Vladimir Pankov, Artistic Director of the Center for Drama and Directing, who recently presented the new performance "Sneakers", told the site in an interview why it is important for the director to understand modernity before moving on to the classics, how to communicate with young viewers in their language and what SounDrama is.

The artistic director of the Center for Drama and Directing and the SounDrama studio Vladimir Pankov is known both as an actor who has played in more than 25 performances and 15 films, and as a director, who has more than 20 productions and several prestigious theater awards to his credit: "Golden Mask" - in the category " The best director's work in the genre of musical operetta" for the play "Machine", "Debut-2003" - for the vocal parts in "Sweet Bird of Youth", "The Seagull" - for the music for the play "Twelfth Night".

"Sneakers" is the third work of the young playwright Lyuba Strizhak. The play was released in 2011. A year later, she received the "Today's Play" prize at the "Texture" International Theater and Film Festival. At the same time, Keds was staged by the Praktika Theater. Then they presented their stage versions in other cities (in particular, at On.Teatr in St. Petersburg).

The play "Sneakers" is about young people who have a lot of strength and capabilities, but who cannot find any use for them, as if something is stopping them. According to Lyuba Strizhak, there are such people in every generation. So the 26-year-old main character Grisha is not ready for responsibility, so he broke up with his girlfriend, does not work: sitting in the office for the sake of money is boring and pointless (and he is also very afraid of becoming like his parents). He only wants to write music and go to parties with friends. According to the plot, Grisha is going to the store for sneakers, and this simple act changes his life.

- HWhy are you interested in Keds? How did you decide to stage the performance in the wake of the play's popularity?

- Why not? We are staging Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. I have known Lyuba Strizhak and her lyrics for a long time. Five or six years ago, my master Oleg Kudryashov called me and offered to see this play. His opinion is very important to me, he has impeccable taste.

The play is similar to the Soviet one, there are even intersections with Vampilov. It perfectly displays events, relationships between generations, plot moves, very good dialogues, an interesting presentation of characters. The troupe accepted the offer to stage "Sneakers" perfectly, because it's about us.

In general, I put a lot of emphasis on modern dramaturgy. SoundDrama allows you to interestingly build the development of action and musical numbers. Then we will move on to Soviet dramaturgy, classics and ancient dramaturgy. This is how we lead the theater - from new dramaturgy to archaism. This is our development strategy.

— SoundDramais not only the name of the studio, but also the genre. How can you describe it?

- First of all, it is music, according to the laws of which the universe is built. It is the divine, beyond which there is nothing.

SounDrama, on the one hand, is a genre, on the other hand, it is rather a synthesis: drama theatre, ballet, opera and circus art are beginning to converge. Over time, I think, the concept of a genre as such will not exist at all. In the SounDrama studio, we easily juggle genres, the text intersects with music and plasticity, the performance has the features of a musical. The most interesting thing is that it works.

And it all started with underground, marginal sites. The path to serious academic theaters, such as the Bolshoi Drama Theater named after G.A. Tovstonogov (performance "Three Sisters", 2017. — Note.mos. en) or the Belarusian National Academic Theater named after Yanka Kupala (performance "Wedding", 2009. - Note.mos. en). And I realized that SounDrama as a genre, like a boat, which we named and on which we are sailing, already exists. Although they say that I came up with something of my own.

— Why is it important to understand today first?

- Until the artist, artist, director understands what is happening now, he cannot turn to the past. This year we received a grant from the Department of Culture of the City of Moscow for staging a modern play, which was of great help. This is a necessary dialogue that needs to be built between creative people and officials.

The play is about the same - you need to learn to talk. It is about lost generations that cannot agree, about the loss of continuity, about an attempt at rapprochement, now it is minimal. Young people do not want to become successors, and this is a problem. In the Russian literary tradition there is always an elder and a young man who holds back his ambitions, listens with patience and respect. And the one who is older must understand that you can not press hard. What does it mean? There is a good word "measure" - the golden mean. We must strive to comply with it. Thanks to Lyuba Strizhak and her play, I began to think about it.

— Is your performance addressed more to fathers or children?

“My parents come up to me and thank me. Their children come up and say thank you too. So, first of all, people. Someone will not perceive the performance, you also need to be prepared for this. It happens that in an art gallery you fly past one picture, and at another you stop and you can stand for an hour. Not because she liked it or didn't like it. Such is today the inner rhythm, the state of the soul coincided with it. And another time, the picture, which I passed before, makes me stop. Everything is subjective: there is a response today or not. I was pleased that both adults and young people are responding. But, of course, the dominant story is youth.

Of course, in order to speak in a language understandable to young people, they need to trust them. If I am not sincere, if I am convinced that I am right, there will be no dialogue. It's not about age, it's about the human factor. I took this out from expeditions to the villages, where I talked with the elderly. At first I thought that I was collecting folklore, but I just listened to what they were talking about, even simple, common truths. In fact, they taught me how to live.

You need to overcome yourself, fight with yourself, with your pride, learn to be compassionate. Then some contact can be established.

- In 2016, Sergei Solovyov released the film "Ke-dy" based on the story of Andrei Gelasimov. His hero in front of the army also goes for sneakers. Where does this image come from in modern literature?

- Keds are the spirit of the times, we all wear them. This word is in the name - and there are already many associations with it. This is an image. Why go beyond that?

I want to think more about these guys, about what is happening between them, how and what they are going through. What is inside this seemingly infantile hero who does not want to fight and live? He is sometimes rude, but in his soul he is all broken, this is a defensive reaction. He understands that he lost love because he underestimated, did not save what was. I think that's what you need to think about.

- The annotation to the performance says: "The directors tried to look at the play as an exemplary work, long recognized as a classic." What does it mean?

“We have to take care of what is happening now. It's kind of a tribute to tradition. The task of our theater is not only to satisfy my creative ambitions, but to discover new names of talented young directors. They will not be taken to serious theaters right away, this is a risk. And on our site you can experiment.

And we do not depart from domestic traditions. In "Kedah" the psychological theater is combined with the musical - this is the classics.

“There is really a lot of music in the play. On what basis was she chosen?

— Music is born during rehearsal. No one wrote it on purpose, it's an improvisation. Thus, music becomes an organic part of the action along with dramaturgy, and dramaturgy arises in music.

- Actors, respectively, sing and dance a lot. Was this the main criterion for selecting the leading actors?

- The studio was not created according to the results of the casting. Its participants like to exist in music, not only to speak, but also to sing. It is important for me that the artist is first of all a person, and I will already figure out how to turn his minuses into pluses. For me, directing is the ability to see the talent in others. When I understand that an actor is talented, I look for the key to him so that he blossoms. Like in a garden. If you don't take care of people like flowers, there will be no garden. Part of the troupe came with me when I was appointed artistic director of the theatre. A year and a half later, the theater flourished. Now this is a unique team that can do almost anything.

- That is, the actors are ready for any experiments?

- It is fundamentally. They must know everything. It is clear that if the artist does not do a back flip, I will not ask him. But then I, as a director, have to offer him what he will do well. In addition, we are preparing a shift. Now I have a course at GITIS, a workshop where young artists master sounddrama.

- In your "Sneakers" there are characters who are not in the text. For example,The Rock star- who is he?

Have you read the stage directions in the play? They are amazing, written artistically, with great humor. I thought that there should be a character who will voice them. This is an evil clown, a failed rock star with the appropriate make-up, a provocateur. Absolutely Shakespearean move. The role is superbly played by Efim Kolitinov.

- The main character, Grisha, is played by twin brothers. Tell about them.

- This is Pasha and Danya Rassomahin. We call them "Kamazov brothers", they are dashing guys, decoration of the theatre. Both graduated from the course of Valery Garkalin, with whom we are great friends. He brings his wards to the directors, and I think this is right. Graduates of three of his courses are employed in Kedah. I want to give them a way so that they grow, become stars.

There are moments in the play when Grisha seems to split in two. They ask him: “What game are you playing?” He replies: “I play Grisha-2.” Since it says "Grisha-2", we have Grisha-2. It's great that we can show it, kind of explode the play from the inside.

Yes, you can choose the text for the production based on your own ambitions, for the artists or for the repertoire. I go from the artists - then the theater is alive. Each idea must come true in its own time. And even when, as they say, you write on the table, this is not so. Every idea waits in the wings, and I always have them 20 steps ahead. Only when I had everything connected with the Keds, I said that we would supply them. But they did the performance in less than a month. It was a serious intensive, they worked from morning to night.

Who else is involved in the project?

- This is a joint work of many people. Among them are choreographer Ekaterina Kislova and composer Sergei Rodyukov, who have been working with me for many years. Konstantin Poznekov, who is responsible for sound design, has appeared recently, but we are on the same wavelength.

Did you meet your expectations when you saw the result?

I never look, I listen. And of course, I'm happy. Such a joy, such a holiday turned out! And as for the result, I don’t think about it at all. First of all, I rejoice at the energy and positive when I see a smiling artist bowing.

- Yes. The action must not be interrupted so that emotions and impressions are preserved.

- In one interview you said that each of your performances could become a film. Is it possible to make a movie based on "Keds"?

- Yes. We had such an experience with the play "Doctor". When there is ready-made music, dynamics, why not use it? We were lucky that everything worked out with Doctor Tor. I worked much more efficiently due to the fact that there was a performance earlier. And with the same artists. This is also very important.

- Would you change something if there was an opportunity to make a film based on "Sneakers"?

- No. Unless interiors, exteriors, landscapes, scenes of action would be added. After all, cinema and theater are not too different. The only difference is that the theater is a living organism, while the cinema is filmed and you can’t remake anything.

Playwright Lyubov Strizhak belongs to the newest generation of authors whose name is just appearing on posters. She managed to write only three plays, but all of them are already successful. For example, "Sneakers" gathered a full house in Moscow during the tour of the St. Petersburg On.Theatre, and a performance in the repertoire of the "Gogol Center" is going on along the "Marina". Recently, Kirill Serebrennikov gave her, Mikhail Durnenkov and Maxim Kurochkin a grant to write a play. Lyubov Strizhak told RIA Novosti correspondent Vera Kopylova about how the young playwright sees modern theater and what she is ready to bring to it.

FROM THE THEATER THERE WAS A FEELING OF UTOPIA

— Love, as far as I know, you were born and studied in St. Petersburg.

- Yes, in 2007 I graduated from the Academy of Theater Arts in St. Petersburg: the Faculty of Theater Studies with an economic bias. My specialty is not very clear: either a theater expert, or a manager. From there, in my opinion, confused people come out - unless they are initially charged with working precisely as theater managers.

The Praktika Theater hosted the premiere performance of Keds based on the play by the young St. Petersburg playwright Lyuba Strizhak directed by Ruslan Malikov. This is the story of today's 20-year-old playboys, who spend their time between nightclubs and weed parties, flippant hipsters who give more importance to appearance than to content.

So the main character of the play, Grisha (he is very organically played by the young actor Danila Shevchenko), wants to buy sneakers for himself - this is his only meaningful desire, which, however, will not come true. Everything else doesn’t bother him much: Grisha leaves work because he is “tired and uninteresting”, languidly quarrels with his mother and stepfather, who brings him an iPhone of the latest model from a business trip, breaks up with a girl who is expecting a child from him, and does not even try to strike for daughter of the boss, obviously not indifferent to him.

In principle, he is a good person: he also goes to the orphanage to volunteer, but also somehow mechanically, for the company. Unlike the heroes of Sigarev or Klavdiev, life does not hit him with his muzzle on the floor, outwardly he is quite prosperous. Maybe that's why he doesn't share the ideals of the older generation, which is occupied exclusively with landscaping the outer side of life and hammering money. “I already had three jobs at your age,” the irritated boss throws Grisha and easily lays him on both shoulder blades. Grisha at 23 is completely infantile. The complete lack of motivation for life and his own will makes him look like a sliver that he carries along the waves among other household garbage.

The hero of the play "Sneakers" is from a generation of refuseniks, not only from the army, but from life in general. “It's better to be hungry than to eat all sorts of nasty things, and it's better to be alone than with just anyone,” he says to his mother, who treats her rude roommate with crab stick salad. Logically continuing this strategy of refusal, the playwright leads his hero to an absurd death on the barricades. Accidentally appearing at a rally, he crashes his bicycle into a paddy wagon in order to rescue a comrade who was filming the dispersal of the demonstration on the phone. And, apparently, he is dying.

Ruslan Malikov in his production refuses material specificity. Instead of scenery, he uses a translucent screen with unobtrusive video. Actors also exist on the stage in a conventional manner, their movements are only stylized as everyday actions - the choreographer Sergei Zemlyansky worked on this. The hero's mother fidgets fussily with her hands, doing housework. His friend mechanically taps on an imaginary keyboard, and he himself pensively twirls a non-existent record on the DJ console with his fingers, although it is unlikely that even the music captures him deeply.

The meeting of friends and girlfriends also resembles a kind of ballet: duels-duets are replaced by piercing solos. In these internal monologues, some of the characters openly admit their loneliness and inability to love, others flaunt their success, interesting work, rich life, but they are betrayed by a tear running down their face in a close-up video. As a result, all of them - feminists and careerists, indifferent and good boys - turn out to be equally restless and unhappy.

What is the reason for their inner emptiness, sometimes pushing them to stupid exploits, the playwright does not answer. But at least he makes an attempt to fix the situation and understand the generation that has “nothing more to wish for” and nowhere to live.

Lyubov Strizhak wrote her play for the collection “Looking for a Hero”. And we have to admit with horror that such frostbitten boys and girls incapable of feelings will become the main characters of their time not today or tomorrow. Unless, of course, the spirit of change forces them to turn their inner unconscious protest into a position and change something in this life, in the end.

In the CDR there is another premiere, a new production by Vladimir Pankov based on Lyuba Strizhak's play "Sneakers".
We sit down, next to me are a couple of middle-aged people, a man with a bouquet of flowers. A woman asks me about the connection between the name of the performance "Sneakers" and the KEDDO store, the partner of the performance, on each chair there is a business card with a discount on a purchase in this store. I say, they hardly named after the store, rather, he helped the theater from his own considerations. I ask if she has seen other performances by Pankov or this theatre. "Yes, I saw it with Red Thread and Romeo and Juliet. It's amazing - I saw it 12 years ago, I was shocked to the core, my sobs just choked me. Since then, I respect Pankov, love and try to watch what he puts A unique director, he always has a fountain of ideas, musical interpretations, his performances are always filled with passion, emotional, always sound in a special way.Recently I looked, also to tears.
"Sneakers" - a tough performance, I didn’t have a chance to cry here. The play of the young St. Petersburg playwright Lyuba Strizhak, of course, is not about sneakers. And not even about love. Rather, about its absence.

A young guy Grisha, 26 years old (played by two twin brothers Pavel and Danila Rassomahin), lives with his mother (Natalya Khudyakova) and her husband, Grisha's stepfather (Grigory Danziger). The stepfather builds both his wife and his stepson, he is a military man in the way of earning money and a commander in the way of existing in the family.

In family scenes, one of the Rassomahin brothers is dressed over jeans in a woman's dress and walks in heels, like his mother, he also bends in front of his stepfather - this is the maternal component of the son. Children do this out of love for their mother and out of a desire not to interfere with her female happiness. The big question is whether such a dependent relationship is happiness. But as they say, life is life.
Vladimir Pankov thus decomposed the essence of the child into his own and mother's. Seeing this subconscious split personality is bittersweet.

Grisha has a girlfriend, Katya (Anastasia Sycheva), who became pregnant from him, but Grisha is in despair - he does not want to be a father.

Without a father who could be an example for his son, a grown-up boy can turn into an under-man, an under-father, into a person who does not know how to build relationships with a partner and bear responsibility for her and the children.

Grisha feels his emptiness, but will he be able to correct something in his fate, even if he walked and walked for sneakers, but never reached it?

It seems like a sad story.

However, Pankov would not have been Pankov if he had not filled this content with such energy, such drive, so much good music that sets the hall on fire that it does not matter what will happen to Grisha: life here and now is like a volcano. Everyone is able to decide how to live. There are always empty grisha, there are always girls who carry a child from one man under their hearts, and another becomes the father of this child. It has always been so, and it will always be so.

The stage looks like a white square ring. Spectators sit on two sides opposite each other, on the other two sides - musicians, instruments, a source of sound and energy. Actors either box relations, or participate in the program "Musical Ring", once in demand on perestroika TV.

There are a lot of actors in the performance, eyes run wide, who to look at, who to listen to. The voices are so good that the "Voice" is resting. Musicians and artists light up the hall no worse than rock bands in stadiums. There is a lot of music, almost a concert turned out, excellent choreography, the story is told in a modern, youth language.

Driving performance. Unless closer to the finale, there were sagging rhythms in the monologues. The hero's monologues are important, but something doesn't fit, attention is lost precisely on the confessional.

All artists are great! Costumes, scenography, music, sound accompaniment - while the audience is seated, the artists stand on the stage, blowing pipes, creating gurgling sounds - choreography, reaching to acrobatics - the performance is very dynamic, bright, filled with youthful energy, a performance-concert that leaves a long aftertaste and giving joy, despite the theme.

Vladimir Pankov and his team have created another masterpiece! :)

On bows

Luba Strizhak

sneakers

A play-indulgence, she is an epic

The main character of the performance "Sneakers" Grisha is 26 years old. He lives with his parents. Interrupted by temporary earnings. Writes music and is aware of all fashion trends. But the time comes, and youth can no longer serve as an excuse, and it is high time to sum up the first results. But Grisha refuses to grow up, defending the right to build life only according to his own rules and be the way he is.

“He is a unit of a generation dressed in kediki and kangaroos. So what if such an iPhone is an extension of the hand. Inside they have everything the same as the heroes of "I'm twenty years old" Khutsiev" ("Petersburg Theater Magazine")

“It seemed to me: I write about“ here and now ” (Lyuba Strizhak, Teatral magazine)

“Such things are written in critical times and are worth a lot, being both a fact of art and a document of the era” (Elena Kovalskaya)

“A meaningless life is a meaningless, with a touch of romantic antics death” ("The Art of Cinema")

• Ivan Orlov - director
• Lesha Lobanov - artist
• Elena Slobodchikova - choreographer
• Ekaterina Degtyareva - assistant director
• Elena Alekseeva - lighting designer

Actors and performers

Press

• 05/22/2018 Award of the head of the city - Alexander Knyaz!

  In Krasnoyarsk, the ceremony of presenting the Prize of the head of the city to young talents took place. Among the laureates of this year is the artist of the Krasnoyarsk Youth Theater Alexander Knyaz.

• 05/01/2015 Pobednaya

  Especially for our viewers, we are launching a "Victory Promotion" - in every sense. All May, the cost of tickets for the performances of "Sneakers", "Windows to the World", "Natasha's Dream Vol.2" and "Magic Fingers" will be 70 rubles!

• 02/28/2014 Lyubov Strizhak: theater can be a bomb

  Playwright Lyubov Strizhak belongs to the newest generation of authors whose name is just appearing on posters. Lyubov Strizhak told RIA Novosti correspondent Vera Kopylova about how the young playwright sees modern theater and what she is ready to bring to it. - RIA Novosti, February 28, 2014

• 02/18/2014 Critics visiting the Youth Theater

  The Krasnoyarsk Youth Theater was again visited by well-known theater critics, experts from the national theater festival "Golden Mask" and other major Russian festivals. Oleg Loevsky and Gleb Sitkovsky watched the performances of "Pravospisaniye", "Sneakers", "Estrogen" and "The Snow Queen". After watching, they discussed what they saw with the troupe of the Youth Theater.

• 02/11/2014 Getting ready for the Theater Spring

  Members of the jury of the regional festival "Theatrical Spring" watched the latest premieres of the Krasnoyarsk Youth Theater. The name of the performance participating in the festival will be announced in mid-February.

• 01/21/2014 Gifts for Tatyana's Day

  Attention, action! In honor of Tatyana's Day, the holiday of all Russian students, the Krasnoyarsk Youth Theater gives gifts.

• 12/23/2013 Olga Buyanova: “I am not a romantic girl at all”

  The young actress Olga Buyanova in the Krasnoyarsk Youth Theater is only the second season, but the audience has already managed to remember the audience with several notable roles. The princess in The Snow Queen and the Ballerina in The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Hermia in the comedy Dream. Summer. Night ”and Polina in“ Kedah ”, she can be seen in the performances“ A Teenager from the Right Bank ”and“ Estrogen ”... And recently Olga played Masha in“ Snowstorm ”by V. Sigarev, after which the chief director of the Youth Theater Roman Feodori admitted that he would not recognize his actress, with whom he has already managed to work in more than one production. In this work, Buyanova revealed herself from a new side. - Internet magazine "Krasnoyarsk Daily", December 23, 2013

• 12/20/2013 New heroes in Kedah

  On December 20, new heroes will take the stage in the performance "Sneakers". The director of the production, Ivan Orlov, came to Krasnoyarsk on purpose to make additional inputs.

• 24.10.2013 "Any performance is an experiment"

  Finding Roman FEODORI in Krasnoyarsk is not easy. The schedule of the chief director of our Youth Theater is very tight. He often has to work on several projects. Now among them are the performance-game "The Taming of the Shrew" in the Moscow Theater of Nations with Chulpan Khamatova in the title role and "Window on the World" by Frederic Begbeder in Krasnoyarsk. Theodori knows how to ask painful questions. But sometimes, as if tired of conceptual experiments, he gives the audience a joyful, cheerful, bright production. This is exactly what happened when the director "swung at William our Shakespeare" and his "A Midsummer Night's Dream". In a word, Roman Feodori is a real phenomenon, if not for the Russian theater, then for the Krasnoyarsk culture - for sure. - The newspaper "Our Krasnoyarsk Territory", 10/24/13

• 10/17/2013 Sneakers or sneakers?

  Their world is big, torn T-shirts, parties, when at home - weed, and then all night in clubs and, of course, sneakers - a symbol of hipsters. Yes, there is a place in it for love, and obligations, and even for children, volunteer help. But Grisha, 26 years old, the main character of the premiere performance of the theater for young spectators “Keda”, has stopped at the first list for now and doesn’t really want to move on. - The newspaper "City News" No. 2858, 10/17/2013

• 10/15/2013 Actual. At the Youth Theater

  Krasnoyarsk Youth Theater launches another creative experiment - "Evenings of Actual Art". Twice a month on the alternative stage of the theater - performances, performances, dance films, presentations from artists, musicians, photographers, plus informal friendly communication over a cup of coffee. - Internet magazine "Krasnoyarsk Daily", 10/15/2013

• 10/12/2013 Ivan Orlov: “I want to solve the problems of the play like Shakespeare’s”

  On October 12 and 13, the Krasnoyarsk Youth Theater will host the premiere of the performance "Sneakers" based on the play by Lyuba Strizhak directed by Ivan Orlov. This play has been causing heated debate in the theatrical environment for two years already - from complete rejection and reproaches of excessive infantilism to enthusiasm that at last a true hero of our days has appeared in modern drama. For Orlov, the same age as the main characters of the play, these disputes are not fundamental - according to the director, their problems and experiences are absolutely consonant with him, he hears the living voice of his generation in this story. Whether it will be possible to convey it to the audience, we will find out after visiting the performance. - Internet magazine "Krasnoyarsk Daily", 10/12/2013

• 08/30/2013 Season of free experiments

  The new creative season in the Krasnoyarsk Youth Theater will be held under the sign of free experiments. By its 50th anniversary in December 2014, the theater will come with an updated appearance and repertoire, as well as with many other interesting projects.