Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv plans new tour (01/21/01)

Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv plans new tour

by Julie-Anne Franko

NEW YORK - The Lviv Les Kurbas Theater is currently in New York rehearsing its upcoming American tour "Legends of the East in America." This tour will include performances of "Marko Prokliatyi, or the Legend of the East," a work based on the poetry of Vasyl Stus.

Also on the theater's agenda is a concert version of Lina Kostenko's "Snow in Florence," that shall be followed by a festive auction of theater memorabilia. The proceeds of this auction will go to the theater's creation of the Lesia Ukrainka Theater Center.

Additionally, the theater will intermittently give concerts of ancient Ukrainian church music, as well as master classes and lectures.

Following is an interview with Volodymyr Kuchynsky, artistic director of the Lviv Les Kurbas Theater.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with this trip that you have not accomplished previously in America?

A: This time we are coming to create the possibility for future specific work. The Kurbas Theater is in the process of creating the Lesia Ukrainka Theater Center. This center will function under the Les Kurbas Theater and will have three purposes. The first is for the Kurbas Theater to have a full repertoire of Lesia Ukrainka's work - by the way, we will be the only theater in Ukrainian history to have this. Its second purpose is to create a series of Ukrainka International Theater Festival Symposiums. In this we hope to raise an international awareness of Ukrainka's works and the theatrical methodologies needed to realize her work. The third function of this center will be to encourage international projects on Ukrainka's works. We hope to tour with our productions. We hope to have joint productions in foreign countries. We hope that foreign productions of her work will come to Ukraine. We have come to America to raise awareness for the need for this future project, and to look for contributors to it.

Q: Your repertoire for this American tour has a notable absence of Ukrainka. Is this intentional?

A: In a way, yes. Even though we are about to embark on a very specific road with her works, we still will keep and add to our repertoire other authors. Ukrainka herself was deeply influenced by other authors, genres and cultures. We cannot realize her art without recognizing how other art affects us. We could have created a special repertoire of Ukrainka's work for this tour, but it would be dishonest to our working methodology.

At home in Lviv we are beginning to work on "The Blue Rose," continue to work on "The Stone Hose," and still have "Apocrypha" (that is to say "In the Field of Blood" and "Johanna, The Wife of Chuza") in our repertoire. These works are either not ready or are too big to bring over at this time.

Q: Too big?

A: Yes. We could afford to bring over only a portion of the theater this time. And we had great difficulty in getting visas for everyone as well. This in and of itself seriously limits what we can do with our touring repertoire. But even so, at this time Stus and Kostenko are at the forefront of our current work. This is the material we need to further explore so that we may go on to other material.

Q: Stus, or should I say "Marko Prokliatyi, or Legends from the East" is a completely new work. It has not yet premiered in Lviv. Why are you choosing to premiere it here?

A: Hmm. Good question. It seems to me that here people are more apt to be receptive to our understanding of Stus's work at this time in our development of it. This is because much of what he wrote, he wrote being physically separated from Ukraine, and that added a specific and important nuance to his work. Nostalgia for something one loves entirely, deeply. People here are separated from Ukraine, and they can identify with the nuance of nostalgia. This particular audience is important to us at this stage of the work's development, because it creates an organic tie to Stus.

But this does not apply only to our relationship with our audience. It also applies to us. Because we are creating this work in a foreign land with foreign standards for creation, we too, are separated from our native soil and ways. At the very least this gives us the chance to understand the process of creation through separation from one's wellspring. But there is a great distinction that needs to be made in drawing this comparison between Stus and ourselves: we are not in prison here; we were not forced to come here; we are not separate from our home and against our will.

Q: Can you describe the work "Marko Prokliaty"? Why is it so named? How will it be performed?

A: First of all, I want to say that I am skeptical of the word "premiere." The work is in process; our audiences here are part of this process. But to the point of your questions, Stus used the themes of the Marko Prokliatyi legend in his works. We return to this legend in creating this production as Stus, the characters he creates in his works and Marko Prokliatyi all shared the same fate - only in death could they be given back what was taken from them in life.

How will it look? I'm always reluctant to discuss a work before it goes before the public, but I am willing to say that it will involve four actors in character playing out the verses of Stus. We will perform it in the round on a tarp created by Lviv artist Natalia Shymin, who also created the costumes.

Q: These four characters - Marko Prokliaty, Mankurt, Mamai and Crazy Halia - they are not directly taken from Stus's poetry? What is their origin? Perhaps they were adapted from Storozhenko's Marko Prokliatyi?

A: No. They are derived from the myths of Ukrainian archetype. Stus often used the essence of archetype to create the substance of his themes. What we are doing with our work - we are creating specific characters out of these archetypes, and using their presence to convey our understanding of Stus's themes.

Q: You plan, upon occasion, to couple Shevchenko with Stus - meaning that you will have a performance in two parts. The first being "Marko Proklaityi" and the second "The Dream," a poetry evening of Shevchenko's work. These are two remarkably different works.

A: Yes. Last year in Lviv we were asked to give a command performance of "The Dream" at a time when we were doing our preliminary work on Stus. From this we discovered what a wonderful influence Stus has upon our understanding of Shevchenko. A strong and provocative chord exists between them.

Q: And what about Lina Kostenko?

A: This version of "Snow in Florence" will be a concert version of our current Lviv production. This, too, is due to the number of actors we have here. We will have corresponding photographs, slides and footage from our Lviv work to accompany this version. Oleh Stephan and Natalia Polovynka will host the evening. Andrii Vodychev and I will do a live performance of sections of the work as well. With costumes. After this performance will hold a nightclub-like auction. We need to raise money for our Lesia Ukrainka Center project, and decided to auction off theater memorabilia to help in this. Everyone gets a little something from this. Nice company, a good time and a good cause.

Q: Where will the theater be touring?

A: Right now we plan on being in the areas of New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago and Detroit.

Julie-Anne Franko received her MFA in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at Yale University. She is currently the Les Kurbas Theater's associate artistic director and dramaturg.

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