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BRIGHT FUTURE FOR ARMENIAN PLAYWRIGHT
Prague Post, Czech Republic
June 6 2013
An early experience with death continues to inspire Seda Stepanyan
By Leonid Leonov
For the Post
It is the conclusion of an impressive year for Seda Stepanyan, 21, the
Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellow with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
who has capped it off by recently being named the regional winner of
the British Council/BBC-sponsored International Radio Playwriting
Competition. The achievement is the culmination of years of pursuing
both journalism and playwriting while living in her native Armenia.
"In 2011, I sent in my first radio play, Waiting for Death," Stepanyan
tells The Prague Post. "The next year, I sent them another radio play,
and [now] it won the regional [award]."
In a press statement released after her win was announced, she said,
"I'm very proud I could represent my country with this play. Even if
it's something small, I'm very happy to bring my country's name to the
world."
The news of her triumph came six months into Stepanyan's tenure as a
Havel Fellow, during which she moved from Armenia to Prague and worked
at RFE/RL with a focus on driving political awareness among the youth
of Armenia through social media.
"Seda's award is a wonderful affirmation of her talent for capturing
the unique, expressive power of words, both in drama and in real
life," RFE/RL's Acting President and CEO Kevin Klose said in a press
release. "It is inspiring that this young woman continues Mr. Havel's
legacy through her plays and keeps his spirit very much alive."
Chosen from among 1,000 entrants, the winning play is titled And the
Sun Went on Shining Cynically and concerns a woman's search for her
lover on the frontlines of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. On her journey, she
encounters a diverse cast of characters and various tragedies, each
one leaving a different, and often painful, mark on her.
The win is a validation of both Stepanyan's talent and her ambition to
write about a time in Armenian history still fresh in the memories of
her country's people, even as it occurred when she herself was only a
child. Full-scale fighting broke out in 1992 and only ended in 1994.
"[They] told me, 'You were never there during the war, how can you
imagine what the situation was there?' " Stepanyan says. "But I
believe in the memory of the genes. My ancestors have seen so many bad
things, so many misfortunes, not only concerning this war, but others.
You cannot run away from your roots."
However, the concerns of her piece do not focus on historicity, as the
play itself barely touches on place names, a specific period, or any
other details that would root the play in a very specific time and
space. Instead, it's an opportunity to talk about hope during futile
or despondent situations.
"In my life, something might happen, and I don't know what can be done
in that situation," Stepanyan says. "It is said a writer is always
writing about one thing, and every time they write something in a new
way [it is] about the same thing. All the things I write are based on
my feelings about my life and the life of the people close to me."
While she may not have firsthand experience with the war she writes
about, Stepanyan is well aware of the pains and struggles that afflict
people even in unexceptional circumstances. For a decade, she has kept
close to her heart the memory of her former piano teacher. On the day
of a canceled lesson, Stepanyan, then only 13, came home to find out
the teacher had killed herself.
"She told me I have a lesson Saturday at 1 o'clock. And I told her
[that] I cannot make it because I'm going for a walk with my friend. I
can remember all of it. And when I came home, my mother told me she
has something to tell me, but I should keep calm. [She said,] 'Your
piano teacher committed suicide.' Same day, same time [as my lesson]."
Shaken, Stepanyan resolved to continue to address the idea of
hopelessness. It is something she says pervades all of her work,
including Waiting for Death, which received a commendation at the 2011
International Radio Playwriting Competition, and Striptiz, which won a
grant from the Open Society Foundations to be staged in Armenia's
capital Yerevan this spring.
"I thought, if I had gone to that lesson, maybe she would change her
mind, maybe something would happen that would change her life and that
step would be prevented," she says. "Everywhere I am looking for her,
I am trying to find a woman that looks like her."
Stepanyan says she makes the heroes of her plays into phoenixes that
die and are reborn, a process that oddly resembles her method of
creation.
"Every time I lose someone, I find a new piece of writing," she
explains. "It is not equal to that person's life, but it is something
that is born."
The win was announced shortly before Stepanyan's monthlong
Fellowship-led trip to the United States that saw her stay in
Washington, D.C., and New York City and meet the likes of Nancy
Pelosi, the minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. That
trip and her success have made her upbeat about the future.
"I have many plans," Stepanyan says. "The BBC award has changed many
things. There are now many things to do with these two branches of my
life, journalism and drama writing. I will do both."
http://www.praguepost.com/tempo/16443-bright-future-for-armenian-playwright.html
From: A. Papazian
Prague Post, Czech Republic
June 6 2013
An early experience with death continues to inspire Seda Stepanyan
By Leonid Leonov
For the Post
It is the conclusion of an impressive year for Seda Stepanyan, 21, the
Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellow with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
who has capped it off by recently being named the regional winner of
the British Council/BBC-sponsored International Radio Playwriting
Competition. The achievement is the culmination of years of pursuing
both journalism and playwriting while living in her native Armenia.
"In 2011, I sent in my first radio play, Waiting for Death," Stepanyan
tells The Prague Post. "The next year, I sent them another radio play,
and [now] it won the regional [award]."
In a press statement released after her win was announced, she said,
"I'm very proud I could represent my country with this play. Even if
it's something small, I'm very happy to bring my country's name to the
world."
The news of her triumph came six months into Stepanyan's tenure as a
Havel Fellow, during which she moved from Armenia to Prague and worked
at RFE/RL with a focus on driving political awareness among the youth
of Armenia through social media.
"Seda's award is a wonderful affirmation of her talent for capturing
the unique, expressive power of words, both in drama and in real
life," RFE/RL's Acting President and CEO Kevin Klose said in a press
release. "It is inspiring that this young woman continues Mr. Havel's
legacy through her plays and keeps his spirit very much alive."
Chosen from among 1,000 entrants, the winning play is titled And the
Sun Went on Shining Cynically and concerns a woman's search for her
lover on the frontlines of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. On her journey, she
encounters a diverse cast of characters and various tragedies, each
one leaving a different, and often painful, mark on her.
The win is a validation of both Stepanyan's talent and her ambition to
write about a time in Armenian history still fresh in the memories of
her country's people, even as it occurred when she herself was only a
child. Full-scale fighting broke out in 1992 and only ended in 1994.
"[They] told me, 'You were never there during the war, how can you
imagine what the situation was there?' " Stepanyan says. "But I
believe in the memory of the genes. My ancestors have seen so many bad
things, so many misfortunes, not only concerning this war, but others.
You cannot run away from your roots."
However, the concerns of her piece do not focus on historicity, as the
play itself barely touches on place names, a specific period, or any
other details that would root the play in a very specific time and
space. Instead, it's an opportunity to talk about hope during futile
or despondent situations.
"In my life, something might happen, and I don't know what can be done
in that situation," Stepanyan says. "It is said a writer is always
writing about one thing, and every time they write something in a new
way [it is] about the same thing. All the things I write are based on
my feelings about my life and the life of the people close to me."
While she may not have firsthand experience with the war she writes
about, Stepanyan is well aware of the pains and struggles that afflict
people even in unexceptional circumstances. For a decade, she has kept
close to her heart the memory of her former piano teacher. On the day
of a canceled lesson, Stepanyan, then only 13, came home to find out
the teacher had killed herself.
"She told me I have a lesson Saturday at 1 o'clock. And I told her
[that] I cannot make it because I'm going for a walk with my friend. I
can remember all of it. And when I came home, my mother told me she
has something to tell me, but I should keep calm. [She said,] 'Your
piano teacher committed suicide.' Same day, same time [as my lesson]."
Shaken, Stepanyan resolved to continue to address the idea of
hopelessness. It is something she says pervades all of her work,
including Waiting for Death, which received a commendation at the 2011
International Radio Playwriting Competition, and Striptiz, which won a
grant from the Open Society Foundations to be staged in Armenia's
capital Yerevan this spring.
"I thought, if I had gone to that lesson, maybe she would change her
mind, maybe something would happen that would change her life and that
step would be prevented," she says. "Everywhere I am looking for her,
I am trying to find a woman that looks like her."
Stepanyan says she makes the heroes of her plays into phoenixes that
die and are reborn, a process that oddly resembles her method of
creation.
"Every time I lose someone, I find a new piece of writing," she
explains. "It is not equal to that person's life, but it is something
that is born."
The win was announced shortly before Stepanyan's monthlong
Fellowship-led trip to the United States that saw her stay in
Washington, D.C., and New York City and meet the likes of Nancy
Pelosi, the minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. That
trip and her success have made her upbeat about the future.
"I have many plans," Stepanyan says. "The BBC award has changed many
things. There are now many things to do with these two branches of my
life, journalism and drama writing. I will do both."
http://www.praguepost.com/tempo/16443-bright-future-for-armenian-playwright.html
From: A. Papazian