It so happened that the Green Living Room constantly invites visiting stars. But we really wanted to be visited by our own, Chicago man, whom we all know and love. We needed a reason. The reason presented itself. On February 12, we are going to the BytheWay theater for the play "The Voice". This is a one-act dramatization of the story of the same name by science fiction writer Sever Gansovsky.
It so happened that the Green Living Room constantly invites visiting stars. But we really wanted to be visited by our own, Chicago man, whom we all know and love. We needed a reason. The reason presented itself. On February 12, we are going to the BytheWay theater for the play "The Voice". This is a one-act dramatization of the story of the same name by science fiction writer Sever Gansovsky.
Despite the fantastic plot, this is a performance about us and our time, about talent and obsession.
The play features great music, and the amazing fate of the main character will not leave you indifferent and will make you think. What is talent? Is it a gift of nature, the result of bloody work on yourself, or a chemical reaction that can be controlled?
That's why we dragged Vyacheslav Kaganovich into our living room. He is the founder of Chicago's first Russian-language repertory theater, Atrium, where he was one of the directors for ten years. In 2011 , Vyacheslav created a new group, which was named ByTheWay.
Have you already realized that today our guest is Melpomene? We will talk about the theater…
- Slava! "Do you love the theatre as I love it, that is, with all the strength of your soul?"
- How long has the ByTheWay theatre been in existence? How many people are in the troupe?
- About 6 years. But let's start with the fact that this is not a theater at all. We don't have a theater in Chicago. Talking about the existence of a theater in our conditions is absurd. A theater is a home. No one who puffs out their cheeks and says that they are a theater has such a home. A theater is a stage...
- Atmosphere …
- Absolutely right. At best, we can be called a people's theater. There are indeed people who graduated from theater institutes in their past lives and became actors. But they do not earn their living from this. Therefore, it is not a profession. They are professionally trained for this, but they cannot be called professional actors.
- A professional lives by this.
- Of course. In the US, professional artists who graduate from educational institutions and earn a living as actors probably make up five percent. The rest come to some theater in the evenings, having worked a working day somewhere else... In Chicago, there are four municipal theaters that exist at the expense of the city budget. All the others - at the expense of donations. If we found people who would sponsor our team, it would be wonderful. We would have our own premises, our own dressing rooms. I would not run half an hour before the performance and restore the lights. Any person connected with the theater will say that it is impossible to put on a show in half an hour.
light is impossible.
- It turns out that you don’t have normal conditions for rehearsals, for staging plays?
- Of course. What we do could be 300, 500 percent better in quality. In the rooms we rent, this is not to be touched, this is not allowed, this is not to be done, this is not to be done… This is the reality in which we exist.
- So, not everything is as great as it looks from the outside?
- Well, this is our internal "kitchen", which does not concern the audience much. The audience does not care about this. People go to the theater for emotions. They do not care at what price we give them these emotions. So, returning to the question of professional theater. Even despite the fact that professional actors play in the theater in a past life, we earn a living with others. And this is a hobby for us. Therefore, to say that more or fewer actors who have received an education play in the theater is absurd. An engineer who has not drawn for 25 years is no longer an engineer. An artist who has not acted for 25 years has lost a lot.
- Slava, but they say you can't drink away talent. If you have talent, you can restore your skills. It's like riding a bike - you never forget how to do it.
- Of course, talent is talent. But there are other things, too. Such as professionalism and total dedication. For example, a director tells an actor to do something, and the actor does it right away, without effort. The first time. I go to American theaters. I take my hat off to them. This absolutely incredible energy…
- The theaters are small, the actors perform very close by.
- Yes, they are a meter away. I see these eyes, I hear breathing. I don't see the actor playing the role, I see the person who is in another shell, in the image...
- I recently watched the play “Bad Jew” . And I was sitting a meter or two away from the actors. I understand perfectly what you are talking about. These actors did not act. They lived on stage. And, say, Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio… They do not have an acting education and, nevertheless, they act no worse than those with an education.
- There are a lot of sciences that an actor must go through, you need to constantly improve your level. We will be able to easily reach such heights when we have our own home-theater.
- If you don’t have your own space, where do you rehearse?
- At home. Everyone has a house with a basement. That's where it all happens.
- Who makes the decorations?
- It's a big problem. I mean, not to make them, but to store them. I even asked for help on the radio. Thanks to Igor Gluzman, who has a warehouse. He gave us a piece of space so that we could store all of this there. In addition, the scenery that our artist Inna Ratner made - they are masterpieces. What a Chagall world she created! I think with horror that when this performance stops being performed, these things will disappear. These are works of art. These are not pieces of plywood with paints smeared on them. Where to store all of this? There are no patrons of the arts in Chicago. There are a lot of rich people, but they are not interested in this. I tried to organize charity concerts with dinners. It is very strange when a person comes to such an event, eats and drinks, watches a two-hour concert with an intermission and writes out a check for $30. When I see this, I despair. There are many people for whom $300 - $500 is not money. We are a non-profit organization . All donations can be written off as charitable contributions. I am not asking for this money for myself. I am asking to support Russian theater. I see that people need it. I know that I am bringing a high-quality theater product to the audience. If Leonid Rakhelgauz, after watching our play about Chagall, "The Color of Love," tells me: "Slava, come, I will put you in the repertoire. On Saturday and Sunday you will play four plays." The Moscow theater school puts a drama club from Chicago in its repertoire - this says a lot. They say: "There is no prophet in his own country." Sergei Yursky recently came with a play based on this same play. The audience gave a standing ovation to the master, whom I adore. And the play was so-so. People came to see Yursky. But the play is not about Yursky, but about Chagall.
- Can an ordinary person really evaluate whether a performance is good or bad?
- You can say: did the performance move you or not. That performance didn't move you. But people saw a great artist. It didn't matter what he did: stood on his hands, told jokes, played Chagall.
- Who organized your team?
- I created it after I left Atrium... Now I have a small team. These are people who trust me, know that I will not deceive, will not let them down in a difficult situation. These are people who like doing what we do.
- What is the name of your studio?
- "By The Way". The name was invented by the wonderful Anechka Goman. She does simultaneous translation for us. So, a big thank you to her.
- Do you go on tour or do you only play in Chicago?
- I recently spoke with Iosif Leonidovich Rakhelgauz, the artistic director of the Theatre-School of Modern Play in Moscow. He has staged over 200 performances. We went to Moscow with our performance, based on Shenderovich. He invited us to perform "Aydont Understand". We performed two performances. That's another story. It was a bomb. He invited us to come and perform regularly, thereby including the performance in the theatre's repertoire.
- Did you agree?
- They refused. Going there to earn money is ridiculous. And when we left, Vladimir Etush bought this play and in 2014 he received the "Star of the Theater" award for this performance as the best skit of the year. By the way, Albert Filozov and Tatyana Vedeneyeva are currently performing a performance based on this play. The performance is called "The Last Aztec." That's interesting. I'm currently playing "The Voice," which Etush played in a 1968 television film.
And Vladimir Abramovich Etush is now playing the role that I brought to Moscow.
- Tell us about the upcoming performances.
- One performance is called "The Voice". It is a one-act one-man show based on a story by Sever Gansovsky. I staged it for my 60th birthday. The second performance is "Chagall. The Color of Love". I met the author of the play, Zinovy Sagalov. He lives in Germany, in Augsburg. It is an amazing work. When I read it, it immediately captivated me. The original title is "Flights with an Angel (The Seventh Candle). Marina Smolina plays in the play "Chagall. The Color of Love" based on the play by Zinovy Sagalov. She is a professional actress, she worked in the Leningrad theater. This is her play. This is her role. She works masterfully. For me, happiness is when people who have given up on their profession, having gone through mistrust, aplomb, someone's arrogance, have the opportunity to return and open up in an amateur group. We do not puff out our cheeks, we say: "Yes, we are an amateur group." If you like it, buy a ticket, come to the play, if you do not like it, do not bother yourself. The main thing for me is to see the eyes of the audience. When after the play people come to me in tears and I see that the hands of a grown man are shaking ...
- Did it affect him?
- Exactly, it touched me, it hooked me. And I am happy to see the happy eyes of both Marina Karmanova and Marina Smolina. For me, it is happiness that these people returned to their profession and live on stage. Based on the reviews, I can say that the performance was a success.
- So, this is not the first time you've played him .
- We have already performed this play in Chicago. This will be the seventh time. The premiere was in May last year. We took it to Minneapolis. It was a sell-out. The play was a success. They didn't let us leave the stage for about 15 minutes. The audience applauded standing up.
- Why Minneapolis and not New York? Not Israel?
- For them, the drama club from Chicago is nothing. It's Tyutkin from Uryupinsk. I talked to a producer from Israel who brings theater groups. Igor Guberman introduced me to him. I sent this producer a video. He watched it - it was about the play "Aydont Understend". He said that just recently an Odessa theater came with a play based on the same play with Oleg Shkolnik, People's Artist of Ukraine, in the lead role. "Your play is 10 times better," he said, "my wife and I got tremendous pleasure from watching the video." But he refused to take on ours. He said that it would go bankrupt because we don't have a single People's Artist. Who will go to see us? The same thing in New York. In order to organize an event in New York, you need to invest serious money. We are talking about tens of thousands of dollars. We need to advertise, rent a hall, distribute tickets. In Minneapolis, advertising is no longer necessary. The first time a person invested, knowing me from "Atrium". It was a success. Therefore, it is enough to hang a poster there. The opinion of people who understand art is very important to me. Therefore, I always send my works to Veniamin Smekhov, Rakhelgauz, Dina Rubina, who is a great friend of mine. She always writes very detailed reviews, and not just - well done and that's it. Yuli Kim, Said Bagov - Honored Artist of Russia, director Sergei Kakovkin - the one who staged "AiDont Undestend", Arnold Shvetsov.
You can often hear: "Why go to the play? It's probably just another amateur performance." The person hasn't seen the play and is judging it this way.
- Yes, there are some like that: you can't feed them bread if you shit on them.
- Share your plans for the future.
- There are plans. Big plans. God willing, everything will come true. First of all, we need to find the means to live. I am looking for a person who would do this and receive a large commission. So, if someone wants to do this, I will be glad. I dream of someone taking patronage over us. I dream of opening the doors and saying: come, it’s free! And we need a theater critic. A good one, who would take the liberty of saying that the Chicago drama club puts on a better performance than People’s Artist Yursky. I can’t say that, but a critic can.
- Slava, where can I buy tickets?
- Tickets can be purchased before the show, at the Northbrook Theater for $30 . Or on our website www.bythewaytheater.com for $25. So, if you want to get strong emotions, get what you want from the shows and not regret the money and time spent, come.
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From the editors. It seems to us that spending your time and money on holding expensive banquets in Russian restaurants is, of course, great, but we would really like the Russian community of Chicago to have real patrons of the arts who would be ready to support the work of talented groups, such as the Vyacheslav Kaganovich Theater, the Bravo Children's Theater, and many others. If you and I spend a penny to support our Chicago theater groups, it will simply be more interesting to live in our wonderful city. And believe me, talent withers if it is not supported... We are too bogged down in everyday problems and forget about high art. After all, who knows, maybe one day, you and I will be proud that we lived in the same city and supported such wonderful theater groups. In short, without big words! Let's go to the play, gentlemen of Chicago theater! Let's help our friends. They are doing a good job, and they do it professionally and simply great!