THEATRE ACTRESS
Light and shade
Of Tatiana Likhacheva Tatiana Likhacheva, Honoured Artist of Belarus, is rehearsing for a benefit performance at her native National Academic Drama Theatre (named after Yakub Kolas) in Vitebsk, taking the leading role in Love Lab
H
er career has been successful, with the foundations laid in early childhood. Her creative parents encouraged her to perform from the age of two, reading
46
беларусь.belarus 2012
poetry while standing on a stool or table. Her father would tie table cloths between two trees in the courtyard to act as stage curtains, ready for her entrance... Her delight at appearing before an audience remains with her, transformed into deeper and more complex feelings of course. When she puts on her stage make up in her dressing room, she begins to
enter the realm of her character. In Rook Despair, by Vladimir Korotkevich, she even played Death. Her outer self may be able to answer questions from the costume team, make-up artists and colleagues but her inner self is elsewhere. This profound ability to transfigure is characteristic of our greatest actors — and is unknown in other professions.