The third try, or Schiller on the Street

The Molodyi Theater is the last of the capital’s drama companies to start the new season, but there were objective reasons for this: major renovations to the structure, which considerably delayed the opening of the season. The company’s artistic director, Stanislav Moiseyev, says with a smile, “There will be no more delays and the third date, Dec. 10, is final. If the builders fail to comply, we’ll stage My End Marks My Beginning (based on Schiller’s Mary Stuart — Auth.) right on the street.” Indeed, two days before the housewarming party, when the photographer and I went to see the results of the renovations, we were stunned: construction work was in full swing. If they met the deadline, it would be a miracle.

NEW FACADE AND INTERIOR

The renovation project designed by architect Serhiy Stepanov is gorgeous, although right now you can only guess at the final result. The facade is ready and the hall is larger and square-shaped, a balcony has been added, and it seats 400 instead of 320. New seats have been installed. The stage is also larger, equipped with new hoists, fences, and curtain. The acoustics have been improved (by installing new lighting and audio equipment), but the place is cold (no central heating so far). Finishing touches were being done to the foyer: painting, assembling chandeliers, sanding the floors, etc. The place smelled of paint, varnish, and lime, what with buzzing drills and banging hammers — and something else that you won’t believe. All this construction noise had no limiting effect on the company’s creative life. Rehearsals were being held on the Small Stage and a play would be performed that very night. Lest the cast idle, they toured Kryvyi Rih and Kherson, and some of the actors took part in various festivals. All told, the team is determined to act and has many plans.

PREMIERES

Before the official launch of the season the Molodyi Theater prepared three premieres for the Small Stage. Larysa Semyrazenko, graduate of National Theater, Cinema, and Television University (Professor Reznykovych’s class) staged Karpenko-Kary’s Naimychka [The Hired Woman]. This is a modern look at a Ukrainian classic. The members of the audience, especially young people, closely follow the story because they have mostly forgotten the play that they studied in school. The precious classics feature countless nuances, and in them each generation finds themes that are immune to the passage of time: how you should protect your love, the line between past and present sins. The cast includes Kateryna Bashkina, Stanislav Dudnyk, Oleksandr Halafutnyk, Viktoria Avdeyenko, etc.

The other premieres are actor Mykhailo Konechny’s musical mono-production The Tailor from Podil based on Schneider’s short stories (directed by Yulia Maslak) and the Crazy Singer by Ukrainian playwright Valentyn Tarasiv. (It won him the Grand Prix of the Coronation of the Word Competition.)

“Staging plays by modern authors is one of the Molodyi’s traditions,” says Stanislav Moiseyev, “and our next premiere on the Great Stage is the Muscoviad based on Yuri Andrukhovych’s novel. I must point out that this is the first time this talented Ukrainian author will be presented as an original playwright on the Ukrainian stage. We’ll stage Volodymyr Orlov’s The Golden Chick as interpreted by Viktor Shulakov. The play Tsurikov by the popular dramatist Maksim Kurochkin in a way brings this ex-Kyivan back to his native land. (He now resides in both Russia and Ukraine.) I’m sure that Juliusz Glowacki’s The Fourth Sister (an allusion to Chekhov’s theme in Three Sisters) will interest audiences. The author has been living in the United States for several years and has promised to attend the premiere. The stage director, Mykola Yaremkiv, will stage the English-language classic, Tennessee Williams’s Orpheus Descending. There will also be premieres on the Small Stage — Oleksandr Ivanets’s Nutcracker ‘04, a chamber play in which Hoffman’s tale whimsically intertwines with recent Orange events.”

The Molodyi Theater will continue to collaborate with the Schauspiel Theater of Dusseldorf. This international creative project involves Ukrainian, German, and Italian actors. The cast of Orpheus of the Illegals, based on Andrukhovych’s novel Perverziya, includes our actors Stanislav Boklan and Volodymyr Kokotunov. In the first ten days of December this play will be staged in Kyiv. The Molodyi Theater is also preparing for a number of festivals.

JUBILEE

December 14 is a significant date in the theater’s history. On this day the company held a grand assembly for the first time in 1979, when it was decided to mark this day as the theater’s birthday. Because of the Orange Revolution and the renovations, the 25th anniversary will be marked at a later date. Moiseyev has assured everyone that there will be a big party that will include a brief ceremony (formalities must be observed), a video film illustrating the history of the Molodyi Theater (including unique documentary materials), a little skit with colleagues offering their greetings, and then “socializing in an informal atmosphere.” Invitations have been sent to people who are not on the theater’s payroll but have been involved with the company. So, many encounters and pleasant surprises are in store.

One gift is ready: a book entitled 25 Young Stories: Jubilee Review by the noted Kyiv drama critics Vitaliy Zhezhera and Serhiy Vasyliev. This compilation recounts not only the stages in the company’s history but above all the plays that mark turning points in the lives of their directors, actors, and even audiences. The authors note that the Molodyi Theater has lived through different periods. At times it seemed that the best was in the past, but then the company shook cultural Kyiv with a very special production. The book is permeated with great affection for the company. It includes monologues by celebrated stage directors, reminiscences, and critics’ responses to the most exciting productions. Archival data are combined with essays in article format; the publication is a real page-turner. The reader starts remembering things; we have all witnessed many events mentioned in the book.