In dialogue with British dramaturgy: international conference held in Kyiv (01/05/03)

In dialogue with British dramaturgy: international conference held in Kyiv

by Olga Kirillova

KYIV - An international conference to spur the development of the modern Ukrainian theater took place in Kyiv on October 7-11, 2002. Led by several British playwrights, the four-day series of workshops and seminars titled, "Regeneration of Ukrainian Dramaturgy: Ukrainian Utopias vs. British Patterns," was the first of its kind to be held in the Ukrainian capital.

The British playwrights Steve Gooch, Tony Craze, Rebecca Prichard and Amy Rosenthal, all veterans of the London theater, hosted the several seminars and workshops. For Ukrainians it was a completely new experience as it was the first time Ukrainian playwrights interacted with colleagues from abroad.

"We came here not only to teach but also in search of new ideas - for inspiration," said Mr. Gooch.

In addition to being veteran playwrights, the group has extensive experience in teaching. Mr. Gooch is a famous writer and translator, whose best-known play, "Female Transport," has been presented in more than 400 productions around the world. As a teacher he has worked in Britain and the United States. He also founded the Masters in Arts Program in Playwriting at Goldsmith College, London.

Mr. Craze is a writer, a playwright and a former artistic director of the Soho Theater Company. In addition, he is a writing associate for London Arts. At present he is associated with the Chelsea Theater and CityLit in London.

Ms. Prichard and Ms. Rosenthal are of the younger generation of British writers. Both have already had a number of productions and are currently writers-in-residence at different London theaters.

The idea for the conference came from Ukrainian playwright Irena Kowal, who discovered at drama workshops in London led by Mr. Craze that he and Mr. Gooch had previously participated in a dramaturgy conference in Krakow, Poland, with successful results. Ms. Kowal coordinated the arrangements for a visit by the group to Kyiv. She obtained financial backing from the British Council of Ukrainians, the Soros Foundation in Kyiv, as well as from Ihor Kowal.

The conference had two main aims: to teach playwriting skills and to introduce development technologies and initiatives as practiced in modern Britain. Correspondingly, it was divided into two main sections, which ran simultaneously.

A section on infrastructure development explained how successful interaction takes place between British playwrights and the theaters that stage their works - a mechanism that is essential for a playwright to have a play produced. Nevertheless, Ukrainian officials, producers and directors were in scarce attendance at those seminars.

The training section, however, was of special interest for many Ukrainian playwrights, as the education of dramatists remains below par in modern Ukraine. Messrs. Gooch and Craze presented their original teaching methods on story development. Mr. Craze described his brainstorming method, which involves individual free exploration by playwrights of their child-like imaginations. Mr. Craze's methodology can be obtained on the Internet, while Mr. Gooch's book, "Writing a Play," is expected to be published in Ukrainian translation soon.

Despite widespread complaints about the complete absence of modern Ukrainian dramaturgy, there were many young writers present, hungry to start work - to learn and to reflect the contemporary reality of Ukraine on today's stages. Volodymyr Serdiuk, Neda Nezhdana, Oleh Goncharov and Serhiy Schuchenko represented the Ukrainian side from Kyiv, as well as playwrights from Lviv, Poltava and Rivne.

Members of the British contingent said they were encouraged by the willingness to learn that was expressed by the Ukrainian playwrights

"When I was taking part in a similar workshop done by the Royal Court Theater in Romania, it was very hard to work with the dramatists because they were resistant to outside influences, but Ukrainian dramatists are very open to new ideas and approaches, to creative collaboration," commented Ms. Prichard.

In preparing for the workshop, British dramatists read a number of plays by their Ukrainian counterparts and had much to say about what they learned.

"Ukrainian dramaturgy is highly intellectual, and it is based on the literary and classical approach, which is unusual for us. In British plays action dominates," Mr. Craze explained.

"Fantastic, fascinating, but somewhat pessimistic," added Ms. Prichard in her assessment of the tone of Ukrainian dramaturgy.

While in Kyiv, the British group also attended several plays and commented on the quality of Ukrainian theater as well.

"Ukrainian productions are very colorful, visual, theatrical by their nature," said Mr. Gooch.

An aim of the playwriting conference was to expose the developmental gaps in Ukraine's theater infrastructure, as they exist between the writers and the theater, such as the need to develop innovative programs dealing with the writing of new drama; the lack of education of playwrights; the lack of information about Ukrainian plays being produced.

British playwrights attempted to discredit the general Soviet mindset of blaming others and waiting for others to fix problems and encouraged the Ukrainian playwrights to take the initiative.

"On the whole, if we want something to happen, we have to work hard at it," explained Ms. Rosenthal, one of the younger British playwrights on hand.

Her group seemed to convince the Ukrainian playwrights that in order to be an effective force they needed to cooperate to actively shape the modern Ukrainian theater themselves.

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