Dancing Not Dead

(the journey of a play Around the World)

                                                                                                    

Early in 2011, The Internationalists launched their first Annual Global Playwriting Contest.  125 plays from 18 countries were submitted.  The selection process was difficult, but John Freedman's 'Dancing, not Dead' was the ultimate winner.  In the past three months, his play has been presented (workshop or staged reading) in Berlin, Moscow and Bucharest. And it will be fully staged in January in The Hague by Karina Bes.  On 30 October it will also be presented in NYC – a live theatre/broadcast hybrid, directed by Doug Howe and Jeremy Lydic. At the end of the journey, we will sit down with John over a virtual coffee and ask him how the journey was for him, but for now, I asked Doug & Jeremy, who are currently in rehearsals, some questions. 


Ana: When you first read the Dancing, not Dead what impressed you the most?
Doug:‘Dancing, not Dead’ poses large questions without attempting to definitively answer them. Though the setting is simple and domestic, the themes and issues that pervade the text reach well beyond the home and across national borders. I was also impressed that John Freedman had written such strong and engaging female characters, especially those advanced in years. Their internal and external conflicts are both compelling and heart wrenching.  

Jeremy: A tragic death has happened, and yet the characters in this play are able to isolate and eliminate their empathetic response to the deceased, in order to pull focus to their own issues. I think that to write a play about someone who has just died, committed suicide rather, or was murdered, even, and make it entirely about the self-absorption of the survivors, is a challenging glimpse into human nature.

Rehearsal for Dancing Not Dead in Moscow with Oksana Mysina & Rimma Solntseva

Ana: What scares you the most about this play?

Doug: Nothing specific scares me about the play, but the constant challenge of honoring the text while putting it up on its feet is ever present. As we are only rehearsing for a limited time, we want to be able to do justice to the writer’s intentions while simultaneously making the performance engaging for the audience. Fortunately, we have some very talented and insightful actors, so my fears are minimal.

Jeremy: This is a play about two women whose game is bicker and banter, and yet a rule between them is to not let the game elevate to a "dramatic" level. And they refuse to really listen to each other. So, you have two strong women, who argue without blowing up, who don't really listen to each other. It defies typical drama in many ways, and the challenge is to keep this dialogue compelling to an audience.

Dancing Not Dead in Berlin, directed by Jake Witlen

Ana: Why have you chosen to co-direct this presentation?

Jeremy: I believe that Doug and I both have different strengths as directors, and I was really interested in seeing how his particular strengths, especially the ones I don't think I possess, combine with my particular process. I think the process will be greatly enhanced by this collaboration. I think Doug is incredible at talking about the play that exists, and I am not. I have a hard time engaging with the play until we start discovering what it can be through experimenting on our feet. So, I'm interested in seeing how our dynamic may or may not shift once we're up on our feet.

Doug: I am thrilled to be working with Jeremy. Every time I’ve seen one of his productions, I’ve always thought about how much fun the actors are having. Jeremy possesses a true sense of play and adventure, and encourages actors to really breathe life into their roles. I hope our individual talents inspire us both to become better directors. From our work together thus far, I am confident about the outcome of our pairing. Having an equal next to you in the room to bounce ideas and experiments off of is a real joy.

John Freedman with actresses Oksana Mysina and Rimma Solntseva after the Moscow reading of Dancing Not Dead

Ana: You also intend this presentation for online audience - why? how do you think the relationship between performance and audience will change depending on where this audience is present?

Doug: In this age of advanced technology, Jeremy and I were interested in experimenting with a live theatre/broadcast hybrid. Though the live performance is our primary focus, we wanted to create a more engaging virtual viewing experience for our online audience. Instead of the typical static wide-shot, we want to produce a more cinematic, interactive experience. We have spoken at length about how the two experiences differ, and we are specifically creating two different perspectives for the people present in the room and those on their computers. Like the three characters in the play, we want to offer both audiences varying points of view.

Jeremy: I believe that the online audience is always secondary when you include them in a live performance event. And, rightfully so. But since I do not believe that viewing performance online is very interesting, I'd like to try to direct this piece for them. I wouldn't say, however, that at this point we are directing more for the online audience. Basically, we're trying to create two different experiences for each audience. Rather than the audience just getting that back of the house camera view, which is super-boring, especially on a 240p window, we want to give them a different experience, an alternative to those in the live audience. In some ways, we're trying to think of it in filmic terms. Viewing theater online will always be more akin to film, so why not take advantage of that?

Dancing Not Dead in Bucharest, with Maria Ploae and Katia Pascariu

Ana : Watching online the previous presentations of DND in Berlin, Moscow and Bucharest had any influence in the way you perceive the play?

Jeremy: I don't want to watch any of those until after our performance is done. I don't like to be influenced in any way by what has been made in recent history.

Doug: One of the objectives of The Internationalists Playwriting Contest was to present the play in multiple locations across the globe. Each culture is going to get something different out of the experience, and to have the capability to witness those performances has been informative and inspirational. Even when it was performed in a language I don’t speak, I felt connected to my fellow company members around the world who were presenting it. It’s also been helpful to discuss successes and failures with the other directors who have already presented the play. Even though the presentation in New York is starting from scratch, I feel uplifted by the presentations done before, and am much better prepared to tackle this complex and challenging play.

Well, I hope you all won’t miss the Dancing Not Dead in NYC (even if you are not in NYC, you can still log online and watch it)! So, prepare yourself for a bit of adventure – this play traveled a lot this year, it would be nice for her to see familiar faces in NY.

Dancing Not Dead

Written by John Freedman
Directed by Doug Howe and Jeremy Lydic
Starring Orietta Crispino, Hank Kim and Sara Oliva

Sunday, October 30th, 2011 at 1:30pm - Live in NY; 2:00 live online
TheatreLab, 137 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011

Limited seating, email to reserve your place to: info@theinternationalists.org

Nikolai Roshchin's New ARTO Theater

John Freedman had once again written a great profile for the Moscow Times’ Context. This one is about director Nikolai Roshchin, his new theater ARTO and his new version of Leonid Andreyev’s Savva. Ignis Sanat. Below is an opening excerpt and here is the link to the full article.

“Nikolai Roshchin is a director who is not only willing, but eager, to tell people what they may prefer not to know. His can be an ominous theater, one that relies on the theatrical equivalent of fire and brimstone to get its points across. The examples are myriad, but I'll limit myself to one: Last year in Mystery-Bouffe, Roshchin abruptly dropped a forest of nooses over spectators' heads during a scene touching on the topic of what political leaders may do to achieve their ends.

Roshchin has always been a large canvas artist. His productions are boldly visual and invariably employ grandiose, complex sets, such as the scale-model sea schooner that sailed right up to the front row of spectators in School of Fools. Now comes Savva. Ignis Sanat, Roshchin's first fully independent production since establishing his own ARTO Theater and acquiring his own theatrical home in a small space near Turgenevskaya Ploshchad."

Moscow Season Preview

Thanks again to John Freedman from the 'Moscow Times', here's a preview of the upcoming season in Moscow, which features Vladimir Pankov's Gogol. Evenings. Part II at the Meyerhold Center, Konstantin Raikin's production of Blue Monster by Carlo Gozzi, and Roman Kozak's production of Biljana Srbljanovic's Locusts at the Pushkin Theater. Read the complete text here.

Russian Round-Up

John Freedman, editor and critic of the ‘Moscow Times’, reviews the highs and the lows of the 2007-2008 season. As he claims, “Whatever the world has to offer, it found its reflection on stage this year.” Some of the heading he covers are: Best Debut, Best Revival, Best Reclamation Project, The Event, Tiger Changing Stripes, Different Drummer, Missing Action, Gloves Off, Town Eccentric, Most Innovative Director and Best Production. Below is a brief example. Read the full article here.

Trend of the Year: The retreat of the contemporary playwright. What happened? New writing and new writers have been one of the biggest engines of theatrical innovation for most of this decade. This year there was not only a noticeable drop in new plays produced but, gulp, not one of those staged stood out in a positive way. Could this be an aberration? Could younger writers be taking the easy way out and merely imitating the innovators of the last decade? Have all but a handful of theaters lost the spirit for gambling on the unknown? Could "new drama" be old hat? It's something to keep an eye on when the new season fires up in the fall.

Clowns Sue Over Copycats

Yuri and Dmitri Kuklachev are a father-son clown team who run a circus called the Moscow Cats Theater. They have been training cats since 1977 and have toured over 80 countries. Last year, Yuri and Dmitri toured the US…except, they didn’t.

Apparently, the clowns were imposters who stole the real Russians’ names, clothes and hairstyles. Now the Kuklachevs are pissed and have filed a suit in NY against the imposters, their US promoter (Mark Gelfman) and every theater where the imposters performed. The clowns are suing for “federal and common-law trademark infringement, false endorsement, unfair competition, false designation of origin, dilution of a famous trademark, and violations of anti-cybersquatting law, rights of publicity and privacy, fraud, conversion, prima facie tort and unjust enrichment.” The Russian clowns are currently seeking $10 million in damages. Read more here.

Russian Ban on British Play

In Your Hands, by Moscow-born British playwright Natalia Pelevine, has been banned by the Russian authorities after only one performance. The play recreates the 2002 ‘Norde-Ost’ theatre siege by Chechen militants of the Theatrical Center of State Ball-Bearing Plant Number 1 in the Dubrovka area of Moscow. During the second act of a sold out performance, 42 armed men and women ran onto the stage and took approximately 850 people hostage. After a 2 ½ day siege, Russian forces pumped an unknown chemical agent into the building's ventilation system and raided it. Officially, 39 of the terrorists were killed by Russian forces, along with at least 129 of the hostages (nine of them foreigners).

The play includes actors dressed as terrorists running through the audience to recreate the events. The play opened in the southern city of Makhachkala, which is the capital of the Dagestan region. This was a controversial choice of venue for the play, because it was the invasion of Dagestan by Chechen forces in 1999 that was one of the triggers for Vladimir Putin's second Chechen war. The UK ‘Independent’ reports,

“On the opening night, the theatre got a last-minute call saying that Mukhu Aliev, the Dagestani president, would attend. Mr Aliev arrived with his security detail and, just before the curtain rose, says Pelevine, someone thought to warn the bodyguards that the play involved actors dressed as terrorists running on to the stage. "Lucky you told us," said one guard, "or we would have shot them dead immediately."

Ninety minutes later, there was hardly a dry eye in the theatre and the performance received a standing ovation. But one man didn't enjoy the show. President Aliev stood up before the end and, without applauding, swept out of the theatre with his entourage.

Mr Aliev then denounced the play, accusing it of glorifying terrorism, and further suggested that itwas part of a sinister plot based in Britain, pointing out the play was first put on in London.

"Dagestan is the place, after Chechnya, that enemies of Russia want to destabilise," said Mr Aliev.

Pelevine says she intends to sue over the allegations and will try again to stage the play in Moscow. "This is the first case of theatre censorship since Gorbachev came to power," she said.

"There's every desire to keep this going. People in Moscow are very concerned and think that now is the time to speak out."

Here is a link to an article from Radio Free Europe and another article from 2006 in The Moscow Times about the London production.

Golden Mask Awards

Following up on a previous posting regarding John Freedman of The Moscow Times, here is his article about the award results from the 14th Golden Mask Festival in Russia.

P. Fomenko Theater

Interesting article in the NYTimes the other day about the new P. Fomenko Theater in Moscow. Though I wish the journalist had spent more on the company and less on the architect, I guess I have to give props to Sergei Gnedovsky for designing the place.