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volume 21, no. 1

Winter 2001

S P (ISSN 1047-0019) is a publication of the Institute for Contemporaryast uropean Drama and Theatre under the auspices of the Martin E. SegalTheatre Center. The Institute is at The City University of New York Graduate

Center, 365 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309. All subscription requestsand submissions should be addressed to Slavic and ast European Peiformant e:Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Theatre Program, The City University of NewYork Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309.

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EDITORDaniel Gerould

MANAGING EDITORSharon Aronson-Lehavi

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTKurtTaroff

CIRCULATION MANAGERSSusan TennerielloLara Shalson

ASSISTANT CIRCULATION MANAGERSHillary Arlen Celia Braxton

ADVISORY BOARDEdwin Wilson Chair

arvin Carlson Alma LawMartha W CoigneyLeo Hecht Allen]. Kuharski

Stuart LiebmanLaurence Senelick

Martin E Segal Theatre Center Publications are supported by generous grantsfrom the Lucille Lortel Chair n Theatre and the Sidney E Cohn Chair nTheatre n the Ph.D. Program n Theatre at the City University ofNew York.Copyright 2001 Martin E. Segal Theatre CenterS P has a very liberal reprinting policy. Journals and newsletters that desireto reproduce articles reviews and other materials that have appeared n S Pmay do so as long as the following provisions are met:a Permission to reprint the article must be requested from S P n writing

before the fact;b Credit to S P must be given in the reprint;c Two copies of the publication n which the reprinted material has

appeared must be furnished to the Editors of S P immediately uponpublication.

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Editorial PolicyFrom the EditorEventsBooks ReceivedIN MEMORI M

T BLE OF ONTENTS

''WojciechJerzy Has: 1921-2000RTICLES

Thoughts of a Director: The Winter's TaleSlobodan UnkovskiTo Be What You Are: Staging Contemporary

East-European Drama in CanadaYana Meerzon

A Bridge to Nowhere: Gesher-A Russian Theatre in IsraelBilha Blum

Stanislavsky Enters the Twenty First CenturySharon Marie CarnickeP GES FROM THE P STThe Master and the DeviL- Mikhail Bulgakotl'

by Andrzej DrawiczKevin Windle

REVIEWSThe Memorandum at Juilliard:

Giving New Meaning to the Term Office PoliticsKurtTaroffA Dramaturg's Notebook:

The Master and Mm;garitd'Ilana M Brownstein

56713

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20

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64

70

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TheBocfy o the Line: Eisenstein s Drawingshe Drawing CenterDaniel Gerould

ContributorsPublications

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EDITORI L POLICY

Manuscripts in the following categories are solicited: articles of nomore than 2 500 words performance and film reviews and bibliographies.Please bear in mind that all submissions must concern themselves either withcontemporary materials on Slavic and East European theatre drama and filmor with new approaches to older materials in recently published works or newperformances of older plays In other words we welcome submissionsreviewing innovative performances of Gogol but we cannot use originalarticles discussing Gogol as a playwright.Although we welcome translations of articles and reviews fromforeign publications we do require copyright release statements We will alsogladly publish announcements of special events and anything else which maybe of interest to our discipline. All submissions are refereed.

All submissions must be typed double-spaced and carefullyproofread. The Chicago Manual o S Yie should be followed. Trans-literationsshould follow the Library of Congress system. Articles should be submittedon computer disk as Word 97 Documents for Windows and a hard copy of thearticle should be included . Photographs are recommended for all reviews Allarticles should be sent to the attention of Slavic and st European Peiformance,c/ o Martin E. Segal Theatre Center The City University of New YorkG raduate Center 365 th Avenue N ew York NY 10016-4309. Submissionswill be evaluated and authors w ll be notified after approximately four weeks.

You may obtain more information about Slavic and ast EuropeanPerformance by visiting out website at http www.gc.cuny.edu/ mestc Emailinquiries may be addressed to SEEP@gc.cuny.edu

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FROM TH E ITORVol. 21, No. 1of SEEP opens with a tribute to film maker Wojciech

Has, whose Saragossa Manuscript is one of the classics of Polish Cinema. Has diedin L6di on October 3, 2000 at the age of seventy five The four feature articlesreflect the mobility of Eastern European performance in the twenty-first centuryand raise a variety of questions about cultural transference. The Macedoniandirector, Slobodan Unkovski, analyzes his production of The Winter s Tale at ARTin Cambridge, Massachusetts, but cautions against any Balkanizing interpretations.Yana Meerzon, a critic and dramaturg trained in Russia, discusses her work on thestaging for Canadian audiences of Princess T by Czech playwright DanielaFicherova and Happiness Channel by Serbian playwright Silvija Jestrovic (writing inEnglish). Bilha Blum examines what happens when a Russian theatre, Gesher,moves to Israel and seeks to retain its national identity while at the same timebecoming Israeli. Sharon Camicke reflects upon her experiences of transmittingStanislavsky's legacy for the Anglo-American theatre.PAGES FROM THE PAST presents an excerpt from Kevin Windle'snew translation of Andrzej Drawicz's study ofMikhail Bulgakov-an Australiantranslation of a Polish book about the Russian playwright. The current numberconcludes with Kurt Taroffs review of Havel's Memorandum at Julliard, IlanaBrownstein's discussion of Lyubimov's adaptation of Bulgakov's Master andMargarita at the Yale School of Drama and my report on the Sergei EisensteinExhibit at the Drawing Center in New York.

East European performance has lost its fixed identity and settledlocation. It was only during the height of the cold war that the theatres ofEasternEurope were hermetically sealed off from the West so that to see a productionone had to travel to Moscow, Prague, Budapest, or Warsaw, or be lucky enoughto catch a glimpse of a fortunate company allowed to travel to an internationalfestival. Long before the collapse of communism, Eastern European performancebegan to relocate across the globe. Many major Romanian directors, Serban,Ciulei, Pintilie, and Purdirete, left for the West in the 1960s and 70s. Czechplaywrights and filmmakers fled their homeland after the 1968 Soviet invasion.Slawomir Mrozek left Poland in 1963 for Italy, France, Germany, and Mexico,returning to Cracow only in the mid-90s. Even Tadeusz Kantor, who never leftPoland, was more often to be seen at La Mama or the Edinburgh Fringe Festivalthan in Cracow; and his later productions were financed and premiered inGermany and Italy. Eastern European Performance can no longer be defined byborders or even language. Perhaps its identity comes from its point of originrather than its ports of call or final destination. The current issue of SEEPexemplifies the diffusion of East European performance.

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STAGE PRODUCTIONSNew York City

V NTS

Song Tree, an original world music theatre piece, with music byMaryana Sadovska, Yaryana Turianska, and Eugene Hutz was presented bythe Yara Arts Group. The program featured traditional polyphonic singing byartists from Ukraine and Yara actors, as well as video by Andrea Odezynskaand the music of Gogo Bordello, a Ukrainian band. The production waspresented at La Mama Experimental Theatre from December 21 to 23, 2000.

The Mother by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, directed by HyunjungLee, was presented at the Horace Mann Thatre of Columbia University fromMarch 7 to 10, 2001.

Metamorphosis; or The Golden ssAccording to Apuleiuswas performed bythe Polish Gardzienice Theatre at La Mama Experimental Theatre fromJanuary 24 to 28, 2001.

Boris y the Sea by Matvei Yankelevich, directed by Daniel Kleinfeld,was shown at the HERE Arts Center from September 28 to October 22, 2000.Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Onhard, directed by Joseph Hardy, was

performed by The Pearl Theatre from January 11 to February 25, 2001.The Second Annual Chekhov NOW Festival was presented by LITE

(Laboratory for International Theatre Exchange) Company from Novemberto 19, 2000 at the Connelly Theatre. Performances included:

Gull an adaptation of The Seagull directed by Ellen Beckerman andproduced by Ellen Beckerman Co.: November 1 to 16.In The Widows Garden by Courtney Baron, adapted from The Studentand directed by Ca rl Forsman: November to 10.The Beginning o No by Cusi Cram, adapted from nna on the Neck anddirected by Shirlana Stokes: November 1 to 10.The Madman by Ron Fitzgerald, adapted from The Diary o a ViolentMadman and directed by Peter Campbell: November 1 to 10.The Enemies adapted and directed by Alla Kigel: November 4 to 19

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FILM

Iof Yth adapted and directed by Lise Liepmann: November 4 to 18.Three Sisters directed by Steven McElroy, presented by the NewEnsemble Theatre Company: November 4 to 19.Hello, Meatman adapted by Leah Ryan from Murder and directed byTim Moore: November 4 to 18.The Foulest o Creatures adapted and directed by David Gochfeld:November 10 to 19.To Kill Charlotte adapted and directed by Slava Stepnova from Ivanovand presented by the Steps Theatre: November 14 to 18.How To Insult Your True Love, an operatic adaptation of The MarriageProposal with music and lyrics by Burton Sternthal and book by SusanSaltiel and Burton Stemthal, directed by Howard Berkowitz:November 10 to 19.

Time Stands Still by Peter Gothar was shown at The Museum ofModern Art on October 22 and 27, 2000.

Two Men and a Wardrobe by Roman Polanski was screened at TheMuseum of Modem Art on October 24, 2000.

Close(y Watt-hed Trains by Jili Menzel was presented at The Museum ofModem Art on October 27, 2000.

P.rythedelit Invasion o the Battleship Potemkin into Sergei Eisenstein'sTautological Halludnations by Alexander Roytburd was shown at the Museum ofModern Art on November 13 and 14,2000.

The DetYJiogue by Krzysztof Kieslowski was screened at the BrooklynAcademy of Music s Rose Cinemas from January 19 to February 22,2001.

Knife in the Water by Roman Polanski was presented at AnthologyFilm Archives on January 3

Chapaev by Sergei and Georgi Yassiliev was screened at AnthologyFilm Archives on January 68 Slavit and ast European Performan.-e Vol. 21, No 1

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Andrei Roublev by Andrei Tarkovsky was shown at Anthology FilmArchives on January 6 and 20.

Battleship Potemkin and Alexander Nevsky by Sergei Eisenstein werepresented at Anthology Film Archives on January 15.

Shaduws of Our Forgotten Ancestors by Sergei Paradjanov was shown atAnthology Film Archives on January 27.Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky was presented at Anthology Film

Archives on January 28.My Name is Ivan/Ivan s Childhood by Andrei Tarkovsky was screened at

Anthology Film Archives on January 30.Revolution in the Revolution: Soviet Cinema of the 60s, a f tl m

festival highlighting a creative period in Soviet film, was presented at theWalter Reade Theatre of the Film Society of Lincoln Center from November1 to 30, 2000. The following films were presented:

Monologue by Ilya Averbakh: November 10 and 12.BriefEncounters by Kira Muratova: November 10 and 11.When Leaves Fall by Otar Iosseliani: November 10 and 11.Heat by Larisa Shepitko: November 10 and 14Beginning of an Unknown Era by A ndrei Smimov and LarisaShepitko: N ovember 11 and 12.I m Twen Y by Marlen Khutsiev: November 12 and 14.The LetterNever Sent by Niikhail Kalatozov: November 15.The Cranes re F Jing by Mikhail Kalatozov: November 15.Nine Dqys of One Year by Mikhail Romm: November 16 and18Shaduws of Forgotten Amutors by Sergei Paradjanov:November 16 and 18

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There Wa.r a Lad by Vasily Shukshin: November 17.Ivan .r Childhood (previously released as My Name i.r Ivan) byAndrei Tarkovsky: November 17 and 18.

Long and Happy Life by Gennady Shpalikov: November 19and 20.Nobocfy Wanted to Die by Vitautas Zalakiavicius: November19 and 20.Hamlet by Grigory Kozintsev: November 19 and 23.The Fir.rt Teacher by Andrei Konchalovsky: November 21 and23.Ju J Rain by Marlen Khutsiev: November 21 and 22.Piro.rmani by Georgy Shagelaya: November 22.Sayat Nova by Sergei Paradjanov and We by ArtavazdPeleshyan were presented together on November 23 and 30.Goodbye Boy.r by Mikhail Kalik: November 23 to 28.Debut by Gleb Panfilov: November 26 to 29No Ford in the Fire by G leb Panftlov: November 26 and 30.Trial on the Road by Alexei German: November 29 and 30.Two conferences were held as part of the festival Origins and

Impact of 60s Soviet Cinema, November 11. The Legacy of the Soviet 60sfor Filmmakers Today featuring filmmakers Andrei Smimov, Otar Iosselliani,Marlen Khutsiev, and Kira Muratova, November 12.

The Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center presented Six Days ofSlovak Cinema, from February 16 to 22. Films shown as part of the festivalincluded:

Picture.r o the Old World by Dusan Hanak: February 16

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Paper Heads by Dusan Hanak: February 16.

The Thousand Year Old B by Juraj Jakubisko: February 16 and 18.The Shop on Main Street by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos:February 17 and 22.The Crucial Years aka The Years o Christ by Juraj Jakubisko:February 17.The Birds Orphans and Madmen by Juraj Jakubisko: February17 and 18.Sun in the Net by Stefan Uher: February 18 and 22.The Assistant by Zoro Zahon: February 19.Signum audis by Martin Holly: February 19.Wild Lillies aka Lillies o the Field by Elo Havetta: February21.Story o Seven Hanging Men by Martin Holly preceded byCameval and Shaman by Ondrey Rudavsky: February 21.

The Museum ofModernArt presented Slovakia Times Two, The Earth Singsby Karol Plicka and Landscape by Martin Salik, as part of Art from the Hea rt,a citywide celebration ofSlovak culture, on February 26 and 27.ARTS, EVENTS, NEWSNew York

The Czech Center New York presented a lecture and audiovisualpresentation by Jarka M. Burian, introducing his new book Modern CzechTheatre: Rejlet tor and Conscience o a Nation on February 14.

Revolution to Disillusionment: Russian Music After Chekhov, aprogram featuring work by Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Gubaidulina, Part andProkofiev, was performed by Alan Moverman and Friends as part of theChekhov NOW Festival at the Connelly Theatre on November 12.

The Czech Center New York presented a series of events celebratingcomposer Bohuslav Martinu. Included were the following:11

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Bohuslav Martinu and America a new documentary aboutMartinu and the twelve years he spent in the United States,written by i i i Nekvasil and Ales Brezina and directed by ]iiiNekvasil was shown on December 5, 2000.The Life and Work of Bohuslav Martinu, a collection of

reproductions of photographs and facsimiles of letters,drawings, and original scores from the holdings of theBohuslav Martinu Institute in Prague, was on view fromDecember 6, 2001 to January 29, 2001.Return From Exile a 1998 documentary on Martinu's life inEurope, written by Ales Brezina and Jili Nekvasil anddirected Jill Nekvasil was presented on January 9, 2001.

ARTS, EVENTS NEWSRegional

Vaclav Havel was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws bythe University of :Michigan in a ceremony at ill Auditorium in Ann Arbor,Michigan, on September 11. Havel was present at the ceremony, which washighlighted by a reading of Havel's letters to his wife during his imprisonmentin the 1980s. The University also established the Vaclav Havel FellowsProgram, which will provide assistance to students in three categories: graduateor dissertation research in the Czech Republic; graduate students who arecitizens of the Czech Republic, and for dissertation research on topics deemedto reflect the life, work, intellectual contributions and spirit of Vaclav Havel.Michigan Today, Fall2000)

ARTS, EVENTS, NEWSEurope

Cinema and Theatre of Andrzej Wajda, an international conferenceon the work on Andrzej Wajda in both political and cultural contexts, will beheld at the University of L6dz, Poland from October 25 to 28, 2001.

-Compiled by Kurt Taroff

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OOKSRECEIVED

Contemporary Slovak Drama 2, eclited and with an introduction by Juraj SebestaBratislava: Divadelny Ustav (The Theatre Institute), 2000. 149 pages. ContainsEnglish translations of four plays: Tomas Horvath, The Chair, Laco Kerata, On theSurface; Silvester Lavrik, Katarina; and Jozef Gombar Hugo Carp, plus a selectedbibliography.The Emer;genry Gazette. Special Double Issue devoted to Daniil Kharms, ed. byMatvei Yankelevich. No. 27-28, December 29, 2000. 4 pages. Translations ofworks by Kharms and articles about his theatre. The Emergenry Gazette can beaccessed at www.emergencygazette.comKolankiewicz, Leszek. Ds;jac J': Teatr f w i ~ t i "arlych (Forefathers s Eve: TheTheatre of the Day of the Dead). Gdansk: Slowo/Obraz terytoria), 1999. 585pages Includes hundreds of illustrations and photographs, notes, bibliography,and an index of names.Kowalewicz, Kazimierz, ed. Meetings with the Odi11 Tea/ret. Anthropology/Sociology/Thea tre Series L6dz: University of L6dz Chair of Sociology, 2000.The International School ofTheatre Anthropology (ISTA), May 1998. 132 pages.Contains eighteen articles, all in English, plus a frontpiece of Eugenio Barba,nineteen plates, notes on contributors, and an index of names.

Krizhanskaya, Daria, ed. Tealr : Rmsia11 Theatre, Past andPresent. Vol. 1. Containsseven articles in Russian, five in English, and a play by Andrei Amal rik inRussian, plus book reviews in Russian and in English, a bibliography in Russian,notes on contributors, and thirteen detachable photographs. Available fromCharles Schlacks,Jr., Publisher, P.O. Box 1256, Idyllwild, CA 92549-1256.

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WOJCIECH JERZY HAS1921 2000

Wojciech Has, one of Poland s most original filmmakers, died onOctober 3, 2000 in Lodz at the age of 75 from complications of diabetes.Throughout a long career lasting more than half a century, he made more thana dozen feature fllms.

Born in Cracow on April 1, 1925, Has studied painting at the CracowAcademy of Fine Arts before attending the Cracow Film Institute. Aftergraduation from the Film Institute in 1946, he worked in Lodz, initially at theFeature Film Studio (Wytwornia Filmow Fabularnych), where n 1948 hecompleted his fust film, Harmo' Y (Harmonia), writing his own scenario, andthen from 1951 to 1956 at the Educational Film Studio (Wytwornia FilmowOswiatowych), making a number of educational ftlms and documentaries,mainly on industrial and agricultural subjects.

In 1955 Has became a member of the Filmmakers Studio Syrena(Zespol Autorow Filmowych Syrena) in Warsaw, later joining Iluzjon (Illusion)where he made his first full-length film, The Noose P ~ t l a ) in 1957. In 1958 Hasbecame associated with the Camera Studio (Kamera) in Wrodaw. From 1980to 1988 he was the artistic director for the studio Rondo in Warsaw, and from1990 to1996 he was the director of the Lodz Film School, where he had taughtin the department of directing since 1974.

In its externals, Has s career was fairly typical of the postwargeneration of Polish filmmakers. It started with a long apprenticeship (1946-57) at the state-subsidized and controlled studios of Film Polski (Warsaw,Wrodaw, and Lodz), making documentaries and shorts according to theprecepts of Stalinist propaganda nd also writing scripts which had to beofficially approved. Into these dreary and schematic exercises it was oftenpossible to insert some rather tame political and social criticism, especially afterStalin s death in 1953.Has s association with the Educational Film Studio in Lodz endedwith the Thaw in 1956. His real debut in u -length feature filmmaking camein 1958 with The Noose, based on the novel, The First Step in the Clouds, by MarekHlasko, a truculent non-conformist writer who would soon emigrate. Unlikethe enthusiastically received early films of Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Munk, andJerzy Kawalerowicz (who had studied with Has at the Cracow Film Institute),The Noose had a lukewarm reception among critics and fllmgoers. The filmmade use of stylized expressionist and surrealist formulas (such as empty oneway streets) to focus on the protagonist s state of mind leading up to hissuicide.

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Also in 1958 Has completed his second feature, Farewells(Pozegnania), a more conventional story that started in the prewar period andfollowed a pair of lovers through the turmoil of the postwar years, which wasbetter received. But Has's next three films proved disappointments. TheShared Room (Wsp6lny pok6j) (1959) was a study of the ennui of Bohemian lifein prewar Warsaw, based on Zbigniew Unilowski's 1932 novel (which TadeuszKantor would use as a major source for Let the Artists Die in 1980). Separation(Rozstanie) and Gold (Zloto) dealt with contemporary reality.

How to be Loved 0ak bye kochan:t, 1963) finally brought Hasrecognition both at home and abroad, winning a prize at the San FranciscoFilm Festival. But it was his next feature, The Saragossa Manuscript (1964), thatbecame something of a cult film and made Has's reputation as a major directorwith a fantastic baroque imagination and a dazzling cinematographic palette.Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead paid to have the English language version ofThe Saragossa Manuscript restored to its original three-hour length, and LuisBuiiuel apparently found the film's ambivalent mixture of illusion and realityan inspiration for his own Belle de Jour (1966). Has based his film on amasterpiece of early nineteenth-century gothic fiction, The Manuscript Found inSaragossa written in French by the Polish traveler and ethnographer Count JanPotocki.

His next two ftlms Codes (Szyfry, 1966) and The Doll (Lalka, 1968)-were not on the same level of mythopoetic creativity, although the latter was avery stylish adaptation of Boleslaw Pros's panoramic novel about life and lovein nineteenth-century Warsaw. It was not almost until ten years after TheSaragossa Manumipt that Has found another source sufficiently bizarre to stirhis cinematographic imagination. This was The Sanatorium Under the Sign of theHourglass (Sanatorium pod klepsydr:t, 1973), based on the stories of BrunoSchulz about the demiurgical father and his fantastic tailor shop in Drohobycz.The film won a prize at Cannes, but it was followed by a ten-year hiatus. Hasproduced nothing new until 1983, and the fJ.. ms from the last decade of hiscreative life added little to the reputation that he had already earned.

Has was a highly idiosyncratic filmmaker and also a very literary one.He relied heavily on literature. Thirteen of his fourteen feature films areadaptations of literary texts. In transferring a literary work to the screen wemake some changes without touching the work itself. It is not destroyed. Theliterary work endures in unchanged form, Has declared. In my opinion fJ.. mgrows out of literature and music. Certainly my cinema does. Leading Polishcomposers, such as Tadeusz Baird, Lucjan Kaszycki, and KrzysztofPenderecki, have written music for his films. Moreover, Has has a painterlyimagination and his films are intensely visual.Has is unlike most of his peers n that he has never tackled the primesubject of Polish cinema: national history. His fllms deal rather with existential

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THOUGHTS OF A DIRECTORTHE WINTER S T LE

Slobodan UnkovskiFor almost thirty years now I have been working n the theatre, and I

keep asking myself a simple question: Where do my performances begin?Numerous times I've had a stomachache as I went to the first rehearsal andtried to seduce the actors, technicians, and other staff members to want to dowhat I wanted. For thirty years I've been asking myself whether I shouldcontinue to practice my primary profession as theatre director. And for thirtyyears, after each premiere, as I leave the theatre, I leave a part of myself behindin what I've put on stage. It may sound pathetic and even old-fa shioned, butunfortunately, or perhaps happily that's the way it is.

I've always thought that other directors in different places find iteasier and simpler. It must be so. I once attended one of Ingmar Bergman'srehearsals at the Royal Dramatten Theatre in Stockholm. In the half-emptyhall, he was sitting at an improvised desk at the rear, in his well-knownwindbreaker jacket with a familiar expression on his face.

I've worked on productions in the Macedonian language, which is mymother tongue; in Serbian, which I speak fluendy; in Slovenian, which Iunderstand most of the time, but don't speak; in Russian, which I understand alitde, but don' t speak; and in Flemish, of which I don' t understand a singleword, let alone speak I've worked with actors whose native languages wereSwedish, Italian, Spanish, and English. When I wa s working on Peer Gynt at theInstitute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard in Cambridge,Massachusetts, I underlined all the words that were unknown to me in theEnglish translation, and there were more than two thousand.How is it then possible for someone who knows my way of thinkingand my approach to immediately recognize my productions? Where do theseproductions have their origin?

Was the beginning located in my first thought when Bob Brustein atA R T asked me to direct The Winter s Tale? That's boring," I thoughtbecause I had proposed a production based on Alan Lightman's novelEinstein s Dreams. Or was the beginning when I had the idea that I'd like tocreate a trilogy based on Moliere's plays, starting with The M isanthrope, whereCelimene's feminine principle could be my optics for this text?At the end of the 1980s, I had an interview with Richard Riddell,head of the School. He asked me what method I used in my work in thetheatre. I didn't get the question. He suggested several options: Grotowski,Stanislawsky, etc.; "Unkovski," I added. He looked at my visiting card to seewhether it was me . My very own method," I explained.20 S lavic and East E ropean Peiformance Vol. 21, No.1

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During the last theatre season, from September 1999 until May 2000,I staged three plays at A.R.T. in Cambridge: Patrick Marber's Closer, Moliere'sMisanthrope, and Shakespeare's Winter s Tale. All of them focus on differentaspects of the relations between the sexes, the meaning of these relationships,and the meaning of life itself. In Closer I discovered the dynamics of extremesand the revelation of London's nakedness in the late 1990s, in The Misanthrope Ifound a completely fake world with a strict code of conduct, which perfectlysuited the French audience at the time of its composition. As for The Winter sTale, when I first explained what was about to happen in my production, I onlyknew that on one hand we would have the cold, severe, black-and-white worldof Sicily, and on the other, there would be the colors, warmth, plentiful time,passion, happiness, and music in Bohemia. Of course, the images of Bohemiaonly came after I had decided that I actually did not want to have Bohemia inmy production at all. Not only because of Shakespeare's famous error in givingBohemia a seacoast, but also because Bohemia really doesn't have any meaningas a location. It doesn't work for the playwright or for me.

Eventually the play began in black-and-white Sicily, with blackcostumes and sharp shadows, pale faces and a very long scene, which lastedabout an hour and twenty minutes. After that, Time lifted the shiny blackcastle of King Leontes, and Bohemia appears, voraciously covering the blackwith a huge patchwork, made of many pieces of vivid red, with many cushionsand openings, so that the characters could dance under the patchwork. In thefifth act, the two colors, the two realities were joined. Perdita and Florizalbrought the colors of Bohemia into the cold and solitude of Sicily, and the twoworlds were naturally united.Sicily wasn't a problem, although I did not conceive it as the Sicily weknow from tourist guides or colored post-cards. It's rather the Sicily of KingLeontes, and similar to him in many ways: convulsed, suspicious, cold andabrupt. Dangerous, I would say, a country in the grips of a dictatorship.Bohemia had to be a contrast to Sicily. What is Bohemia? I looked at theMediterranean map, and asked myself: What country could be my Bohemia, ifBohemia was to be what I imagined?

I kept asking myself: On which coast does Antigonus leave the basketwith the baby, thereby giving the child its name, Perdita? I decided thatTunisia, Morocco, and North Africa would be my Bohemia. After this choicewas made, everything became easy: the colors, the music, and the costumesmust all be very different from my black-and-white Sicily. Excellent, Bohemiahad been solved. There was only one more problem with Bohemia.Shakespeare's famous stage direction reads: Exit pursued by a bear. (III. ii i I

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didn t check and see whether there were any bears in North Africa; I alreadyknew the answer.The rehearsals were planned to begin in April 2000. In January I

came with my scenographer, Meta Hocevar and spent two weeks in Cambridgepreparing for the project. On my way to meet with the Artistic Director I gotready for all the questions I imagined that he would ask me: What would I dowith the s h e e p ~ s h e a r i n g festival? And what about that bear? How was I goingto escape from the legendary trap posed by Act IV (set in Bohemia)? Andperhaps the hardest question of all to answer: How would I stage theallegorical figure of Time?

Yes, in addition to Bohemia, the s h e e p s h e r i n g festival, and the bear,I was faced with the problem of Time, who as a chorus, makes only oneappearance in order to bridge over a hiatus of sixteen years. In my country,Macedonia, there are lots of sheep, but in Cambridge, I don t remember everseeing one. Where does this interest in sheep in the vicinity of Harvard, MIT,and dozens of other universities in the area come from?

Everything else looked very easy. The contrast between Bohemia(North Africa) and Sicily was clear: In Bohemia there would be two ridiculousshepherds, a beautiful lost princess, a prince in love, a threatening father(Polixenes), and a rogue, (Autolycus). That meant that in Bohemia almosteverything was settled. Sicily was much more difficult. At least that s what Ithought then.

A superb young man from England, Gideon Lester, was mydramaturg for The intr s Tale. He was much more than a dramaturg. Withoutim the production would have been something completely different. We

agreed that we had to make the first three acts in Sicily follow an almostAristotelian logic, seeming to be one day long, without any b l c k o u t s orinterruptions. I told him that this first part of the production should be afamily drama with mounting tragic intensity, as if we were playing Strindberg.He made the necessary cuts and sent them to me by m a i l .

I told him that Bohemia was easy for me, but that I didn t knowwhat to do with Sicily. Gideon, on the contrary, said that Bohemia was reallythe problem. He was right.

Whenever I get a new text or scenario I have to work on, I alwayswant to have a personal timing of the reading. My first contact with the text svery important; I sometimes read it the same day, sometimes a few days later,depending on how prepared I am. I usually play with different statistics,similarly to what my c o s t u m e d e s i g n e r Cathy Zuber, does with her assistants.I open my workbook and write down where each character appears, whetherhe or she speaks, and when the characters are present even if they do notspeak.

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