English actress Glenda Jackson said: “The theater is like the museum:” We do not go there, but it’s nice to know that it’s somewhere “. Somebody lives that way, but Oksana Naumenko turned her own love to the theater into a fully-fledged amateur theater called “SurtUk”. She shared her hobbies, experiences and views on life with Zhytomyr.Travel
“I am a” broad profile “teacher by education. (Laughs) Russian language, foreign literature and English. Yes, I worked at school. When I crossed the threshold of the school, I began to speak Ukrainian, but when I was caught emotionally, I turned to Russian. When they spoke at home about higher education, my mother asked: “What is interesting?”. And I was interested in literature, and therefore a teacher of foreign literature, but with English. I then knew that I could learn English, not literature. Such a compromise came”
“I do not remember the era of stagnation. Once I was not very active, so my “stagnation” was organically interwoven with the general atmosphere (Laughs). Then there was not a theater in my life”
“We often collected poetry evenings, which eventually began to seem boring. That’s why they started experimenting. Somewhere in the year 2000 did poetry performances. Once, I remember, they made a performance on the poems of Volodymyr Zubkov and Svetlana Pavlova, who are Zhitomir poets of the classics. Even then I was curious: how can classical poetry be made from classical performances? I had some characters, the scene is divided diagonally. It was still in the House of Officers. Their poems are memories, and they themselves are on the stage – on the one hand young, on the other – mature. It turned out well: dialogues, suffering, dreams. Poems about love … And what poems is such a performance. It was interesting to me that the task was quite complicated”
“A lot of interesting poems touching you, but I was very interested in the Zhytomyr. Then it was a matter of principle. I was born in Hungary, lived for ten years in Kazakhstan, in Baikonur, and still in some military towns in Chernihiv, which became my native city for me. He grew up to Zhytomyr for a long time and could not give up the roots. Well, maybe my age is such. Or maybe I came in troubled times, and so people seemed so barbed. Subsequently, for me it became automatically important to put exactly the Zhytomyr authors – to use the material that is around you”
“I myself write poetry, maybe it’s just poetry – it’s boring for me. Simply poems I can read for myself. (Laughs) I do not have any ambitions, I do not want to go on stage. I have a desire to periodically share. Since when “Antenna” appeared on us, I was kind of born again, because I already had an excitement. Azarts arose in those times when it was very difficult to raise people, although they were so talented! Then we were doing interesting things for Zhytomyr at that time, but I could not do what I saw – to combine the concept, performance and pantomime – because dancers, musicians, artists were needed. And they are not so easy to “pull out”, especially when you do not really like “strain”. But when you meet a person – and she already inspires you really. But some poets want to “shake”
“I remember, we once made in the House of Culture the play” Lines of Love “. The idea was this: we read not our poems, but the poems of all the poets within Zhytomyr and the region. And it turned out! I remember, then we gathered about 40 people. Both Ukrainian and Russian. We joined the club “Oksia”, they made an excerpt from Harms for 15-20 minutes. Everyone was inspired! It was not just reading in another filing. It was different genres: a parody of a serious poem and vice versa – serious things from a parody; someone wrote a song; someone presented in a dramatic form or with a choreography. It was very interesting and people began to move. I thought: “How good! They liked them and they will now do it all. And I will walk, see and rejoice. ” But on that all died down”
“There was always a problem: a person who writes very good poems can rarely submit these verses. People were either very closed, but they wanted to listen and listen, or too active, but they were very “too big”. By the way, the hardest thing to call a person is not to read a prose, but rather poetry. And read as if you are conducting a conversation, you want to tell something like “I am good now” or “I’m angry at the moment”. It is extremely difficult, although doing lobotomy! Includes “school, lesson of literature and a board!”
“We teach and learn in the process of preparing for the performances. From the spectacle to the performance, everyone grows a strap on themselves and the product at all. We have a lot of fun at the rehearsals (Laughs). No, sometimes sad or even painful”
“We are not aiming to” change society “, this is not our supranational task. But if one feels that his poetry can say something in a social sense, then of course I have to speak. Poetry is a reference of what you have inside. If something touches you, and the more it does not let go, then you have to talk about it. And it does not matter whether you need it now or not. This is primarily important for you, and if it is important for you, then it is necessary for something (apparently, I am still romantic). When a person writes about himself, she does not think about social problems, and how the text will be perceived by others, too. And this is good. By its very nature, poetry should not be ordered. And this, undoubtedly, affects. You hurt someone with your poetry – you already have influence. Influenced – and the person went to work for some time another person. And the work is different! And those people have influenced other people, and so on. The fact that it really is true always affects it, and in social terms too. Of course, poetry and painting are not corrected, but they are able to “take off the plaque” from the soul, as from the old kettle”
“It’s so funny: in those distant times, I was almost perceived as” the main feminist “of the city of Zhytomyr, only I myself did not know about it. I have such poetry that when I read it, everyone thought that I had a “tooth” for men. For example, something like this: “Stop, my beloved, hand. I’ll cut it along the elbow. ” To me, they say, equaled, while I was sitting at home and embroidered with a cross and preparing to eat”(Laughs)
“I have never had such a conscious goal – to call someone to something. I do not even have a position that I could offer, not to mention imposing. That is, I can do something myself and say: “Oh, join us, we’ll do it together”
“I have probably never been harassed, but if I felt distressed, I would have resisted and fought for my own rights … I do not work in those areas where women receive less wages than men or do not hire them, because she is a woman. I met the fact that a woman was not employed at the age of 40 because she was “old” or because she was “thick”, although she was not a model to go to work. And this is very challenging today. We try to impose templates in everything: fashion, weight, behavior. We have the imposition of impersonality, when people are not seen by gadgets, or for the same hairdo. And it’s very sad, we have to talk about it, but not in the language of spells and in the next imposing”
“You can not do anything, if you have the opportunity to replace one with another. The main thing is that in life there must be something that supports what you want to do. Whatever it may be all that is necessary: a person, a hobby, and someone is lucky – this is his job”
“You know, this is a problem here. I’m not a director, not an organizer and not an ambitious person at all … All I did was I really wanted to do and did not even notice that I “do”
“At first, we conducted” flats “with me, then, when not in the apartment, in a literary museum, then the regional library, in other halls. We did not think, expanded, went to a certain level, and now we understand that it is necessary to do something about it. We even encountered such issues that when we gave this beautiful hall for free, we need to “sound it out”, and this requires a technique – and that’s a lot of money (one portal costs three thousand). In any case, you have to go to that level to master what we already got into. That is, either throw or work further. Therefore, I urgently need a man who, at least in his own head, could formulate such ambitions that our theater will promote … At the moment, the main thing is not just to get the status of a “folk theater” but to get the basic means to buy the same equipment”
“For my life I have accumulated so many people with their interesting world that inspire me with ideas. We work in the technique of such a kind of “patchwork” – a patch rug. There is an idea around which we work, and everyone, or anyone who works, can “throw” their own ideas. If it is right, it does not go beyond the general concept, we are happy to take work”
“Zhytomyr for me is people, and people are my inspiration”
Translated by Aliona Matushevich
