Ankara’s art theater waiting for Godot
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by İZGİ GÜNGÖR
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Temmuz 04, 2009 00:00
ANKARA- The capital’s oldest private theater, the Ankara Art Theater, or AST, is facing closing curtains in Ankara and moving to Istanbul due to economic hardships.
The theater’s audiences and Ankara art enthusiasts are not content with the relocation of the theater. They appear to have been aware of the possibility that such a move would be type of a beginning-of-the-end for the AST, considering the fact that the AST has long been associated with the capital.
"I grew up with the AST’s bold and rebellious plays. I used to take my sons to its performances to help them develop their sense of criticism and question what is happening both in Turkey and the world. But, it was surely living its golden age during my youth," said 39-year old Mehmet Çalışkan. "Istanbul will kill its soul if it moves. It takes its name from Ankara. Is its name also going to change then?" he asked.
Founded in 1963, marked by political upheaval in the country, the AST is the capital’s oldest private theater, a school with a certain social and political stance surviving until now by cultivating its own performers. Many of its actors such as Altan Erkekli, Rutkay Aziz and Altan Gördüm are famous cinema actors of today’s Turkish film industry.
The AST has served to develop a democracy culture and a self-criticism mechanism in the country, as evidenced by a strike by its own performers in 1970, the first of its kind in Turkey. It has continuously been a symbol of resistance against the social and political injustices and oppression with its divergent repertoire.
But everything has a price. The theater has faced a number of confinements and bans because of its ’objectionable’ performances. It was closed perpetually by the coup regime in 1972 after they played Bertolt Brecht’s "Fear and Misery of Hitler’s Regime" which was found problematic. In 1974, it raised its curtains again but the coup regime this time hailed the AST for its performance of Brecht’s play "Mother," adapted from socialist political activist Maxim Gorkys’ novel, putting it on trial.
The AST has survived to date with ups and downs together with Rutkay Aziz, the AST’s art director for the last 35 years. However, its name and sound repertoire, ranging from Maxim Gorky to Bertolt Brecht and from Turkish intellectuals Nazım Hikmet and Yaşar Kemal to Uğur Mumcu, still could not keep the theater alive.
The accumulated financial problems and the problems of what the critics call "immature sectoral structure" have hit the AST. The theater lost its hall because of rent debt. For some, however, the AST is no longer in its golden age and has deviated from its original revolutionary line, which has played a role in its decay.
Some of the theater’s rising stars such as Erkekli and Aziz, have already moved to the very heart of the art world, Istanbul, to get a further share of the cake in the film industry. The theater administration thus came up with the idea of moving to Istanbul for economic and artistic reasons.
AST, prestige of Turkish democracy
"If you can’t keep your performers and present strong productions, then you are likely to loose blood. The theater has a mission and it should perpetuate this mission," Atila Gürçay of the Art Institution in Ankara told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
"All the master actors of the theater, Erkekli and Aziz, went [to Istanbul]. The young actors in the AST need their masters. Sound and long-term productions with famed names should be produced to attract the audience. Its old master performers should take care of their theater," said Gürçay.
Disagreeing with the AST’s thesis that the theater could not survive because of unfair competition with state theaters, Gürçay said it could perform more thematic plays if it couldn’t produce more revolutionary plays, as in the past, in such a globalized world.
"The AST should live and continue its mission to enlighten culture in Ankara and Turkey. The light of the 46-year-old theater shouldn’t fade."
Tamer Levent, State Theaters Opera and Ballet Members’ Foundation, or TOBAV, president, said Ankara citizens should look after the AST.
"The theaters that embrace society and act in line with their own aesthetic concerns rather than political concerns are symbols and prestige for that democracy. The AST was living its golden age when Ankara was deemed to be the cultural capital of Turkey. My dream is that it should return to those missions and policies," Levent said. "Its old actors and some other famed actors should come together and perform a play to revive the AST. A kind of city art council could be established and seek remedies for a permanent AST. It should stay in Ankara."
Speaking to the Daily News, AST general director Atila Oğultekin said the theater would most probably stay in Ankara thanks to the contributions of the Çankaya Municipality, but the final decision and solution proposals would all be discussed in detail in a meeting scheduled for Monday.
"I grew up with the AST’s bold and rebellious plays. I used to take my sons to its performances to help them develop their sense of criticism and question what is happening both in Turkey and the world. But, it was surely living its golden age during my youth," said 39-year old Mehmet Çalışkan. "Istanbul will kill its soul if it moves. It takes its name from Ankara. Is its name also going to change then?" he asked.
Founded in 1963, marked by political upheaval in the country, the AST is the capital’s oldest private theater, a school with a certain social and political stance surviving until now by cultivating its own performers. Many of its actors such as Altan Erkekli, Rutkay Aziz and Altan Gördüm are famous cinema actors of today’s Turkish film industry.
The AST has served to develop a democracy culture and a self-criticism mechanism in the country, as evidenced by a strike by its own performers in 1970, the first of its kind in Turkey. It has continuously been a symbol of resistance against the social and political injustices and oppression with its divergent repertoire.
But everything has a price. The theater has faced a number of confinements and bans because of its ’objectionable’ performances. It was closed perpetually by the coup regime in 1972 after they played Bertolt Brecht’s "Fear and Misery of Hitler’s Regime" which was found problematic. In 1974, it raised its curtains again but the coup regime this time hailed the AST for its performance of Brecht’s play "Mother," adapted from socialist political activist Maxim Gorkys’ novel, putting it on trial.
The AST has survived to date with ups and downs together with Rutkay Aziz, the AST’s art director for the last 35 years. However, its name and sound repertoire, ranging from Maxim Gorky to Bertolt Brecht and from Turkish intellectuals Nazım Hikmet and Yaşar Kemal to Uğur Mumcu, still could not keep the theater alive.
The accumulated financial problems and the problems of what the critics call "immature sectoral structure" have hit the AST. The theater lost its hall because of rent debt. For some, however, the AST is no longer in its golden age and has deviated from its original revolutionary line, which has played a role in its decay.
Some of the theater’s rising stars such as Erkekli and Aziz, have already moved to the very heart of the art world, Istanbul, to get a further share of the cake in the film industry. The theater administration thus came up with the idea of moving to Istanbul for economic and artistic reasons.
AST, prestige of Turkish democracy
"If you can’t keep your performers and present strong productions, then you are likely to loose blood. The theater has a mission and it should perpetuate this mission," Atila Gürçay of the Art Institution in Ankara told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
"All the master actors of the theater, Erkekli and Aziz, went [to Istanbul]. The young actors in the AST need their masters. Sound and long-term productions with famed names should be produced to attract the audience. Its old master performers should take care of their theater," said Gürçay.
Disagreeing with the AST’s thesis that the theater could not survive because of unfair competition with state theaters, Gürçay said it could perform more thematic plays if it couldn’t produce more revolutionary plays, as in the past, in such a globalized world.
"The AST should live and continue its mission to enlighten culture in Ankara and Turkey. The light of the 46-year-old theater shouldn’t fade."
Tamer Levent, State Theaters Opera and Ballet Members’ Foundation, or TOBAV, president, said Ankara citizens should look after the AST.
"The theaters that embrace society and act in line with their own aesthetic concerns rather than political concerns are symbols and prestige for that democracy. The AST was living its golden age when Ankara was deemed to be the cultural capital of Turkey. My dream is that it should return to those missions and policies," Levent said. "Its old actors and some other famed actors should come together and perform a play to revive the AST. A kind of city art council could be established and seek remedies for a permanent AST. It should stay in Ankara."
Speaking to the Daily News, AST general director Atila Oğultekin said the theater would most probably stay in Ankara thanks to the contributions of the Çankaya Municipality, but the final decision and solution proposals would all be discussed in detail in a meeting scheduled for Monday.