Highlights from the “Voices From Chornobyl” anniversary reading at the Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood, April 26, 2009. Shot and edited by Lysandra Petersson. Featuring the talents of:
Vasily Shimansky..…..Bradford Beacom
Anna Sushko…….Enci
Grigory……..Aaron Lyons / Brian M. Cole
Sergei Gurin……..Shawn MacAulay / Tyrone Giordano*
A Solitary Human Voice………Kristin Mochnick / Catherine MacKinnon
Katya Shimansky……Kappa Victoria Wood / Evelina Gaina
Writer and Director: Cindy Marie Jenkins
Inspired by the book Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
Published by Galina Dursthoff, Inc.
Here is a joint proposal between the VOICES team and the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council—looking for artists to participate! Email for more information:
PROPOSAL
for
VOICES FROM EAST HOLLYWOOD:
Autobiography of a Neighborhood
Dear Ms. Abeyta and Mr. Miller,
VOICES FROM EAST HOLLYWOOD will connect the neighborhood council with the people who live there, thus narrowing the focus of the neighborhood council by going to directly to the source. Now, some members feel they are imposing their vision onto this neighborhood instead of deriving their vision from voices within the neighborhood.
The East Hollywood Neighborhood Council has invited the creators of VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL to participate in a lengthy partnership that would regularly culminate in opening the council’s doors to a symposium with the people-and specifically children-who live there.
VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL is a play that has been running in various locations in Los Angeles since early 2006—the piece breathes life into real peoples’ stories in an accessible way to any audience. It creates a narrative out of transcripts of about fifty interviews and creates a cohesive story.
Why is it such a powerful experience? The key is that the play is taken from actual words from real people - derived from the experiences of witnesses to the event. We will use a similar process to creating VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL in East Hollywood and share our work and transcripts with the Easy Hollywood Neighborhood Council.
The Fluxus show at Barnsdall would jumpstart this long term project that shows how art can change your part of the world, your neighborhood. Part of the reason that art is dying in low to middle income neighborhoods is because it loses relevance. Using art as an agent of change will not only fling open many doors to the community’s governing bodies, but also bring the neighborhood to the exhibit and in many cases serve as a resident’s first introduction to live art. We believe this first experience will stick because instead of art reflecting life, it is art integrated with life.
How will this all happen?
We will put out all the web media and let people take it in any direction they want. We will present a series of questions and various methods of submitting your answers—school essay and art contests, teaming up with local filmmakers to do “Man on the street” interviews, facebook posts/pictures/videos. Residents can submit a song, a poem, a picture, essay, blogging—we will partner with local businesses for open mic nights and schoolteachers to be sure the students are represented. The only restriction is that you must be currently living in East Hollywood.
An idea of the questions to springboard submissions would be:
~What do you see when you look outside your windows?
~If you could have anything in the world, what would you want in your neighborhood?
~How would you like your neighborhood to change?
This will give the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council a beginning database for focusing our neighborhood’s vision.
There are opportunities for either a rotating or permanent exhibit of our submissions that could change weekly, depending on space.
By intersecting VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL and VOICES FROM EAST HOLLYWOOD, we will hand the story-the plot of the neighborhood’s improvements-to the people living in the settings. Starting a political dialogue has been difficult in East Hollywood; a major challenge to the neighborhood council is bridging the gap between residents and their government, where they can have a voice. A major challenge to live art is relevance–creating an environment in which anyone can participate and understand the different avenues through which they can channel their voice. We feel it is an ideal match.
So all of a sudden, in the middle of the prep for our Inaugural Anniversary Reading—more news to come—I find myself in Indianapolis, with a group of dancers, a composer/musician, actors, directors, and singers. We are the 2nd annual Indy Convergence, a collection of artists who conduct workshops for each other & the community, work together on an Umbrella Project and workshop side projects as well.
My side project is twofold: turning the 10-character version of VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL into a 6-character version, in order to create more accesibility for smaller groups to participate in the reading; as well as reimagine the script for a special co-production with Deaf West Theater in North Hollywood. We will integrate ASL (American Sign Language) and hearing-impaired actors into our ensemble for a special performance.
Considering how lucky I’ve been to have many of the same actors workshop this script with me over the years, I’m pretty intrigued by the thought of hearing the script with new voices and introducing the project to a whole new set of ears.
I already worked out which of the ten characters can be absorbed into each other, and actually found many places where the script gets repetitive. I’m hoping to truly work out the kinks over these next two weeks!
The challenge after that—-turning it into a 2-person, tour-able piece for schools.
Last year, at the October performance I knitted an endless scarf that was over 10 feet long at the end of the run. But the scarf was made out of some expensive yarn and for me to continue I needed something that wouldn’t affect my bank account. Yarns are not cheap and so I decided to look for some at thrift stores and at the 99 c store.
Since I couldn’t find anything that I liked and anything that would fit my budget if I was to knit something 100 feet long, I posted an inquiry for free yarn on bigcheap, on freecycle and on Hollywood-Happy-Hour.
Within a couple of days, I picked up one big box of yarn from an artist in Silver Lake and another big bag from Kristina Wong, an actress who knitted during one of her own stage productions.
And the yarn was beautiful! All kinds of colors, textures, thicknesses and types. I decided to undo the original Chornobyl scarf and use the expensive yarn to make a scarf for myself this winter. And I was looking forward to starting a new one for VOICES from this donated batch.
So with the New Year starting, I’d like to think of the scarf as a symbol for a New Beginning.
Happy New Year to all! May your dreams come true! Be happy, healthy and kind!
Filed under: Performances — Cindy Marie Jenkins @ 12:02 am
We had our first performance today and I received my finest compliment to date: a Russian woman said it played like a symphony. I consider that a huge honor. There is really nowhere to hide in the Empty Stage Comedy Theatre (yes, we are performing VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL at a Comedy Theatre) and the audience had nowhere to go. In those short 30 minutes, people gasped, cried, gasped, audibly said “Oh!” and a couple of people looked in the direction of the door a couple of times. They were moved to move. Those same people didn’t know what to say after the show.
I am always touched by how people react to this show, in its many incarnations. Even though we went out and had a great time at Bossa Nova after the show, I have been on the verge of tears the whole night. In some ways I think it is because I feel such a release at opening, but quite frankly, I think this adaptation and these performances touch me more deeply and move me to action in greater ways than I have ever been moved by the piece before. Not since the first time I read the book.