Translated material
Professionalism
Do you know what is the most unpleasant in the theater? This is that the curtain will still rise and the actors will still go on stage and will still play the performance. This is the "most terrible".
I realized that I had ceased to be an actress when I agreed several years ago to an uninteresting but well -paid project. Money became motivation, because there is such a concept - "professionalism". You are a professional - it means that you can play everything anyway.
So: you feel like a professional, you tell yourself that this is the only way that is known to earn money, and at home a child. And your professionalism no longer corresponds to any of your initial ideas.
You swallow shame for the performance in which you are busy. And do not remember already why of all the professions you once chose this particular that led you, what dreams inspired?
My talented dad once told me that one of the theater’s calls is to treat cynicism. But what to do when the concept of "professionalism" infects
The higher professionalism, the higher the cost of livingcynicism? Professionalism selects a sense of choice, and in return gives a subsistence minimum. And the higher the professionalism, the higher the cost of living becomes. I am trying to understand whether it is possible in this world to do what you love, remaining faithful inner ethical values? And if you managed not to immerse yourself in cynicism, but to deal honestly and sincerely with your business, is it possible to live with dignity this life? I admire and envy people who succeed in a good way.
It seems to me that the problem of any society - whether France or Russia is that we all, by and large, became professionals, forgot about our childhood dream, the one that originally motivated us. We are professionally writing, playing, teaching, managing, we are even fighting professionally. And professionally we reach the point of absurdity and professionally close our eyes and turn away from everything that can deprive us of comfort.
Professional rulers professionally tear the people.
Professional police officers professionally blow and twist people and professionally torture them in the cells of investigative insulators.
Professional witnesses give professional testimony to professional investigators.
In Sochi, professional athletes go professionally to compete.
Professional fans will professionally fill the stadiums.
Professional journalists will write professional articles about the friendship of five continents symbolized by Olympic rings.
And Ilya Farber will sit because he refused to be a cynical professional and followed his dream and faith in people. Nadia and Masha, convicted by a professional court and a professional church, will suffocate in working barracks.
The world is infected with "professionalism." The professional theater can no longer cope with its vocation. We are all professionals, and we justify our human and creative powerlessness. As for me, in the theater, after this case, I no longer play - I am treating cynicism.
Olga Kokorina-director and theater teacher, activist of the Russie-Libertés movement (Paris)