– Michael, many theater–goers are already familiar with the project initiated by the Praktika Theater – The Practice of Co-creation, tell us in more detail how this story began for you?
– Marina Stanislavovna Brusnikina's assistant called me and told me about the conditions of participation in the project. That the directors, actors and the play they will present will be selected based on the results of the audience vote. Therefore, each of the participants filmed a video, lasting no more than thirty seconds, in which he talked about himself and what he would do first after the quarantine. I said that when the self-isolation regime was lifted, I would go to my hometown, to Perm, to visit my parents, which, in fact, I did. And then, under the video business cards of future authors of performances and actors, the audience wrote in the comments the names of the plays and roles that participated in the lottery. For example, Mikhail Rakhlin, "Three Sisters", and, accordingly, under the acting commercials, Veniamin Smekhov – Chebutykin. Among the participating plays were Shakespeare's Hamlet, the director would have to present the beginning of the play, and Chekhov's Three Sisters, on the contrary, had to prepare the finale of the work... As a result, three projects were selected and implemented.
– And what name did you support yourself?
– I was open to work on any of the proposed options, but I will honestly say that the "Three Sisters" were my favorites. I have been thinking about staging this play for a long time, I have already thought out both the general concept and individual solutions for staging this performance in the theater.
– What additional meanings does this classic play acquire in the VR (augmented reality) format?
– I think that the meaning laid down by the author in the play fits perfectly into the digital form of the performance. In this case, it enhances the effect of alienation, the absence of a real dialogue between the characters. We who read the play constantly have the feeling that the characters speak in monologues without hearing each other. It is no coincidence, of course, that Chebutykin's phrase, which works for the meaning: "Maybe it only seems to us that we exist." It is also best revealed by the digital form, because the world on the web is a simulacrum. A similar influence of technology on life can be observed in the TV series "Black Mirror", which I adore (a British science fiction series about the consequences of the influence of information technology on human relationships). When the line between real life and the one they have created for themselves through technology is blurred for people, at some point they even stop noticing that they have become digital copies of themselves. All these meanings, I think, are very consonant with Chekhov's content.
– What would you say to the audience who call the performance in the augmented reality format a form for the sake of form, the destruction of the nature of the theater? What would you object to them?
– I will not prove that VR, like any online performance in general, is a theater in the usual representation. Of course, this is not a theater. Online and offline performances should not be compared, they cannot compete with each other. I believe that what appears on the network platform is a kind of new synthetic genre, the criteria of which are very difficult to determine, because each individual project, according to its own idea, exists according to its own laws. This is always a very diverse and individual story in each individual case. For example, I really didn't want to do a zoom performance, it was important to me that there were as many objects in the viewer's attention as possible that he would observe when viewing. To be able to choose which of the characters, as in the usual theater, to focus your attention on. It was important to me that the performance had volume.
– The format of VR performances began to appear even before quarantine, before theaters had to go online, did you have any ideas before this period to do something in this direction?
– I can't say that I had any specific ideas, but thoughts about using new technologies arose. It was interesting for me to work with a new form, and I tried it on to one or another material. For example, I was thinking about the "Auditor", but in the end I applied it to the "Three Sisters".
– How important is timing in this case?
– It seems to me that 30-40 minutes is the most optimal duration so far. But, probably, both my colleagues and I will need to think more seriously about this issue of organizing an online performance in the near future, come up with some intermissions, or something else to keep the audience's attention, and at the same time give the viewer the opportunity to relax.
– In your opinion, has quarantine brought the time for online experiments much closer?
– Of course, quarantine was a powerful catalyst for the development of this direction of the theater, we will call it that for now. Everyone flooded into the network, because instantly a large number of people were left without funds, projects, creativity. And the need for creativity turned out to be very great, and, as a result, there were many commercial projects and those that were done on enthusiasm, such as the "Practice of Co-creation".
– Tell us, how were the rehearsals?
– The main difficulty is to gather all the participants at the same time, since almost everyone was involved in other projects in parallel, and the play, as you know, is densely populated.
– Why was it interesting for you to work with this particular play in the new format?
– I feel my kinship with this text, it is extremely close to me, that is, I understand that in "Three Sisters" it is about me and about us. It seems to me that this is the most cosmic play about Russia.
– Michael, according to the results of the "Practice of Co-creation", will the project you created be continued somehow?
– I hope so, I would really like to develop it. So far, everything that concerns him is under discussion. Now I need to present the solution of the remaining acts, and the very finale of the already created VR performance, which we will also redo.
– Will it be an offline performance with VR elements?
– I can't say anything yet, because in any case it won't be a completely online story. The audience will still have to be present in a particular place to get a theatrical experience, not just by turning on a computer at home.
Source: teatral-online.ru