Elshan Mamedov Biography

Elshan Mamedov. Notes of the outsider. The founder of one of the most successful private companies in Russia, “Independent Theater Project” reflects on the imaginary and genuine differences between private theaters and state and claims that the fundamental difference between them is exclusively in the level of responsibility and incomparable degrees of risk for their leaders.

I read the article on the entreprise in the second issue of The Theater.

Not about the entraopic life-in the publication, everything, in general, is precisely captured by a look from the side-biased, but not abundant. I wanted to talk about the state theater and also from its bell tower ... The reasons will be exclamations of directors of the hospitals: “It is easy for him to say, he would have been in our place! Try to pull out the WHO with a building, which, as a rule, is pouring before our eyes and permanently needs to be repaired and the troupe, at least 30 percent consisting of ballast.

” I accept and justify such a reaction in advance. To declare a tender because of each “meow”, it is forced to falsify these tenders and there are no other way out-there will be no professional people in their right mind to sew costumes for a historical play in Pupirlovka, and not in Moscow only because it is cheaper there! They really are needed, who argues: the financing body should know what the money is spent on.

But the existing schemes are so absurd and caricatured that they are worthy of discussion in the “Pro -Plainer -ereishilton”. And yet I will express myself. Even the very word “entreprise” I try not to use - I replace it where I can phrase “private theater”. Watching the next action with the participation of a pair of “fakes” and two rickety chairs against the backdrop of a not quite fresh curtain, I sit, compressing with shame.

Such “art” is the same product of its time as the notorious cooperatives that legalized the jeans of the farce. At the time of Perestroika, the green light was given to entrepreneurship, and the newly made theatrical business dealers began to openly, not hiding, as in times of stagnation, to give out the old Philharmonic honest art, calling it the entreprise, as a result of which this word became a synonym for the word “hack”.

I propose to immediately take out such, with permission to say, the theater. We know that he is not only in Russia, we know that he was the quality of the performance in which Nina Zarechny is going to play in the third grade car, but we are “sawing it”, as our “wonderful satirist Arkady Raikin” said. I just want to remember another entreprise-the one that is trying to equal the powerful traditions of Russian entrepreneurship.

Let us not forget that S. Diaghilev was born not in France, but in Russia, but read the names of the entrepreneurs - producers L. Samsonov, M. Boroday, F. Korsha, N. Sinelnikov, A. Brenko, S. Zimina are not written into the history of the Russian theater not the last line. Yes, the country's main theater - Moscow art - was born as a private one: for the money of patrons and merchant K.

Yes, there is. A couple of years ago, refusing to participate with my performance in the competition program of the Entreprise Festival “Amur Autumn”, somehow I did not really want to compete with the “shafts of the old goat”, I hit the jury of this festival. He went to Blagoveshchensk as Golgof, anticipating an “unforgettable” impression. And imagine - the program included worthy performances made with a very serious attitude to the case: “I was happy” according to the letters of Dostoevsky’s wife with the stunning acting work of Ekaterina Vasilyeva, “The most expensive is the good performance of Yuri Yeremin based on the play by Yukio Mishima ...

On page 83 a photograph of the scenery of another performance was placed. Most likely you thought it was a performance of some academic theater. And they did not guess! This is the decoration for the production “Theater by the Rules and without” play by Michael Frein “Noise Off”, the Production Theater “Independent Theater Project”. Yes, a two -story English house.

Yes, it is mounted for a long time. Yes, he travels on tour, dispeling the myth of the indispensable “cheapness” of the entreprise performance. And on the contrary, how many performances of state theaters can be found not only in the province, but also in the capitals in which the actors go on stage in indecent costumes and play in poor and dilapidated scenography.

I’m not talking about the theaters themselves - about the “female” Moscow Art Theater, which is simply unpleasant to enter, or the hyperprinconial theater named after Ermolova, standing a stone's throw from Red Square. The wretchedness of the design of the entraopic action, its creators justify the “production necessity” to the Sacramental “Decorations should fit in the compartment in cities and weights!

But this does not change the point. So what is the Russian Entreprise theater, what it can and should be, and what is its irreconcilable contradictions with the state theater? Here are a few common prejudices that you want to immediately dispel before continuing the parallels and comparison. The first and main prejudice: the actors go exclusively for the sake of earnings in the entreprise.

This, of course, is so.But, firstly, the money plays an important role for artists of the hospitals: how much live, I hear so many echoes of intra-therapy battles with an eternal rhetorical issue: “How to live on such a salary? Vakhtangov tickets for performances can cost sometimes more than in the entreprise. Secondly, “stars” are often involved in the performances of a fine-dependent theater-a real or puffy-another question, and they, as a rule, have where to make money if we are just talking about naked earnings.

They can conduct a corporate party with the “left foot”. Or to star in the cinema with which the theater is axiomatic - the cost of the shooting day a priori cannot compete above the cost of the theater evening. And the phrase “I can’t play on this day, I have shooting” can bring to a heart attack as a private producer and director of a stationary theater. Therefore, when Gosha Kutsenko, Petr Krasilov or Dmitry Maryanov refuse to roles in the cinema for the release of the entraopic performance, this dumbfounds, supports and encourages.

The thesis is the second: the viewer goes to the entreprise performance as to the zoo, to stare exclusively at the stars, and only at the expense of famous people of the entreprise and survives. I have heard such texts many times from completely respected theatrical people. Do they really think that a mass viewer goes to the playwright or director to the State Theater?

Memories of campaigns to Efros, Lyubimov, Tovstonogov, to a new play of Rozov or Arbuzov, cause nostalgic sighs by the way, the theater layman was going on to Efros or the Müller is also a question. And guess with three times - for what purpose Ivan Urgant was invited to the theater. Pushkin for the main role in "Frantic money"? At the same time, the private theater love for the “names” is excusable for him does not have a state feeder behind his back, but when the GOSTART invites third -party “stars” to one -time performances to the general dissatisfaction of the permanent troupe, this already raises questions.

When in the Lenkom the director threatens to remove his name from the posters because of the intention of the leadership to introduce a more media performer into the main role, I want to appeal: “Gentlemen, you can sometimes afford not to think about the checkout! The question is how to think! In the repertoire of any of the very Andlane State Theater there are productions that are limited to attendance.

And not always because these are bad performances - just their media attractiveness is not very great. For example, “pretty” on another scene of “Contemporary”. He came and hit the half -empty hall, and the performance, in my opinion, is very worthy. That is, the box office does not sell a good performance well. Is it two hundred places? Yes, just twice a month? In this case, gentlemen, what are you doing in the state of the State Theater?

To sell the performance with Neelova or Khamatova, a big mind is not necessary. Professions - and this “diagnosis” is not discussed. The third thesis: the repertoire of entreprise theaters leaves much to be desired. This is true, if only ignored the fact that ten years ago the play “Millionaire” was staged in our company, Psychological drama P. Encvist "Hannah"; If you do not take into account that the first performance of the “Theater Partnership” Oleg Menshikov was “Woe from Wit”, and the second - the difficult and not understandable play by Maxim Kurochkin “Kitchen”; If you forget that Vladimir Mirzoev in the entreprise set two plays not the simplest author Garold Pinter; If you close your eyes to the fact that one of the first entreprise performances of the new Russia was the “XXI players” according to the Gogol “players”, and the pioneer of the entreprise movement Leonid Trushkin began his theater with the “Cherry Garden” and “Hamlet”.

At the same time, the Culture TV channel as a plague is rejected from any private theater. Of course, it cannot be denied that in pursuit of fast cash success, the entrepreneurs often grab onto low -grade boulevard plays. But after all, the state theater does not lag behind them, delighting the viewer with his "men on weekends." At the same time, I affirm and be ready to prove that the plays Merezhko, Kolyads, Galina, which are part of the repertoire of very respected Moscow theaters and positioned as “Modern Russian Drama”, is no better in the dramatic or in any other sense of the hit of the commercial theater “Dinner with the fool” of the French playwright F.

Weber, masterfully performed in the entreprise theater Anton Chekhov. At one time, the forced closure of our performance “Cruel Dances” based on the classical novel by McCoy was shooting “driven horses are shot for me, is it a huge blow? We have released one of our most difficult and large -scale productions, which many still consider the best performance of the Independent Theater Project.

The theme of the dance marathon, life for wear for the sake of glory and money seemed relevant to me. But today's audience did not want to watch a depressive performance with the murder in the final, no matter how much it is. I experienced the closing of the performance and all these years sincerely believed that if he were in the poster of the repertoire theater, he would be kept with all his might.

Apparently was mistaken.Having missed the premieres of the Chekhovsky “Ivanov” at the Art Theater, I finally gathered to go, vulgar myself in different - negative and enthusiastic - opinions. I failed to see “Ivanov” - removed from the repertoire. The official version is the leading role and the director did not agree on the characters. Unofficial-due to poor attendance. If so, then for me personally, a person from the side, this is nonsense!

Why then do you need state support? Is it not to maintain the Moscow Art Theater in the repertoire. Chekhov Chekhov names? The thesis is the last, the most funny. A stationary theater is a family, a house. Entreprise is a temporary place of earnings: people gathered, played, earned, fled. The charms and difficulties of life in a constant theater troupe are a topic for a separate discussion.