Virlana Tkacz will show slides from Janyl, the first collaborative American-Kyrgyz theatre project. Ms Tkacz directed this original theatre piece, and created it with Yara and Sakhna actors based on the Kyrgyz epic “Janyl Myrza,” about a woman warrior. The show, performed in both English and Kyrgyz, played at the world-renown La MaMa Experimental Theatre for fourteen performances in March. The premier performance of Janyl on March 10 was a great success. The audience included both New York theatre-goers and Kyrgyz who live in the US, including Zamira Sydykova, the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to America and Canada.
The Kyrgyz premiere of Janyl will take place this summer August 9-12 in Bishkek at the B’Art Center, in Naryn at the Naryn Dramatic Theatre August 17-18 and in the village of Kara Suu August 20-21 as part of the Koshoi Korgon Festival. The production will be accompanied by an exhibit of photographs by Margaret Morton “Janyl in New York.”The role of Janyl is performed by two actresses, Kenzhegul Satybaldieva and the American actress Susan Hyon. Sakhna actors Munarbek Alibaev, Baktykul Dzhanybekov, Ilgis Zhunusov and Asel Maamytova, as well as the dastanchi (epic singer) Omurzak Kaiypov traveled to New York to rehearse and perform the show and will be at the presentation to share their impressions with the audience and press.
Nurlan Asanbekov will discuss his production of Kerez (Testament) which performed five shows at La MaMa in New York this spring. La MaMa, one of the most famous experimental theatres in the world, was founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart. Many world famous directors and actors have worked there including: Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor, Tom O’Horgan, F. Murray Abraham, Diane Lane, Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. Yara Arts Group, a resident company at La MaMa, was founded in 1990 and previously has created collaborative theatre projects with artists from Ukraine, the Buryat Republic in Siberia, Mongolia and China. Sakhna Theatre exists since 2003 and has created three productions based on Kyrgyz epics: Testament, or Kerez, based on “Kojojash,” Kurmanbek and Maktym Dastan.
In addition to performing Janyl and Kerez, the artists of Yara and Sakhna also presented a series of concerts, lectures and exhibits at Columbia University, the New York Public Library, the Ukrainian Museum of New York and Philadelphia College. They also presented a cluster of events entitled Kyrgyzstan: Celestial Mountains in Saratoga Springs, upstate New York, that included concerts, excerpts from theatre productions, exhibits and lectures.
The project was made possible with support from New York State Council on the Arts, New York City’s Department of Cultural of Cultural Affairs, US Embassy in Bishkek, CEC Arts Link, Swiss Agency for Development, the Soros Foundation of Kyrgyzstan, the Christensen Foundation, the Nordlys Foundation, Yara’s individual contributors and the Educational Fund of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic and La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York.
Additional information and photographs on Janyl in New York March 2007
Janyl the newest work by Yara Arts Group, is based on an ancient epic song from Kyrgyzstan, "Janyl Myrza," about a woman archer with a skill so refined that she never misses. This World Music-Theater piece includes fragments of the epic performed live by Kyrgyz artists from Central Asia in the traditional singing style, while Yara artists perform in English. Virlana Tkacz directs.
The production follows the Yara Arts Group style of dramatizing ancient myths with movement, world music, and songs sung in many languages. This time the show is based entirely on a single poetic text. "Janyl Myrza" can be loosely translated as "Sir Jane." Passed down orally through the centuries, it was recorded from the great epic singer Ibraim Abdyrakhmanov and portrays actual events that took place in the 17th century. It has been translated for the first time into English by Kyrgyz poet Roza Mukasheva, Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps especially for this show. The cast includes performers from Kyrgyzstan, and New York members of Yara Arts Group.
Janyl is was created in rehearsals by director Virlana Tkacz and Kyrgyz artists from Sakhna Theatre of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, a company that specializes in staging Kyrgyz epics. The music is traditional and features the bard Omurzak Kaiypov. Set, lights and costumes are by Watoku Ueno, Yara's resident designer and founding member, who is an NEA/TCG award-winning designer. Movement is by Shigeko Sara Suga. Projections are by photographer Margaret Morton who traveled with Yara last summer into the high pasturelands of the Celestial Mountains on the Kyrgyz-Chinese border where the epic originally took place. Video is by Andrea Odezynska. The woman warrior will played by Kenzhegul Satybaldieva as well as Yara artist Susan Hyon, revealing dual aspects of this powerful character. Cast also includes Kyrgyz actors Munarbek Alibaev, Baktytkul Dzhanybekov, Asel Maamytova and Ilgis Zhunusov, who also performed in this piece at La MaMa Theatre in New York.
Director Virlana Tkacz heads the Yara Arts Group and has created seventeen original theater pieces with the company, all of which had their American premieres at La MaMa. The Village Voice (Eva Yaa Asantewaa) called her production of Circle, "a stunningly beautiful work (that) rushes at your senses, makes your heart pound, and shakes your feelings loose." Describing her last piece, The Warrior's Sister, American Theatre Web (Laura Shea) wrote, "Multilingual, though easily accessible to English-speaking audiences, the performance reminds us of what theater should be and rarely is--the opportunity to step to a world that is virtually unknown to us."
Founded in 1990, Yara Arts Group, a resident company of La MaMa, creates original pieces that explore timely issues rooted in the East through the diverse cultural perspectives of the group's members. Yara artists are of Asian, African, Eastern and Western European ethnic origin. They bring together poetry, song, historical materials and scientific texts, primarily from the East, to form what one critic described as "extended meditation on an idea." The company has created seven pieces based on materials from Eastern Europe including Waterfall/Reflections, developed with folk singer Nina Matvienko, which The New York Times (D.J.R. Bruckner) called "a theatrical enchantment given cohesion by choreographed movement and by music on a prodigal scale." Since 1996 Yara has also created seven theater pieces with Buryat artists from Siberia. Janyl is the first collaborative Kyrgyz American project.
Sakhna Theatre was founded under the direction of Nurlan Asanbekov in 2003. The artists work and experiment with traditional material, creating contemporary experimental versions of the great Kyrgyz epics. They study the oral folk traditions of their nomadic culture in order to help them revive these epics through ritual theatre. The universal theme of man's relationship with nature is at the heart of their productions. The epic stories are accompanied by traditional songs and instruments, further preserving this 1,000 year old culture. To date they have created three productions: Kerez (The Testament) which won the main prize in Bishkek's "Art-Ordo" International Theatre Festival, Kurmanbek and Maktym-Dastan, which were created with support from the Swiss Agency for Development.
photo by Maragret Morton
JANYL coming to Bishkek, Naryn and her homeland this summer
A World Music-Theater piece based on an ancient epic about the struggles of a woman warrior in a traditional society
featuring movement, music and traditional epic singing
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 14:00
B'Art Center (formerly the City of Artists)
1 Karasayeva Street (Druzhba) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
presentation of plans for this summer
and report on work this spring in New York
for additional information and to request photos for press call (312) 212-516
BISHKEK -- The B’Art Center of Bishkek invites you to a presentation by Virlana Tkacz artistic director of the Yara Arts Group from La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York, and Nurlan Asanbekov the artistic director of the Sakhna Theatre of Bishkek about their collaborative series of events “Kyrgyz Spring in New York.” and about their future plans for staging Janyl in Bishkek, Naryn and At-Bashi this summer. The presentation will take place on Wednesday, June 20 at 14:00 at the B’Art Center (formerly known at City Of Artists) at 1 Karasayeva Street (Druzhba) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
For pictures from Yara's research into the Celestial Mountains July 2006
For pictures and information on Yara's workshop of Janyl Myrza in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan August, 2006
For information on related Kyrgyz musical events