Maria Rogovaya. "SibAltera-2003": completely different bears

"SibAltera-2003": completely different bears
Maria Rogovaya

Publication date: November 10, 2003

From November 10 to 23, Novosibirsk will host the festival of independent author's theaters and new dramaturgy "SibAltera-2003". Shakespeare wrote plays for himself as the head of the Globe. Mr. Moliere staged his plays in the same way. The author's intention for this format is the holy of holies. The author becomes triune, he is present in every word, in every sound from beginning to end. This is the usual creation of the world: Day one - text, Day two - script, Day three - roles, Day four - production, Friday, Saturday - rehearsals... And he saw that it was good! Author's theater is not a new thing for anyone, but in this context it is the only possible way to fully participate in the project, a festival gathering of independent creative systems. "SibAltera", or "Another Siberia", is not a tour of Russian and foreign theaters, but the conquest of a new space "beyond the Urals" and a powerful exchange of experience: master classes, presentations (actor's and author's readings) of new Russian and foreign plays (in including plays by young Siberian playwrights), professional round tables of art managers and producers working in the field of independent theatrical art. Within two weeks, Novosibirsk will become the center of alternative theatrical art, the Babylon of visual media, theatrical languages ​​- movement, plasticity, sound, text. The program includes “Tree”, “Royal Giraffe”, “AKHE”, “Takoy Theatre”, “Theater of Alexei Merkushev”. People still have this association: independent, non-state means amateur, self-made. Independent theaters operate on their own stages and sell out houses, tour all over the world, but as soon as you include a couple of Russian cities on your tour, production problems begin: “Who are you bringing to us? Private people?” One of the functions of the festival is to debunk such myths. That is why among the participants there are many “expensive” and titled independent theaters, because they give a clear idea of ​​the possible level of professionalism and skill of a non-state author’s theater. For many academic theaters, the time has come when they have a unique chance to take “private” lessons. However, two performances by state theaters were included in the festival program, since they were staged based on the winning plays at the SibAltera readings last year. It was a competition of young playwrights under the pathetic name "We choose Novosibirsk." "Free Artists" of Novosibirsk sent play scripts, the best of which were included in the drama collection and were offered to theaters for production. Now these two state theaters occupy a special, iconic position in the festival program - a symbol of recognition. For two years now, SibAltera has been taking its winners to the Moscow festival of young dramaturgy "Lyubimovka", where readings and screenings of their plays are held. And since Eduard Baykov, the general director of the Golden Mask, now strongly supports both New Drama and Lyubimovka , victory in the Novosibirsk competition and a subsequent trip to Lyubimovka can play a very serious role for the young playwright.

From an interview with the president of SibAltera, Victoria Kholodova:

Russian Magazine: Could you give an example of the effective promotion of an author from SibAltera to big voyages?

Victoria Kholodova: Ivan Vyrypaev (“Oxygen”). He is from Irkutsk. When they were going to a competition with their theater “Space of Game” (it describes the dreams of drug addicts), I remember how he called and asked: “If you don’t select us, then please return the tape - we don’t have the money to record a new one.” ". We selected them, and they went to Moscow to see Gremina and Ugarov at Theater.doc . They did so well there that even the British and Germans began to translate their play. And when they returned to Irkutsk, they were immediately thrown out of their theater, they were told that you had already received all the regalia in the capital, so stay there. So we stayed in Moscow and entered Theater.doc.

RJ: How did the idea and then the project for the playwriting competition come about?

V.Kh.: I once worked as a stage manager at the Stary Dom theater. Zavlit reads plays received by the theater and helps the chief director in forming the repertoire portfolio. But now he’s busy doing whatever he wants. It happens that a zavlit plays the role of a press secretary or organizer, for example, of children's events. Due to circumstances, I had to do almost everything. Including inventing some new ideas, artistic ideas. In any case, when a person works for a long time - and I worked there for more than 10 years - he goes through some stages. There was a time when I had to write a lot of theater reviews and draw up documents for various foundations. It was necessary to constantly invent something: the opening of the season, the closing of the season, all sorts of benefit performances. In the end, I realized that I was tired, I was full of this writing. How many times can you invent entertainment events for some non-existent reasons? Again, interesting ideas emerged along the way. For example, we had such an interesting program - “The Fairy Tale of Your Dreams”. This is a kind of prototype of a playwriting competition, only for children. The children wrote fairy tales, and then we spent the entire season teaching them how to write scripts for performances based on these stories. Then we decided to do the same for adults. We received a grant from the Soros Foundation and held the first SibAltera in December 2000. The Old House was the founder and organizer. It was then that a split began in me: on the one hand, I worked in the state theater, and on the other, in the independent one. It was very strange: the organizer of the festival of independent theaters was the state one. Well, we somehow beautifully motivated this, they say, only in conditions of competition and market relations can theatrical art develop. Then we created the association of independent theaters "Open Contact", the brainchild of which is the SibAltera festival.

RJ: With the successful development of the project, does it become easier to find sponsors?

V.Kh.: Not at all. Our mentality is different. We visited all government agencies. Even after agreeing on financial support, they often refuse at the last moment. Information sponsors - please - or companies can give some product as a gift to touring groups, but no fees. Complete disappointment in government structures is setting in. It’s good that theaters are accommodating with their premises, that foreigners are interested in our creative powers.

RJ: What does the name of the project “SibAltera” mean?

V.Kh.: Another Siberia. We proceeded from the fact that many visitors have associations with bears, snow, vodka, and the Decembrists. But she's different! On the other hand, this exoticism attracts people here, like a fairy tale. And for some reason we are destroying this fairy tale, showing completely different “bears”.

Touring is only one of the activities of SibAltera, and from the outside it seems that the organization is already firmly on its feet, because they immediately started with the highest standards. In fact, everything is just beginning and is developing more in depth than in breadth: publishing, festival, teaching and seminar activities. In the future, the inclusion of several more directions and, finally, over time (I want it to be short) - the creation of a production center in Novosibirsk, which will create its own products. That is, stage your own performances, recruit theater groups from the best actors and directors.