Production by Yara Arts Group staged jointly with Buryat National Theater (02/28/99)

Production by Yara Arts Group staged jointly with Buryat National Theater

NEW YORK - "Flight of the White Bird," a Yara Arts Group production that opens at La MaMa E.T.C. on March 6 and runs through March 21, is being staged jointly with artists from the Buryat National Theater of Siberia.

An all-sung work, it features the music and shaman rituals of the Buryat people who live near Lake Baikal. The highly imagistic and multi-disciplinary work was inspired by a Ukrainian poem, Oleh Lysheha's "Swan."

"Flight of the White Bird" depicts an American in Siberia today who finds herself in the footsteps of a 16th century Buryat princess. Their worlds and destinies entwine as a shaman, at the height of his trance, leaves his body and takes flight. Music, movement, dance, chant and song intermingle in a highly stylized form that has become the signature of Yara's pieces.

The piece features Buryat Mongolian music played live on the morin khoor (horse-head fiddle) and the limbe (Mongolian flute) by the Battuvshin, a master musician and throat singer from Mongolia.

"Flight of the White Bird" is based on legends and songs the collaborators collected last year during a research expedition to the Buryat Aginsk Region, where the borders of Siberia, China and Mongolia come together. The area is remote and many elements of traditional Buryat life endure in seeming defiance of modernity. Yara artists and Buryat actors developed "Flight of the White Bird" at the Buryat National Theater in Ulan Ude and performed it there as a work-in-progress to critical acclaim and sold-out houses.

Subsequently, the multi-national company traveled to the Aginsk-Buryat Region and performed it in villages where the folk material that inspired this piece was originally collected. Poor weather and lack of predictable electricity in the region were constant challenges, but audiences exceeded capacity in each village on the tour. Tearful grandmothers and teenagers alike were transfixed as they heard their ancient songs sung by the show's youthful cast.

This world premiere is directed by Virlana Tkacz, composed by Genji Ito and Buryat composer Erzhena Zhambalov, and designed by Watoku Ueno, with costumes by Luba Kierkosz and movement by Dyane Harvey.

The cast includes Yara ensemble members Tom Lee, Donna Ong and Meredith Wright. The Thunder Dance, which propels the shaman on his flight, is performed by Melanie Anastasia Brown, Yoko Hirayama, Allison Hiroto, Maile Holck, Kathleen Kwan, Jun Kim, Frances C. Lee, Anna Li and Mariko Shibata. The Buryat co-authors, Erzhena Zhambalov, Sayan Zhambalov and Erdeny Zhaltsanov, are the premiere artists of their generation at the Buryat National Theatre in Ulan Ude.

The multilingual piece is easily accessible to English speaking audiences and has traditional Buryat songs translated into English by Sayan Zhambalov, Ms. Tkacz and Wanda Phipps.

Theater writer Melinda Guttmann attended a work-in-progress version of the piece and in an essay titled "Shamanism, Theater, Healing" referred to the piece as "an exquisite work of art," noting that "the effects already achieved are moving, beautiful and revelatory of an unknown world both to us and to the Buryats whose spiritual traditions have been buried by a technological, materialist era of dark times..."

"Flight of the White Bird" plays at La MaMa E.T.C., 74A E. Fourth St., Thursday-Saturday, at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets for Friday and Saturday performances are $20, for Thursday and Sunday performance, $15. For tickets and more information call (212) 475-7710.

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