A Sufi interpretation of Shakespeare’s text staged in Uzbekistan in the Uzbek language.
Uzbekistan is in Central Asia, north of Afghanistan. The Uzbeks are the descendants of Chinggis Khan who converted to Islam in the 1300’s. In the deserts of this country, the Mongolian shaman was absorbed into the role of the dervish, and the shaman’s ecstatic flight transformed to a whirling dance: the way of the Sufi.
Shakespeare’s play with shamans, Soviet Generals, and the gods of the Central Asian lakes and forest.
Buryatia is the Buddhist nation in Russian Siberia. Sheep-herding nomads have lived there for centuries on the shores of the vast Lake Baikal combining ancient Shamanism with the Buddhism of the Dalai Lama.
Tennessee Williams’ meditation on the death of Jackson Pollock The Day on Which a Man Dies was written by Tennessee Williams at the height of his public success (1957-59) and kept by the author in reserve.…
Life’s banquet, in its Russian premiere. In the Russian/English dictionary the English word “sophisticated” is defined in Russian as “perverted.” Let that stand for the difficulties of translating Auntie Mame into Russian, done admirably by Lyuba Filimonovna…
After Soviet Russia, gray visions of the Middle Ages and Hecate dancing a tango with Death.
Mr. Bertolt Brecht, He says that you can Take apart a man And make another man. How could you do that? How could that be? To take another man And turn him into me?…
The Russian language premiere of Tennessee Williams’ play about the suppression of truth. Samara, 550 miles southeast of Moscow, with a population of three million, was chosen by translator Vitaly Vulf because of its great leading…
Anita Dangler was delicious playing Renevskaya as a tottering confection, a hot house orchid from Paris wilting in the Russian countryside. In the photograph Renevskaya listens as her step-daughter, Varya, claims if she had a…
In Gertrude Stein’s version of the Faust legend, Faust invents the light bulb. This production began with the story of Faust as written and performed by two seven year-olds. A full-voiced sampling of arias from…
Guilty pleasures. Below: Dick Zigun’s Burlesque Manifesto at Webster Hall, March 2013. Below: America’s Favorite Burlesque Gameshow, This Or That! The Great Fredini, World Famous Bob center, Julie Atlas Muz with contestants