Translated material
Birds are large and small
There are only four stories in the world, Borges believed. And one of them is about thirty birds crossing the mountains and the sea to see the face of their God, which is each of them and all of them at once
In Moscow, there are shows of performances nominated for the Golden Mask national theater award. Among the applicants for victory in the “Experiment” category is the inclusive play “Bird Language”, created by the Big Drama Theater together with the center “Anton here is nearby”. Theater academics believe that this is a unique innovation, the only example of a collaboration of the repertoire theater and the social fund.
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDThe “Bird Language” was born from weekly theatrical and improvisational classes based on the poems of the ancient Sufi thinker Farid ad-Din Attar. The plot is based on a story about a flock of birds that go on a long journey to know themselves. Together to choose the direction of movement is one of the main tasks of the performance.
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDEven being formally healthy, we entangle ourselves with threads and conventions, preventing himself from living or others. The play “Bird Language” says, first of all, that each of us - despite our features, physical data, mental problems and everything else - unlimited possibilities. The main thing is not to be afraid of anything, including getting attached to someone. But still you should not tie others to yourself-it is a violation of other people's freedom and other people's boundaries.
Maria Zhmurova photo: Vladimir Averin for TDMasha Zhmurova plays a successful woman in the performance and discusses why her colleagues in the stage are not such. Her monologues about fitness, driving a car, riding and other attributes of success are so homominically ridiculous that at some point the hall literally explodes with laughter. But this does not bother Masha, it is generally difficult to get out of itself , despite the generally accepted opinion about people with autism.
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDWithout plastic training, under the guidance of the director of the plastic of Alina Mikhailova, no rehearsal is complete. Sometimes it seems that the students of the Center “Anton here are nearby” generally like to move and sing, and they do not need words at all.
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDAll participants in the action admit that they like to rehearse even more than playing the performance on the stage: you can improvise, look for new moves, express yourself without fear of failure.
Victoria Artyukhova, the rising star of the BDT, loves the “birds” for the feeling of the gained height: “We are here and the choir, and the flock, and each in itself. This is my favorite performance, because in it I completely dissolve and fly. ”
Director Boris Pavlovich Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDBoris Pavlovich is a director, amazing in every way. He was a little more than twenty -five, when he headed the Kirov “Theater on Spasskaya”, which instantly became the city legend and the place of the meeting of those who had never been in their lives in the theater before. At thirty-three he became the head of the BDT socio-educational projects, and left the eminent theater less than three years later and went on free swimming. Its inclusive trainings are the cherished dream of each self -respecting regional theater, and lectures about the social theater are a potential hit in the program of any festival.
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDFor some reason, the spectators are most surprising that the “bird language” is not a limited performance of people limited in their capabilities, but a full-fledged theatrical action, filled with meanings and beauty. Apparently, nevertheless, we still have inclusion as something like a small town, “wretched”, inferior. Otherwise, how to explain that after watching even friends and acquaintances, in surprise, threw up their hands: "How does he do it?" —Porezum, that the director uses shamanistic techniques prohibited in a decent society.
After the rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" photo: Vladimir Averin for TDIn order to fly away for distant lands and find yourself, you need to throw off old skin, get rid of previous habits and not be afraid to become like everyone else. The baggy, from someone else's shoulder jackets to growth, is an amazingly accurate metaphor found by the artist of the performance by Katerina Andreeva - they tell us that completely different souls are hidden under the shapeless, equally dull shell.
Nina Buyanenko photo: Vladimir Averin for TDNina Buyanenko, in order to enter the performance, sometimes requires more effort than its other participants. But on tour in Moscow, Nina proved herself to be a very thin and talented actress, who interacted with other actors well. In the opening photo, she lies, curled up, in the symbolic circle of love and warmth, which her partners surrounded by the site. The brush already applies to the back of the back in the place where her wings will soon grow.
Maria Kruglova and Akim Norlander Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDIt is strongly impossible to imagine the “Bird Language” without drums, percussions, songs and dances. The rocker with experience Alexei Plusnin-the composer of the play-turns it into an unforgettable sound track, in the final of which a real Brazilian carnival begins.
Showing the play “Bird Language” in the Stanislavsky Electrodeater Photo: Vladimir Averin for TD 
Maxim Slesarev in the auditorium photo: Vladimir Averin for TDMaxim Slesarev, whose birthday was unanimously celebrated after the first show, during the tour in Moscow turned 38. Small height, stocky, with ridiculously protruding ears, he loves to control everything and organize everything, but on the stage, devoid of this opportunity, becomes especially touching and defenseless.
During rehearsals, Boris Pavlovich from time to time makes pauses and “lets go” the artists to sit in the auditorium in order to feel his atmosphere and better understand the psychology of the viewer, get used to his image too. Maxim uses the moment to feel what it is like to see in front of him only a rectangle of the stage and strange people in the same jackets who decided to fly to the other end of the world.
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDThe uniting all and the infectious carnival is preceded by a spectacular ending with transparent white clothes, crowns and a mysterious haze, which suddenly overtakes a bird flock closer to the end of the path. In it - the most unexpected and strange way - is reflected in the unsteadyness of our ideas about others, the world and ourselves.
Nina Buyanenko and Anton Flerov Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDIn the play, Nina Buyanenko plays the lover of Anton Flerova, and their delicate lyrical duet at shows in Moscow began to play, as the team of the performance says, some completely new colors. It is characteristic that in real life between the two students of the Center “Anton is nearby” nothing personal, that is, they simply play their “love story”, forgetting about it as soon as they leave the scene.
After the performance photo: Vladimir Averin for TD“Bird language” is not only a directing group and almost two dozen actors (seven of which with a dosage of an autistic spectrum or Down syndrome), but also a whole staff of the theater employees. It would seem that the performance is completely uncomplicated from the point of view of logistics, but the collection of costumes alone takes at least an hour. But without his branded jacket, not a single bird will go on flight, so the work of the costumer should not be underestimated.
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDCross the line. Actor Alexander Kononets, who is also in other productions of the BDT, honestly admits that before starting work on the performance, there were concerns and bewilderment: “To overcome the first barrier, fear of people dissimilar to you, ignorance, how to help them personally left for a whole year. When we were just starting, we did not even know that the play “Bird Language” would arise, we simply had a “meeting” project, and we were engaged with autists. Sometimes I came to the lesson and thought that I was doing here at all, why should I massage a huge akim? (A large, with a sales red -haired beard akim Norlander is the most silent of all students of the center, it can be “talked” with only in the smoking room - TD). And now, three years after our first lesson, I can’t imagine them others and I think that if they were different, they would not be myself. ”
Maria Zhmurova photo: Vladimir Averin for TDThe joy of recognition.
- Masha, how successful do you feel in this performance?
- If I seriously work on myself and manage to complete all the tasks at work, then during the performance I also become a successful woman.
-Tell me, did something change in your life after you began to participate in this performance?
- Certainly! I learned to portray a stroke of sparrow and sing much better.
Yana Savitskaya photo: Vladimir Averin for TDWith a smart and subtle actress, Yana Savitskaya Pavlovich has been working on for more than ten years. They worked together in Kirov, then Yana followed Boris to St. Petersburg and entered the BDT. In a short conversation between evening rehearsals, she honestly admits that she waits for Tuesday all week: “Perhaps I even sat down a little, and our meetings have become like a drug for me, but I just need to come to them at least once a week to feel more alive. With them, I always remember my childhood when I did not care what my face or hairstyle is. During classes and at rehearsals, I feel completely free and can become myself again. ”
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDEverything flows, everything changes. Victoria Artyukhova sings, pouring water from one palm to another. Her powerful, beautiful voice-a real decoration of the performance-does not allow to be distracted, off, think about something of your own, as is often the case in the "ordinary" theater. On the “Birds of Birds” (no matter how many times it watches it), an amazing one happens at all: you catch every word, follow every gesture and, most importantly, you feel not pride, not tenderness, not sympathy, but shock - from the fact that art can gain any, most amazing, forms.
Rehearsal of the play "Bird Language" Photo: Vladimir Averin for TDVika Artyukhova: “Now I know that there are people with disabilities, but there are people with unlimited abilities. And this is true. Because in fact, limited capabilities are with us, those who consider themselves full -fledged. Each time after rehearsal, I think how patterned I think, how patterned I exist. ”
theater