Kyiv Pectoral: problems of growth

The 2008 Kyiv Pectoral award ceremony traditionally took place on March 27, the World Theater Day. The ceremony is over, but they are still questions. The results show that the members of the organizing committee, critics, and experts were far from being unanimous. So they went for a compromise and chose the winners by simply counting the votes.

The noted theater critic Vitalii Zhezhera, who has been on the expert board since the Pectoral award was launched, says: “I am surprised every time by how unpredictable collective judgments are. For example, at one point it seemed unbelievable that Oleksii Lisovets’ play Final Journey staged in the Left-Bank Drama and Comedy Theater was not even nominated, while last year they ignored Yaroslav Havryliuk’s outstanding performance in An Ordinary Story in the Young Theater.

“Interestingly, when experts see eye to eye it is not surprising and does not seem incomprehensible. However, no one knows (and I won’t venture my opinion either) what laws cause disagreements (or disregard). This year I was puzzled by the absence of the Ivan Franko Theater’s God’s Tear and Legend of Faustus from the five-strong list of nominees. My colleagues also ignored brilliant performance of the actors Les Serdiuk and Bohdan Stupka, as well as Maksym Maksymiuk, who played Roman in One Hundred Thousand. Several worthy actresses also went unnoticed: Natalia Sumska (Odarka in Danube Cossack beyond the Rapids, Beniuk & Khostikoiev Theater Company), Vira Mazur (Angel in Nativity Play, Theater on Podil), and Liubov Kubiuk (God’s Tear).

“I have no quarrel with the winners — they deserve it — but I have questions to those who ignored other worthy entrants. This is the Kyiv Pectoral’s main problem.”

The award ceremony, which clearly avoided any pomp, and the scaling down of the nominations (from 13 to 10) betrayed the “economy mode.” At the same time, the general festive mood was there, in part due to the witty comp?ring by the Les Zadniprovsky and Liudmyla Smorodina of the Ivan Franko Theater.

OSTROVSKY ON THE DNIPRO’S LEFT BANK

The key awards—“Best Drama Play” and “Best Director”—went to the Left-Bank Drama and Comedy Theater’s All Good Things Come to an End (director Oleksii Lisovets). This play portrays all human vices, which were so comprehensively and aptly exposed by its author Alexander Ostrovsky, in an especially relevant way. The main one among the vices is the greedy pursuit of riches at any cost in defiance of moral laws and personal convictions. In Lisovets’ play episodes come one after another as still frames in cinematography, being strung together by the playwright’s and director’s key philosophical idea. The music and scenography, for which the play was also nominated, helped create a brilliant and somewhat ironic story of human life—true, unpredictable, and spectacular. All Good Things Come to an End is a play with an astounding number of actor and pure staging tricks, which the contemporary audience finds appealing.

The Ivan Franko Theater’s Edith Piaf: La Vie En Rose (director Ihor Afanasiev, music by Viktoria Vasalatii) was mentioned on numerous occasions at the award ceremony and won two main “musical” awards — “Best Music” and “Best Musical Play.” Despite the cautious attitude to the musical play as a genre on the part of Ukrainian directors and theater-goers, this play was a clear contender for a Pectoral award as soon as it was staged. The grateful subject, even though it is overly popular even within Kyiv, and the fame of the poet and playwright Yurii Rybchynsky were among the factors that contributed to the play’s success. The prophecies came true and the play did become a winner. It fully deserved the recognition it was given: this is a story of a brilliant singer who freed herself from what seemed to be sheer hell, experienced losses, unfair treatment, and spiritual torments, but eventually succeeded in reaching true musical Olympus. This story is an ode to willpower, talent, and true art.

YOUNG AGE, CONTEMPORARY CHARACTER, AND PROVOCATIVE NATURE

Handing the “Best Actor” award to Ihor Rubashkin (Diderot, Le Libertin) of the Pechersk New Drama Theater, the actress Natalia Sumska said, “Youth Has Won!” This is a fitting description of the young and promising Rubashkin. Further strong points are the contemporary script authored by the popular dramatist ?ric-Emmanuel Schmitt and innovative staging solutions. The play was also a laureate in the “Best Chamber Play” nomination. Not long before the Pectoral contest the play and Ruba-shkin won the Bronek award, so in this case Kyiv’s theater critics are undeniably unanimous.

The “Best Play for Children” award went to the Young Spectator Theater in Lypky (Poliana); Nadia Kondratovska of the Kyiv Suziria Theater Workshop was voted best actress; Maria Pohrebniak (Legend of Faustus, Ivan Franko Theater) received the “Best Scenography” prize; and Ksenia Kholodniakova made the best debut of 2008 with staging Days Are Swishing By (Left-Bank Drama and Comedy Theater).

The Kyiv Pectoral award has lost its luster over the past several years. It is time for sweeping changes, as The Day has been told by two theater experts.

Oleksii LISOVETS, director of the Left-Bank Drama and Comedy Theater:

“I have to admit that the older I am, the more I understand the truth of the saying that competition is totally pointless in art. I have not seen Dmytro Bohomazov’s Sweet Dreams, Richard in the Free Stage, which was also nominated [for the award], but I know that when he makes a musical play on the chamber stage, there is a 100-percent guarantee that this is a significant event. I will definitely go and see it. So comparing his play with mine is a vain undertaking because we staged them on different stages, and there is something tricky in the very act of comparing.

“I am, naturally, pleased that All Good Things Come to an End has won an award. This is the merit of our entire theater. For me our theater is home, where it is warm and comfortable and where people love and take pride in one another (actors and actresses have to take pride of their director, administration, repertoire, and the supporting staff). Otherwise a repertoire-based theater will find it hard to survive in the current economic situation.

“The Pectoral award has gone through different periods in the 17 years of its existence. In the past couple of years many have criticized it, saying that it has to change. This is all true, but drastic changes are hard to accomplish these days due to financial reasons. The Russian counterpart of this award is the Golden Mask award, which is a festival. The organizers and experts see all the plays staged across this vast country and then bring the best ones to Moscow, so that the critics and the public could analyze them and determine the winners. This approach is very correct, but at the same time, it requires a big budget. Ukraine cannot afford such a high-cost project now, but the idea itself is wonderful. Perhaps, when the economic crisis is in the past, the Kyiv Pectoral award will adopt this format.

“Frankly, when I first received the Pectoral award for the play Romeo and Juliet, I was more excited. This play ended with an Orthodox prayer (I recently obtained a church permission to use the prayer “For children”), which may have been a factor. The play also had a lot of personal things. It is about love and God, friends and enemies, jealousy and life, etc. All Good Things Come to an End has a more local character. However, I put a lot of soul into this one, too, and this is, perhaps, what attracts the audience: both plays are sold out in our theater.”

Anatolii KHOSTIKOIEV, actor and director of the Ivan Franko Theater and the Beniuk & Khostikoiev Theater Company:

“I am sure that there are numerous extremely interesting plays in our country, but we don’t know about them here in Kyiv. So it would be great to expand the Kyiv Pectoral to cover entire Ukraine. We already have a need for an all-Ukrainian theater prize. This will stimulate people to create, analyze, compare, and understand where the theater is heading for now.

“Today the Kyiv Pectoral is not only spinning its wheels—we have grown out of it. Every year we see the same theaters, directors, and actors who receive prizes. Many have lost the desire to be nominated. For example, I have three Pectoral awards, while Natalia Sumska has two.

“What were the criteria used to select the nominees this year? Interestingly, the experts ignored Sumska’s excellent performance in two plays: Kaidashykha in Kaidash’s Family (Ivan Franko Theater) and Odarka in Danube Cossack beyond the Rapids (Beniuk & Khostikoiev Theater Company). I am sure that these parts are worthy of more than the Pectoral award. Theater-goers vote for them with their feet—all the plays are sold out. I am saying this not as Sumska’s husband but as an appreciator of her wonderful artistic skills. “I fail to understand why the three nominees for the “Best Musical Play” did not include a single play by the National Opera of Ukraine, the Operetta Theater, the Kyiv Opera and Ballet Theater for Children, or the Kyiv Modern Ballet. I am truly happy that the Ivan Franko Theater’s Edith Piaf: La Vie En Rose received two Pectorals—“Best Music” and “Best Musical Play.” However, productions in drama and musical theaters have to be clearly distinguished. I believe that the organizing committee needs to give it some good thought. Hopefully, they will introduce more clearly defined selection criteria for the next year’s award. If the status of the contest is raised to all-Ukrainian, its level will also rise.”