Sergey Vinogradov
The Russian American director Stepnov allows to be referred to as Vyacheslav Yuryevich, and Slava. By the latter name he is known in the United States where he has lived for more than 25 years. Slava Stepnov describes 2022 as a year of celebration since it marked his 70th birthday and the 25th anniversary of the STEPS Theatre founded by him in New York. He has also published a book in Russian about his winding artistic journey, described as "a history of losses and discoveries."
Slava Stepnov was born in Kerch. He graduated from Russian Institute of Theatre Arts GITIS, and worked in Russian theaters in Mordovia and Georgia. He has lived and worked in the USA since 1995. STEPS Theatre started with The Seagull by Chekhov. The multinational company performs in Russian, English, and Spanish on stage in Brooklyn. Productions by Slava Stepnov have been appreciated by audiences in the United States, Latin America, Europe, New Zealand and, of course, Russia.
The director keeps up the closest relations with his homeland. He was on an award panel at the Golden Horses International Theater Festival in Tyumen and the Bosporan Agony International Festival of Ancient Art in Kerch.
He shared with the Russkiy Mir about his work with a multilingual theater company, the common features and differences between the contemporary Russian community and the post-Soviet emigre community in the United States, and how Russian immigrants reacted to a production portraying them.
The Migrant's Tale
– What is the target audience for your book Characters That Didn't Drop Through the Cracks, and what would you’d like to communicate to your readers?
- I want to comprehend a certain period of my life in the US, and probably take a look at myself from the outside. It is also my interjection of the difficulties of being in a foreign environment, in a different linguistic and cultural space. One of my friends called the plot a “success story,” which is a strong simplification. I think my book is, first of all, two plays, interviews and notes-reflections of a man who left his country. My book is a story of loss and discovery, the migrant story, to be more more accurate.
– Are today's compatriots from Russia and ex-USSR republics concerned about the same thing as immigrants 30 years ago, or is there a significant difference?
– The reasons for emigration are always common, and you can count them on the fingers of one hand. Such as passion for changing places, making money, living in more comfortable conditions, building a family, political conflicts and wars. For these reasons make people leave their homes and move to other countries. And yet another thing is that some people often hide their true motives, coming up with some idealistically beautiful or overly dramatic reasons. 30 years ago many Soviet people left their country in a search of comfort and an opportunity to earn money, but declared that they wanted freedom. It seems to me that nothing has changed even now.
– Do you feel diverse attitude towards Russian theater and Russian topic in general in connection with the events in Ukraine?
– Americans I’m communicating with are basically indifferent to these events. They have other issues, like food prices, loans, high inflation, gas, elections... The main watershed has occurred in the Russian-speaking community of New York with the start of the military operation. A large aggressive group of Ukrainian patriots emerged, a little later a smaller group of people who sympathize with Ukrainian patriots. Finally there’s a very small part of the Russian-speaking community, which is trying to avoid exaltation, follies and non-professionalism and petty betrayal.
Lately it became very difficult to work with Russian speakers. The last play rehearsals I had to conduct in a nervous situation, it felt like that of a volcano. You know, there are really sane and wonderful, well-established rules at the Japanese theater rehearsals. Each actor takes off his shoes when entering the rehearsal room. Thus, the actor leaves all the fuss, along with the boots, outside the door. He starts to work in white socks or barefoot... It is pity Russians do not have such a rule.
– The performance you are rehearsing now is a take on controversial bias life of Russian emigrants. What reaction it provokes?
– The performance is not only about emigration and emigrants, it is about the theater and the people of the theater, about the tragic and comic in a person. We have been trying to release it for two years, due to the pandemic, and now the situation in Ukraine. All the time I felt resistance. Before the premiere many were prepared to watch a farce about the Brighton Beach, but afterwards the audience has got the story right. It is indeed the story of talented people in a "bitter absurdity" of a foreign country.
"30 years ago many Soviet people left their country in a search of comfort and an opportunity to earn money, but declared that they wanted freedom. It seems to me that nothing has changed even now."
In pure Russian
– Recently, I have talked with the director of the Russian Drama Theater of Mordovia, Andrey Yermolin. He said that he was amazed at the purity of the Russian pronunciation, which your actors demonstrated at the Compatriots festival.
– Probably, we have passed the trends of the "new" Russian language. We strive for the purity of language on a subconscious level, protecting our memory from modern “garbage”. Besides that, I aim to work with professional artists. They already have their own level of skills related to the language, articulation, pronunciation. If it happens that the artist is not professionally trained enough, we give the artists special time for warm-up and exercises before rehearsals. Thank God, we have an experienced speech specialist and actress Elena Stroganova. Whenever I have a problem, I turn to her and she is happy to help.
– This year you have several anniversaries - your own 70th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of the STEPS theater. How do you plan to celebrate?
– The year 2022 is a festive year for us, I named it "a holiday that is always with me." In September, we invited all those who had or are related to the STEPS theater to a gala evening dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the theater at the Clara Aich Studio in Manhattan. Many people have expressed words of gratitude.
– “STEPS is a theater of a multicultural concept,” says your website. What do you have in mind? Having gathered actors from different countries and theater schools, do you allow them to act in their usual style, or do you bring everyone to a certain common denominator?
– For twenty-five years, a small New York company has been playing shows in different languages, English, Russian, Spanish. In STEPS Theatre embraced people of different cultures, skin colors, languages, biographies, experiences.
We don't have to compete with commercial theatre. We have different agenda, different audience. Our tasks are much broader. By the way, Broadway is not a theater, it is entertainment, like, for example, the zoo in the Bronx, the elevator to the Eiffel Tower or the roller coaster in Coney Island. In life, in art, in relationships, we very often get things reversed. We are talking, let’s say, about the theater, but we mean a building, success, fees, lucrative contracts and other pretentious things. There is confusion: we take the cover for the content.
STEPS theater's repertoire includes Chekhov, Pirandello, Byron, Vampilov, Pushkin, Cortázar and many others. It shows an ample range of plays, indeed. Our entire work within the STEPS is like a chef managing cooks to create one enormous cake. Each of the kitchen hands does whatever they can, while the chef is firmly focused on the process and in charge of the cake as a whole. In terms of standards, STEPS Theatre is a unique case.
Photo courtesy of V. Stepnov
