Sergey Elkin
Many people in Chicago know Vyacheslav Kaganovich. They know him from the Creative Association “Tema” and bard gatherings, from his author’s program on the radio “Novaya Zhizn” which he has been hosting on Tuesdays for twelve years now, from the “Atrium” theater, the creation of which he initiated, from his recent performances “My Gorin”, “My Dolsky” and “Aydont Understend”.
Many people in Chicago know Vyacheslav Kaganovich. They know him from the Creative Association “Tema” and bard gatherings, from his author’s program on the radio “Novaya Zhizn” which he has hosted on Tuesdays for twelve years now, from the theater “Atrium”, the creation of which he was the initiator, from his recent performances “My Gorin”, “My Dolsky” and “Aydont Understend”. Life is always in full swing around him, and he himself has the ability to gather talented people around him. This is how it happens in Chicago, and it was always like this before he came to America. He rarely talks about this, although there is much to talk about. Taking advantage of the occasion - on June 10, Vyacheslav Kaganovich turns 60 - and wanting to avoid the “Danish” questions traditional in such cases, I suggested that the hero of the day recall his youth, his native places, the most remarkable moments of his studies, work, and creativity. And so I sit in his cozy home and listen to his stories. Stories about the theater, love, family... It's interesting to talk to him. Slava is explosive, emotional, unpredictable, sometimes cocky, sometimes harsh. But always caring. And always sincere.
- Do you feel your age?
- Sixty is just a number. Health, however, sometimes reminds me of my age. I can quote a popular phrase: “A person is as old as he feels.” With age, you physically feel how time goes faster. There is so much I want to do. I am afraid I won’t have time...
- Do you regret becoming an engineer? You would have become an actor. Who knows how life would have turned out. You would have acted in the theater, acted in films...
- Maybe, but at the time when I finished school, there was no such choice. I knew for sure that I would be a mechanical engineer, that I would build machines. I thought about it later, when the then chief director of the Film Actor's Studio Theatre Boris Lutsenko came backstage after the play "Phenomena" at the Minsk People's Theatre of the Belsovprof Culture Palace. He suggested that my friends Volodya Raitsyn, Volodya Pekur and me come to his theatre. At that time, I was working as the head of the technical bureau at the Minsk Electromechanical Plant. I told Lutsenko that any boy who came to him from the theatre institute could show his diploma. He is an artist, and I am an engineer. For me, theatre is a whim and pleasure. Let everyone do what they were taught... I was scared then, and my friends were scared. None of us went to him... I have a terrible inferiority complex about the lack of an acting education. Valery Belyakovich tried to “cure” me, saying that in all these years that I have been involved in the theater, I have already gone through “my universities.”
- How many roles have you played?
- More than twenty. A role at a New Year's party is also a role. ( Laughs. ) No, I don't count such roles...
About parents, Minsk addresses and the origin of the surname
Slava Kaganovich and I are fellow countrymen. We lived in our beloved Minsk. True, in different areas.
- My first Minsk address was Tsnyanskaya Street. Then we bought a house on the corner of Volochaevskaya Street and Vostochny Lane (Selkhozposelok). And I was born in Kyrgyzstan, in the city of Frunze (now Bishkek). When I was one year old, the family moved to Stalinabad (now Dushanbe), and from there to Minsk.
- Were your parents involved in art?
- No. My mother is a medical worker, she worked in a laboratory all her life, taking blood tests. My father graduated from the Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy in absentia. In Minsk, he worked as a department head at Belkoopsoyuz.
- Do you know the origin of your last name? Do you have any relation to People's Commissar Lazar Moiseevich?
- This was the first question I was asked in New York on “Davidzon Radio”. The answer is no. As far as I know, in the city of Rechitsa in the Gomel region there was a street where a lot of Kaganovichs lived. When I had a concert cooperative in Minsk, I was organizing a performance of the group “Kino” at the “Dynamo” stadium. The director of the group at that time was Semyon Mikhailovich Kaganovich. Before meeting him (the guys arrived later), I asked: “How will I recognize you?” The director answered the question with a question: “Doesn’t one Kaganovich recognize another Kaganovich?” Then he came to Minsk with Igor Talkov, came to our house and with dad, over a glass of cognac, they began to find out where each was from and how... It turned out that they could both sit in the same sandbox. The same age, both from Rechitsa, and both Kaganoviches. But Lazar Moiseevich is not from there, he is from other Kaganoviches. ( Laughs. )
About school, first love and a walk around Paris
- I studied at the Twentieth French School on Yakub Kolas Street. When I graduated, I spoke French fluently. I was the best student in the class. My first love was my French teacher Lyudmila Stanislavovna. That's where my success in the language came from.
- How are you doing with French now?
- I forgot everything.
- And if you find yourself in France, will you remember?
- Once my wife and I went to Paris. We had an amazing guide - a Frenchman of Russian-Jewish origin, Joseph Speculant. He was born and lived his whole life in Paris, and is in love with this city. He has preserved the excellent Russian language - thanks to his parents from Odessa. He immediately told us: "I will show you my Paris." And so we, like in the Vysotsky song, "walk around Paris", and suddenly the names of streets begin to "jump out" of me. We were taught well in Soviet school! We studied the map of Paris, but I did not think that I would ever need it. And suddenly I said: "We are now going to turn and go to the House of Invalids." The guide was surprised: "How do you know?" French was spoken all around, and I began to remember first words, then phrases. Speculant respected me even more: "You have excellent pronunciation." And then I began to sing in French. My wife looked at me with wide open eyes. It was inexplicable!
About first theatrical impressions, Dolsky and Tovstonogov
- In the summer my parents sent me to my grandparents and Aunt Bella in the town of Nikolsky, near Moscow. On my first visit, Aunt Bella took me to the Moscow Art Theatre to see Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Blue Bird". My first theatrical impressions were trees in blue, huge white bread and the author's mysterious surname.
The first person Slava dared to approach after the concert was Alexander Alexandrovich Dolsky. This is how their acquaintance began: “I have been to his St. Petersburg apartment many times, he visited me in Minsk, he was my first guest in Chicago. We had just arrived, lived in a rented apartment, and he slept on a mattress.”
Slava brought from Minsk typewritten copies of his three solo programs: “Modern Author's Song”, “The Works of Sergei Nikitin”, “The Works of Alexander Dolsky”. At the top of each paper is the stamp of the Culture Department of the Minsk City Executive Committee “Approved for performance”. On the program of Dolsky's songs, Alexander Alexandrovich wrote: “Slava! Good luck to you! I have a lot of new things for you. Add them.”
Another remarkable meeting took place with Slava in Leningrad.
- The factory sent me there for advanced training courses. I lived in Leningrad for a month and went to the theater every evening. I was lucky enough to attend a lecture with Georgy Aleksandrovich Tovstonogov. He was sitting on the stage, with a table, a pack of cigarettes, and an ashtray in front of him. He was speaking, and the people in the audience were taking notes. After the evening was over, I ran up to him. “Georgy Aleksandrovich, I am an engineer and have nothing to do with the theater. I play at the People’s Theater of the Minsk Palace of Culture of Trade Unions. I want to ask you a stupid, amateurish question. Please tell me, don’t you think that what we do in the people’s theater is an intrusion of amateurs into the realm of high art?” He asked: “Do people come to see you?” - “We are almost always sold out.” - “There you have your answer. If people need what you do and people come to your performances, then it doesn’t matter what you call yourself.” I don't remember what Tovstonogov said next. The very sound of his voice had a magical effect on me. The next day I got his book "The Mirror of the Stage". Unfortunately, it was too late and I couldn't get the author's autograph.
About the People's Theatre and the feeling of “puppy delight”
- I first went on stage when I was studying at the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute (BPI). Each department of the institute had its own theater. Residents of Minsk probably remember the famous throughout the country theater of the construction department of BPI "Coliseum". My friend Boris Gorelik was the director of this theater. (He now lives in Minneapolis.) There was also a theater at the mechanical engineering department, where I studied. Naturally, I went there. I played in this theater, and in my final years, I was its director.
- Remind our readers of the story of your arrival at the People's Theatre. You tell it in detail in the play "My Gorin".
- It was like this. My friend Volodya Raitsin played at the People's Theater. I didn't go to that theater for the same snobbish reason that many people here don't go to local theaters. We called each other, he invited me, but I just didn't go and didn't go. Once I went to Leningrad on a tourist package and in the evening I got to see Grigory Gorin's comedy "Phenomena" at the Komissarzhevskaya Academic Theater. That performance left a very negative impression on me. I still remember the backdrop of the stage in that performance: clouds and a bottle of vodka on wings. It was obvious that the actors found it boring and uninteresting to play that. I came to Minsk and, on the advice of a friend, saw "Phenomena" at the People's Theater. An "ordinary miracle" happened at that performance. I sat with my mouth open and didn't understand what was happening. I saw the same characters as two days ago, reciting the same text, but on stage everything happened in a completely different way. I found myself at a celebration, I experienced a feeling of “puppy delight” – I can’t think of another metaphor. Maybe then I understood the magic of the theater. I understood that on stage everything is possible!.. That’s how I came to the People’s Theater. At first – as a spectator: the theater’s repertoire included eleven plays! Then I started coming to rehearsals, and soon the theater’s director Yuri Vladimirovich Stepanov offered me a role in a new play, “Counterfeit Coin,” based on the play by Maxim Gorky.
- Was this your first performance at the People's Theatre?
- No. It so happened that the actor playing Ivanov in the play "Phenomena" fell ill. Stepanov was thinking of canceling the play, and Volodya Pekur suggested that I be included. In a week! At the first rehearsal on Monday, they gave me the text and told me the mise-en-scènes. On the second day, I walked around the stage on my own, on the third, I did something more or less conscious... On Friday, they showed me to Stepanov. He looked at three scenes and said: "The play is on Sunday." On Sunday, I went on stage and have been playing "Phenomena" for six years since then.
- And were the Chicago “Phenomena” different from Stepanov’s performance?
- Almost none. The same music, the same scenery... So the first performance at the People's Theatre was "Phenomena", and only then "The Counterfeit Coin".
At these words Slava thought for a moment and said:
- By the way, it would be interesting to show Gorky in Chicago. “The Counterfeit Coin” is a powerful work. As Andrei Tupikov said: “I don’t like Gorky... Until I start reading him”... In “The Counterfeit Coin” I played Glinkin. And once... There is a crazy character in the play - Luzgin. He was played by Volodya Pekur. One day he got sick, and Stepanov suggested that I play Luzgin. I cried out: “What? After one rehearsal?” And Stepanov had one answer to that: “But you are such greats!”.. I was terribly nervous. Right before the performance, they put makeup on me, I put on a top hat, looked at myself in the mirror, and then I don’t remember what happened to me on stage. That was the only time in my life that I played a crazy person. After the performance, Stepanov came up to me and hugged me. Since then, before every performance, I have to stay alone in the dressing room and look at myself in the mirror for three to five minutes.
- So, are you getting into character?
- I don’t know what to call it. I don’t remember the role – I just sit, look in the mirror and see a different person in front of me... For me, six years at the People’s Theatre were very interesting. We worked with an amazing director – Yuri Stepanov. I can’t say that he made actors out of us – we didn’t think about it at all. We rehearsed and played with pleasure. With the play “The Adversary Song” based on Yakub Kolas, we won first place at the All-Union Competition of People’s Theatres in Panevezys, in the building of the Donatas Banionis Theatre. We played in Belarusian, the composer was Vladimir Mulyavin... My daughter Zhenechka played in this play. They put a headscarf on her, a little girl, and smeared her face so that she would look like a village child... The following year, we brought “The Counterfeit Coin” to a similar competition in Tartu. I remember pestering the jury members with just one question: “Tell me, when you evaluate a performance, do you make allowances for the fact that you are dealing with a non-professional group?”
About the “Wagon”, the guitar and the ship “Korchaginets”
- In the basement of the Belsovprof there was the Author's Song Club "Vetraz". My "serious relationship" with the club began after "Vagonchik". This performance based on Pavlova's play was staged at the People's Theater by the director of the Belarusian television Bakhtiyar Bakhtiyarov. (He now publishes a newspaper in Cincinnati.) I played the role of the journalist Debrin. Bakhtiyar knew that I played the guitar, and included songs in the performance. We rehearsed the performance for six months, and performed it three times. The first time was during the dress rehearsal. The second time was in front of the admissions committee of the Culture Department of the Minsk City Executive Committee.
- Were your performances received as in a professional theatre?
- You bet. The Central Committee, the City Committee, the Regional Committee – everything as it should be. After the premiere of “The Wagon”, they thought about it. During this time, we managed to perform this performance again in a packed hall. And then it was banned. I felt so hurt... Many people left the theater then, and I went down to the basement and smoothly “flowed” into “Vetraz”. Then I brought my Zhenechka there. At the age of six, she became a laureate of the Republican Contest of Author's Songs, and Alexander Gorodnitsky presented her with a prize – a large crocodile. I began performing in “Vetraz”, singing a duet with Natasha Yakutovich. Unfortunately, I was unable to perform at the famous 1986 festival of author's songs in Saratov, where Alexey Ivashchenko and Georgy Vasiliev became laureates. Natasha and I prepared the song “Luna” by Volodya Pekur and the song “Da svechmoe dety yuga”. My composing work began and ended at the "Luna". We sat for two days at the Minsk airport. The weather was bad for flying, and we did not get to the Saratov festival. But with the concert brigade of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Belarus, I performed in the Far East on the propaganda ship "Korchaginets". In twenty-eight days I gave thirty-two solo concerts...
About his wife Lena, children Evgenia and Konstantin
- Lena and I met at the inter-university health center. She was eighteen. A year later, at nineteen, she married me, and a year later Zhenechka was born. We have been together all our lives... We have two children. Zhenya began to sing before she could talk. She sang absolutely purely. We sang Nikitin's entire children's repertoire together. And when she was in the fifth grade, she suddenly began to feel shy. She became "stiff", lost her ease, and stopped performing. She came out on stage with me here in Chicago, when she was nineteen.
- How did her life turn out in Chicago?
- Zhenya is a very serious and famous metal artist and jeweler. After the University of Champaign, she entered New York University. Now she is a professor, works at the Peck School of the Arts in Milwaukee, heads five departments. She got married, but doesn’t have any children yet – with her busy life, I won’t be seeing grandchildren anytime soon. ( Laughs. ) My son’s name is Konstantin. He is a good musician, plays the guitar and saxophone. Thanks to Grigory Gutnik – an amazing person and a completely fantastic teacher! Kostya graduated from Columbia College with a degree in sound recording engineering. He specializes in live shows, works with computer equipment.
In American life, Slava Kaganovich, a successful, accomplished engineer, began to pursue his “whim” again. And then the Creative Association “Tema,” the author’s program on the radio “New Life,” the “Atrium” theater, the Theater Studio appeared... He is young at heart, still passionate, energetic, and ready for new achievements. Good luck to you, Slava, in all your projects and endeavors. Without you, life in Russian Chicago would be much poorer. Create, Ascetic, for your own and our joy! Happy Birthday! See you at the premiere.
Nota bene! On July 21 and 22, the Northbrook Theatre at 3323 Walters Avenue, Northbrook, IL 60062 will host the premiere of the one-man show “The Voice” based on the story of the same name by Sever Gansovsky. The author of the adaptation, director and performer of the role of Giulio Feraterra is Vyacheslav Kaganovich. Tickets are on sale at the theatre box office.