World Monitor Magazine June #3 | Page 84

ART

The Snow Maiden and the Golden Mask

Galina Pyanova , Director , ARTiShock theater
Soulful conversation of love for theater , director ’ s mission , keenness for profession and process of work .
Julie Kussidi : Dear friends , today we are visiting the theater ARTiShock , namely its director Galina Pyanova . This is the first independent theatre in Kazakhstan .
Last year , at the Old House Theater , Novosibirsk , Galina Pyanova staged the performance The Snow Maiden . This year , the performance won the Golden Mask award . And what is the Golden Mask ? This is the Oscar of the theatre world .
To be honest , Galina and I are old friends these past 20 years . So I have the right to talk to Galina on first-name basis .
For me , Galina is a very special person . I admire her talent as an actress , extol her gift as a director , and of course I cherish our friendship .
Today , we would like to talk with Galina about the work The Snow Maiden . How was the idea of this performance born ?
Galina Pyanova : The process takes time . This idea belongs not only to me , and its laurels are not only mine either . We share two categories of the Golden Mask with the Old House Theatre , the entire production group and the actors who participated in this challenging experiment .
It was not easy for the theatre or for me as a person . The role of experimenter is very natural for me and important to me , but this is not the most convenient and easy position for a director . This is the choice of fate and a function of ARTiShock inclusively , often providing us opportunities to prove that we are ‘ normal ’.
The Snow Maiden is the scheduled play in the Old House , approved repertoire .
At the end of a season , the entire theatre team ( director , the literary part of theater , managers , etc .) meet for discussion and make decisions for the theatre in the coming year .
When the Old House was planning the repertoire season for 2015-2016 , the name of a play by A . N . Ostrovskiy ’ s The Snow Maiden appeared . It was important to stage a work from the Russian classical repertoire .
There is a great manager in the theatre , a very modest person who does not like compliments ; he even removes his name in letters that I write . But this does not stop
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