Art As a rule, people with particular tastes tend to make such comments, asking: ‘Where is our Nekrošius?’ Alas, they don’t see that we have our Nekrošius, as we have our own Stanislavsky and Peter Brook. However, the profession is naturally critical. On closer inspection, people may see that their views on stage direction may be incorrect.
It’s said that acting is a vocation and way of life, rather than a profession. What then is stage direction? When people speak of the lifestyle of an actor or a stage director, they think only of the most sensational aspects. If we look deeper, we see that there are routine elements, as there are in any job. To an ‘ordinary person’, the profession seems incomprehensible. A stage director’s creativity appears when he awakens his consciousness to penetrate the essence of life. He studies a script and generates an image of the future performance. He relies on his imagination.
For example, Russian writer Maxim Gorky was writing a play where he couldn’t decide on how a certain character would react on being stabbed in the liver with a knife. Gorky tried hard and long to imagine the scene until, one morning, his relatives found him lying on the floor, having stabbed himself. He muttered: ‘It’s very painful to be stabbed in the liver with a knife’. Gorky undertook this experiment to better understand the state of his character and to honestly describe it. Of course, I’ve never taken such extreme steps but, sometimes, the path is long, unless the performance’s structure becomes c l e a r. O n c e t h e structure is formed, you can develop other skills. Teaching stage direction, we try to nurture creative consciousness but we can’t ‘create’ talent. There are only certain things you can teach — such as particular skills and some rules regarding our profession. You can also promote a certain world outlook. Tell us about your path into stage direction. Which difficulties did you face? Who were your teachers? After serving in the army, I arrived in Minsk from Ukrainian KamenetsPodolsky to study, as my roots are Belarusian. I simultaneously entered the stage direction and acting departments, but failed in the acting department during the second round. My teacher was Dmitry Orlov, a Belarusian stage direction leader. I was an acting director from my second year, staging a mime show, as I was keen on this genre. In fact, it was the first mime show in Minsk, organised as part of the republican review. I also took part in a performance by prominent Russian actor and director Nikolay Okhlopkov, who selected me out of fifty students for a mime role. As a third year student, I staged Yanka Kupala’s ‘Primaki’ and was completely involved in stage direction during my fourth year of studies. After
graduating from the university, I was invited to work at Brest’s Drama Theatre and, two years later, joined the Young Spectators’ Theatre. I spent 18 months training at the Moscow Art Theatre, taught by Oleg Yefremov. There, in co-operation with Victor Salyuk, I staged Vasil Bykov’s ‘Last Chance’. Yefremov invited me to stay at the theatre as a director-teacher but, at that time, I also received an invitation to work for the Young Spectators’ Theatre as chief director. Of course, I chose Minsk’s theatre, aiming for independence. I remember asking the Minister of Culture, Yuri Mikhnevich, whether I would be able to stage plays of my own choosing and he said: ‘Write a list and I’ll put a stamp on it’. My list of 30 plays included some with acutely critical themes — for which I was later criticised by the party press. Meanwhile, the Minister couldn’t say anything, because he had given permission. I worked for four years at the Young Spectators’ Theatre before going freelance, staging performances beyond Belarus for eight years. I worked with the best theatres in Russia, Moldova, Ukraine and Siberia. At that time, the Soviet Union press in Minsk wrote about me a great deal. I was then invited to create the Youth Theatre, being appointed chairman of the commission to set up a new troupe. I was able to create a unique company, comprising young Belarusian and Russian actors, whom I selected from various Moscow universities. After working three years with the Youth Theatre, I directed some performances abroad again. However, destiny stubbornly called me to teaching. I was already an established specialist, who had helped outstanding Russian figures rehearse. Moreover, the teaching of stage direction was topical at the time. I became keen on the theory of stage direction and defended a thesis dealing with problems of conceptuality in performances given in the 1970-1980s (a topic first developed in the Soviet Union). I then wrote several articles dedicated to issues of stage direction, drama and acting.
2011 беларусь.belarus
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