TPAM Lab in St. Petersburg about Tovstonogov and his method
By Marie Kilsgaard Møller, stage director from Denmark and participator
at the TPAM
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| Fotograf: Alexander Scheck |
On a rainy September day I received
a Facebook message from a Russian stranger. It was an invitation to participate
in an all-expenses-paid Directors Lab in St. Petersburg. I couldn’t believe it.
Through Facebook!? Well, it turned out to be serious, not spam, and suddenly –
after an intense last minute visa process – I was on my way to the land of “no
free speaking” and “no homosexuality”, and all the other negative things I’d
heard about Russia from the Danish media. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d
feared, however. Actually these creative Russian artists seemed very open,
honest and free!
STINKY BUT NICE HOSTEL
So I had no idea what to
expect. There was a thick air of smoke in Hello Hostel where we were to live,
eat and work. The producer, Dasha was there to receive me. She was as nice as I’d
imagined from her kind emails. I was the first of seven directors to arrive,
which allowed me a few hours to prepare. We were working on Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot adapted by the famous Russian director Georgy
Tovstonogov.
I was to share a room with
an Austrian director, who was herself very upset to be living with another
person. Even though the hostel was dirty and there was stinking smoke
everywhere, the people were nice, understanding and welcoming. I felt respected
and was pleased to be a part of the project.
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| Fotograf: Marie Kilsgaard Møller |
FIRST REHEARSAL
On the first day we had a
big meeting with the Artistic Directors Liza (who had invited me on Facebook)
and Aleksander (whom I knew from New York), all seven international directors,
the Russian actors, producers, set designers and critics.
After a short introduction we
had to pick a scene! A hat was sent around and each of the seven directors drew
a note with the name of the scene we were to stage. Ten minutes later the
rehearsals started! We had a room and a group of young, recently graduated
actors. My set designer told me he had to be away for 4 days. Okay. (What could
I say…?) Everything happened so fast.
The first rehearsal was crazy!
It was like an exercise in underpreparedness. I spent the time getting to know
the actors through conversation. I also scheduled a short exercise wherein the
actors performed the entire scene for me without any rehearsal. Only one out of
four actors spoke English. Luckily I had a nice, young interpreter who is studying
to become a producer at the theatre academy.
UNDERSTANDING RUSSIAN
“Did you read the novel?” “Are
you aware of Dostoyevsky’s first title of the book?” “What do you think the
story is about?” “Are we going to talk about the characters?”
The Russians were obviously
testing me as a director – right there on the first day of the lab. I tried to
answer as openly as I could, since I really didn’t know what to do with the
scene I’d picked.
Suddenly I realized that
the actors ONLY had a Russian manuscript! “Are you going to do the whole scene
in Russian?” “Okay...” I don’t know what I had imagined, but I was surprised. How
could I possibly direct, let alone understand, a Russian text? My goal for this
process became to make the scene understandable for an international audience –
even me.
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| Fotograf: Alexander Scheck |
DOSTOVJETSKY AS CURRICULUM
In the Russian school
system, students learn about literature, especially Dostoyevsky, from a very young age. Everybody knows him and people
refer to his characters as if they were celebrities! I, however, was a total
stranger to this world.
Luckily we all had the
opportunity to attend lectures (how to understand Dostoyevsky, for example) and we even went on a Dostoyevsky city-tour. I realized that in Russia it is very
common (almost mandatory!) to interpret the main character in The Idiot, Prince Myshkin, as a Jesus figure.
This notion disgusts me. I don’t like to lay religious overtones onto
everything. Religion damages the world enough as it is. For me, Prince Myshkin
could just as well be Nelson Mandela. Or a normal person – a part of the audience!
And that was what I made him! I wanted to find a way that Tovstonogov’s 1957 adaption
of The Idiot could become a story
about our time. To me, the problem of every character (except for Myshkin) is
that they are selfish! Selfishness is a big problem in today’s world. And it is
only made worse by social media and television reality shows. So that became my story – and a second goal: to
make The Idiot relevant for today’s
audience – and to inspire people to be less selfish.
THE TOVSTONOGOV METHOD
“Does Georgy Tovstonogov
have a method?” That was one of the main questions the lab wanted to ask.
Indeed yes! He has! But for the first week and a half it wasn’t clear what it
was. Not until Irena Malochewskaya summed it up for us in a very structured and
mathematical kind of way. When I arrived I had no idea who Tovstonogov was, but
when I received the program for the lab I realized that I knew Malochewskaya! I
had read her book and taken a course about the method of physical actions. In
Russia they call Tovstonogov’s method “The Method of Active Analysis” and the
method of physical actions is a part of that! Since I was already familiar with
the method and respected it very much I became one of the more curious
“students”.
MAKE THE METHODS YOUR OWN
It is important to have
tools as a director, and Tovstonogov did well in describing them. Unfortunately,
however, his method has only been translated into Norwegian, so only Russians
and Scandinavians have access to this master’s world. (I highly recommend that
the Russian Arts Council support a
translation of Tovstonogov’s books or Malochewskayas book into English).
Tovstonogov described a
method for directors – like Stanislavsky described a method for actors. No one can work
successfully if they base their work on only one method. I believe it is important to have theory, to learn
about different ways of working, and then to base your own work on what you
like, remember and feel is working for you. You have to build up your own
personal understanding and method.
WHAT I LEARNED
“Which kind of method do
you use,” asked the actors on the first day. I had to tell them, “I don’t know!
I have no idea. It is a mix of all kinds of methods.” Later in the lab I
learned, that Tovstonogov says: “never talk about methods with actors. But keep
the method in your body and bring it into rehearsal.” He also used to say that
he expects actors to be ready to work by the time the rehearsal starts. Everyone
would arrive a bit early to warm up. I told that to my actors one day, when I
had to knock on the table to demand more discipline. Thereafter no one in my
room was late and the working atmosphere was very good. Other lab directors had
trouble getting their people to show up. Different interpreters were also jumping
in and out of the program. I think I was lucky to have the people around me
that I did. I also think it is your responsibility as the leader of the room to
create the discipline. The producers of the lab can’t be responsible for that,
even though some directors expected it.
I PREFERE COOPERATION
I learned from Tovstonogov
that the director should always be more prepared than the actors. He or she
should be one step ahead. But at the lab we didn’t have a living chance to be
ahead. This created a nice and cooperative working-atmosphere. We developed and
learned about the material TOGETHER by trying different methods and exploring situations.
I liked the cooperation of the room, and I enjoy when actors feel they can
provide their own suggestions and ideas.
This unprepared
Tovstonogov-lab was both an experiment and true chaos. But it endowed me with knowledge
and wonderful relationships. Also - luckily - it seemed as though many audience
members enjoyed my showcase on the final day.
LOYAL AUDIENCE
I saw many, very different
performances during my two weeks in St. Petersburg, each varying in quality.
Even though the country has a long history of theatre, it does not always
present a wonderful final product. But! What makes the
theatre both lovely and awful is that it can fail! You never know how it will go or how it will be.
Audiences in Russia on the
other hand never fail! They are so loyal and interested. Every theatre was
filled with people of all ages. The audience also knows a lot about culture –
and they love it – so it seemed… this makes me a little jealous.
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| Fotograf: Alexander Scheck |
Even though there were
parties in the evening, right outside my bedroom door, and even though Russia was
dark in December nearly all the time, this lab was the best international
experience I have ever had.
It was superior to all the seminars
and festivals I’ve attended. Honestly, it was much better than the Directors
Lab at the Lincoln Center Theatre. In St. Petersburg there were ambitious,
young people arranging creative and intellectual room for all of us. There was
always time to provide and receive feedback or to change plans. And even though
the program was tight we were allowed private time every day. We thrust our
hands into the dough, dissecting methods as we practiced them. Additionally, we
had six very different colleagues with whom we discussed everything explored in
the rehearsal room. “What is the role of the director?” “How can you achieve
want you want?” “Why do the relations in the rehearsal room not work sometimes?”
“How can you work differently and more physically?” We had wonderful
discussions about directing and its methods during almost every lunch and
dinner for two weeks. Throughout the experience there was an atmosphere of
respect and honesty.
Four of us had known each
other from the 2013 summer lab in New York. As such there was no need to get to
know each other before we discussed the work at hand. Directing is quite a
lonely job. This is why I highly recommend attending labs. I am grateful and
happy to have had the opportunity to gain these new international colleagues -
because they are worth gold!
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