Sergey Borisovich Kokovkin. On the island "Scene"

Once again, Russian Chicago awaits its premiere. On October 22, 2011, the Vyacheslav Kaganovich Theatre Studio will present the play “Aydont andersten” based on the play “The Victim Goldiner” by Viktor Shenderovich. The director of the play is Sergey Kokovkin. Starring: Vyacheslav Kaganovich and Marina Karmanova. In the last issue of our newspaper, we spoke with the author of the play. Now, the director has the floor.

Brief information. Sergei Borisovich Kokovkin was born in Leningrad . He studied at the Nakhimov Naval School, graduated with honors from the Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography (class of Professor B. Zon) and the Playwrights Workshop of I. Dvoretsky. He worked as an actor and director at the Leningrad Akimov Comedy Theater and the Moscow Mossovet Theater. He is the author of several books published in Russian and English, and thirty plays translated into twelve languages. Among them are “Five Corners,” “The Wounded Beast,” “Simpleton,” “Mrs. Lev,” “If I Live,” “Pushkinogopol,” and “Greetings from Tsyurupy.” In Russia, his plays were staged by Kama Ginkas and Roman Viktyuk, Boris Morozov and Sergei Yashin. G. Zhzhenov, L. Durov, A. Shirvindt, M. Derzhavin, V. Talyzina, N. Drobysheva, N. Tenyakova, E. Steblov played in them. For many years, Sergei Kokovkin has worked as a director in Europe and the USA, teaches at American universities. He wrote scripts and directed films, acted as an actor. His films "Landscape with a Flood" and "Enthusiast's Demarche" were awarded prizes at the New York International Film Festival. Artistic director of the All-Russian Seminar of Playwrights, member of the Union of Writers and the Union of Theater Workers. Laureate of the American Arts Award, Honored Artist of Russia.

– Please tell me, how did it happen that actor Sergei Kokovkin became a playwright? Were you disappointed in the acting profession?

– I was tired of saying other people’s words – I wanted to say my own. My first teacher, the famous Alexander Moiseevich Volodin, with whom I played in “Factory Girl”, encouraged me to write. And I wrote a youth play. But the Leningrad regional committee of the Komsomol, where the now famous Valentina Matvienko sat, closed my play with a bang. Then Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov came to St. Petersburg, he invited me to his room, in “Astoria”, and said: “Read it”. The creator of Taganka took my attempt seriously. His recognition then helped me a lot, I realized that I could write. I entered the workshop of the famous playwright Ignatiy Dvoretsky. Sasha Galin, Semyon Zlotnikov, Alla Sokolova studied with me…

– You name all those who became the founders of the “new wave” in dramaturgy...

- It was the St. Petersburg wing. And in Moscow there was the Arbuzov Studio, where Lyusya Petrushevskaya, Vitya Slavkin, Anya Rodionova, Lesha Kazantsev, Arkasha Inin studied. Anya was the initiator of merging our studios and the Arbuzov team came to St. Petersburg. That's when the "new wave" was born. There were about thirty of us, three dozen young playwrights. It seemed that a fresh breeze blew in the stale atmosphere of stagnation.

– It seems to me that the “new wave” had some new level of sincerity that had not been seen before in Soviet drama. Why did this new direction develop so powerfully?

– For so long our mouths were clamped shut and our heads were squeezed by the impossibility of free thought… It had to break through sometime… Everything was anew, new words, new thoughts. It was hope for a new life. And for Anya Rodionova and me – simply the beginning of a new life. From a film actress, she also became a playwright and screenwriter, the author of many films, including the famous “Carnival”. And then it was the “new wave” that splashed us out here, on the ocean shore. In April 1985, I received an invitation from George White, president of the Eugene O’Neill American Theater Center. “If I Live” was chosen from six hundred plays, and I turned out to be the first Soviet playwright whose play was staged at the prestigious festival. We arrived in a wonderful company with Alexander Gelman and Grigory Gorin. But naturally, with us was the leader sent from above – Genrikh Borovik. He immediately tried to oppose my production, declaring that the festival would show an anti-Stalin Hungarian play and that we should leave. The only communist among us, Sasha Gelman, walked along the ocean shore and tried to persuade comrade Borovik to reconcile himself, but Borovik needed a scandal. He called a press conference and announced that we were leaving the festival. When I was given the floor, I hugged my American colleagues and said: “We are one team. I am also an actor. And I will not betray my colleagues. Until I release the play, I will not go anywhere.” I refused to close the production and leave the festival. The newspapermen immediately dragged me out into the street and began to photograph me against the backdrop of the American flag. “He chose freedom,” they wrote at the time. And my play won. And Borovik, who threatened me with Moscow, did not understand that times had already changed. That same year, I went to Istanbul to stage my play “Five Corners” with the great Turkish actress Yildiz Kenter. My plays have been shown in different countries: Italy, Germany, Finland, Bulgaria, even China. Films based on my scripts were released in Poland. And here in America I have staged twenty-five plays over the years, rearranging all the Russian classics: Gogol, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Gorky, Fonvizin, Leskov, Griboyedov, Schwartz, Bulgakov, Olesha, Roshchin... Once I even staged my grotesque "Pushkinogopol".

Among the heroes of Kokovkin's plays are many historical figures: Lomonosov, Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy. He has just returned from Belgrade, where the National Theatre premiered his play "Mrs. Lev". Sergei Borisovich was awarded the Silver Medal and the honorary title of member of the "Pozorishche" (Kokovkin happily repeats this word in Serbian, which means theatre in Serbian).

In the list of Kokovkin's plays I found a title that immediately caught my attention - "Chekhov in Chicago". I asked Sergei Borisovich to tell me more about this play.

– In 1999, in Chicago, I met a budding playwright, a doctor by profession. He showed me several of his texts, based on which, with his permission, I made a play called “Chekhov in Chicago.” I offered this piece to Slava Kaganovich. Maybe in the future we will discuss the possibility of staging it… Now I teach a lot, work on playwriting with young people, and head the All-Russian Seminar of Playwrights. We gather talented young people from all over the country…

- How do you work with them? Is it possible to teach them to write plays?

– I work with professional writers who graduated from the Literary Institute and the screenwriting department of VGIK. They already know how to write, but are absolutely not aware of the specifics of theater. You need to feel the theater with your own skin. In Moscow, I have my own Laboratory, with a group of directors. We try to introduce plays directly into theater troupes. The first year I worked with them at the Satire Theater, the second – at the Army Theater, the third – at the Mayakovsky Theater. We immerse ourselves in the incredible, alluring, mysterious, but cruel and demanding theater sphere. When the guys walk along the gigantic stage of the Army Theater, the largest in Europe, and see the huge space that needs to be filled with their thoughts, emotions, dynamic message, they begin to directly realize the responsibility of the author's word. To capture a three-thousand-seat hall, you need a powerful splash of creative energy and great courage.

– What attracted you to Shenderovich’s dramaturgy?

– I know and deeply respect everything that Victor does. And I was very happy when I learned that he writes plays. At the Actor’s House, I lead the Playwrights’ Club, where I invited him to read his dramatic texts. This season, at our Satire Theatre, we had a successful premiere of his “Evening Outing of the Society of the Blind”. In the new play “The Injured Goldiner”, I found the dialogue of two generations interesting, in which the junction of two worlds is obvious. She is young, he is elderly, she is an American, he is a person who grew up in the Soviet Union, a product of his previous life with a stubborn obstinacy of consciousness. Goldiner has lived in America for twenty years, without trying to integrate into the space that is new to him. He is locked away from life, remaining in the closed cage of his little world. He has missed these twenty years. I am interested in his encounter with an American woman, a woman who arouses hostility, even rejection, in him, but it is she who makes him look differently at the world and his purpose in it.

– Do you highlight the political context in this play?

- Politics is momentary. Time is counted differently here. There are three heroes in this play: He, She and Time. What is the political context here? We are talking about the difference in worldviews.

“ I saw in this old man a lonely, sick, unhappy person.

– This is her father’s generation. It turns out that you can’t blame everything on time. Any time can be lived in different ways. To live it honestly is very difficult, but there is no other choice for a person. This is a very modern play. It is not about yesterday, it is about today. Even about tomorrow. There are many layers. When I met Edward Albee several years ago, I was rehearsing with Tatyana Doronina in his play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” I played George, she played Martha. I started asking the author about his idea and then confidently said: “In my opinion, we have revealed all the levels, all the layers of your play.” He looked at me carefully and asked: “All six?” And I shut up. ( Laughs. ) So, returning to our performance, we are trying to reveal “all six”… Maybe Viktor Anatolyevich doesn’t have six, but we want to reveal everything that is there.

– The original title of the play is “The Victim Goldiner”. Why did you decide to change it for the American premiere?

– I suggested several names to Viktor, and he was hooked. “The Victim Goldiner” does not create a problem. This is an isolated case. And “Aydont andeRstend” ( Sergey Borisovich pronounces these words with relish, stressing each syllable and especially pronouncing the “R”. – Author’s note ) is a closed wall, a barrier of misunderstanding for a person who came from the Soviet Union. He does not understand the language, does not understand this life. He does not understand and does not accept, because he is not adapted to another life. He is a product of collective thinking, which deprives a person of originality, his own individuality, the human dignity of an individual.

– How do you find working with actors?

- Marina Karmanova and Slava Kaganovich are wonderful artists. We thoroughly examine the text, analyze the characters of our characters, try to exist in the genre of psychological theater. I am very interested in working with them, and it seems to me that my method is new to them too. The actors say that they did not expect such work. It will be even more interesting to see the result!

– Do you still perform in the theatre?

- Now I am more involved in directing and dramaturgy, but at one time I played a lot. My acting experience was divided between the Akimov and Zavadsky theaters. I came to the Mossovet Theater when Yuri Alexandrovich passed away ( Zavadsky - Author's note ). I played with Plyatt, stood on stage with Faina Georgievna. And how much I played with Seryozha Yursky!..

– Who was your teacher?

- Professor Boris Volfovich Zon. He was the teacher of Pavel Kadochnikov, Alisa Freindlich, Zinaida Sharko, Natalia Tenyakova, Lev Dodin. A legendary man, a direct student of Stanislavsky. He followed the teacher and wrote down what he said, when the Master's books did not yet exist.

- So you are just one handshake away from Konstantin Sergeevich!

- It turns out that way. ( Smiles. ) Our school is wonderful. When Jeremy Irons was asked what kind of school he had, he smiled, spread his hands and answered: “Everyone has the same school – Russian.” There really is only one school, you can’t get away from Stanislavsky. Stanislavsky is the ABC. You can put together different stage texts from this ABC, from hyperreality to absurdity, but first you need to master the ABC.

- Sergey Borisovich, what is happening in the Russian theatre today? Every now and then we hear about conflicts, splits, clashes... Is this a crisis of the genre or "production costs"?

– The Russian theatre has missed its time, and we, playwrights, are partly to blame for this. We have not comprehended either the Soviet experience or the experience of the country’s transition to a different state. We have entered into the absolutely hideous style of the private theatre, which is filled with “monkeys”. My neighbour Liya Akhedzhakova says: “We are monkeys”, that is, characters recognizable from TV. Nowadays, the theatre is dominated by commerce and catering to the solvent public. I am friends with Shirvindt and Derzhavin, they acted in my play, I staged performances at the Satire Theatre. Even there, it is not easy. Life is hard for Russian theatres today. Very hard. Understanding audiences make up eight percent.

- But it has always been like this everywhere! Is it any different in America? The overwhelming majority of people have never been to the theatre!

- Probably. But this mossy thinking, this ugly box that stupefies the nation when it turns from the people into the population. The position is simple: let them chew the feed and get used to lies, and not cloud their heads with problems and ideas. The authorities do not need an intelligent viewer, but a stupid one is profitable. The problem with culture. The problem with knowledge. Fortunately, there are still theaters that do not pander to the crowd and serve as an outlet for the thinking part of the intelligentsia. Of course, the theater of Pyotr Fomenko. I worked with Petya for many years, played the main roles in his plays. The theater studio of his student Sergei Zhenovach. In St. Petersburg - the Dodin theater. Now in Moscow, the Outsiders are in power: the theater of Nekrosius at the Theater of Nations, Tuminas at the Vakhtangov, Karbauskis at the Mayakovsky - a powerful Lithuanian theater school, coming from Miltinis. There are wonderful underground performances, “Teatr.doc”, the “Praktika” theatre, Perm experiments. Perm is now one of the cultural capitals of Russia.

– There is not only Teodor Kurendzis with the opera, but also a good theatre?

- Boris Milgram, with whom I worked at the Mossovet Theatre, is from Perm. He is now the vice-governor there. Boris attracted Marat Gelman to the city, exhibitions and festivals are held there, serious innovative plays are staged. At the same time, the audience on the Kama is not from Moscow or St. Petersburg, but rather average, a Russian provincial audience. So I remain optimistic about the revival of Russian culture.

At the end of our conversation, Sergey Kokovkin shared his plans for the future.

– Now, together with the American Theatre Center of Eugene O’Neill, I am organizing a Theatre Center in the middle of the Baltic Sea. This is “Stage Island”, at the same distance from which are Stockholm, Helsinki, Riga and Tallinn. Seven countries are participating in the project: Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and the USA. I recently returned from Tallinn, where my film “Demarche of an Enthusiast” premiered during the Dovlatov Days, and there I began to work on establishing the new status of the Island. After the boundless Michigan, I will return to the Baltic, to my Island!

Nota bene! The premiere of the play “Aydont understen” based on the play by Viktor Shenderovich “The Victim Goldiner” will take place on October 22, 2011 at 7 pm in the hall of “Christian Heritage Academy” located at 315 Waukegan Road, Northfield, IL 60093.

On October 23 at 7 p.m., the Theater Living Room, 615 Academy Drive, Northbrook, IL 60062, will host a Creative Evening with writer and playwright Victor Shenderovich. Tickets are available at theater box offices in Chicago and the suburbs.

https://www.eurochicago.com/2011/10/sergey-borisovitch-kokovkin-na-ostrove-vestsenave/