an Artist's response

For the past month I have been working with the award winning Synetic Theatre, a company based in Shirlington Virginia founded and run by Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili, former citizens of the Republic of Georgia. It has been a long process of auditions, callbacks, training and testing of our physical fitness, talent and stamina. Two weeks ago I found out that I was cast in the role of Jane in the company’s adaptation of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, a 1919 silent film considered the first horror movie which marked the beginning of the German Expressionist period. I was very excited to be honored with the role and eager to begin official rehearsals after the training.

On Friday August 8th the Russian army invaded Georgia. When I returned to rehearsal on Wednesday our director, Paata, announced that the company would no longer be working on Caligari and they would now be remounting Host and Guest, a play the company previously staged based on a Georgian epic poem about the futility of war. Quite quickly the fall changed for us artists involved. Not all the actors cast in Caligari were cast in Host and Guest and of course the process will be very different for those of us filling the shoes of roles already created. I will be working on the production and am eager to see what sort of response we will receive for this choice. What sort of impact does political theatre really have in the nation’s capitol? Will Senators and Congresspeople come to the show as Paata hopes? No matter the government attendance or audience response this was a necessary decision for our company’s leaders: to present an anti-war staged poem full of Synetic’s physical grace, power and unique storytelling, told by a company comprised of Russians, Georgians, Romanians and Americans. A company that demonstrates the power and beauty created by diverse collaboration rather than the oppression of it.