Sardaana
Workshops + Rehearsals
Sakha National Theatre
Thursday, June 1, journal excerpt
The Sakha National Theatre is an imposing, over built, gray stone building at the center of Yakutsk. Typical of Stalin era buildings that proclaimed heroic self-righteousness and importance--the building looked more like an oversized tomb than a theatre.
I was led by Izolda (Iza), my guide and translator from the Ministry of Culture, through the dark labyrinth of hallways to meet the company in a small rehearsal room that had heavy window drapes and was lined with hundreds of framed photographs of serious looking Sakha actors of the past. Many of the photographed actors were in histrionic and stilted poses suggesting a mix between patriotic Soviet realism and 19th century romantic heroism.
Fifty so actors and technicians were gathered to hear what I had to say. Introduced by Mr. Borisov and the theater's producer Stepan Emelyanov, I was to be the first foreign director the theatre had had in its nearly 70 years of operation. The youngest actor in the company was 28, the oldest just over 70 with the average age being somewhere near 45. Many of the actors had been working with the company for over 25 years--a few had been there over 40 years.
Even though they were the Sakha National theatre, in the middle of Siberia and performing in their native language, they were nonetheless a theatre company fashioned on the European repertory model and trained at theatre schools in Leningrad and Moscow where they imbibed the acting methods of Stanislavski, social realism, and socialist propaganda.
There was much hustle and bustle in the building because of the upcoming opening of Noggin Bettor, an opera written in the 1920's, sung entirely in Sakha, and applying the unique form of traditional Sakha throat singing. This was not just an opera, it was an event of great cultural and nationalistic significance. The opera was written by Sakha’s great poet, Oyunsky (who was killed by Stalin) and based on mythological events central to Sakha cultural identity. The opera was the biggest event in years and a touchstone for the re-emerging cultural and political identify. Involved in the opera were the full national orchestra and a cast of nearly one hundred, including the opera company, the ballet, a children's dance group, and the majority of the actors from the National Theatre company.
Andrei Borisov had told me earlier that I must tell my "story" before the fully assembled company. "Capsay" or “telling one's story” is the traditional Sakha way of introducing oneself to others. The majority of the acting company had just returned from Poland were they had successfully appeared in an international drama competition. I thanked them for the opportunity to speak and how happy and grateful for the opportunity to work with them.
After a few sentences I had to stop to allow for my translator. This rhythm of interaction, via translation, with the actors is something that I will have to get used to.
The gist of my story: My philosophy of how ancient performance traditions, including the traditions of the Sakha, have much to offer the world. Many indigenous people have accepted a western system and expression of theater--in training and execution.
Within the performance of people like the Sakha was the wisdom and understanding of an important way of life that has not been able or allowed to speak--now they must speak--the world needs to hear what they have to say. Their voices have been neglected for too long. I then outlined the methods of how we will work.
1) Beginning with Yoga--and workshop/training period then
2) Develop into exploration of their personal and ensemble performance language--also investigating Sakha performance language and traditions of song, drumming, music, dancing, ritual.
3) Development of a ritual warm-up based on this language
4) Development of a performance based on story-trance.
5) Rehearsal and performance. Our work would be holistic and that everything we did connected.
We were doing more than simply rehearsing for a performance--our project would be a personal and cultural exploration and re-affirmation--possibly even a healing. Referenced my work with other peoples. Talked about how and where I was trained in theatre--the theatre of the dominant culture and how I felt it was no longer spoke to the needs and issues of today. A new way must be found because we are in a new world and theirs is an ancient wisdom that can offer many answers and suggestions.
They were the script, they were the creators of the performance we were developing --the script lived within them. The process was as important as the performance itself. The process will address many issues, personal and cultural that we cannot predict or foresee. We would be partners, co-creators. We must all strive to be people who are willing to go on an adventure into unknown terrain.
I mentioned the use of trance in my previous work. They were particularly interested in trance and not put off by the idea using it to develop ideas for the performance. The group has many seasoned professional actors in it, several in their mid to late 60's. The most mature and seasoned group that I have worked with. I told them that I came to learn and that I feel honored by this opportunity. Their questions about the trance process persisted, wanting to know more about how and if it worked.
They asked about evil and if is something to fear when working with trance.
Other questions asked:
How I found the money to be there?
About working with the Zulu and others.
What did I know about the Sakha?
What did I think of the Sakha? If I had children.
Was I married?
A biography of my life. My travels. I told them lately I had traveled so much sometimes I forget were I am, but it really didn't. I have come to be a home wherever I am.
I told them: "As I look around the room at them I see that the Sakha are a strong people with pride and strong traditions. A people still close to the earth and its ways. Seventy years of Soviet rule had been laid on your tradition like cement. Now the cement has cracked and is crumbling and they and the Sakha culture were growing like indomitable vegetation through the cracks. Your imagination and ability to think freely had suffered greatly and it is time to recognize, heal, and set a course for the future."
Stepan, the producer, spoke in Sakha with the tone and demeanor of a boss. Was told he was outlining how we would work. Beginning the next day I would do yoga with the group in the main lobby of the theatre between 4 to 6 PM.
Because of the company’s involvement with the opera it was all the time available. After the initial yoga work and during the subsequent two weeks of workshops I would pick an ensemble of sixteen actors to work with. Those actors not chosen for the ensemble would be assigned one of the several productions that tour the rural areas.
Workshops would begin after the opening of the opera--10 June, nine days hence. Went to the opera rehearsals in the evening--a very big production with a full western symphony orchestra.
II went to a opera rehearsal and paid particular note to the stage and theatre--it is on this same stage I will direct my production--not an ideal venue. Nearly seven hundred seat theatre--a fully flown stage--a wide opening, very deep stage with shallow wing space. The motorized flies make noise heard from the house. Although the language of the opera was in Sakha, the acting and all of the music was pure 19th century heroic stuff--Wagner derived.
Andrei directed his army of a cast by side coaching as the actors moved and sang--he had a God microphone and sat in the audience and occasionally ran up to the stage to adjust people--so did the choreographer and movement coach.
Suppose the urging of this opera based on a Sakha epic poem/mythology, was to see their own culture affirmed in terms of the classical cultural traditions of the West--the gesture is not too dissimilar from the pop concert the previous weekend--seeing themselves as a part of a culture they admire, aspire, and want to be compared to.
It was important to see their own culture in the terms of Western culture--why else this big Western-styled opera?
Or maybe they are unaware of how they are directing their own culture through a Western prism? Maybe it didn't matter? They have been living in three cultures--the Russian, Soviet, and Sakha. And they are about to enter a fourth: the emerging world culture provoked by the West, namely capitalism, consumer and pop culture.
The new culture they were walking into was a culture full of uncertainties and fundamentally alien concepts: modernity, capitalism, materialism, and internationalism.
It was late when I got out of the rehearsals. The sun was still illuminating the sky--white night always amazes and throws me still.
Outside the theatre hundreds of people, mainly middle age and older, had gathered and were dancing the Oosoki--the traditional Sakha circle dance--wonderful to see old and young people dancing together for their "White Nights" festival.
Friday, June 18, journal excerpt
General Notes from the Group Discussion
Q: What is special about being Sakha? How and why is different than being Russian?
• Sakha are close to nature vs. the artificial and manufactured Russians
• The Sakha see as Nature as alive--that everything has a soul
• There is a lord of the land and the Soviet System has taken away from the Lord of the Sakha
• The land is dirty--no body needed the land--land has lost its caretaker--Rotten lakes--use to be beautiful--lost to mining
• The Sakha formerly lived in Villages. In big towns, cannot be with nature, cannot live with nature, cannot relax
• City and civilization does not seem, feel right to the Sakha
• Only believe in it if you can bite it and touch it.
• The Sakha to relax by laying on the ground, picking berries in the forest • Now there are cars, noises, motorcycles.
• We are getting old--the Sakha People--there are very few of us left--getting smaller in number.
• The Sakha people don't know their language.
• Earlier there were very few Russians --socialism came --many Russians came --everyone has to speak in Russian --Russian language was forced upon the Sakha --to speak in Sakha was to be stupid.
• Only want to be with my land--to be its caretaker--don't want to live anywhere else • The Soviet system is guilty of our losing our tradition.
• When the Soviet system fell apart everyone had no where to go but to return to their roots and they realized how far they had grown away from them Q: What was the dream of the Soviet system--the Soviet promise?
• Right now the ground is shaking; with this political and economic change no one is prepared for what has happened.
• Promised a vague, bright future. Now we all feel like fools. The Soviets promised: that we won't need money; that when we go to the shops we can just take what we want; that all old people will be taken care of; everyone will be your friend; everyone will be good.
• However, those doing the talking were not doing what they said we the people should do, they were doing it for themselves.
• Now we live without faith or trust--and with an uncertain tomorrow.
• The devil is not something new--just a transformation.
• When they looked at the bank accounts of Russia there was nothing there because the leaders had lied
• They told us we were the best, the richest in the world. The images we saw of the U.S.A. were of the poorest people, gangsters and imperialism.
• In Sakha the mineral resources of the land were raped by the Soviets. Formerly the republic got only a half of one percent because we were told it belonged to the Soviet Union--to the people. Our gold and diamonds went elsewhere--the profit into the pockets of others. That is why we want to be an independent state and our own republic.
• We are distant from the center, and we want a better standard of living and the problems of the individual are not addressed now.
excerpt from My Siberian Journal
