The Third New Russian Drama Festival and Two One-Acts by Yury Klavdiev, Breaking String Theatre Company, February 6 - 16

by Dr. David Glen Robinson


The third annual New Russian Drama Festival in Austin, organized and hosted by Breaking String Theatre Company and its artistic director, Graham Schmidt, offered a full weekend of theatre to Austin, with impressive guests, panel discussions, staged readings, a musical program and full stage presentations of two world-class one-act plays by the preeminent contemporary playwright Yury Klavdiev. My first and 
last impressions are that Austin is fortunate indeed simply to have access to such theatrical and artistic enrichment in the course a single weekend.

The core of the festival is the full staging of the Klavdiev works I Am the Machine Gunner and Martial Arts. They are well-matched and exemplary of new Russian drama. At one of the talkback sessions, an audience member asked translator John Freedman what characterized contemporary Russian drama. Freedman’s an intellectual, an observer, and a practitioner who could have offered a long-winded literary exposition, but his initial response was terse and to the point: “Violence.” Since the fall of the U.S.S.R. Russian playwrights have focused not on politics but on the dark side of capitalism and its new avenues for crime. Panel discussants detailed diametrically opposed political views of producing playwrights, usually by categorizing them as pro or con on President Putin’s policies.

I am the Machine Gunner led the evening’s program. Actor Joey Hood performed it as a solo, although the later panel discussion informed us that elsewhere it had been staged for two actors and even nine actors. In Austin it was Hood alone, shifting throughout the forty-minute performance between two characters: a contemporary street criminal and his grandfather, a combat veteran of World War II. I Am the Machine Gunner was more than just overwhelming.

Translator Freedman told us that among contemporary Russian playwrights, Klavdiev is foremost for taking an “in your face” approach. Blood, death and the f-word filled the air, nowhere more climactically than when Hood stood far downstage center and opened the mind of the machine gunner in a delirium of killing the leaves on the trees, shooting down the moon, filling the blue sky with black bullet holes and finally, finally ending the pain by destroying the earth.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

VIdeo by Robert Moncrief for Breaking String's 'I Am A Machine Gunner' and 'Martial Arts' by Yury Klavdiev, February 6 - 16

Video promo by Robert Moncrief posted by









for its production of

STRIKE: MARTIAL ARTS and I AM THE MACHINE GUNNER 

by Yury Klavdiev

directed by Graham Schmidt
 February 7 - 9 and 13 - 16, 2013

(note: includes a performance on Wednesday, February 13)

Click to purchase tickets via the Breaking String website

Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. - click for map

Live-Streaming of Strike, two one-acts by Yury Klavdiev, Breaking String Theatre Company on the #NewTV channel, February 9

From www.howlround.com, with a tip of the hat to Robert Matney:










Breaking String of Austin, Texas presents the New Russian Drama Festival, featuring:


Strike: Two plays by Yury Klavdiev
directed by Graham Schmidt 
as well as a post-show discussion: “Klavdiev Performances in Russia and the US”

livestreaming on the open-source #NEWPLAY TV channel
Saturday, February 9 at 6pm PST (San Francisco) / 8pm CST (Austin) / 9pm EST (New York)


Discussion Panel includes:

Pavel Shishin (Literary Director, 5th Theater, Omsk, Russia), John Freedman (playwright, translator, and theater critic for Moscow Times) Dave White (Artistic Director, Generous Company and Director of the WordBRIDGE Playwrights’ Laboratory) Maria Kroupnik (Independent Moscow-based producer) Graham Schmidt (Artistic Director, Breaking String Theater)

About Strike: Two Plays by Yury Klavdiev


Breaking String Theater extends its work in staging the best that contemporary Russian playwriting has to offer with Strike: Two Plays by Yury Klavdiev. Presented back-to-back, I am the Machine Gunner (trans. John Freedman) and Martial Arts (adapted by David White) launch audiences into Klavdiev’s world, inspired by his upbringing on the mean streets of a Russian industrial slum.

I am the Machine Gunner (translated by John Freedman) portrays a street tough meditating on his first gun battle, and recalling/becoming his grandfather, who fought in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II’s eastern front, The Moonzund Landing Operation. Starring Joey Hood, this one-act monologue walks the line between tenderness and brutality for which Klavdiev has achieved considerable renown throughout Russia.

Martial Arts (adapted by David White) The story of two young children on the mean streets of a post-Soviet industrial town, which is a shell and a wreck of its former self. But this is no normal story of fleeing circumstances; Klavdiev fits their struggle into Russia’s rich tradition of children’s fantasies, recasting dragons as drug-dealers and witches as crooked cops. Doing so, he makes accessible these almost-unbearable tales of children’s suffering. Another way to think of this story is that it’s as if Roald Dahl wrote Pulp Fiction.

Klavdiev’s plays have already premiered in the United States and enjoyed strong critical reception. As directed by Yury Urnov, Martial Arts stunned and delighted audiences at the Center for International Theatre Development’s New Russian Drama Conference in 2009, and I am the Machine Gunner, as directed by David White, had its premiere at the Baltimore Theatre Project, and toured to Chicago and San Diego, among other cities. A native of Togliatti, Russia, Klavdiev has elicited comparisons with Tarantino and Orestes, with plays that probe philosophical depths, with an almost cinematic feel.


#NEWPLAY TV is a peer-produced knowledge commons stewarded by HowlRound.com / Center for the Theater Commons. The channel is at newplaytv.info and is an international, shared-resource for live events and performances relevant to the new works’ theater field. Its mode of production is open-access and open source and its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Follow and use hashtag #newplay on Twitter to participate in a community of peers revolutionizing the flow of information and knowledge in our field. We’re fans of the Creative Commons License CC-BY. Co-produce with us by contacting @NewPlayTV on Twitter, emailing newplaytv (at) howlround.com or by calling Vijay Mathew at +(1) 917.686.3185.

Opportunity: Prop Crew Needed for Strike, Breaking String Theatre at Salvage Vanguard, February 4 - 16, 2013

Breaking String Theater is getting ready to put on STRIKE: Two Plays by Yury Klavdiev, at Salvage Vanguard Theater, and we're looking for two members to crew our show. If you or anyone you know would like to join us for this 7-performance run (for which we'd be able to offer $75 and two complimentary tickets), please contact me as soon as possible. Candidates would preferably have experience handling prop guns, and would be available at the following times:

• Mon 2/4, 6pm - 10pm
• Tues 2/5, 6pm - 10pm
• Wed 2/6, 6pm - 10pm
• Thurs 2/7, 7pm - 10pm
• Fri 2/8, 7pm - 10pm
• Sat 2/9, 7pm - 10pm
• Wed 2/13, 7pm - 10pm
• Thurs 2/14, 7pm - 10pm
• Fri 2/15, 7pm - 10pm
• Sat 2/16, 7pm - 10pm

If you can come close to making all these dates, then please do let me know. Thank you for spreading the word about this need, and if you're able to pitch in, thanks in advance for reaching out to me!

Best,

Graham Schmidt

twitter.com/graham_schmidt

facebook.com/breakingstring

c: 512-784-1465

New Russian Drama Festival, Breaking String Theatre at the Salvage Vanguard, February 9 and 10, 2013

presents














Our third annual New Russian Drama Festival, to take place at Salvage Vanguard Theater from February 8 - 10, promises an opportunity for particularly rich immersion in the best that Russian theater has to offer today. Celebrated Russian playwright Yury Klavdiev will join us for a 5-day Austin residency, where he will join visiting artists David White (A.D., Generous Company), John Freedman (Theater Correspondent, The Moscow Times), Pavel Shishin (A.D., 5th Theater, Omsk), and Maria Kroupnik (Independent Producer, Moscow) for a weekend of discussions around contemporary Russian theater, and Mr. Klavdiev's work. The main event for the festival will be Breaking String Artistic Director Graham Schmidt's staging of two Klavdiev plays, forming a single night of theater: Martial Arts (adapted by David White) and I am the Machine Gunner (translated by John Freedman).

Salvage Vanguard Theater
2803 Manor Road, Austin TX 78722

February 8 - 10, 2013

Festival Schedule

Staged readings and panel discussions are free and open to the public. Join us!

Thursday, February 7

• 8:00 PM: Strike: Two plays by Yury Klavdiev

Friday, February 8

• 8:00 PM: Strike: Two plays by Yury Klavdiev

• 10:00 PM: Talkback with adaptor David White, and translator John Freedman

Saturday, February 9

• 2:30pm - Staged Reading: Trash, by Mikhail Durnenkov, translated by John Freedman, directd by Beth Burns
• 4:30pm - Staged Reading: Political Play, by Lasha Bugadze, translated by John Freedman and Maya Mamaladze, directed by Bob Jones
• 6:30pm - On Contemporary Russian Theater: John Freedman, Masha Kroupnik, Pavel Shishin
• 8:00pm - Strike: Two plays by Yury Klavdiev

Sunday, February 10

• 6:00pm - Contemplating International Collaboration: Russia - US Models
• 8:00 PM: Golden Hornet Project: Prokofiev Miniatures

JOHN FREEDMAN has translated three dozen Russian plays which have been performed in the United States, Canada, England, Australia and South Africa, including five works by Maksym Kurochkin. His translation of Olga Mukhina's Flyingwas produced in 2011 at Breaking String Theater. He has published and/or edited nine books about Russian theater, and for two decades has been the theater critic of The Moscow Times. He was the Russia director of The New Russian Drama project at Towson University, 2007- 2010, and the director of the U.S.-government supported New American Plays for Russia program, 2010-2012. With the company and Jennifer Johnson he was co-author of the Double Edge Theatre performance The Firebird in 2010, and his play Dancing, Not Dead won the new play competition conducted by The Internationalists in 2011.

DAVID WHITE: Artistic Director of WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory since 2007; faculty member in the Department of Theatre Arts, Towson University; and playwright-in-residence of Generous Company. Playwriting: Last Chance: Trash & Ninjas and Squirrels: Studio Theatre, Towson University (2012); Leaves of Hope: reading, Joplin, MO (2012); and Enough: reading, ArtFaq Café, Moscow, RU (2011). Translations (with Yury Urnov): Yury Klavdiev’s Martial Arts (US premiere - Towson University / CITD New Russian Drama Conference); and Pavel Pryzhko’s Panties (reading - WordBRIDGE 2011). Publication: Atom-Smashing Playwright A US Perspective on Yury Klavdiev, Contemporary Dramaturgy, Moscow, RU (2010). Directing: US premiere of Klavdiev's I am the Machine Gunner: Baltimore, Chicago, and San Diego (2010); and George Brant's Elephant's Graveyard: Towson University (2010). Current Project: The Beholder's Share, a devised piece of theatre examining connectiosn between art and neurobiology.

MARIA KROUPNIK A Moscow-based project manager, translator, and media specialist, cooperates with a number of Russian theatres, including Teatr.doc, J. Beuys Theatre, Theatre ‘Centre for Playwriting and Directing.’ Her translations/subtitle adaptations of Nina Belitskaya’s Pavik Is My God and Elena Gremina’s 1 Hour 18 Minutes were showcased at the Golden Mask Festival’s Russian Case in 2010 and 2011. In conjunction with Yale University, she translated Meg Miroshnik’s The Fairytale Life of the Russian Girls, which was featured as part of their “Workshop on Begovaya” project, performed in December 2011. Kroupnik has also worked in media and public affairs for the British Embassy in Moscow and the British Council in Moscow.

PAVEL SHISHIN Literary Director of the Fifth Theater. Omsk is considered by many to be a theatrical city surpassed in reputation only by Moscow, St. Petersburg and, perhaps, Yekaterinburg. The Fifth Theater, created 20 years ago, has contributed a great deal to that reputation. It is a house that champions new, cutting edge work, often supporting it with workshops and festivals. The Fifth Theater is the host of the biannual Young Theaters of Russia festival which brings many emerging artists to perform in Omsk. Pavel has been instrumental in running this festival, as well as several new drama workshops that have helped bring important new plays to the attention of Russian theater.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Video by Robert Moncrief for Strike, a double bill by Yury Klavdiev, Breaking String Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, February 7 - 16, 2013

Robert Moncrief's video of Joey Hood, Molly Karrasch and Kaci Beeler of









talking about 

STRIKE:

MARTIAL ARTS and I AM THE MACHINE GUNNER

by Yury Klavdiev

presented February 7 - 16, 2013 at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. (click for map) in conjunction with the third New Russian Drama Festival.

 

Click for additional information at AustinLiveTheatre.com

Upcoming: MARTIAL ARTS and I AM THE MACHINE GUNNER by Yury Klavdiev, Breaking String Theatre New Russian Drama Festival at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, February 8 - 10, 2013

presents

MARTIAL ARTS and I AM THE MACHINE GUNNER 

by Yury Klavdiev

February 8 - 10, 2013

Breaking String Theatre New Russian Drama Festival at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre

Our third annual New Russian Drama Festival, to take place at Salvage Vanguard Theater from February 8 - 10, promises an opportunity for particularly rich immersion in the best that Russian theater has to offer today. Celebrated Russian playwright Yury Klavdiev will join us for a 5-day Austin residency, where he will join visiting artists David White (A.D., Generous Company), John Freedman (Theater Correspondent, The Moscow Times), Pavel Shishin (A.D., 5th Theater, Omsk), and Maria Kroupnik (Independent Producer, Moscow) for a weekend of discussions around contemporary Russian theater, and Mr. Klavdiev's work.

The main event for the festival will be Breaking String Artistic Director Graham Schmidt's staging of two Klavdiev plays, forming a single night of theater: Martial Arts (adapted by David White) and I am the Machine Gunner (translated by John Freedman). 

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)