2023-05-09 13:28:27
Director at the Museum of Free Belarus Yana Alekseenko and the actors of the “Part Two” initiative, who left the country due to repressions, conducted an experiment: they read and performed the play “Novy Chas”, which they had seen for the first time.
In Belarus, Alekseenko worked as a director of various children’s and adult projects, musical and theatrical events. She was also a teacher at the Belarusian State University of Culture and Art, but she was forced to leave and has been living with her family in Warsaw for 10 months. Here, the director together with Belarusian actors created the theater initiative “The Second Place”.
“It all started with “I want”. Actors came to me in Warsaw and said: “Listen, you’re a director, let’s do something, we’re tired of going to work.” Actors very often don’t have any additional specialty so that they can somehow still work, that’s why many of them started by cleaning, taking care of other people’s children, working in shops and growing hair… This is a difficult moment,” says Yana Alekseenko.
“I’ll go clean for two hours – and we’ll have money to buy cardboard”
The idea to make a reading came from the actress Olga Karolenak, says Maksimenko. They decided to do the reading, because it was not possible to conduct months-long rehearsals for staging a full-fledged performance, Yana admits.
“It was important for us to have contemporary Belarusian drama. We were looking for a playwright who would agree to present his play abroad, because there is a risk that if you are read in Warsaw, they will be considered an extremist.”
The playwright who created the play “New Time” is now in Belarus, so his name has not been released.
The work on the future reading room stretched for a couple of months. The team also hoped that their project would be supported by the Belarusian Council of Culture, but they were refused. Therefore, the actors and the director had to do almost everything by their own efforts and with their own funds, Yana says.
“We bought something with our own funds, took something from the museum. Employee Alyona says: “Why are you looking for these costumes, there is a warehouse with clothes to help Belarusians.” We were greatly supported by Strefa Wolnego Slowa, a Polish organization that works with migrant artists.”
A lot of people helped for free because they were interested in the project, says the director.
“Undoubtedly, a lot of my own time was spent on this, Volechka Karolenak also said: “Well, I’ll go clean for two hours – and we’ll have money to buy cardboard.” A lot of things were done by hand.”
“Actors do not know the rules of the game perfectly: the same as the Belarusian society”
In the “blind reading” format, the actors do not read the text before going on stage, but there were small exceptions. The actors knew only that the play would be about Belarus.
“We thought that there is a need to look our trauma in the eyes and say: “That was 1998, that was 2020, but today is 2023. And today is a new time.” For me, the parallel was very important, that the actors do not know the rules of the game perfectly, just as the Belarusian society sometimes does not understand, by what rules it exists, what awaits people tomorrow, whether they did the right thing, whether they will “get” on the head for something or they will be praised.”
After such information, some actors refused to participate in the reading, because they were going to go to Belarus, says the director. There were also very fierce arguments about whether the actors could still read the text.
“We came to a compromise: we offered people who have problems such as dyslexia to read the play, but we did not say what role the person will play in this performance. At the reading itself, they received other copies of the text with prescribed tasks, wishes for improvisation, with some notes.”
She admits that it was not difficult for her to emotionally work on the play, as she was quite strict with the structure of the work, so as not to delve into the feelings.
“In our case, the playwright puts the main character in a hospital for the mentally ill, saying that this is a real defeat. That is, if the heroine, having done all the actions, did not achieve the goal, then she is in a state of defeat, and she is forced to accept this defeat, and all the heroes must say: “This is not what we wanted.” That’s the result I wanted to reach, so that everyone calmly and soberly said: “At this stage, everything is exactly like this”.
The director adds that many unexpected moments opened up for her during the reading in the museum.
“There were unequivocally biracial heroes of the play. And the actors, because they didn’t know what kind of role it was, and couldn’t paint it emotionally in advance, definitely somehow humanized their role. And this is a nice opportunity to see the essence of people whom someone hates, does not forgive, does not understand. Because we have to live with them.”
“My heroine is a teacher, she keeps her face, because who else does this country rely on?”
Actress Daria Vashkevich took part in such a reading format for the first time and says that she really liked it.
“There was a lot of improvisation. Everything is unknown, and I really like that. I personally like this format a lot. I didn’t know anything before reading. Before that, we met once to make a teaser, a video, and a day before the screening — just to get to know the actors, to see who will be there in general. I didn’t have the text, it was a complete surprise.”
The actress adds that this obscurity was the only difficulty.
“There was tension to be in the context, not to lose the text, to follow what was happening. So emotionally it was normal for me, because the technical process took a lot of attention.”
Daria also says that in her life she met women similar to her heroine in the play.
“My heroine is a teacher; she “keeps her face”, because who else does this country rely on? She is certainly familiar with history, but she does everything “the right way”. There were such aunts in my life, but fortunately, there were more other people like Vera.”
“It’s therapy for me and every viewer”
The main character Vera was played by Olga Karolenak, an actress, translator, member of the theater initiative “The Second Place”.
“We still need to reflect on everything, there are a lot of emotions. But people were already approaching, giving very pleasant feedback. Something turned out better than we thought, and something worse, but we consciously went for an experiment, so I’m satisfied,” she shares her impressions. Olga Karolenak.
The actress admits that she really enjoyed playing Vera.
“This role is nice in that it is therapy for me and every viewer. If somewhere in life we cannot speak against the system, say to the face of the system that it is shit, then I can in this role. And I hope that through me the audience in the hall, who did not have the opportunity or the courage to say such a thing at the time, also received this therapy. This is a great asset of my role.”
Olga says that it was a great pleasure for her to perform on stage again.
“I resigned from the theater during the wave of protests in 2020, and since then I have not been engaged in this activity. Therefore, there is a happy feeling of returning to my profession. It’s true, it was much more difficult to organize a reading over the course of several months, because in the theater you are only an actor, and here you still have to be “everyone”.
Now the director has plans to translate the play into Polish and English and read it in different countries with new groups of actors. Also, the team of the initiative “Where is the second” plans to use the format of “blind reading”.
“We also thought about different formats for age groups: reading books for children, comics for young people, for the older generation. We also want to try not only dramatic formats, but maybe poetry, documentary, with notes from living people.”
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