LABORATORY WORK

Theatre is an art that reflects time. Truth is as old as the world is a statement that is also true for theatrical art. The talks that the theatre was exhausted, it had nothing more to offer people and was going to die as a form of art have existed for many centuries. However, the Theatre is still alive and prospering in spite of everything.

What is the reason for theatrical crises that periodically occur in every century? This is a question for a separate discussion. However, one cannot deny the fact that the theatrical process is suffering from a deep crisis throughout the vast territory of the former USSR. We should also admit that the process of modern theatrical development and the search for ways of continuous dialogue with the audience is taking place more intensely at one place and more slowly in the other...

In 2009, the state program on the development of theatrical business was launched. Over the years, various theatres of Baku have carried out joint international staging projects as part of the program, inviting staging groups, directors, artists from other countries. The Samed Vurgun Russian Drama Theatre (RDT), for example, invited directors and artists mainly from Russia. This is quite logical, as co-creation is motivated by the unifying space of the culture of the modern Russian language. For the past two years, the Russian Union of Theatrical Workers (STD) led by Alexander Kalyagin, the Association of Russian Theatres established in St. Petersburg and led by Sergei Shuba have developed many programs to provide professional and creative support to Russian theatres abroad.

You are welcome here

In the second half of September, as part of such programs curated by the Centre for Support of Russian Theatres Abroad operating under the auspices of STD, two directors, Kirill Zavorikhin and Alexei Kuzmin-Tarasov, and producer Alexei Valiyev-Kornilov arrived to the Samed Vurgun Russian Drama Theatre. According to the agreement between the STD and the theatre, the Centre implemented one of its programs – a laboratory directing work to create a sketch of the future performance. Oleg Loevsky (a former Bakuvian, by the way) has been practicing this in Russia for more than a decade. The program allowed the young filmmakers to express themselves creatively and, thus, not to get lost in the profession. It also helped the theatres to make informed choices because a sketch is nothing more than a preliminary draft of the future performance to fix the director's staged design.

Alexey Valiev-Kornilov, producer, head of the Centre for Support of Russian Theatres Abroad:

"Two years ago, after several years of interruption, our Centre resumed operations, and together with our director, Dmitry Mozgovoy, we developed an extensive program to help the theatres of the CIS, Georgia and the Baltic States. It is implemented in two main directions. The first is a trip of specialists to conduct master classes of acting, stage speech, plastics and stage combat, etc. Alisa Ivanova, a teacher of acting from St. Petersburg, visited you in June with the Demidov Etudes as part of this program. The second direction is much more extensive. This includes a director's laboratory, which implies an experimental sketch, which will lead to the production of one full-length performance. After professional acquaintance with the theatre, during the first four days, directors create sketches of the future full-length performance. Later, they will be discussed and one of the sketches will be selected based on a theme initially declared by the theatre. In this case, the theatre already declared the theme of performance, which will be based on Russian folk tales.

Sketches for children

For four days, the stage of the RDT has become a spot for intensive rehearsals with the actors, who were selected by the directors for this performance. Kirill Zaborikhin sketched A. Pushkin's Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights, and Alexei Kuzmin-Tarasov based his sketch, Terrible Fairy Tale, on the Russian folk tale Kroshechka-Khavroshechka.

On the day of performance, the actors and employees of the theatre became spectators. Both Moscow directors gave master classes demonstrating one of the popular directions in stage styling. The Baku theatre is not used to this staging but it is quite developed in modern Russian theatres. Remembering that our children will remain children even when our hairs turn grey, we use a very simple theatrical language of dialogues fearing that we may be misunderstood. Russian directors, however, take into account the harsh circumstances surrounding us in the modern world and do not use baby talk to communicate with their young audience understanding that modern three-year-old children can easily master and communicate with tablets and iPhones. And sometimes they do it much better than adults!

Now the results of directors' sketches will be analysed by the theatre with all the pros and cons listed. It is not an easy task because both directors have shown a high level of professional training and their own staging style. And when the final decision is made, RDT will sign a contract with both the Centre and the selected director to continue creative collaboration. The actual performance will take place in 2019.

Chief Director of the Russian Drama Theatre Alexander Sharovsky and the Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan, the director of the theatre Adalet Hajiyev shared their impressions with us:

Alexander Sharovsky: I liked the results of both works. Guys showed a high class of professional training. Therefore, it is difficult to give a preference to any one of them. We need time to make a final decision on laboratory sketches. This is not an easy task. The directorial language is clearly designed for an audience of children a little older than those who regularly come to our theatre. We will think about it. For now, I'm happy to congratulate everyone who has contributed to drafting the sketches. I congratulate the actors and directors with the most important thing in the creative process, which is mutual understanding.

Adalet Hajiyev: Cultural, professional, and creative cooperation with Russia has always been important and necessary for us as a theatre representing both the Russian language and Russian theatrical culture. A decade ago, this cooperation was based entirely on our initiative supported by the relevant presidential decree on the development of theatrical art in 2009-2019. Currently, many Russian theatres are trying to cooperate with us. I am happy to note that this process has become mutually beneficial. As part of the Russian state program Big Tours, at the end of 2017, our theatre visited Smolensk, Velikiye Luki and Pskov with performances. As part of the same program, the Bolshoi Drama Theatre from St. Petersburg, the Mayakovsky Theatre from Moscow visited our theatre. Our spectators were happy to see Alisa Freindlich, Oleg Basilashvili, Yevgenia Simonova and other actors on the stage of our theatre. Last year, the Association of Russian Theatres (St. Petersburg, the theatre-festival “Baltic House”), of which our main director Alexander Sharovsky is also a member, sent their leading expert on stage movement, stage combat and plastics Igor Kachayev. His master classes took full three days. But there was so many actors, let alone other people, who wished to visit the classes, that we had to request the support of the then rector of the University of Culture and Arts Farah Aliyeva to provide premises for classes. We had the same situation with the master class of Alisa Ivanova, the Demidov Etudes, which was attended by university teachers teaching acting. Our close cooperation with the university has always yielded positive results. I think this is a very modern approach to solving many issues.

But you have not said anything about the choice of sketches. Have you made any decision?

We have not had time to discuss this issue with the chief director. I liked both sketches. Both of them can be staged. But are audience includes many children between the ages of 3 to 9 years, and I am not sure that such sketches are appropriate for this audience.

May it be that this should be checked in practice? Sometimes adults make mistakes...

May be. One thing I can say for sure: both directors are professionals and have interesting individual features. So, I would like to thank the STD and personally Mr. Alexander Kalyagin.

Through the eyes of our guests...

It was impossible to resist traditional questions that journalists like asking their guests. But it was not because there was nothing to ask; rather it was indeed very interesting to know what the creative people (our interviewees) could learn in just four days about our city and its citizens, about the actors of the theatre, many of whom (thanks to our guests) made us look at ourselves differently.

Kirill Zaborikhin, a director and a graduate of the RATI (Russian Academy of Theatrical Art); the class of Sergei Zhenovich, 2018):

"This is my first time in Baku. Architectural concepts are so impressive that one can get lost turning in the wrong direction. But this is not scary because amazing people live in Baku. They are very hospitable and are ready to help at any moment. And they can do it in any language! For the first time in my life, I had a feeling that in this city, I could communicate, live and survive, without resorting to verbal communication! As for work, or rather co-creation with artists, as Fomenko said already, we achieved “mutual admiration”. We very quickly found a way to understand each other. Much of what we have demonstrated on stage is done thanks to a joint search for aesthetic truth, which is part of the education system I received and shared with actors of your theatre. They very quickly understood everything, and many variants of etude sketches were made and found jointly. I am grateful to all the artists for their willingness to work, to the administration of the theatre for opportunity to choose the actors I needed for my laboratory sketch."

Alexey Kuzmin-Tarasov, a director and a graduate of the RATI; the class of E. Kamenkovich and D. Krymova, 2011:

"I saw almost nothing these days. But what I could see gave birth to a mixed feeling. A mix of architectural styles and epochs reflected in them causes rather a sense of... confusion. My path from the hotel to the theatre gave me an incomplete picture of the city. But as far as working with artists, I can tell you that I managed to get to know them better than the city. It was interesting and easy to compose with them the Terrible Fairy Tale. I had no problems whatsoever..."

The project ended. What's next? Which of them will the actors and the Baku audience meet next year? Meanwhile, the Russian Drama Theatre opened its 98^th season with Get Out of My Dreams based on the play by People's Writer of Azerbaijan Anar, The Sixth Floor of a Five-Storey House, better known as Tahmina and Zaur.