres were staged at the First International Baku Festival. In late November, the Union of Theatre Artists of Azerbaijan held a National Theatre Festival of performances of small forms "2 +1". And soon we will know the names of the winners: young directors, actors and artists who presented their works to the audience and expert commission.