cans - syracuse universitystage co: light in the piazza (fabrizzio), adding machine (shrd-lu),...

Black Milk: Russia’s La Comédie Humaine From A Procurer’s Eyes

By Ellen Barry

Vassily Sigarevefore used to be a resourceful punk from Russia’s rust belt. He delivered prostitutes to their cus-

tomers in the concrete-slab housing blocks of Nizhny Tagil, Russia.

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Click again to close! Josh Marcantel (LYOVCHIK) is a founding member of Black Door Theatre Company. Recent BDTC credits include DOE by Trista Baldwin (2011 Santiago a Mil The-atre Festival in Santiago, Chile), their critically acclaimed produc-tion of Mike Leigh’s Ecstasy, and the original production of Sunrise at the Quarry by Nick Sanzo. Oth-er selected credits: Picasso at the Lapin Agile (T. Schreiber Studio), Climbing Up Walls (BDTC origi-nal), and Harold Pinter’s Tea Party (directed by Michel Hausmann). TV/Film credits: Law & Order:SVU, Turtle Hill, Brooklyn (2011 New-Fest Audience Award), and a trio of Patrick Roddy films: Mercy, Red 71, and Good Boy(2009 Accolade Award for Best Actor). Josh most recently studied with Terry Sch-reiber.

Liba Vaynberg (POPPET) is thrilled to be making her Off-Broadway debut. Cred-its include: Camp Monster (Williamstown Theatre Festival) and Sonya in Uncle Van-ya (Columbia Stages). BA Yale, MFA, Co-lumbia. She is a first generation American and fluent Russian speaker. libavaynberg.blogspot.com.

http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=BLA71

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Anna Wilson (THE CLERK) is a NY based, Columbia MFA trained actor/director. She was co-creator in the six year Off-Broadway run of The Donkey Show directed by Diane Paulus, originating the lead, “Tytania/Sander” in New York, London, Madrid and A.R.T. In the last five years in NYC she has performed at The Atlantic, The Kitchen, Dixon Pl., The Vineyard, TheOperatingTheater.org, worked with playwrights Kenny Finkle, Lauren Fritz, Sibyl Kemp-son, Rachel Murdy, Jason Schuler, Mike Taylor and Randy Weiner and she has written/produced her own work with her LLC, “Cre-ateUrlife” with partner, Tom Brangle.

John Brambery (MISHANYA) has performed at the American Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co, Speakeasy Stage Co: Light in the Piazza (Fabrizzio), Adding Machine (Shrd-lu), Kentucky Repertory Theater, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, The Metropolitan Opera House, Harvard’s New College Theater, Columbia Stages: Ivanov (Lebedev), Uncle Vanya (Astrov), Black Milk (Mishanya). He has developed new works with MCC, Eugene O’neill Theater Center, and No. 11 Productions. Recipient of the 2012-13 Acting Fellowship at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. BFA in Theater from the Boston Conservatory he has also trained at the Moscow Art Theater School and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.


John Brambery (MISHANYA) has performed at the Amer-ican Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co, Speakeasy Stage Co: Light in the Piazza (Fabrizzio), Adding Machine (Shrdlu), Kentucky Repertory Theater, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, The Metropolitan Opera House, Har-vard’s New College Theater, Columbia Stages: Ivanov (Leb-edev), Uncle Vanya (Astrov), Black Milk (Mishanya). He has developed new works with MCC, Eugene O’neill Theater Center, and No. 11 Productions. Recipient of the 2012-13 Acting Fellowship at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. BFA in Theater from the Boston Conservatory he has also trained at the Moscow Art Theater School and The Ameri-can Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Josh Marcantel (LYOVCHIK) is a founding member of Black Door Theatre Company. Recent BDTC credits include DOE by Trista Baldwin (2011 Santiago a Mil Theatre Festi-val in Santiago, Chile), their critically acclaimed production of Mike Leigh’s Ecstasy, and the original production of Sunrise at the Quarry by Nick Sanzo. Other selected cred-its: Picasso at the Lapin Agile (T. Schreiber Studio), Climbing Up Walls (BDTC original), and Harold Pinter’s Tea Party (directed by Michel Hausmann). TV/Film credits: Law & Order:SVU, Turtle Hill, Brooklyn (2011 NewFest Audience Award), and a trio of Patrick Roddy films: Mercy, Red 71, and Good Boy(2009 Accolade Award for Best Actor). Josh most recently studied with Terry Schreiber.

Josh Marcantel (LYOVCHIK) is a founding member of Black Door Theatre Company. Recent BDTC credits include DOE by Trista Baldwin (2011 Santiago a Mil Theatre Festival in Santiago, Chile), their critically acclaimed production of Mike Leigh’s Ecstasy, and the original production of Sunrise at the Quarry by Nick Sanzo. Other selected credits: Picasso at the Lapin Agile (T. Schreiber Stu-dio), Climbing Up Walls (BDTC original), and Harold Pinter’s Tea Party (directed by Michel Hausmann). TV/Film credits: Law & Order:SVU, Turtle Hill, Brooklyn (2011 NewFest Audience Award), and a trio of Patrick Roddy films: Mercy, Red 71, and Good Boy(2009 Accolade Award for Best Actor). Josh most recently studied with Terry Schreiber.

He would park on the street of that industrial city in the Urals and wait for the women and their clients to finish. The wom-

en would return, smeared or bleary or all business, and take their seat beside a driv-er who was wordless and expressionless, his hand grooved with scar tissue, like a character from a Martin Scorsese film.

It would have surprised them to know they were being driven by the future Bard of the Urals — a self-taught writer who would go on to win literary prizes from Moscow to London and introduce audiences in Brit-ain, Washington and now New York to the underside of the Russian provinces. This month, when his play “Black Milk” opened at the East 13th Street Theater in New York, reviewers sounded mostly exhausted by 100 minutes in Mr. Sigarev’s world, and no wonder. His scripts are full of abuse, drunk-enness and cruelty — not the Shakespear-ean kind, rooted in character, but the cru-elty of a debased society in which parents have ceased to care for their children and children will commit any sacrilege for cash.

Mr. Sigarev, 35, is one of the most contro-

versial dramatists and film directors work-ing in Russia, a fact that was underlined this spring when his second film, “Living,” deeply split a jury at a German film festival. The head of the jury, the Romanian director Cristi Puiu, passionately and successfully defended the film for its emotional hones-ty, saying its merciless gaze on the pain of bereavement was an “act of courage.” The detractors were so vehement that two of them nearly withdrew from the voting.

“Here there is more raw emotion. And generally speaking we are different. We are harder. Mr. Sigarev has documented a his-toricalmoment, as Russia’s industrial cit-ies were jolted by the arrival of capitalism. His own narrative starts with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which happened the year he turned 14. To a boy growing up in the titanium-mining center of Verkhnaya Salda it was like a bell that set off in him a decade-long scramble for cash — by jumping a train to Moscow and lugging back black-market VCRs, or selling cinder blocks, but especially by digging for scrap titanium, an activity that could bring an enterprising teenager $100 a day.

r. Sigarev’s younger brother, Yura,

r. Sigarev had a kind of genius for it. But when heroin deal-ers set up shop in Verkhnaya Salda, half of Mr. Sigarev’s friends became addicts, and Yura was one of them. Mr. Sig-arev said he beat his brother with a belt when he found out about the drugs. He also brought him along when he con-fronted the drug dealer.

“I went there, and we sorted it out in the Russian way,” he said. “Well, blood was spilled. They quit selling drugs at that place.”

Mr. Sigarev is an unnerving storyteller: movie-star handsome but loath to smile or make eye contact, and so soft-spoken as to be nearly inaudible. No one seems to know how closely his scripts reflect his own family life, or if they do at all. His former writing coach warned, with a note of unmistakable admiration, that “he can tell you stories, and you believe him.”

Here’s the story about what he did to his brother’s drug dealer:“I did not touch him. I cut my finger and smeared him all with blood. He was awfully scared.”

“He was quiet — ‘No, yes, no, yes,’ ” Mr. Kolyada recalled. “I asked him: ‘You came from Nizhny Tagil on the com-muter train, right? What did you read on the way?’ And he named an author I had never heard of in my life, and I said, ‘O.K., I’ll take you.’ “

Last week Mr. Sigarev sat in the apartment he bought with his 2002 prize winnings — unpainted, like a ware-house, but fitted with reminders of the world of his child-hood, a skull-rattling school bell and an industrial light in a wire cage like those used in factories. He said he had hoped filming “Living,” three parallel tales of wrenching personal loss, would shake his recent preoccupation with death. But it has not, and he cannot watch it.

“The main thing for my reputation is not to do something to be ashamed of later,” he said. “As for what people think or say about me, I couldn’t care less.”

M

Feature

Sigarev gave instructions to Erren Thomas.

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click again to close!

Black Milk: Russia’sLa Comédie Humaine From A Procurer’s Eyes

By Ellen Barry

Vassily Sigarevefore used to be a resourceful punk from Russia’s rust belt. He delivered prostitutes to their customers in the concrete-slab housing blocks of Nizhny Tagil, Russia.

Feature

Click • see cast prof les!--

----

--

----->

Click again to close!

Josh Marcantel (LYOVCHIK) is a founding member of Black Door Theatre Compa-ny. Recent BDTC credits include DOE by Trista Baldwin (2011 Santiago a Mil Theatre Festival in Santiago, Chile), their critically acclaimed production of Mike Leigh’s Ec-stasy, and the original production of Sun-rise at the Quarry by Nick Sanzo. Other selected credits: Picasso at the Lapin Agile (T. Schreiber Studio), Climbing Up Walls (BDTC original), and Harold Pinter’s Tea Party (directed by Michel Hausmann). TV/Film credits: Law & Order:SVU, Turtle Hill, Brooklyn (2011 NewFest Audience Award), and a trio of Patrick Roddy films: Mercy, Red 71, and Good Boy(2009 Accolade Award for Best Actor). Josh most recently studied with Terry Schreiber.

Liba Vaynberg (POPPET) is thrilled to be making her Off-Broadway debut. Cred-its include: Camp Monster (Williamstown Theatre Festival) and Sonya in Uncle Van-ya (Columbia Stages). BA Yale, MFA, Co-lumbia. She is a first generation American and fluent Russian speaker. libavaynberg.blogspot.com.

http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=BLA71

He would park on the street of that industrial city in the Urals and wait for the women and their clients

to finish. The women would return, smeared or bleary or all business, and take their seat beside a driver who was wordless and expressionless, his hand grooved with scar tissue, like a character from a Martin Scorsese film.

It would have surprised them to know they were being driven by the future Bard of the Urals — a self-taught writer

who would go on to win literary prizes from Moscow to London and introduce audiences in Britain, Washington and now New York to the underside of the Russian provinces. This month, when his play “Black Milk” opened at the East 13th Street Theater in New York, reviewers sounded mostly exhausted by 100 minutes in Mr. Sigarev’s world, and no wonder. His scripts are full of abuse, drunkenness and cruelty — not the Shakespearean kind, rooted in character, but the cruelty of a debased society in which parents have ceased to care for their children and children

will commit any sacrilege for cash.

Mr. Sigarev, 35, is one of the most controversial dramatists and film di-rectors working in Russia, a fact that was underlined this spring when his second film, “Living,” deeply split a jury at a German film festival. The head of the jury, the Romanian director Cris-ti Puiu, passionately and successful-ly defended the film for its emotion-al honesty, saying its merciless gaze on the pain of bereavement was an “act of courage.” The detractors were so vehement that two of them nearly withdrew from the voting.

Feature

“Here there is more raw emotion. And generally speaking we are differ-ent. We are harder. Mr. Sigarev has documented a historicalmoment, as Russia’s industrial cities were jolted by the arrival of capitalism. His own narrative starts with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which happened the year he turned 14. To a boy grow-ing up in the titanium-mining cen-ter of Verkhnaya Salda it was like a bell that set off in him a decade-long scramble for cash — by jumping a train to Moscow and lugging back black-market VCRs, or selling cinder blocks, but especially by digging for scrap titanium, an activity that could bring an enterprising teenager $100 a day.

Anna Wilson (THE CLERK) is a NY based, Columbia MFA trained actor/director. She was co-creator in the six year Off-Broadway run of The Donkey Show directed by Diane Paulus, originating the lead, “Tytania/Sander” in New York, London, Madrid and A.R.T. In the last five years in NYC she has performed at The Atlantic, The Kitchen, Dixon Pl., The Vineyard, TheOperatingTheater.org, worked with playwrights Kenny Finkle, Lauren Fritz, Sibyl Kemp-son, Rachel Murdy, Jason Schuler, Mike Taylor and Randy Weiner and she has written/produced her own work with her LLC, “Cre-ateUrlife” with partner, Tom Brangle.



John Brambery (MISHANYA) has performed at the Amer-ican Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co, Speakeasy Stage Co: Light in the Piazza (Fabrizzio), Adding Machine (Shrdlu), Kentucky Repertory Theater, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, The Metropolitan Opera House, Har-vard’s New College Theater, Columbia Stages: Ivanov (Leb-edev), Uncle Vanya (Astrov), Black Milk (Mishanya). He has developed new works with MCC, Eugene O’neill Theater Center, and No. 11 Productions. Recipient of the 2012-13 Acting Fellowship at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. BFA in Theater from the Boston Conservatory he has also trained at the Moscow Art Theater School and The Ameri-can Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Josh Marcantel (LYOVCHIK) is a founding member of Black Door Theatre Company. Recent BDTC credits include DOE by Trista Baldwin (2011 Santiago a Mil Theatre Festival in Santiago, Chile), their critically acclaimed production of Mike Leigh’s Ec-stasy, and the original production of Sunrise at the Quarry by Nick Sanzo. Other selected credits: Picasso at the Lapin Agile (T. Schreiber Studio), Climbing Up Walls (BDTC original), and Harold Pinter’s Tea Party (directed by Michel Hausmann). TV/Film cred-its: Law & Order:SVU, Turtle Hill, Brooklyn (2011 NewFest Audi-ence Award), and a trio of Patrick Roddy films: Mercy, Red 71, and Good Boy(2009 Accolade Award for Best Actor). Josh most recently studied with Terry Schreiber.

Silvia Pena (TOWNSPERSON) is a Romanian actress and a graduate of Stella Adler Studio of Acting. She is making her Off-Broadway debut in Black Milk. She would like to thank the theatre family for wel-coming her.

r. Sigarev’s younger brother, Yura, r. Sigarev had a kind of genius for it. But when her-oin dealers set up shop in Verkhnaya Salda, half of Mr. Sigarev’s friends became ad-dicts, and Yura was one of them. Mr. Sigarev said he beat his brother with a belt when he found out about the drugs. He also brought him along when he confronted the drug dealer.

“I went there, and we sorted it out in the Russian way,” he said. “Well, blood was spilled. They quit selling drugs at that place.”

Mr. Sigarev is an unnerv-ing storyteller: movie-star handsome but loath to smile or make eye contact, and so soft-spoken as to be nearly

inaudible. No one seems to know how closely his scripts reflect his own family life, or if they do at all. His former writ-ing coach warned, with a note of unmistakable admiration, that “he can tell you stories, and you believe him.”

Here’s the story about what he did to his brother’s drug dealer:“I did not touch him. I cut my finger and smeared him all with blood. He was awfully scared.”

“He was quiet — ‘No, yes, no, yes,’ ” Mr. Kolyada recalled. “I asked him: ‘You came from Nizhny Tagil on the commuter train, right? What did you read on the way?’ And he named an author I had never heard of in my life, and I said, ‘O.K., I’ll take you.’ “

Last week Mr. Sigarev sat in the apartment he bought with his 2002 prize winnings — unpainted, like a warehouse, but fitted with reminders of the world of his childhood, a skull-rattling school bell and an industrial light in a wire cage like those used in fac-tories. He said he had hoped filming “Living,” three parallel tales of wrenching personal loss, would shake his recent preoccupation with death. But it has not, and he cannot watch it.

“The main thing for my rep-utation is not to do something to be ashamed of later,” he said. “As for what people think or say about me, I couldn’t care less.”

M

Feature

Sigarev gave instructions to Erren Thomas.

click + to see bigger images!

------------->

click again to close!

cans - syracuse universitystage co: light in the piazza (fabrizzio), adding machine (shrd-lu),...

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