Krasnodar, 29 October. Today, our guest for our weekly interview is going to be the main director of Krasnodar Dramatic Art Theatre “Maksim Gorkyi”, Arsenyi Fogelev.
- I try to separate these two roles. It’s not difficult because I have practically no productions in which I participate both as an actor and a director at the same time. Those are just two different positions, two different functions, two roles, if you will. I switch between them as needed. - Во время репетиций, это будет пронизано иронией.
- Which qualities are fundamental to be part of the Drama Theatre troupe? And which ones to be the main actor?
- It’s quite simple: to get into the company, you have to be right for the company.
If we’re talking about technical aspects, first of all you have to send in your resume, and if the theater has a need for actors, you’ll be invited to audition. Then it all depends on how the audition will go.
It is a well-known truth that the talent of an actor is in the depth of his perception. How deeply and truly can a person perceive something that is not real, as it is happening to him? How close will he let it be, how much will he appropriate it, how quickly will he adapt and how will he react to it? The latter is important not only for the stage - it’s always easier to work and communicate with people who are communicative, with whom you don’t have to endlessly pick up code words, nor you need to break the human behavior pattern.
- How should the director of a theatre be, a dictator? Or should he be liberal?
- In Japanese, there is a word that translates as “chief”, although there is a twist. In our, Russian language, “chief” is usually some supervisor who tells you what to do, but in their language the word literally means “a person who liberates you from chaos.
I think a director is just the kind of profession where you have to be able to liberate space from chaos so that a person, whether he’s an artist or any other employee of the theater, can realize himself as effectively as possible. In order for your mentee - I don’t like the word “subordinate” - to have the opportunity to work and grow, he needs to open up as many existence variables as possible, and for that you have to try and free him from those things which create his own chaos.
- Previously, about ten years ago, there were more daring plays in the theatre’s repertoire, while now we can see a prevalence of conservative ones. Do you agree, and, if so, what is the cause, to you?
- I’ll answer banally, but, concisely: in over ten years the medium has changed. To be more specific...
I agree to a certain degree that there were more daring productions at that time, but the point, it seems to me, is not whether the productions we do now are radical or not, the point is to move forward.
Follow our news on Facebook
За всеми важными новостями следите в Telegram, во «ВКонтакте», «Одноклассниках» и на YouTube
