The Theatre Times: Timofey Kulyabin is one of the most prominent young directors in Russia today. At 34, he has already staged nearly two dozen productions across the Russian Federation as well as internationally in France, Austria, Romania, Germany, and Switzerland. In 2016, he was commissioned by Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre to stage Donizetti’s opera Don Pasquale and in 2019 he will offer up a new staging there of Dvořák’s opera Rusalka.
6 comments:
Hmm. The title of this article is a bit of a misnomer: a single quote from a different interview pulled out to be clickbait. Still an interesting read. The idea of a play performed in sign language-- not for accessibility's sake but as a method of more directly accessing the text is an intriguing one. This especially appeals to me from a sound perspective, ironically or not. The method that Kulyabin describes of creating the sound of the show, effectively a musical of ambient noise and foley, sounds absolutely fascinating to create. I have to imagine that the process would by similar to foley design in a film, admittedly with a heavier reliance on live, staged sounds than just sound cues. The design, cueing, and rehearsal of those rhythms and effects must be grueling, but, I imagine, equally rewarding. In regards to the audience's interaction with the language-less performance, it is hard for me to imagine what that would be like. It sounds intriguing, however, and I hope I get to experience something similar one day.
I agree with Margaret that the title of this article was deceiving and that was honestly quite frustrating as a reader. I was expecting to read a controversial opinion and its justification and to have something interesting to think about when I came out of it. That’s not to say that the interview was not interesting per say, but it wasn’t what I wanted.
That being said, the interview reminded me a lot of Conservatory Hour this Monday. We had our Intents and Insights for Detroit 67, and Kim spoke a lot about the rhythm of the piece, and Timofey spoke about that as well in a very interesting way. I like the idea of injecting rhythm into movement, obviously that is something that is done in acting all the time, but to add the extra layer of language and the idea of the movement itself being a language, and then speaking to a rhythm, it makes a lot of sense to sign music in such a way.
What a pleasant surprise! I am super interested in the use of sign language in theater, and I wrote a lengthy English paper on Chekhov for my senior year final so this article is a lovely thing to come across, although I agree that it is a bit of a clickbait. I am curious as to why only hearing actors were cast in this show. The article states that the actors had to spend a year and a half learning sign language. Maybe there were some deaf actors, but if so that isn't mentioned in the article. I understand the language barrier a director may struggle with, but the process would have been faster and much less expensive if any amount of deaf actors had been used. I've said this before and I'll say it again, if deaf actors can dance and sign in time to music for a Broadway revival of Spring Awakening, deaf actors can be used here. That said, I love the idea of bringing theater to an audience that may not have attended before, but I find that musicals are much less accessible and therefore more exciting to see offered. All that said, this seems like a great production, and I think the idea of isolating Chekhov is really intelligent. His words have been misconstrued so many times and the idea of giving that agency back to the audience really interesting.
When reading the title of Sergey Elkin’s Article- “Art Doesn’t Exist To Be Liked” An Interview With Russian Stage Director, Timofey Kulyabin- I was extremely interested. I was interested because the title led me to believe this article would dance around the topic of censorship to make art more digestible, and how that strays us away sometimes from the purpose of the art. To show the audience a message. If I new about the previous work of the director, Timofey interviews, I might have knew what the article was really about. About showing the audience a message, audience including that of the auditorily impaired. I’m okay with the fact that the article was not what I thought It was, it was just as interesting and important. Though I feel iffy about censorship to make a message more accessible for an audience, I do enjoy the idea of making live performance art more accessible through additive, not subtractive, measures.
I enjoyed reading about this man’s visions, and the reasons behind every choice, especially for his version of The Three Sisters. I love how theatre across the globe is looking to become more inclusive and more and more directors are seeing sing language as a tool to tell a story, rather than an accommodation for the hearing impaired population. Finding a way to incorporate it in their concepts to make art with it, rather than having an interpreter shoved in a corner. When the director was confronted about ‘taking away’ the text from he actors, since they were only signing, the director came back saying that he didn’t. It proved to be challenge, because they had to be just as precise. Also mentioned how the classic is overwritten and how current generations don’t really grasp the sound of it because of that. So eliminating the words, actually gave the performance more energy, and more impactful for the new audiences.
I am so grateful that I landed on this article, both so I could learn about this ingenious concept for a production and so I could be introduced to an artist as brilliant as Timofey Kulyabin. His response to the question of what art exists for rang with truth and clarity for me personally, and was spoken in the most eloquent and frank manner possible. Certainly, a man who has that sort of intention behind his work in mind would be the man to save an aging Chekhov play with the medium of sign language supplemented by calculatedly musical “life sounds.” I think what I appreciate most about this project of Kulyabin’s is his full, unselfish investment in a daring perspective. It is the kind of work, frankly, that attracts other daring theater makers and in turn generates more daring work. I am so excited to follow this young director’s journey in the industry, and I hope to experience it myself one day.
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