Irada Ayupova: ‘We need external expertise to eliminate bias and lobbying’

What a theatre Olympiad is

Members of the Association of National Theatres gathered in a room called the Open Theatre Laboratory. It was created under the auspices of the Alexandrinsky Theatre in 2022 at the founding conference in Petrozavodsk. Soon after, a congress was held in Yakutsk, and last year in Suzdal.

One of the topics of the meeting was the International Theatre Olympiad, a large festival that has been held every two or three years for over 30 years. In 2001, it reached Moscow, and in 2019 — Saint Petersburg. Attila Vidnyansky, General Director of the National Theatre in Budapest, told the audience how the 2023 Olympics were held there: 400 groups, 58 countries, 750 performances, 70 venues. The Hungarian event is also interesting because Russian theatres did not participate in it in order to avoid conflicts and provocations. True, they ended up performing the play REX by Kirill Fokin (it was staged by his father, now President of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, Valery Fokin). And also, for example, the Bashkir Drama Theatre named after Mazhit Gafuri came here with the play Jute. One of the most impressive shows was the tightrope walk across the Danube River by circus artist Laszlo Simet Jr.

Nowruz but not only Turkic

Chief director of the Kamalovsky Theatre Farid Bikchantayev published the programmes of the Nowruz festival and the special program of the theatre Olympiad, but first voiced the thoughts that had been floating around last year:

“Nowruz is our 17th, including the theatre and educational forum. And it was always called Festival of Turkic Theatres. But at some point we realized that this limits us, living in Russia. And we are submitting a decision to your opinion — to call it Association of National Theatres — International Festival of National Theatres Nowruz.

“Will Nowruz change?” asked Director of the Kamal Theatre Ilgiz Zayniyev.

“Nowruz has already changed,” answered Bikchantayev. “This year, in addition to Turkic theatres, there are Yakutia, Kyrgyzstan, Adygea, the Chechen theatres. Let's be honest, not always Turkic theatres... There are performances that you don't even want to bring, just because it's a Turkic theatre.

“Excellent,” responded the director of the Chechen Drama Theatre Khava Akhmadova.

Hamlet from Cape Town, Meek from Brazil

Also from 12 to 23 June, Kazan will host a special programme of the International Theatre Olympiad. The puppet theatre Janni Younge Productions from Cape Town (South Africa), the Bashkir Drama Theatre named after M. Gafuri, ATTIS Theatre (Greece), Turkish State Theatre (Ankara), Alexandrinsky Theatre (St Petersburg), the Performing Arts Centre of Brazil and the Performing Arts Laboratory of the University of Valle (Columbia).

So, from 9 to 21June, Nauryz will be held with the participation of 19 theatres: Ufa, Gorno-Altaysk, Bishkek, Maykop, Grozny, Abakan, Cheboksary, Simferopol. For the first time, the puppet theatre from Neryungri. Also, for example, theatres from Kostanay, Syrdarya, Ganja, as well as the city theatre of Mersin will come.

The Olympic performances from v June are intertwined with this programme. The first guests are the Janni Younge Productions Puppet Theatre from Cape Town with Hamlet. The Bashkir Drama Theatre named after Mazhit Gafuri offered the production of Uncle Vanya with the participation of the Mari National Drama Theatre named after M. Shketan. President of the Olympiad Theodoros Terzopoulos will bring the play Io. The Turkish State Theatre from Ankara will show Chekhov's Machine.

The Kamal Theatre itself will show Dregs. Muhajirs, and the Alexandrinsky Theater will show Liturgy ZERO. In July, the Chekhov Festival is taking place in Moscow, and Bikchantaev's classmate Alejandro Gonzalez Puche will come to Kazan from it, bringing Dostoevsky's A Gentle Creature (Theatre Company the City Theater, the Centre for Performing Arts of Brazil, and the Laboratory of Performing Arts of the University of Valle).

Fokin also said that in 2027, the International Olympiad in Uzbekistan is being discussed. But Qatar has also expressed a desire.

“This year, we will also have Tuganlyk festival,” said Director of the Bashkir theatre Irshat Faizullin.

“We will have to choose between Bashkortostan and Qatar,” answered Bikchantayev.

Bikchantayev also suggested discussing the issue of education related specifically to national theatres. He recalled that, while studying at GITIS, he took a course on the history of Soviet theatres, where it was necessary to read Aitmatov and Gafuri. And now in diverse Russia there are specialists in English and Spanish theatre, but not in national theatre.

“As a result, critics from Moscow come to us for the first time, they see a national theatre for the first time and the question in their eyes: why aren’t you on horseback,” joked Bikchantayev.

External examination and unification of the the terms of reference

Minister of Culture of Tatarstan Irada Ayupova who came from the congress of the Union of Writers, raised several issues. She proposed conducting an external examination of local drama:

“There is populism, like, you don’t support local authors,” explained Ayupova. “But I perfectly understand the artistic directors, chief directors, directors who tell us — this work is no good. An external examination is needed to exclude bias, lobbying for the interests of certain authors.”

“In this building, we realized that we have a great demand for non-massive specialties, narrow-profile ones, for example, video engineers who would work with the equipment in the Universal Hall. There are great opportunities there, but we cannot fully use them,” Ayupova outlined the second issue.

The third issue that she proposed to discuss was the unification of technical specifications during the construction of new theatres.

“Many theatres work with imported equipment. Some have been staffed, some need to be updated, but due to circumstances this becomes an expensive story or is simply impossible,” the minister explained. “We have 3-5 contractors in countries, with a certain set of equipment. We are tailored to their vision, their technical specifications, their experience, their capabilities. This is wrong.”