 Segal Theatre Center, our little center in the middle of Manhattan in midtown where every second store is closed, restaurants are closed, businesses are out of their spaces and we still do not know what will happen, how the city will digest everything. Announcements of openings have been done in July 4th. People think maybe September 15th shows will be back up but we are skeptical and we are waiting, we are seeing but there are great signs that perhaps we are turning a corner and of course we now really think what is it important at the moment, what does it mean to be a theater artist during the time of corona, for the time after corona, what has happened, what has changed, what will change, what should change and artists have been always part of change we need. Artists have been inside of the fight for freedom and democracy on the right side, they have anticipated the future and they helped us going through different stages and certainly this is a new world, a new stage we are entering in and art has something to say but not now, it doesn't have anything to say, we all think and from the conversations we had with over 150 artists from over 60 countries in the world, we had one of the most insightful I think comments that helped us, helped me and our listeners to to deal and think and to come to terms and to find meaning in this. Today is a special day for us, we have a great artist with us, one of the world's great theater artists in the terms of chess, he's a grandmaster of the game who does his very own style, his very own work in film and in theater. Kirill Serebrennikov is with us, Kirill thank you, thank you for joining us. It was such amazing words about me but look I'm guy who just works and looking my own way in theater and arts in general and it's not about me, please don't put me on the line. Okay, okay. Kirill where are you right now? I'm in Moscow, I'm preparing the new film and Moscow is opened by the way, a lot of people working in theater are open for 50% of the audience so but it's much better than nothing I understand how the whole world is in jealousy about what's happening in Moscow I understand but look it's really hard because we know what happened in comparison with the previous period when everything was locked, closed and there was no way to work at all for artists for theater people in Moscow it was a nightmare and the moment when the figures went down it was a very very very a lot of happiness about this and now it's 50% of the audience but we working and where I just yesterday had rehearsals of the production we didn't play for almost two years because of corona and because of different situations of pregnancy of the actresses so we refreshed the old production called Kafka it's about the Kafka life and today it's like opening right now in the moment we're talking with you in theater in Google Center they are starting to play first performance in zero because we have three and it's very very good because audience of the people in Moscow are really tired of lockdown and they're very they're missing theater and it's quite understandable and clear and very very easy to to feel this from the stage because people are so happy to be in touch with the actors with the performers and it's very special feeling really amazing it's really good it's it must be evening right is that so it's open it's what time is it in Moscow it's seven o'clock and the performance is like four hours and we we normally start eight o'clock but today we stayed a little bit earlier to not to finish a late at night so I hope the seat will talk didn't take you away from watching normally I guess it's normally I can't help them now because they they're like in this open space they they're playing and we'll see the result we'll see the uploads in the end and we understand how it how it works but anyway it was kind of a successful moment for for our theater when the the sold out was for four minutes it was kind of first time in our life when first minutes online selling the tickets and it was sold out for for four minutes for it's a question do we need a theater you know after corona I guess of course it's the best answer of course people it's it's so easy to feel here that people are are so tight about fitting at home and being with each other or close to inside yourself you know eyes to your depth and to your darkness and for people to visit theater to go to exhibitions now it's kind of a word or happiness and it's it's it's it's really good fantastic it's really good also quite symbolic that a Kafka ask work is is very Russian author by the way I hope it's very American as well Kafka by the way Kafka wrote novel called America yeah being never being in America yeah it was his imagination it was his imagination and he created his own America and described the street the place the the characters but he've never been in America in his life and what he described in his novels it's very very close to what we have in Russia and probably what we have in Europe now so it's he's like a prophet and we we made this I stage the production about the prophet of who told a lot of a lot of about 21st century from from from 20th century his vision about or the vision of future is really dark but sometimes it looks like what we have today yeah yeah life is stranger than fiction what we went through was unimaginable and for us you know at least in the west who didn't grow up with uncertainty I think I think of course Russia went through extreme changes too and perhaps has some experiences to deal with such transformations and for all our listeners who don't know nothing about career and I have to admit I also never saw a production in person it never came here to the US I'm living here for such a long time so it's a something that's missing and as we said earlier there's a little question to interrupt you but I worked in American Harvard for three years in drama school in the Slavsky kind of program and I worked with American students with American Young Actors and it was amazing experience and I loved it a lot by the way so with Robert Woodruff still at the time when Robert Woodruff was at the ART or yeah I think it was his time it was it was time we saw each other and it was kind of a special time for ART but Harvard was a very nice place and summer in Harvard summer in Boston is very good for me as well yeah and I think TDM the fever drama and media initiative is really alive and interesting it's a very intellectual origin of America and the very special people very smart very clever very kind of invoked in culture in cultural life so it was it was it was interesting yeah so just to give for all those who weren't lucky enough to be your student in Harvard Carol is he's been working as a stage director at the roster on Don Theodore since 1994 in the last millennium even he looks so young and he's the author and director of numerous production at the great Moscow Arts Theater the Pushkin Theater so Remnick's Theater the theater of Oleg Tabakoff Tabakoff who I once met also a helicon opera the National Theater of Latvia and he has staged next to on his place his stage operas series work in opera and ballet and has a vast experience in film and television perhaps one of the few that really moves between film television theater was kind of east and is informing his work I'm out of it which for sure in the time of corona helped him to to find also a new ways he's a one of the artistic directors of the festival school territory and I would like to know more about this and he is the founder and artistic director of the project platform from 2011 till 14 and he's the founder and artistic director of the Google Center since 2012 a most significant place in Russian theater history you have to change the name it is from all what we know the most was was the most alive place the most significant place of contemporary theater of contemporary means of hybrid forms new forms in the tradition of modernity in the tradition of post-modernity but it is a contemporary work in the best sense and so Kirill and the time of corona what happened in the last year what did you do oh it's always difficult to to have a talk in terms of past but look what I what I did I finished the film we managed to shoot before the global lockdown it called Petrov's flu based on contemporary Russian prose and it will be released I hope in summer this year and I finished operas I I made I made I prepared a pacifal for Vienna-Stadt's opera it's a very very big production with the global stars and others and I I finished what does I you know it's it's good question what I did last year but I did a lot but I probably forgot about to mention something I I made I made by the way I think it was last year I finished the production in google center called the the hangman based on Martin McDonough latest play he worked he he wrote for London National Theatre and he allowed me to rewrite it for for Russia because we have special kind of relationship with with this topic I mean it's about people who kill other people I mean hangman and person who kills the prisoners let's say or who committed into to being killed in nowadays in Russia the death kind of according to a decision of the jury is is banned is we have the moratorium but it it existed till 1989 or 80 or 1986 probably and so we we we I made the McDonough story about the hangman in UK into Russian realities so it was completely rewritten and it's big production in in in Moscow what else what else what I did I did I did a lot I I wrote few scripts and we are preparing the new by the way it will be new production based on uh Limonov's novel Limonov is famous Russian author already dead but he his first novel in in America was That's Me Eddie his famous Russian punk novel let's say very crazy crazy character crazy novel and probably it will be kind of adaptation for for for the film based on on on this literature what happened a lot to me I forgot about something but I remember I'll tell you how did you feel in the time were you in your apartment how was it for you emotionally as an artist I had I had a rehearsal of lockdown of my personal lockdown a few years before and now in in in global lockdown I was prepared so I I I know how to behave and what to do I I even made kind of fewer devices of of Kirill Serebrennikov for the people for the current situation with lockdown what to do how to behave or how to to use time in the best way it was like like 10 points to read a lot to learn something to to to new foreign language for instance to to watch films anyway you never never seen before never watched before to practice to to to to practice some physical activities I mean yoga and something else and some something else to to look into yourself very precisely and deeply and make a poem use this pose for for understanding what'll what are you gonna do in in the nearest future because it's a kind of point for changing the life and for changing everything it's not bad by the way to so the the the the advice is we are about how to find or to look for the best from this terrible tragic situation not to say not to say okay I'm well well we're destroyed lay down and die no let's find something good you know sometimes this stops of the poses are are very helpful for for the life it's a time for a rare arrangement of our thoughts of refreshment of our kind of inside structure to thinking about the way we're gonna leave or gonna walk in the future so it's it's not bad to have a pause in general I mean could you share I mean not everybody knows you said you had your own corona confinement before anyway yeah yeah it was like it was house arrest blah blah blah the people can find everything about what happened with me before but anyway corona it's it's a it's a global kind of turn turn and I feel that I actually feel that it's our we have now we have kind of we're sharing our experience and it's really good because look we were so separated we were so far from each other I mean theater people or artistic people we're doing our things we were in different places of the globe but now we have too much things in common we have our common experience and it all makes us closer to each other and the problems of each other are more understandable now for for for the others so it's not bad by the way we're much closer now to to to each other than before do you feel there's a change and we are thinking about what's going to happen to New York what will we see we love this city it's a great city and it will come back yeah it's amazing city it's amazing place and it's so good for artistic spirit because it's a spirit of freedom in each corner in each second of it it's true how is Moscow how is that in that year or did it it did something change what do you see for your city Moscow now is very good by the way I mean in terms of kind of good city a lot of people theater are opened museums are open and of course there's there's no freedom of spirit the spirit of freedom sorry but for I'm not sure that a lot of people are searching for for this spirit sometimes for the people are more important the the feeling of comfort and being safe let's say and it's quite opposite to to what we're looking for like artists you know we artists always are searching for something different from the other people we're always minority and for the people like to prefer to be in safe situation we are putting ourselves into crazy things trying to play crazy tragedies or comedies something very extreme something very bloody and blah blah blah so we all like artists looking for abnormal things and here people are looking for normal safe quiet blah blah blah situation of course with a special with in conditions of corona and with special rules and regulations and so on and so on as I understood what you asked me absolutely yeah yeah that's uh that is you know interesting to hear I mean we're gonna have what what what to be what to be with me how to leave and what to do in New York after you'll see you'll do you'll be so happy when everything will be open the people will hug each other they will go to the museum so they will go to the theaters I'm I'm sure that that the live will be more even more joyful the people I hope the vaccine the vaccine will help to to to feel safe in Moscow a lot of people are um we are sick by the way I've been sick as well you had corona yeah yeah I had corona it was not really easy because I had the problem with the lungs like 40 percent of it was um in under corona under virus under corona but uh we managed to to overcome it and a lot of people had no symptoms uh in general so as far as I understand without uh natural um vaccination of of the population there is no way to to go ahead uh vaccine I mean the the new kinds of vaccine of course will help and will make it faster but uh in general we we are uh in front of the new uh reality and the reality is that next time next moment it will be other viruses other problems other other things and of course it seems to me that it's kind of rehearsal of new new era of being of mankind not your existence uh don't let let's not to use uh terms bad or worse or good or it's it's like this let's take it let's let's accept it and let's think how to overcome how to to build the new life the new art the new theater the new communication with the people and uh that's it Russia is such a great country for theater one of you know the world powers in a way over centuries like you know theater in Japan Germany France England you know it's one of the great the also the audience that loves theater do you think what do you think theater is should be doing now or is doing something changing uh is your role changing that's will audience expect different things artists what does what will theater do my conception or my feeling about this is that theater starts to be important when when the people get used to go to the theater so it's kind of it comes from childhood when people are taking a small kids are taken to the theater and get used to spend their evening time watching something from the stage it gives kind of theater vaccine for the whole life or um vaccine let's say or virus theater virus for the whole life and Moscow it's not about the whole Russia Moscow St. Petersburg some other big cities there are of course theater centers there are a lot of theater there are a lot of theater life but it's not about the whole Russia in Russia there are places where people are not get are not about theater into theater at all there are more about movies because the only acceptable or reachable place it's cinematographer I mean cinema theater and um uh Russia is really huge but the main theater life exists exists in in in in Moscow and and few big cities um I've I I I I started to dream about theater uh since my like 15 years old in Rostov in south of Russia when I've I I actually it was not because I visited the local theater it was because I saw Peter Brooks production called Carmen Carmen yeah I saw yeah you saw it and I saw it by video on on video it was not live production but I was so was shocked by smell of freedom by artistic freedom by something unbelievable in acting in in in in this musical opera production that I I felt something like obsession about it and I of course wanted to repeat that I saw a Taganka famous Russian theater from Soviet Union which was a kind of point of freedom and of contemporary of modern theater it was Taganka theater this is Stanislavsky theater it was all always classical theater theater of traditions and Taganka it was mod about modernity about experimental things very artistic very social orientated and and by and so on and so I I saw few Taganka performances and it was kind of I was infected and then I understood that theater is a great great media media and a great possibility for people to be together to feel the unity let's say or kind of closing how to how to feel together being together and I I just wanted to repeat it to repeat and to find my own way and to to to to to work in theater I have I have no special education by the way I I I'm a physician I'm physics sorry I'm not physician physician doctor I'm I'm scientist I finished university as a scientist I have special degree in physics and I but I started theater as in amateur way in university and then I it turned kind of moved into professional and then I moved to Moscow and started to work in professional theaters well first in center of contemporary drama and directorship it's it was tiny tiny theater in Moscow but he worked with contemporary drama the only place about modern theater in the beginning of the 21st century in Moscow and then we the people who started the theater became kind of headliners of of of theater in theater making and a lot of actors and director from the center started to work and collaborate with a big classical traditional repair to our theater in Moscow in in Russia in general as in Germany as in France we have prepared to our theater it means that every day we have new productions in the list of in in the in the repertoire let's say and we have permanent troops we have we play a lot of productions per month and for instance in google center today we have one performance on the big stage and another performance on this chamber stage so we and that's it almost every day we have the same so a lot of theater a lot of people watching it a lot of actors a lot of work for actors and when I worked in the US the main sorrow was I felt in the very end of our program because I understood that all these amazing actors all these amazing guy amazing young professionals they're so crazy about real theater they're they're so crazy about about playing in the theater every day but they have no chance because America is more about cinema and it's more about Broadway it's more about commercial theater and there were no almost the the professional theaters for artistic work and it was very pity and it was really pity it was really pity because the actors were incredible some of them you know it's true and we just had Chris Myers a New York actor was a stage actor but also is in Spike Lee films or others he says even if he is in one of the good great theaters like the public theater New York theater workshop it's after taxes and everything it's like 300 dollars a week or 400 so I can't and I am even working which is hard to get the job but even if I work I won't even be able to pay my rent and it's stunning and they're all the complexities economy it's all about money I understand but you know in Russia theater is a mainly mainly supported by the government in Europe as well in Germany in Germany in front the the causes supporting is is really huge yeah in Russia Russia is not such a reach but in Siberia as you say people in their big you know theater communities and outreach there and but my question Kirill for the Google I don't know how deeply you are involved after all these shake-ups and and when you had to leave or were forced to leave is the Google doing something different let's say it goes back to 80 percent or 90 or 100 half a year will the Google go on as it was before say we already were doing what we wanted to do or do you think this time brought a visible change something in the experience and the producer will be different what is good good is that we uh that that the actors are really hungry about because they had a lack of everything and they're immediately were involved into into the work it was very good that so we have three or four productions in work I mean new productions sec what what is bad bad that we built a lot of international communications and for instance we made a production called the Cameroon based on on bocaccio bocaccio's novel it was called production with the Deutsche Theater in berlin and and google center Moscow we made this production and played it in in berlin it was the last day before lockdown it was a symbolic offense of course because the Cameroon is connected with a global disaster of 17th century but anyway we played the last production and global lockdown started we they close everything and now we are for almost a year and a half we are waiting for the possibility to play it in Moscow and now the communications and the relationship between country are so bad and we have no we have diplomatic and other problems with the the the other countries and all borders are closed so the bad is that the internet theater is international thing I believe that I wanted I worked a lot and all this territory festival and other festivals you mentioned and platform of project it was a kind of it was especially it was the tools there were the tools for communication for putting people together to to make international projects and so on and so on to make Russia part of the international life of the international theater to make the global theater part of russian theater and it was a huge job for a lot of years and of course what we have today the pandemic destroyed almost everything and it's like mandala I'm good it's so for me it's quite understandable and clear so you built mandala then you destroy mandala and you built it again so now from the moment you you will be all released from lockdown we're gonna start to work on our collaborations and our kind of connection from zero and but we need to start to to work on it again and again and trying to to find the level at least the level it was which was before the pandemic time yeah it's interesting this what often in the talk also here comes up that America now also is very worried already there was not a big global outreach to great places like bam and asia society for a while lincoln center festival which unfortunately closed for no good reasons and the theater is closed look it's disaster yeah it's terrible they close the theater so they they will not I am afraid they will not collect the orchestra again because they were from different countries they came to New York they rent the apartment relief and blah blah blah but now what to do it's it's a turn they did not support the artist as they should but the idea and America's worried you know what if even if America everybody's vaccinated but people from Latin America in the world I mean yeah they can't come in is it going to be more more isolated perhaps as it as it was before so I think your your your concerns this is very it is a very very real my question I don't know where you were let's say I don't have the world world is right the collapse of the civil union or the opening of the wall is too much over and always says it's the opening of the wall not the fall we fought for this there was a movement and he's right but what happened in that moment in in russian stages I think I remember Sebastian Kaiser saying theaters were closed at the time some of them were even almost like flea markets of people who you know would exchange goods and then it opening was that similar to now that kind of trends the change theater went through oh look I'm I'm not a prophet in this I know that Russia is not really such a rich as America and we we are not able to close business and to close everything for such a long term as you did so there is no way that's why they opened everything some moment and pretend that nothing happened with the people but at the same moment the level of immunization and vaccination was really high and they used I hear I mean I mean in Russia they used sputnik and other vaccine for getting people immune but it was it was much earlier than in Europe and then in the US so we are like few months is working and it's it's it's it's it's happiness of course what to do have no idea have no idea the you mean you mean what to do how to how to how to start everything from zero the experience you had if I understood right you know after that 89 90 that cup theaters work also were they closed did they reopen did it change the system was was it something similar as well but look we were working even under lockdown we were preparing the performance everybody was working yeah so we are we have something in the pocket in the pocket and nobody works basically theaters closed so nobody pays even playwrights who got commissioned theaters called them I've said please give us the commission back I mean outrageous things so yeah all the time in from your apartment how did you do are you through zoom or how did you work uh I worked via zoom with uh Vienna Stadtsoper but the Vienna Stadtsoper in Vienna was very hard lockdown by the way but the theater worked each day they started with the corona tests it was like and you can imagine 500 people working it's orchestra choir singers and technicians it's like almost 500 people every day it's it was a line of of people to the rooms where they check what kind of express bits are or express tests for corona and so after this line after this corona testing we start to rehearse and rehearse the whole day because there were no performances and they made the production now it's available on our tech concert for the empty audience for the cameras and we we released it and I thought oh it's not bad by the way we wasted we we spent six weeks for preparing the huge production with four hours of music Wagner it's really hard but now it's available for the globe it's like you know opera Netflix it's it's let's look like this probably it's kind of future way out for for for the other people to prepare theater version of theater for for the streaming for the broadcasting anyway it will give the work for the actors for the shower pillars for the dancers for the singers for for a lot of people involved in in making theater but of course I think we'll replace a live theater nothing and in Moscow now when people can attend the theater and look at the stage and look at the actors playing in a live way sharing energy sharing emotions with each other it's it's it's kind of happiness and to all people you know missing it a lot but still this opera production that Wagner from you know will have a longer life and it will be survived very much better yeah 30 years but tell me so you were where we are talking now you were sitting in front of your computer and you directed the opera which was a record I was sitting in front of computer for 12 hours a day 12 hours a day and it was done for no audience but it will live on film how was that experience what did you learn night man I don't want to repeat it again but anyway it's it was a nightmare you say it was but it's a way out 12 hours yeah incredible it's what to do if there is no other options we had Toshiki Okada a Japanese director a great one and playwright he said what he discovered he said all of a sudden me as director had the same space on the screen as the actor he said I wasn't used to that I had did you find something different something I had surprised you slight slightly different experience I had eye to eye link with each singer so I had a lot of personal rehearsals oh it's really good but I have physically I have my friend and co-author and my choreographer Evgeny Kulagin who but who've been in Vienna physically and why I didn't start from the main thing I didn't tell the main secret it's possible for musical theater because musical theater and all physical actions on stage are connected with the score with the notes and in before for a long long time I'm preparing I'm writing down each gesture each mise-en-scene each I don't know turns of the body and put it down in in in the score and of course to having this score the the singers and the actors in other plays on the globe can do what I what I want in drama I am not sure it's possible to to make the sorry sorry people because I didn't tell the main thing that it's acceptable for music theater mainly for drama I'm not sure that it's really works at least yeah how interesting so like lava notation next to the instruments and the voice you have a score for the gestures I have pictures I have schemes I have kind of sketches for everything and it's connected with the you know with the notes with the score that's easy for for everyone to to understand how to how to work and plus I to I link I can explain what I want and what how what feelings and what emotions the actor needs to express and blah blah blah incredible and unthinkable only two years ago to do something approach was 500 people who get tested every day you're for 12 hours on zoom it will be done with no audience but filmed perfectly and will be a record Carol if I may ask you you said you you said it physics you're trying to be a scientist for whatever reason but then you were talking to this why do you make art why do you think even in the time we have now you said you know we needed what why is it important why what moves you why do you do this incredible effort like you said just know what's the effort was what is it all about it's easy to explain because I always felt that in art in theater I can get something untouchable something invisible not material as scientists I understand that a lot of very special worlds exist everywhere around us we we can't touch them we can't approach them we they can be fixed only with special technique special kind of very complicated measurements but in theater it's the same theater it's a place where invisible becomes visible and all these invisible things all these thoughts ideas very special feelings energies and and blah blah blah and other other it's it's it's a point it's a plot it's a kind of not material material for for making for theater makers and that's of great it it was of great interest for me being far away away from material closer to not reachable such easy as this table or wall or door waiting and looking for invisible world let's say and is your is your work almost always connect us to the to literature is that you have a strong look I I always I am from the generation as you are I guess Frank we are more connected with literature but I do it all possible to connect with visuality because visual theater is what I adore and what I love a lot and try to do something more in visual way less words less literature less phrases less speaking more body more dance more music more international form forms of communication and of theater understandable for for a lot of people I think it's very important for for for new era of post-corona times to create that that hybrid from what you have done for for a long time actually um yeah because literature is look look it was no more that theater was quite provincial because it's it was more local but probably now after corona we all need to make it to share the to share it to to share theater with each other so to get it international to get it understandable for for everyone I think it's it's kind of mission otherwise we'll lose theater at the human activity yeah yeah that's that's quite a profound statement that I like I absolutely happy when I got your invitation because for me it's really important to to get people and to have a talks to to share our thoughts to share our ideas how to how to avoid how to work how to for instance now we are working on the performance for Hamburg theater Taliya theater it's famous very famous place on the map on the theater map of the Europe and it'll be collaboration with actor with Russian actors and German actors so we will play bilingual why not and it will be on a vinyan festival in french famous french festival so it's I tried to to uh kind of get rid of of this language ghetto and problems with languages I'm sure that it's completely possible and English UK actors US actors Russian actors German actors they can do something in together and make international uh global theater understandable for the audience from different places from different countries yeah I mean that's that is important what you said that this time of talk corona remind us that it has to be accessible that we do it for the people that there's a big need and we have to adjust perhaps you know a break that he wrote for the children of technological age we have now children of digital age um as I say you know so how we how do we connect to that and one way is how you do one question a lot of what comes up in talks here within the US but also globally is the idea of community that people say um on one hand it has to be told about we also learned or we also feel we need to be more pay more attention to our local community the surroundings the neighborhood how is it in google theater where are you situated is that is there something that you feel that is changing in that sense uh look google is a very special place it's really far from um theater district it's a little bit aside but uh it's very popular we have we have we have total sold out because it's kind of place for young generation because it from the very beginning I decided to make um something some project uh attractive for for for the people who probably never been in theater before because it's very important to form the habits to attend theater and you know how it works when people come to the theater and see some crap or shit or whatever they say so sorry I understand that it's culture but it's culture of our parents and they leave uh and go to the cinema for instance or to to the games or to watch I don't know whatever to the to the clubs I like it all all I mentioned I love I love a lot but but theater now needs to something to make um to to to to attract the new generation and we try aesthetically um with the with the with the material we stay we we prepare for staging with the master classes with special talks before the each production for each product we have our playwright who talking with the audience explaining the productions explaining for each show before each show each show big look why people of 17th of 20 years old uh have no the the Shakespeare or the Shakespeare words world or Ostrowski or Tchaikov or they it's not their job to know the authors and to know the literature we need to explain them we need to involve them into the into it and then they go and they watch the contemporary production with the people of the same ages on the stage with the same ideas with the same problems with the something similar to them and then they say wow it's my theater it's a place I love I we created the theater opened the whole day so it's a center it's not a theater of when the doors are opened in the evening and that's it we were open the whole day we have gallery inside what happens in the day they're coming to have a coffee they they're coming to watch exhibitions because we have we we have few kind of galleries small galleries inside they were 10 o'clock or nine o'clock you can go there for coffee of course they they have a place for kind of co-working they sitting sharing things or doing or just working in computer taking one cup of tea or coffee and nothing else so just take this place for for your needs and for uh we have we have no special artistic entrance we have only one entrance for the all people we have no artistic uh canteen we have the same canteen for everyone and after performance the actors go in the foyer they they kind of join the people who watched the show and they're sitting uh uh in the coffee eating or singing or drinking or whatever so it's it's a kind of open space it says new new type of of the theater probably but i i i i know that it works and i understand that it it's it's commercial kind of financially successful because it's it's for new people for it's a new for new generation it's aesthetically close to them topically and and and other points that it's a great great artistic and community practice it would be like the public theater here in new york would be open at nine or ten very important not to forget that theater in general is not about our about expressing what we feel inside i mean artists but about theater is about communicating it's about communication about joining and putting people people together nothing else yeah that's that is that is remarkable and something we especially here in the u.s. we have to to think about them how to make it a place of a community open the space for coffee there's a great hotel called the ace hotel have a library we have open library each person can take uh and share the books so free they can take the book and take it away if if they need or some people just brings their books they don't need at home and put it on the shelves and we have such sharing sharing things sharing books for instance it's a idea for we have a boxes for for the homeless people and people who have something they can share they put their cloths into these boxes and we then after afterwards we give it to to the special funds who pass it to to the homeless people for instance so theater is also is a social center community center is a that communicates clearly what it is gallery gallery it's gallery contemporary artists should be part of contemporary theater it's very important yeah so we're becoming so closer but still i have some questions who who formed you what artists did you look up to whether it's writers or filmmakers or writers filmmakers old generation of young actors dancers and you see some names for us who we don't know i mean for sure it's very little american because so little travels over there look we have american in our troupe look yeah american called uh uh odin byron very good actor amazing guy uh big friend of all four of us and he became a star movie star in russia and now he works as an actor as principal actor in our theater we have chinese girl so i i understood that russia is very international and i always was i didn't like the kind of let's say how to i need to find the right words uh the the russian theater was was really very white and very clean clean in in in this thing because for russians for a long time was quite strange that in check of place will will participate some i don't know black people or uh ancient people it was strange but america gave me a huge kind of kick and i changed my vision because in in my program i had amazing black guys who played uh in astrovsky and bulgakov plays and it was very good and i thought why not why shouldn't we work with the old races with all people who live in russia let's say and we have chinese actors very good chinese actors we have guys from eastern part of russia we have so we we don't pay any attention now and it's multiracial troop and it's for me it's very very very important yeah that's that's remarkable i think also germany can run from that and it's true i think america does have an awareness of you know the significance and importance you know of a way it's kind of diversity artistic diversity racial diversity it's very important i i'm for it and i'm fighting for it and for me it's probably our theater is one of the first in russia who made steps ahead into into this direction a bit you know like the gorky in the old days helped that ember lindem and they had this also kind of international because and also they said we got every play we do has turkish subtitles it would be like in new york you say well every play has spanish subtitles because not everybody speaks english perfectly it can understand i don't understand often every sentence you know what what they say on stage but again to go back artists like is it to say is it the kavka is it brecht is it takovsky what what formed you what made you who you are also you're you're political i know you fought for lgbt rights and to say i'm also going to organize what are your who who are your um good to set uh uh elected affinities you know your your your your selected family i think that uh i'm a child of perestroika because perestroika was a very special period when uh soviet union was destroyed and new russian new kind of idea of russia appeared yeah it was a very little very tiny gap between and the generation who came into this period gap uh was the generation was full of new feelings new hopes and freedom freedom total freedom even a little bit with a uh smile of anarchy a little bit but i think for artists it was of high importance of high value so the the atmosphere of perestroika yeah perestroika gave us a feeling that everything is possible soviet union was a place where everything was impossible and suddenly everything changed completely and we understood that okay everything is possible and this is a feeling and understanding of possibility of impossible things is very good for for enlarging the the uh soul of the artists yeah that is good and let's hope that this time of corona especially here in the us we just hit so many people so hard the numbers of unemployment people out of business no health insurance is um it's it's it's stunning but there is also hopefully something in there of a new beginning yesterday lucia was with us from the invisible dark and performing arts center he said i came with no money from france it was the financial crisis of 2008 where layman brothers got a bankrupt and there was a building it was empty i called the number because uh let's see if i can rent it for free and then he made a deal with the owner and traded arts residency now it's one of the artistic spaces so i hope something hopefully will also um come out of um of this at this moment of change we don't know yet it's growing somewhere um as your work did in that time of perestroika so um really um thank you it's a last thing you know they're young artists also listening young directors or young also people who we want to encourage the curators producers festival founders what you have done what would what do you say to them what is important what do they have to focus what i should keep in mind i don't want to be guru i don't want to be some wise i need i need a lot of advice for me as well i know uh i have a lot of questions i have much more questions than than answers so guys there are no rules or regulations or kind of points in in in uh in what to do where to go how to act it's we have the same experience we have the same new experience and uh we need to share it we need to where we're now we are all on the zero level we start from zero we're on the same boat we just need to help each other there is no all all experience we i have or we had from the previous life doesn't work anymore it's shit it's probably it's wrong weight we need to get rid of it and to start to work from the very beginning uh getting the white things whites and uh important things from chekov from dostoevsky from drizer from uh literature from uh philosopher artists contemporary artists uh and old-fashioned artists and other artists uh but it's time to to to collect the new identity of the artist in general uh so i have no advices i have no ideas i need to to do this to start from the from the very beginning with you let's do let's let's walk together yeah that's uh that's a that's a big statement it's a very serious one and they are twice is there is no twice we have to start the mandala new as you said it's exactly the previous one is destroyed so let's start the new one yeah and so it's an equal equal footing for everyone no matter of age or experience and so let's do things and uh and there is a possibility and there's perhaps this idea of that parestroika that atmosphere you know um that that was in the air that is so important and let's hope we will catch some of it um kareel really really thank you um thank you thank you for mentioning my talk and it's our first time and i hope not the last one yeah and for normally i'm sure you would be in the google theater in the seat so it was very nice of you to to to give up your time and say it's important and and we start the global dialogue is important and we need to listen to what you also said we have an interest we listen to each other we need to we are in this together give their solutions they are global ones they are no longer national thank you so much guys bye bye thank you and then next week we're going to have abhishek majumba anaruparoy from india the situation is devastating it's most probably the darkest spot in the world um and um and uh and anaruparoy her family has corona she got corona so we're going to hear um what is happening there if it all works out on thursday we have the theater develop the festival of the world uh producers um with us stefan schmidke perhaps olapkorek but for schulbertina mills who is uh working within the german government also supporting the arts we're going to get an update on what's happening there since um the festivals are provided for artists are invited but germany has a complete lockdown nothing can happens and the festival program has been announced in online and on books but without dates without times nobody really knows what will happen so we get a little update from there and then on friday we join our great student initiative the booth award honoring diana taylor from nyu for her life's work and the difference she has made thank you all for joining thanks hal realm for hosting us again it was an important update to get from russia from mosco and um it was a a great honor to have carol with us and what he said is meaningful it is important and significant and something we all can can learn from so thank you and have a great uh weekend and i hope you will join us next week again thanks to hal realm for hosting us all my best