The Russian National Postal Service

Posted by DCA Theater on January 27, 2009 in January-June 2009 Season, Maria's Field

Written by TUTA company member Alice Wedoff

The TUTA rehearsal space reveals itself in its full glory at noon on a sunny day. The wall to wall, ceiling high windows make the most of the loft’s southern exposure, casting patches of light on the scuffed wooden floor. On Saturday, January 24th the space was warm and cozy in the high noon sun and the smell of fresh brewed coffee. It seemed that even the space itself was doing its best to impress our guests, particularly one Mr. Bogaev, who had traveled all the way from Russia to be with TUTA for the weekend.

Through the support of the DCA, TUTA was fortunate enough to have renowned Russian playwright Oleg Bogaev here with us for the U.S. premiere of his play Maria’s Field, now running at the Storefront Theater. In an effort to further share his work with the Chicago community, TUTA decided to open its doors to the public for a reading of his first hit play, Russian National Postal Service. With the playwright and a happy crowd of about forty people looking on, four Chicago actors (Gary Houston, Kay Schmitt, Andy Hager, and P.J. Schoeny) brought to life Bogaev’s story of a lonely, poverty-stricken pensioner and the fantastic correspondences he carries out with the famous (and infamous) characters of his imagination. The reading had the audience rolling in laughter and hushed with tears, displaying the universality and depth of Bogaev’s writing.

After the reading and replenishing of coffee and cookies, TUTA’s soft-spoken, be-spectacled artistic director, Zeljko Djukic took the floor to introduce the soft-spoken, bespectacled Bogaev. Zeljko spoke of the day they had spent together, a Serbian-American theater director who spoke no Russian with a Russian playwright who spoke no English (or Serbian). He spoke of a complicity between them that transcended language. The discussion that followed bounced from topic to topic: American theater, Russian theater, playwriting, inspiration, Maria’s Field, and Russian National Postal Service. The audience clung to every word filtered through the translators (Maria’s Field co-director Luda Lopatina and actress Dalia Cidzikaite). There was a sense of the exceptionality of the moment, and a desire to glean as much as possible from this artist. Oleg Bogaev came to us from a place dramatically different from ours, but shows us that truly great theater is universal.  When asked what his impression of Americans was, he stated that his stereotype of giant smiling people had been debunked. “We’re all the same,” he said.  One need look no further than the man and his work to see the proof.

Alice introduces The Russian National Postal Service; Gary Houston and PJ in the background

MARIA’S FIELD: Post Your Review

Posted by DCA Theater on January 5, 2009 in January-June 2009 Season, Maria's Field

January 20, 2009 — February 22, 2009
Storefront Theater
Presented by TUTA Theatre Chicago

TUTA Theatre looks back at a lost generation of Russian women in this English language translation of one of Russia’s most exciting young playwrights, Oleg Bogaev. Through laughter and tears, three one-hundred year old maidens journey through their own lives and the enchanted forest of 20th century Russian history. In fairytale-like adventures, they meet Hitler, Stalin, Marshal Zhukov, and even movie stars of their youth, eventually finding their sweethearts, Russian soldiers who went to the WWII and never returned.

A Letter from Oleg Bogaev

Posted by DCA Theater on January 5, 2009 in January-June 2009 Season, Maria's Field

A letter from playwright Oleg Bogaev, author of Maria’s Field which opens Thursday, January 22.

Oleg Bogaev

YOU WERE BORN IN SVERDLOVSK, A CITY WITH AN INTERESTING PAST – CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT IT?
I was born in Sverdlovsk in 1970. Before 1917 the city was called Yekaterinburg, named after Russian Empress Katherine the Great. But the Revolution brought the Red Terror and the city was renamed after Sverdlov, Lenin’s companion-in-arms. He was the main initiator of the assassination of the Tsar and his family.  Just imagine a phantasmagorical scenario as such: John Kennedy’s murderer comes to power and Chicago is renamed to Oswald-City. For Russia the triumph of bloody absurdity became everyday reality. Human nature and the instinct of self-preservation forced Russians to adapt in horrid circumstances. And despite all that our grandmothers and grandfathers were still able to be happy and raise children.

I was born during the time when the totalitarian country ceased to be cannibalistic and became more like an old and sick elephant – gigantic and sulky USSR.  1970 marked the climax of stagnation and Cold War.  Recently I found some newspapers from that era at my country house and I read them with much interest. My first impression was horror, but on the second thought I found them to be strangely interesting. They announced just two TV programs broadcasting from 5 to 11 PM endless Communist Party Committee sessions and so on.  Now, that life seems to me like life on Mars but what strikes me is that I did live in that world!

WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN RUSSIA?
Some American may say: poor Russians, just think what they had to live through, we feel so sorry for them… But I will say: don’t rush to pity us, it is not as simple. I was growing during the drastic change of times – change from the decay of the empire to the birth of a new society.

I was 16 years old at the time of Perestroika. I remember well the stagnation (it was described in detail on Voice of America Radio) and Perestroika with all the horrors that its freedoms brought: crime, anarchy, chaos, times when one feared to walk the streets. Here’s a rhetorical question: what is better – to live in peaceful times or be thrust into the whirlpool of historical events, when worlds and lives fall apart. Of course, I reason like an artist (it would be harder for a common man to agree) but what I know is that Russia is just the right place for a playwright – with shattering of fates, conflicts, crumbling of hopes, clashes of ideas - all that I’ve seen and experienced.

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