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MUNICIPAL THEATER PLAYS ARMENIAN WRITER'S WORK
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Oct 12 2011
Istanbul Municipal Theater is getting ready to stage famous Armenian
writer Hagop Baronyan's Eastern Worker in its new season. "Armenians
are the foundations of Turkish theater," says art director Şamlıoğlu.
This photo shows the actors and actresses on their rehearsal of Eastern
Worker, Armenian writer Hagop Baranyan's famous novel, which is now
adapted into a play. DAILY NEWS photo.
The Istanbul Municipal Theater will stage Hagop Baronyan's "Eastern
Worker" (Adamnapuyjn Arevelyan) as a musical in the new season,
marking the first time an Armenian play will be staged at a state
theater in Turkey.
"Armenians are the foundation of Turkish theater. Artists bred in this
area are the DNA of this land. We need to claim our past if we want
to modernize. Unfortunately, we are a society without a memory," said
Ayşenil Şamlıoğlu, Istanbul Municipal Theater's general art director.
The theater would be greatly pleased to bring the play to Armenia
with its huge cast as well, Şamlıoğlu added.
"We also marginalize our people. We ignored people who had been living
on this soil for thousands of years due to ideological reasons. It is
impossible for us to eradicate Armenian artists from Turkish theater,"
Engin Algan, who adapted Baronyan's work for the stage, recently told
the Hurriyet Daily News.
Algan encountered Baronyan's name by chance in a theater magazine
called "Mimesis." He then found out about the work on the Internet.
"[It is] a very important and unique work in literary terms as much as
in theatrical terms despite having been written in 1860," Algan said.
Regarded as a landmark persona in western Armenian literature, which
developed primarily in Istanbul during the 19th century, Baronyan was
marginalized in his own time due to his biting language. A comedy
writer and journalist, Baronyan posthumously became part of the
classical cannon with his work.
'There would have been outrage'
"We would not have been able to stage this play in previous years
even if we had wanted to. We went through difficult times. There
would certainly have been major outrage if we had said that we were
going to stage such a play in a public theater," Algan said.
It is highly important to perform such a play at a time when enmity
is used as a political tool and the winds of nationalism have taken
hold of the new generation, he said.
"We shared a common life 100 years ago. It is this common past that
carried us into the present. We are used to burying our heads in the
sand, but we can no longer continue on like this," Algan said.
The play tackles the issue of gender relations in a comical way,
according to Şamlıoğlu, while the costumes and music is quite colorful.
"We did some restoration work on the original text. We composed
new songs and brought together the influence of westernization,
the culture of the Armenian community, Orientalism and canto with a
different concept while preserving the spirit of the era," Algan said.
Foreign audiences would also derive great pleasure from Baronyan's
play, Şamlıoğlu said.
"You will find the wealth of this land and a different color scale
in this musical play," Şamlıoğlu said.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Oct 12 2011
Istanbul Municipal Theater is getting ready to stage famous Armenian
writer Hagop Baronyan's Eastern Worker in its new season. "Armenians
are the foundations of Turkish theater," says art director Şamlıoğlu.
This photo shows the actors and actresses on their rehearsal of Eastern
Worker, Armenian writer Hagop Baranyan's famous novel, which is now
adapted into a play. DAILY NEWS photo.
The Istanbul Municipal Theater will stage Hagop Baronyan's "Eastern
Worker" (Adamnapuyjn Arevelyan) as a musical in the new season,
marking the first time an Armenian play will be staged at a state
theater in Turkey.
"Armenians are the foundation of Turkish theater. Artists bred in this
area are the DNA of this land. We need to claim our past if we want
to modernize. Unfortunately, we are a society without a memory," said
Ayşenil Şamlıoğlu, Istanbul Municipal Theater's general art director.
The theater would be greatly pleased to bring the play to Armenia
with its huge cast as well, Şamlıoğlu added.
"We also marginalize our people. We ignored people who had been living
on this soil for thousands of years due to ideological reasons. It is
impossible for us to eradicate Armenian artists from Turkish theater,"
Engin Algan, who adapted Baronyan's work for the stage, recently told
the Hurriyet Daily News.
Algan encountered Baronyan's name by chance in a theater magazine
called "Mimesis." He then found out about the work on the Internet.
"[It is] a very important and unique work in literary terms as much as
in theatrical terms despite having been written in 1860," Algan said.
Regarded as a landmark persona in western Armenian literature, which
developed primarily in Istanbul during the 19th century, Baronyan was
marginalized in his own time due to his biting language. A comedy
writer and journalist, Baronyan posthumously became part of the
classical cannon with his work.
'There would have been outrage'
"We would not have been able to stage this play in previous years
even if we had wanted to. We went through difficult times. There
would certainly have been major outrage if we had said that we were
going to stage such a play in a public theater," Algan said.
It is highly important to perform such a play at a time when enmity
is used as a political tool and the winds of nationalism have taken
hold of the new generation, he said.
"We shared a common life 100 years ago. It is this common past that
carried us into the present. We are used to burying our heads in the
sand, but we can no longer continue on like this," Algan said.
The play tackles the issue of gender relations in a comical way,
according to Şamlıoğlu, while the costumes and music is quite colorful.
"We did some restoration work on the original text. We composed
new songs and brought together the influence of westernization,
the culture of the Armenian community, Orientalism and canto with a
different concept while preserving the spirit of the era," Algan said.
Foreign audiences would also derive great pleasure from Baronyan's
play, Şamlıoğlu said.
"You will find the wealth of this land and a different color scale
in this musical play," Şamlıoğlu said.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011