On May 24, 2009, my nephew, little Alyosha, was hit by a car on pedestrian crossing on Dolgorukovskaya street.
Anya Nemzer celebrated her birthday at the Workshop that day, it was Sunday. My mother called me and said in a low voice:
Alyosha was shot down, he is in the hospital.
What do you mean, shot down??
Car hit.
Very. Come.
I can't remember what I was thinking in the car.
In the hospital (Thank you, Lord, thank you, to the ambulance doctors, who, without the slightest blasphemy, took him to the 20th, in Polyanka, the clinic of Dr. Roshal, whom I will not blame for anything in my life and to whom a monument should be put up just for this one hospital ) I found, by an effort of will, a calm mother sitting on a bench and not at all calm Anya, walking along the corridor from one wall to another.
So hours passed, it seems 3. Or 4.
Alyosha had a severe contusion of the brain, a fracture of the base of the skull, and a broken leg.
He was in a coma and there was no "neurological activity".
We waited for the doctor on duty, Irina Anatolyevna, to come out, heard: “The situation is very serious, but today you have nothing to do here, go home to rest, come back tomorrow at 15.00 and believe in the best,” and left home.
We arrived at Anina's mother-in-law, where Anna's younger children, Petya and Innochka, were waiting, and everyone vied with each other to cheer each other up. Very active. Very sincere. Like in some play. It's like we've rehearsed it many times.
At 15 o'clock in the hospital in Polyanka, this is what happens. The resuscitation doctor on duty comes out into the reception hall. He says, "Information," and a queue forms for him. A queue of pale, nervous, haggard people, parents of children with whom everything is not in order. The doctor takes turns, quietly, a little aside, tells the parents what's new happened during the day. If happened. If the doctor's phone rings at that moment, he simply says into the phone: "I'm on information." The other end always knows what it means.
This is the only time of the day when you can somehow cope with all this. Before 15.00 life has some meaning and specific occupation- You are waiting for 15.00.
The next morning we were told that the hematoma had more than doubled in size and that he was being prepared for surgery. They will do trepanation, remove the hematoma. We all heard the word "trepanation" only in the movies, and we were very scared, of course. But everyone, vying with each other, began to cheer each other up, and especially Anka. Like in a play. It’s like they learned exactly what to say in such situations. Like we were rehearsing.
Because that's what it's called a strong family. We are so called.
Alyosha was operated on. The situation did not get better, in a coma he did not show any signs of this very neurological activity, intracranial pressure jumped very sharply and, as the doctors explained to us, this was the most dangerous thing.
We breathed with him. We walked around the city with Anka, went to all the monasteries (even not only because of the desire to pray for him (the specific case in such situations is wildly important thing!)), how much and because of the general peace and quiet there). We sat in the Danilovsky monastery near the flowering flower beds and tried to be so calm, and breathe so evenly, so that Alyoshino's pressure would calm down. To somehow convey our peace to him. Which, of course, was not in sight, but which we tried our best to work out.
All this time, next to us was the man who knocked Alyosha down. 19-year-old Dagestani Gadzhi. And his family - older brother Alexander and mother - Lydia. It seemed to me, and it still seems to me, that, in fact, it was a test for their (and not for our) family. God started this not about us, but about them.
Because I have never seen such repentance, such torment, such hell. They are very poor family, they have nothing, they wanted to earn at least something in Moscow. Lydia, in a kerchief, such a rustic one, wept incessantly. At all. Endless. She spoke through tears: “The boy will recover - let's go to Dagestan. We’ll make a fire, we’ll slaughter a sheep, we’ll make a barbecue, we’ll put up a hut! Haji was silent and could not (physically look into our eyes). Alexander quietly repeated: “May Allah take me!”. We became very close to them at that time. Not because we're so good, really. You just haven't seen their eyes.
Father Aleksey Uminsky came from home at the first request of Anya, opened the locked church and we prayed in this empty church. I don't know not just what would have happened to Alyosha if it weren't for these prayers with Fr. Alexei, I don’t know first of all what would happen to us, what would happen to me.
The situation did not improve. Doctors leaving at 15.00, once a day, to us, they said the same thing, with slightly different intonations. Irina Anatolyevna tried to tell us something reassuring, a short, full, bald doctor, a surgeon with thick arms, worried as if it were his child (I even thought - wow, but I thought for such work, on the contrary, you need to be stone, but no, all people are alive), another doctor was cold and professional, and Anin directly asked “What is the worst option, except for a lethal one, that can happen?” (do not ask such questions to doctors, no matter what happens, never) replied: “On this moment the situation suggests that there are quite big chance that he will spend his life in a vegetative state."
We had roles assigned, it was important. We all supported and nourished each other and Anya, but everything was somehow different. We forbade people (close and worried about us) to cry in front of us or say something like "Anechka, poor, how can you stand it." Banned, literally. We forbade my beloved godmother, who could not hold back her tears, to go with us to the hospital.
The numbers seem to be June 4 (how could I forget? 4?), Anya Krasilshchik texted me that a car hit 6-year-old Gleb, the son of our friends. We immediately called them, we thought to help them, including with the experience that we already had by that time. We were just leaving the hospital at the time of this SMS. And after 2 hours, another Anya, Karelskaya, wrote me two words: "Gleb is dead."
It never occurred to me that my support, some word, not to mention the presence at the prayer service, could alleviate the situation. strangers. It seemed to me that they were up to me, and I was up to them
Then our friends had a day when they went to Gleb's funeral in the morning, and in the evening to a prayer service, where we really asked them all to come, to pray together for Alyosha. And when the prayer service ended, Father Alexei turned to us (there were 70 people), looked, and instead of preaching, he said: “Everything will be fine!”.
Father Alexei said this, including the one who lost his adult son a few years ago, and who buried him. There was a feeling that he knew better. That everything will be fine.
The whole crowd of us went for a walk on the boulevard, we tried to have fun, not violently, not falsely, but somehow for real. We tried to be grateful. Each other, people who incredibly, incredibly, incredibly supported us.
During those days, we received hundreds (!) Letters, notes, calls and SMS from, often, completely unfamiliar people. This is my biggest discovery of the year. I often helped friends and supported them. But it never occurred to me that my support, some kind of word, not to mention the presence at the prayer service, could ease the situation for strangers. It seemed to me that they were up to me, and I was up to them. A lot of my friends didn't call me at the time because "well, we thought you weren't up to it". Always call. Always write.
A woman came to the Workshop and left me a note - "Know that in such and such a church, every evening the whole parish prays for Alyosha." Alexander (brother Gadzhi) told us: “Yesterday 4,000 Muslims prayed for Alyosha, we asked everyone to ask.” People who just read my livejournal came to the prayer service, they never saw me, Alyosha, or Anya. But they came. I didn't know what happened. I don't know how to thank them - you -.
You don't realize how important this is. Never hesitate to call and say, “I'm with you. I am with you all the time. How can I help you? Do you want me to come?" It is important. It helps a lot. Very.
Alyosha did not begin to breathe on his own.
I left with Inka and Petya for Kratovo. There I lay down to try to sleep during the day on the ground floor, and falling asleep, I saw the tops of the pines swaying. I thought something like: “maybe this wind will help him breathe, let him feel better,” and for the first time in those days, she fell asleep peacefully. I woke up from Anyuta's call: "Alyosha woke up from a coma, he even tried to speak."
The next day was Trinity. As today. We went to the church to Uminsky, and when we went into it, I said - An, today is the happiest day in your life?
And she answered:
The happiest will be when I come here with Alyosha.
Gradually Alyosha came to his senses, as soon as he was transferred to a regular ward, it became possible to visit him. I came and got scared. In front of me on the bed sat a bald, pale, thinner boy, with some kind of inhibited reactions, some very mature and sad. My heart sank at the thought that he would be like this now. It was only later that they explained to me that at that time he was given so many different drugs that he simply could not help but be inhibited, that it was impossible to go straight out of a coma into a normal life, etc.
Of course, I was terribly interested in whether he saw anything while "sleeping."
He said:
“It seemed to me that I was with my grandmother (our mother Alice and Anya) and I wanted to go to school, and Alice told me: “Don’t go to school today, Alyoshenka, you are sick.”
And terribly unpleasant music plays in intensive care.”
I thought - the doctors on duty are listening to some kind of radio. Nothing like this. No music plays there, I found out later.
Gadzhi came to the hospital at some point and gave Alyosha a real Dagestan knife. They were like brothers, really. Those two guys.
And a week later, Alexander, Gadzhi's older brother, died in a car accident.
We never went to Dagestan, they began mourning, etc.
Little Alyosha soon came to the church, the same one, on crutches. He was embarrassed because a lot of people came there who had never seen him, but who lived on the news about him during all those weeks.
Then, on the next Trinity, he served at the Altar, an adult, tall, in a snow-white surplice.
And this summer in Shishaki, little Alyosha, my apple pie, grabbed me in his arms and circled around the terrace. Quite big. He comes to the Workshop himself, plays the flute and guitar, dreams of becoming a doctor. Today is his birthday.
Why did I write all this?
Yes, just, in fact, I want to tell you, friends, - thank you all, you prayed, saved.
Lech, happy birthday! Love you
| To my world |
With me there was such a case. A few years ago, I found a cat in a closed carrier in an underground passage. As an inexperienced person in such situations, I didn’t know what to do, so I first sat down next to the carrier in which the cat was languishing, wrote a post on Facebook and wept bitterly at the cruelty and injustice that happened to the cat. So I spent an hour and a half. Then they managed to attach the cat, and he lives perfectly with one wonderful woman. But a lot has changed since then.
I would also think that dolphins smile, because then I had not yet read the text that this is the structure of their muzzle I met people who professionally deal with homeless animals. Changed my attitude to many issues related to this. I now know, for example, that it is better to neuter domestic cats because the shelters are full of beautiful kittens. I know not to buy animals, because it reduces the already tiny chances of shelter animals getting from shelters to own houses. And I know that such - and much worse - situations happen many times a day for those who deal with animals. But a few years ago I did not know this, did not feel it, and perceived what was happening as some kind of tragic exception. I didn't know anything about animal shelters. I myself was looking for a cat for my cat when she wanted kittens. It never crossed my mind that there was anything wrong with that.
A few years ago, I might have been happy to go swimming with dolphins, because I did not know in what conditions they were kept. I would also think that dolphins smile, because then I had not yet read the text that it was just the structure of their muzzle, but in fact they suffer a lot from these swims for money.
More recently, I was laughing and telling my friend: “Get away from me with your politics, I don’t have citizenship I'm into music." And now I can’t imagine how you can say “leave me alone” about something that climbed into the bedrooms of my gay friends, that kills children, justifying it with the “Dima Yakovlev Law”, that it is trying to get exit visas and so on. How can you say "leave me" about this now? Now it's impossible.
In this word, "now" for me is not a result, but a process. This is the awakening process. living between different cities, sometimes in the morning I barely wake up and do not immediately understand what city I am in. But gradually, with every second, I return from a dream in which I have no citizenship, in which I say "leave me alone", in which I swim with a dolphin or in which I do not care that another child dies, into reality. This takes some time. It took some time for me to care.
A few years ago, none of my friends were doing what in Russian is called the rather pompous word "charity." Now everyone I'm friends with does it. Not because I suddenly changed all my friends. It's just that we all have this process going on. Someone collects money, someone volunteers in a hospice, someone organizes charity holidays, everyone does what he wants and can. But - does.
You know, Facebook has a "I don't want to see this" button. Some people hide behind this button in life The story of Umarali Nazarov, who died completely alone, separated from his parents, in a hospital, with unclear circumstances, of course, shocked us all. It's just impossible to get it out of your head. Two days ago, I wrote a post on Facebook following this story. In this post was the phrase "I'm Zarina." This post was copied by my good friend Aleksey Agranovich, providing him with quite sarcastic comments, but people didn’t count the banter, they put Alyosha a bunch of likes and made a bunch of reposts. Thus, in a matter of hours, the phrase “I am Zarina” spread on Facebook like some kind of manifesto. It was not a manifesto for me, but who cares now.
And then everything is as usual. Journalist Alexander Gorbachev wrote a post about how disgusting and "devalues the idea" of the phrase "Je suis Charlie". A bunch of friends gave him likes, journalist Bella Rapoport wrote a fantastic comment: “It’s not good to hang someone else’s stigma on myself” (according to this logic, I should immediately take off my cross, it’s not me who was crucified on a cross), but Katya Gordeeva, whom I love very much and I appreciate it, I wrote a comment about “pseudo-empathy” and “pseudo-tolerance”. Then Katya this column. I want to answer Katya that empathy, tolerance, sympathy and empathy is a process.
I want to answer those who are full of anger “why didn’t you repaint avatars before”, that empathy, tolerance, sympathy and empathy is a process. They didn’t repaint before, but now we repaint. Not because people who died in Paris feel sorry for more, but because there was no such option on Facebook before, and then it appeared. Or because before we did not find the strength in ourselves for sympathy, closing ourselves and hiding from it. You know, Facebook has a "I don't want to see this" button. Some people hide behind this button in life. And even quite successfully. They do not find the strength to see this. And now they've found it. Found and cried. Because it's a process.
The phrase "I'm Zarina" means "I'm trying to feel her pain as if it were my own." My point is that for me there is no difference between saying "Je suis Charlie" and saying "I'm Zarina" because empathy is an attempt to put yourself in the other person's shoes. Attempt. We cannot be in the place of another person, we do not know, do not feel and do not feel what the relatives of those who died in France or on the plane feel, we do not feel what Zarina feels, our editorial office was not shot by a crowd of religious fanatics (at least yet) and we don't know how the editors of Charlie Hebdo felt, but we write the phrase "Je Suis Charlie" to show the world and ourselves that we stand in solidarity with the victims of this heinous crime. With victims, not killers.
No one can be killed for any views, you can not shoot the editorial office even for the most idiotic caricatures, you just can’t - that’s all. That's what we are, well, at least I used the phrase "Je Suis Charlie". You can't take a crying baby out of its mother's arms unless the mother threatens its life. You can’t torture her after that, turn her into a suspect from a victim, expel her from the country, without conducting a normal examination and without completing the investigation into the death of her child - that’s what I say with the phrase “I am Zarina.” I'm trying exactly like Katya to put myself in Zarina's place. And, of course, I'm not in her place. And I hope I never get there. But I agree with her. With her, not with the killers. The phrase "I'm Zarina" means "I'm trying to feel her pain as if it were my own."
And even if Zarina never finds out about my clumsy attempt to be with her, I still consider her, this attempt, important. I see it as another step in a process called caring. Maybe in a few years I will find a more precise, successful formulation to express this indifference. Maybe the current phrase “I am Zarina” is clumsy, primitive and not elegant enough. But she is a process. And I value this process.
I cherish the stupid candles that people hang up on Facebook when something bad happens. I cherish the banal words "hold on" and "I'm with you." I value any, even the most clumsy and stupid ways to show sympathy, empathy, indifference and empathy. Not pseudo. And the most that neither is real empathy.
I'm Zarina, I'm Charlie, I flew in a plane over Sinai
In Moscow, the cafe "Children of Paradise" is closing, which lasted 6 years. In recent years, he has been haunted by a series of failures: a fire, a flood, officials, an invasion of the Revizorro program (ended with a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor) and the last straw - the reconstruction of Nikitsky Boulevard, due to which all approaches to the cafe turned out to be. Varvara Turova, co-owner of Children of Paradise, told Inc. why she refused crowdfunding, how she kept the restaurant afloat and why she dissuades her from doing business in Russia.
“In the last year, as a shareholder, I did not receive a penny”
- What was the last straw after which you decided to close the Children of Paradise cafe?
There were so many that I can't even remember. When, after months of a torn road, mountains of dirt and sand (it was impossible to get to us), the sidewalk was widened on Nikitsky Boulevard, we were delighted and thought: we could finally get permission for a full-fledged veranda, which we had never had in 6 years. But literally the next day, the whole house was loaded into scaffolding and they began to repair the facade, so that we were no longer visible from the street. We are located in a fairly passable place, but due to the renovation of the building and the torn road in recent weeks 30 people came to us a day. So you can't survive.
- How many people came "from the street"?
Enough. It always seemed to me that if you only have “your” audience, you are doomed. The number of guests must increase all the time. It did not decrease, but there were a huge number of problems. In the spring we had a fire, then a flood. And all this time we had a schizophrenic war with the neighbors from above: they hated us to such an extent that they stuffed rags, sand and other garbage into their toilet and flushed it all down with water - as a result, a plumber went to us as if to work .
"Children of Paradise" was opened in April 2011 journalist Varvara Turova and musician Alexei Paperny. By the time the cafe closed, 25 people were working. In 2014, a branch of "Children of Paradise" was opened in St. Petersburg - and closed at the beginning of 2016.
According to SPARK, until June 6, 2017, Alexei Paperny, Liana Zeynalova and Yuliana Slashcheva, the former general director of the STS Media holding and wife CEO TASS Sergei Mikhailova. Another 15% belonged to Turova and 10% to Natalia Sichkar. In June of this year, Slashcheva left the company. The revenue of Bulvar LLC for 2015 amounted to 10.5 million rubles, and the profit - 15 thousand rubles.
How did this losing streak start?
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, there have been several moments of crisis when we thought - should we close? But every time they swam out, clung, hoped that it would become easier. But it only got worse. Because of the sanctions, prices have risen sharply - not only foreign, but also Russian products have risen in price. Our expenses have doubled. But we couldn't afford to raise prices.
How much did you raise them?
A little bit, but not in such a way that it becomes profitable. Otherwise, we would lose the loyalty of the audience. With the same number of people, we began to earn much less than 4 years ago. Then I lived only on my share of the profits from the "Children of Paradise", and this allowed me to travel and exist normally. And for Last year I, as a shareholder, did not receive a penny. IN best months we went to zero or a tiny plus sign.
Did fewer people visit you?
No, on the contrary, we have developed and become quite a popular place. But the economy of the restaurant is arranged in such a way that a lot of things need to be taken into account: payroll, rent, public utilities. Not to mention that the rules of the game change all the time, and sometimes officials do it retroactively. For example, last year they came to us and said: “We are not extending your lease because you do not have a separate room for storing wine.” We answered: “Excuse me, for the previous 5 years we managed with wine shelves and a cabinet and there were no complaints.” But it turns out that they introduced new rules - and they had to build a partition, make a separate room. Naturally, officials do not pay these costs. Because of the mass of such trifles, the business turns into a struggle for survival.
- When did you decide to close?
We fluttered to the last and tried, like that mouse from the parable, to beat the butter so as not to drown. They tried to find an investor and change something, turned to various restaurant chains and business sharks, but nothing happened. They themselves are not doing well (which was a big surprise for me). No one wanted to take risks, because it is very difficult for everyone.
- What role did the Revizorro program play in your closure?
After their visit, our revenue fell by 2-3 times. It took about a month and a half to restore it. That day I was at home, our employees called me and said in a trembling voice: "Revizorro" has come to us. I say: why did you let them in? But it was impossible to stop them - film crew came with the camera turned on and, without hesitation for a second, immediately went to the kitchen. Once again I will say: they were not interested in dirt, but in scandal, and everything that is shown there is a lie. You can come to the cleanest operating room and muddy chamber with gloomy music to remove such horror that you will feel crawling snakes there. In addition, the journalists of the Pyatnitsa TV channel wrote a statement to Rospotrebnadzor, which came to us with an extraordinary check. Well, you can guess how we resolved the issue with the inspectors. Actually, no one can solve these questions differently. So there were, shall we say, additional expenses.
- How much did "Children of Paradise" earned last year?
I can't name the numbers, but I'll give you an example: three years ago, the revenue on Fridays and Saturdays was 280-300 thousand rubles a day. And in the last year it was 130 thousand rubles a day - with the same number of people. The average check has almost halved: the prices of our suppliers have increased, people have become much more economical - they ordered less and left less tips. I don't blame the closure, only the evil ones external forces. To think through the economy in these new circumstances, you need to be super-professionals. Neither I nor Alexei Paperny are such. I am busy in the theater, Alexey is a musician and playwright. We spent a lot of energy on the "Children of Paradise", but this was not our life's work. Unlike their fellow professional restaurateurs, they devote all their time to the business and therefore stay afloat.
- Is the closure of "Children of Paradise" connected with the departure of Yuliana Slasheva?
We were not dealing with her, but with her husband, but no - this is in no way connected. Because neither Yuliana nor her husband Sergei Mikhailov have had anything to do with the management of the "Children of Paradise" for many years. Once upon a time they were our original investors.
- Have they invested in cafes in recent years?
No. We have not had any working relationship for many years - only friendly. (Yuliana Slashcheva, in a comment to Inc., noted that she left the founders of the company a year and a half ago, but the data on her exit were published in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities only on June 6 of this year).
Why did they decide to go out of business?
This is a question for them.
- Do you feel sorry that "Children of Paradise" are closing?
How can I explain to you? I can not live without opera house, but without "Children of Paradise" - I can. But, of course, I am sad - I spent 6 years of my life and quite a lot of energy on this. Of course, it's a pity.
"Open a business anywhere but here"
You recently wrote that your business never worked out, but it turned out to be “a place in which many felt good, important, warm.” Isn't that enough to make the cafe profitable?
There should be a clear priority - why are you doing it. I am sure: our so-called colleague Mitya Borisov (restaurateur, Jean-Jacques, John Donne, Mayak - Inc.) opens absolutely all his places to earn money. He succeeds. And when we opened a cafe, we put other things in the foreground - for example, the atmosphere. It's not that we are such a carefree, lyrical intelligentsia - we wanted to make money and we did it. But it was more important for us to treat friends who came to visit than to refuse it for the sake of additional revenue. I am not a commercially oriented person, and I don’t have a business mindset - that’s why we didn’t succeed in cutting costs, firing someone, acting tough ... It has always been important for us to help someone, treat someone for free, arrange various charitable topics. As a result, we are without money, and I do not remove our collective responsibility at all. To be a ballerina you have to be flexible, but to do business you have to be tough. I'm not a tough person, Alexey too.
- When you started "Children of Paradise", what did you think of this institution?
We didn't have ambitions to be a trendy DJ bar. We wanted to open a nice cafe where you can come after work or a hard rehearsal. To make it cozy, tasty and no unjustified show-offs - this is when the girls ask you from the doorstep “Are you expected?”, And then they follow you around the hall. In a word - to feel at home. In this sense, we have succeeded - if not to talk about business, but about the implementation of the idea. "Children of Paradise" has become an important place for many: the number of people who wrote that our closure for them is a personal loss shocked me. I absolutely did not expect this and am very grateful.
Ekaterina Zaklivenetz/Inc.
- Why didn't you turn to all these people for help, didn't do crowdfunding?
There was such a thought. Moreover, we would certainly have collected the required amount - we have a large credit of trust. But my partner and colleague Alexei (Paperny, musician and co-owner of Children of Paradise. - Inc.) was against it. He said that this is a business, and in business you can’t ask anyone for anything - we ourselves have gone bankrupt and are to blame.
Have you tried hiring a manager?
This is what we did in Masterskaya - we hired a management company that managed our business for a good fee. But she began by offering to redo everything. For example, in the "Workshop" there were many different lampshades in one line, and it was very beautiful. And the manager says: lampshades are not fashionable, it's like in a country house and you need to remove them all in order to make a fashionable place. I tell him: places are different, and we are good at creating a homely atmosphere, which means that you need to work with this product. So the last attempt to hire a manager did not lead to anything (the Masterskaya club, which was opened by Varvara Turova and Alexei Paperny, closed in November 2016. - Inc.)
- What would you do differently now?
I would not open Children of Paradise. If someone comes to me tomorrow and says: “Here's a lot of money for you, let's open Children of Paradise!”, I will say no. IN modern Russia you have to be crazy to be in business. It seems to me that everyone who has money should invest in business abroad. This is caused by my feeling of the air around. Leveling, tightening screws and so on will continue, and there is no way out of this. There was simply no more unfavorable moment to start a business in Russia. People often write to me: “We want to open a small cafe, what would you advise us?” I dissuade them and advise them to open a cafe in Berlin, Tel Aviv - anywhere but here.
- Do you want to finish with the restaurant business?
I'm going to finish doing business in Russia for good. I love to feed people, I like it when guests come to me, I like being a hostess - this is mine. But in Russia, until this power is replaced, it is not worth even trying. I say this without disclaiming responsibility for the fact that we went bankrupt. But everything that happens around kills business. And small, and medium, and any.
- And abroad?
As long as I live here and I don't have a concrete plan of moving. Now I am interested in opera, my efforts have been directed there for 4 years. I study in St. Petersburg, and in June I entered office work in Moscow - you need to live on something. I am very sad that there will be no more “Children of Paradise”, but in a sense it is right - you can’t do everything.
Varvara Turova, co-owner of the club and the Masterskaya Theater, told how it all began and what will happen next.
How did you come up with the idea to create an institution with such an unusual concept - "Workshop"?
The story is this: my friend and colleague, theatrical director and playwright Alexei Paperny, has long wanted to make a club that would have a theater in some form - for example, there were ideas to make just a cafe, and in the corner there would be a small, small stage on which if once an hour something happened: clowns, Opera singer, a juggler, a storyteller ... For this, it was impossible to find a room for this. Although, it’s not that we were actively looking: I was a journalist, Alyosha had a “Chinese pilot Zhao Da”, musical group, theater. Not that we are, you know, restaurateurs, business sharks like Mitya Borisov.
And then his friend came to Alyosha, who had a club, which he, for a number of reasons, did not like, and asked Alyosha to remake this room. It was an amazing place - the windows were boarded up, there were some toilet bowls on the floor, everything was painted in fluorescent colors. I felt like I was in the 90s. Was still here theater stage, which hosted wonderful performances: for example, a man drinks some kind of terrible chemical muck and at the end of the performance he is sick of paint.
Everything had to be rebuilt from floor to ceiling. And initially there were baths. The tile, which is now on the walls, remained from those times. And where theater Hall- as people told me - there was a VIP steam room, allegedly owned by Furtseva. Together with the artist Petya Pasternak, we began to figure out what to do in this place. Petya looked at these beautiful long windows, the high ceiling and offered us, as if for internal use, such a game - as if we had found an abandoned castle somewhere in the mountains or in the middle of the forest, which was once luxurious. Once upon a time. We found this castle in ruins, with some old velvet curtains, dishes, old tables forgotten by the owners, and stayed in it, in this forest, to live. It's funny that our forest stands in the most energy-difficult area of Moscow - on the Lubyanka, but we manage to ignore all this. From our thicket, the Lubyanka is not very visible. On the contrary, we are hiding here. In this imaginary world. We even have everything in the world mixed in the interior. Here, for example, is a spinning wheel. Someone brought it to us, saying that it suits us very well. And this is a monstrous fake, fake. I asked her to take it to the trash the next day. Two days later they returned it to us with the words: “How wonderful! We found her nearby! She is yours!" Thrown out again. When they brought her to us for the third time, I realized that she should be here. Somehow I even fell in love with her, for all her enormity.
Who is involved in the selection of repertoire for the "Workshop"?
At first we did it ourselves - me and Alyosha. It seemed to us that if we have two events a week, then this is wildly a lot. Now we have several of them a day: a theater hall, children's lectures, discussions, cinema, concerts, opera, discos, experimental jazz, poetry evenings… I must have forgotten something. And now we have art director Anna Hain and theater producer Stas Shapovalov. I have, of course, a terrible character, and I interfere in everything. I let them live. As for foreign music, this is mostly mine. I travel around Europe, negotiate with musicians and bring them to perform.
Are there any problems with bringing in artists?
Full. Very expensive tickets, very far away, many are afraid to go here. But the biggest problem is the Moscow public. Nobody is interested in anything except the promoted stars, which have long been blown away. People bring 500 times the same musicians - relaxed, not even trying to pretend that they are interested - they pay them three times the fees than in Europe, they spoil them terribly. A crowd of people come, buy tickets for 2,000 rubles - and everyone is happy.
You really bring interesting music, knocking you off your feet, advertising everywhere you can - 30 people come, each of which then writes on Facebook that “it was great, it’s a pity that you didn’t come.” Of course, after each such concert, you want to give up. It's not even about the money. Uncomfortable in front of musicians. There are 30 people in the hall, and they work like for a stadium - with such energy, professionalism, talent! And the answer is nothing. This is the most annoying thing. But we are trying to solve this problem.
And what about the theater venue in this respect?
The theater hall is easier to fill - it is quite small. And there are not every day performances.
Do you still have a modern theater?
We have very different theater. It is one of the very few truly independent theaters in the country. This is a vibrant theatre. Alive, for sure. Sometimes operatic. Sometimes childish. Sometimes we find performances that we like and invite them to play with us. And sometimes people themselves come and say: "We want to make a performance." If we like them, we are happy for them, we do not take any rent, but we warn you right away that we cannot invest anything. They manage on their own. Thus we have a wonderful, very popular performance"Lafcadio" by Svetlana Ivanova.
Please tell us about what will happen, what are your plans ...
Sea plans. I have an idea that has slowly begun to be realized - it is very long and difficult - to make a festival of countries so that during the year, once a month, the weekend is dedicated to some country: the music of this country, cinema, poets - everything that is interesting. Now we meet with different embassies almost every day, because it is impossible to do without their participation.
There is an idea to make a festival of small operas. This is very fashion trend in Europe now - to stage operas for two kopecks in small rooms. In our time, it is no longer possible to get to the bottom of where the rule came from that an opera must be for a million dollars, in Bolshoi Theater, with columns, in evening dresses. But this needs to be corrected, because a huge amount of beautiful music, witty librettos, amazing stories, very good singers! Have an idea with puppet theaters… In general, a lot of things.
How do you think your audience will form and grow?
Already developing, of course. It’s just that I have such a character - that I’m not enough all the time, everything around me seems too slow, I want it even faster, even cooler. Again, I swear to you, not in the sense of money - everything is fine with that. Namely, with regard to interesting programs, concerts, tours. I want to introduce people around us to what we like, and to each other. Therefore, we have, for example, a weekly "Friend of a friend" party, in which people who have not done this before act as DJs, and we introduce our friends to friends of our other friends, arrange such a socio-cultural brew, systematically and consistently create a context , in which then, as if suddenly, but in fact not at all suddenly, performances, groups and interesting projects are born.
Can you call "Workshop" a fashionable place?
I love good music and theater, I'm interested in doing this. And I absolutely don't give a damn about whether this music is fashionable, whether it pays for itself. And I am absolutely sure that any model, including in business, is successful only when the person who deals with it is interested in doing it.
There are really trendy places in Moscow, Solyanka, Gypsy, for example, great places! Or "Alditch" - one of best projects Over the past few years, I have immense respect for the people who make these places and love going there to have fun, but that doesn't mean The Workshop has to be the same.
katyadunaevaThis woman, for example, writes to me: "How much you can throw mud at the country that raised you." Another woman writes: "Doesn't your heart hurt when you write - just like that, through I - such things about the country that gave you an education." The third (or is it all the same?) writes: "This country has given you everything, and this is how you pay it."
I'm just for the sake of accuracy. I was educated by Natalya Mikhailovna Smirnova, a wonderful music teacher, pianist, student of Yakov Vladimirovich Flier, who studied with Konstantin Nikolaevich Igumnov, who studied with Alexander Ilyich Siloti, who studied with Franz Liszt, who studied with Karl Czerny, who studied with Beethoven, and I can go on, but I won't.
My dad, Sasha Turov, an art critic, art history teacher, journalist, editor, gave me education, he gave it to me when he turned on Handel and the Beatles over my bed, when they brought me from the hospital, or when we traveled around the Golden Ring as a child and he He told us about the churches that were closed at that time, and we walked around some half-abandoned, half-ruined churches and fields.
Education was given to me by my literature teacher Tatiana Andreevna Bonch-Bruevich, a young beautiful woman, the lessons of which, at school, I still remember. I was educated by Vadim Abramovich Berezovsky, the legendary teacher of solfeggio and music theory, when I came to their apartment in Karmanitsky Lane, 3 times a week, oh horror, by 8.30 in the morning, for classes. Education was given to me by Alexey Alekseevich Kandinsky, Difficult person, who gave us the course "History of Piano Art" amazingly.
Every day my mother, Alice Tille, a lawyer, gives me education with her wisdom and example. Education at each meeting gives me some tons of valuable information Alexei Vasilyevich Parin, musicologist, playwright, and producer. My friend Misha Fikhtengolts, telling me for years about Handel, and about the best opera singers and conductors of the world, gives me an education. The outstanding opera singer Larisa Anatolyevna Gogolevskaya has been giving me education twice a week for a year and a half, and each lesson is a meeting with a great master, a great actress.
It is not the Country that gave me the so-called "everything". This is my family, my relatives gave me everything, and this was in no way, is not and will not be connected with the name of the part of the land on which all this happened and is happening. In some cases, I was given education not because of this country, but in spite of it, contrary to its will, its actions, contrary to how the best professors left for the darkness-cockroach (I was very lucky in this darkness-cockroach, in the city of Elektrostal, to study for a year and meet there the best teachers music that I have seen in my life, most of were simply expelled from the Moscow and St. Petersburg conservatories, each different reasons, including political ones).
I don't know what "country" is. I know that here now there is less and less freedom, and I am scared, bitter and hurt by this. Because if we are talking about "The country that gave you everything", then we cannot help but talk about "The country that took everything away" from Rachmaninoff, Bunin, Kharms, Meyerhold, or, for example, Pestel, Muravyov-Apostol, Bestuzhev-Ryumin , Ryleeva and others. Why, then, should I be in some kind of serf thanksgiving from the waist for the good that happened here (these early mornings in the house of Vadim Abramovich, when you listen to a 4-voice dictation through a dream), but for some reason I should not take into account the hell that happened here too? What a flawed position, what a slavish way of thinking, well, nothing, nothing that the master flogs with rods, but last year he beat not 15, but 20 times, so it's better, good gentleman, thank him, tell him the neighbor in general beats to death.
When will serfdom be abolished?
