The Alp Arslan Turkmen National Youth Theater is working on the production of a play dedicated to the classic of Turkmen literature Seitnazar Seidi. Poet-warrior, follower of Makhtumkuli Fragi, the commander of several Turkmen tribes, until the last days of his life he desperately bid for bringing the people close together and the unity of the nation.
Gadam Kakabayev’s play is based on the story of Seidi’s heroic fate. For the first time, the author wrote a dramatic work for production in the theater. Stage-manager and artistic director of the theater Khandurdy Berdyev was interested in the creative idea of the playwright.
“Dovran Khojageldiyev will perform Seitnazar Seidi,” says Khandurdy Berdyev The actor is excellently fit for this role, because “our” Seidi sings and plays the dutar. A follower of the poet Zelili, the nephew of Makhtumkuli and the successor of the best literary traditions will also appear in two scenes.”
The performance will be finished in March, and in the meantime, the final preparations are underway. The production involves a wonderful cast consisting of people’s and honored artists of the country Shirli Mollayev, Ovez Gelenov, Nury Allaberdyev and many others.
At the same time, on the small stage of the Alp Arslan Theater, rehearsals of “The Magic Bow” play by the Brazilian playwright Maria Machado are in full swing.
According to the artistic director, the theater has all the conditions to prepare two different productions independently of each other.The chamber stage, which duplicates the main stage, is never empty, and at the moment the Honored Artist Bilbil Mamedov is working here with young actors.
The theater also prepares creative surprises for the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s Independence and the Day of cultural workers.It will stage “The Way of the Turkmens” play, telling the history of the state formation, from the time of Bairam Khan to the present day.
The theatrical production will touch upon the themes of the unification of the people and tribes that inhabited the Turkmen lands.
Poet Makhtumkuli Fragi once dreamed of peace and unity.In 2014, on the occasion of the 290th anniversary of the great Turkmen classic, the Alp Arslan National Youth Theater staged a performance dedicated to the poet.
This work is expected very much at the 15th International Theater Festival of the Turkic Peoples “Nauruz”, which is scheduled to be held in the capital of Tatarstan.
“The play about the life of Makhtumkuli is special for me in every sense, says the stage-manager and art director of the theater Khandurdy Berdyev.It is associated with a series of mystical events that I have not ever encountered during many years of my work at the theater.
Just a few days before the production delivery, there was a responsible rehearsal, and I could not concentrate in any way.There was a strange, distracting me rustle in the hall.
The sound came from somewhere on the roof.Unknowing what was wrong, I sent technicians to check the attic.And it turned out that two pigeons had somehow entered the theater.”
The birds flew, circled, flapped their wings, and made the same noise. The pigeons, of course, were released, and the idea that it could be the soul of Makhtumkuli and his father Dovletmammed Azadi, prompted the director to include a dove the heavenly messenger in the final scene of his play.
It was possible to execute purpose with the help of technical means, or rather thanks to video projection.In the epilogue, in the center of the backstage, the image of Makhtumkuli Fragi appears as if from nowhere, and a white dove flutters above his head, spreading its wings a symbol of the soul and connection with the divine world.
Very soon it will be 300 years since the birth of the classic of Turkmen literature, and his personality and creative heritage still excite the hearts of our contemporaries.