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Exclusive Interview: Sanio Kurtesevic of 'A Night of Chekhov' · The BSB Podcast

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  A night of Chekov is arriving at Actors Temple Theatre on May 16th and today we're chatting with the director of this production, Sanio Kurtesevic Thank you so much for
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  being here.
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  Yeah, I'm happy to be here.
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  Thank you, Brian.
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  Looking forward to spending some time to talk with you and getting to know each other and to play.
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  Absolutely, which you're kind of in the last couple of days before it's finally presented to the world.
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  How are you feeling right now?
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  Oh man, it's exciting.
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  I mean, we've been at it for such a long time and it's been a, it started as a slow process.
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  We took six weeks for rehearsals and you know, it's almost show time.
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  We have a couple more days to get things stitched up and just figured out.
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  But yeah, it's an exciting time to see the...
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  the show come to life and see the audience's reaction on something that we've been close with and working with for such a long time.
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  So yeah, it's very exciting.
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  It's kind of like that balance of like excited energy, but you know, anxious energy too, because like it's a lot of pieces in the last couple of days.
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  Yeah, yeah, it's that, well, that's the thing with, uh I feel like in art, with art in general, you're always looking for chasing perfection with the understanding that it's
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  never gonna be perfect.
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  So there's always something to do.
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  ah And so I would actually be more nervous if we had two days left and I thought it was all complete and I had nothing to do with that.
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  I feel like that would scare me.
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  But being this close to opening and knowing there's like so many things that we need to do is like actually a good thing.
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  It also gives us something to do after we open ah because I'm one of those people that believes that the job is never done.
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  So even after we open, like to make tweaks here and there and changes uh and be active and give feedback to the actors because I feel like uh it's just uh the opening, it's just
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  inviting the audience to get into the creative work, but the creative work never stops.
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  We keep going and going and going.
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  It's like a...
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  It's like a train.
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  Once you get it started, we keep going.
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  We might pause and get some passengers on board, which uh that is what I look at the audience as.
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  But after they get on board, we keep exploring.
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  We're going into the unknown, and uh we keep going at it.
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  There's no stopping.
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  Which I mean, it's kind of, that's the beauty of kind of live, you know, theater too, is that like, once you get the audience there, you're like, okay, what works, what didn't,
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  did, how did, how did they react to it?
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  And then you get to fine tune some of that.
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  Yes, exactly.
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  I feel like you hit the nail right on the head.
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  It's a little bit of starting to actually get feedback from the audience because we've been in it for so long and we have a good idea of what works, what doesn't.
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  But it's like, okay, now we have to test it on the audience.
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  It's a little bit of what comedians like to do.
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  They like to play their shows in small venues and just experiment and see how it goes and this and that.
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  And then they rewrite it.
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  so that's kind of what
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  theater is, except we have to do with what we have, which is we have to go live and make changes after we go live.
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  So, A Night of Chekov is a presentation of three of his rarely produced works.
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  How did the kind of process of choosing these three works kind of come to be?
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  Or how did this kind of, how did the show come to be?
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  Well, I'm glad you asked.
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  our initial production that we did before Night of Chekov was An Enemy of the People uh by Ibsen.
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  And that play required such a huge cast.
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  mean, at one point we had 18 actors total and uh we narrowed it down to like 15.
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  because there's so many characters, small, smaller, larger, and it's a very demanding play.
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  And so after learning on some things that went well, some things that we could have improved on, we decided that it would be best if we focus on comedies and also keep the
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  cast small.
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  And who better to...
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  to give us comedy then Chekov.
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  And I feel like his works, usually highlight his major works, his Uncle Vanya's and the Cherry Orchard and the Three Sisters.
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  uh But a lot of people haven't heard some of his shorter stories that he's written, some of the shorter plays.
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  And he was a comedian at heart.
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  I mean, he was a doctor and he had his serious scientific side, but then he also...
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  He used uh art to get comedy out there and that's what these plays are.
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  And so really I wanted to highlight some of that and uh also use some of the actors that I've had worked with in the past.
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  I felt that they would be good for those, for some of the roles.
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  And so that was also a big reason why I chose to go with these plays because we're always working against time and crunch.
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  And so it helped me save some of the time I would have spent auditioning and trying out people.
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  So that way I sort of tailored these three plays with some of the actors that I worked in the past.
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  So a little bit of everything, a combination of uh the writer, our needs, the cast size and everything.
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  And just the fact that I've had these plays in mind for such a long time, I thought they were hilarious every time I read them.
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  um And uh yeah.
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  So here we are.
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  you kind of knew that you kind of had an idea of which three plays this was gonna be for a while, then it sounds like.
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  Yes, I did.
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  I usually have, I mean, ideas all the time what I want to do, plays that I want to do that I don't see done, that I have read, that I have good perspective on.
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  But the thing is, I'm only one person.
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  I can do one thing at a time.
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  And I also like to focus when I'm doing something.
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  I like to give it my 100%.
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  So even though now I have ideas of what I would do.
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  I still, my focus is this play.
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  It's these three Chekov plays.
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  It's seeing how far we can go with these three plays.
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  uh And once we get as far as we can, um then I feel like once I have time, once I feel the time is right, then I can move on to the next thing.
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  So for me, it's instead of building up and building up and adding check marks to that resume, I actually like to add a piece of work that will
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  last and I don't mind spending time on it as much time as it takes I'll I'm ready to to commit to that.
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  um So it's a quality has always been my my number one thing and making sure that when the audience walks out of our productions that they feel satisfied that they feel that they
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  invested uh their their hard-earned money into something that uh they would do it again.
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  So in order for that to happen, we need to make sure on our side that we're giving them something they haven't seen, something that's going to impact them in a positive way.
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  And uh that's why our rehearsal periods are so long and so intensive.
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  yeah.
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  So.
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  Now when you're kind of beginning a production such as this scene that is three separate plays, know, do you approach it with like, you're directing three separate plays or do you
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  approach it like you're directing one show that has three different segments or is there like a difference to how you would approach it?
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  Yes, there is a difference.
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  100%, 100%.
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  uh There is a slight undertone of the way we structured these three plays so that the mood shifts in the way we wanted it to shift.
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  ah But it is a, I want to say it's almost more difficult to put on uh three short plays than it is to put on one longer play because what happens is in a longer play you have,
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  you know,
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  hour, hour and a half, two hours to work your way up to the the climax, to the plot and get the actors to feel the character.
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  But what happens in a shorter play, for example, one of uh 20 to 30 minutes is you have to do all of that in a shorter amount of time.
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  So instead of starting, yeah, instead of starting here on a normal play and building your way up, you actually have to start all the way at the top.
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  And then it will start to go down and you have to kind of take it up, but it is so much more important to start off on the right leg with a shorter play because if you don't,
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  it's so hard to work your way up uh to where the climax needs to be.
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  And so it's much more demanding on the actors because they have to...
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  uh
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  they have to use much more energy, they have to be much more energetic and much more captivating and they have to do it three times in a night.
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  And they have to do it with three distinct characters.
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  um And since these are Chekov plays, they're, yeah, that's a lot of juggling.
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  And so not to count like uh having to uh redress for all the characters.
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  in between having to rush to change costumes and all that.
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  But the thing is these are Chekov plays.
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  They're not just three short plays.
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  They're three short Chekov plays and they're so intense.
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  There's so much drama and so much energy.
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  So I would say what I've learned is that I thought I was going the easy route by getting three plays that are smaller cast, easier to contain.
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  I feel actually that they're much more difficult to stage and uh to act in.
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  that's kind of what I found out in the process.
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  because it is, you know, each play has, like you said, you have a shorter time, but it has a distinct identity that you have to kind of meet and bring to the stage there.
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  Right, yeah.
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  So you actually have quite a bit of passion for productions of classic plays.
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  In fact, your production company, Duze is kind of dedicated to this mission.
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  Why do think it's important to keep classic works, kind of like the integrity of them, and to continue to bring them to the stage?
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  Well, I think uh in a world of fast fashion and uh content that goes viral in a day and it's forgotten in 24 hours, ah we have this and also with AI and technology, it's very
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  easy to create something and call it art.
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  And then it's also very easy to forget about it.
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  uh But these plays that have survived
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  thousands, hundreds, you know, when we look at the Greeks, thousands of years, Euripides, Sophocles, know, Shakespeare, and then we have Chekhov, I mean, he's, uh these plays are
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  over 130, 140, 150 years old.
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  And so I like to focus on things that have survived the test of time.
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  So even though there are plays that are written today that are good, there are plays that are performed that are good.
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  But I like to focus on things that, you know, it's just like the pyramids in Egypt, the things that stood the test of time.
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  And the way I look at it is we have so many of those plays out there that uh we can perform them every day, different play, and we still won't get through all of the greats
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  that have been written.
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  So why focus on new work if you have so many greats uh to focus on?
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  And I also think that uh in order to perform those great plays, we need to spend a lot of time rehearsing them, a lot of time on them in order to bring them up to where they need
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  to be.
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  uh just knowing that I know that uh in the world that moves fast, it is not something that most people do.
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  They dedicate a certain amount of time to these plays and
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  scratch the surface of where it needs to be and what we want to do is we want to take those to the next level.
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  We want to show why they're great.
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  We want to show the comedy that the Chekhov wanted you to see.
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  I mean when he was still alive, uh when uh the Moscow Art Theater, um Stanislavski's group, when they were putting on his plays, he wasn't happy.
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  I mean the greatest uh acting teacher in
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  in history, our modern history, Stanislavski, when he was putting out Chekov Plays, Chekov wasn't satisfied because they did not have as much comedy as he wanted to.
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  And so what our mission is, is to honor these writers by performing 100 % of their work, never adapting it, always using 100 % of what they wrote.
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  uh We're doing our own translation to honor the author.
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  and uh to make sure the text is not diluted in any way.
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  And uh we're focusing on what their message was, not how we interpreted it, but the comedy that they uh wanted to see, we're bringing it.
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  And so that is the mission, and that is kind of why we decided to go with uh classic plays.
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  yeah, feel like art and history go together.
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  I gonna say, I've seen recently, I would say in the last year, I saw Uncle Vanya for the first time.
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  And there's so much comedy to there.
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  There's so much incredible work there that I think that sometimes, even though it's heavy, you can see where Chekov really wanted that comedy put in there.
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  And so it's important to keep that integral to the part of the play.
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  Yeah, with the state of affairs in the world today and what's in the news and uh human beings fighting uh for trivial things, ah I feel like the world needs more comedy.
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  We have enough drama on the news and what we need now is more comedy, more laughing.
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  And that's also something I figured out in the last production that we did.
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  Even though The Enemy of the People has a lot of comedy in it, I wanted to bring even more of that.
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  And so I feel like we need that right now.
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  We need to laugh.
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  For sure, you're providing therapy for people who are coming to see the show.
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  yes, yes, yes.
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  That's a great way to put it.
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  I might put that on the flyer.
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  uh Get your therapy fixed.
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  $49.99.
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  uh
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  it's a lot cheaper than coming to see me, you know what I mean?
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  So with these shows you're you know, you're producing um swan song the proposal and the bear um Do you feel like your?
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  Understanding of Chekov's works have changed now that you're directing it and seeing it may be in a different light
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  no, I'll be honest with you.
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  I'll say no.
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  Well, the thing is I've, I'm originally, um, I was born in Bosnia.
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  So I'm originally from Bosnia and I moved when I was nine after the war in Bosnia.
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  And then I, I spent the next, uh, few 16 years in Phoenix, Arizona.
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  That's where I grew up before moving to New York.
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  And so I still have just growing up with European parents and having a lot of family and going back and forth.
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  I still understand the humor of Chekhov and I understand uh his approach and I understand the subtext and just a lot of the jokes that most people wouldn't understand.
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  Just because uh he says a certain line in the play doesn't mean that the character means it.
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  If a character says that they hate somebody, it doesn't mean they hate them, but they might actually be in love with them.
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  So it's like things like that.
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  So there's like this certain approach that he uses with his words.
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  And so I've always been lucky enough to understand that just because of my background.
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  And so after working on it, just, feel like I understand them even more.
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  And I see a lot of more of the comedy, but I feel like I've already...
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  Already had a good grasp on it, so to say.
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  But, yeah.
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  You you mentioned kind of the journey to here, like, was the of, where did your passion for the arts really begin?
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  It's, I always wanted to, first of all, I never wanted to direct.
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  uh I still don't see myself as a director.
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  I'm like, I'm still an actor.
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  uh I always wanted to be an actor.
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  And uh I moved to New York to study acting.
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  I lived in LA.
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  That's where I started to kind of get my feet wet and started doing film and taking courses and all of that.
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  And then the more I learned about theater,
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  uh the more intriguing it became.
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  And then I had an opportunity in LA uh to do a role that was theater based.
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  And it was much more exciting to me to be on stage in front of people and not knowing, uh nobody being able to yell cut and me having to figure out everything and get myself out of
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  situations.
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  And I thought that was exhilarating.
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  uh And so I...
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  made the move to come to New York and study theater.
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  And that's what kept me here for a long time.
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  I had my first two and a half, three years where I didn't really audition much.
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  I just studied, studied, went to class.
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  I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a great acting teacher, David Gideon.
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  uh He's a member of the
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  actor's studio.
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  um So yeah, and that, uh those things open up the world of acting for me and uh be,
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  Because I had so many plays that I wanted to do and I wanted to act in and I wasn't seeing people putting on those plays that I wanted to see in a way that I thought they should be
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  um performed.
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  That is uh how it led me to actually start producing my own plays.
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  And I still have that urge to act and I still love being on stage and I still consider myself an actor.
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  And so who knows, maybe uh I might come up on stage pretty soon too if I uh find a director I can work with and find a play that I really wanna do.
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  But for now, uh theater in general is where my love is, uh whether I'm in director's shoes or if I put on acting shoes or producing or whatever it is.
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  As long as I'm able to go inside the stage and uh even help with the set design, mean, I'm good.
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  So wherever I'm needed in the theater space, that's where I'll be.
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  You mentioned kind of like being like, you don't still think of yourself as a director, you still think of yourself as an actor.
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  Do you think that that helps with directing kind of being like an actor first kind of individual?
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  Yes, I believe it does because when I see actors on stage that are having difficulty I can put myself in those shoes and work on helping them get over that and so just being able to
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  understand what they're going through helps me guide them through it.
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  So yeah, definitely I feel like it 100 % it helps.
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  It's, yeah, no question about it.
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  exactly how you want people, or the restraints of people who are acting, so you can understand that a little bit better.
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  yeah.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  No, that's uh it.
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  I feel like those two things are so intertwined.
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  um Even uh every actor has to be a director um because there are so many things that are directorial in a way that the actor can do, especially when it comes to uh doing something
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  physical on stage um and uh being creative as far as
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  ah What props do I need?
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  I feel like all of those things, even costume, a lot of it has to come from the actors.
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  um But if an actor is not able to get themselves to that level, then it's the director and all the other people that are involved that kind of help them guide it, guide the actor.
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  And so that's uh the way I like to approach it, is instead of telling the actor what to do, it's...
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  giving them bits and pieces and kind of guiding them through discovery and have them figure out their own way how to do something.
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  um So for example, for the proposal, it's called a proposal, so we have to have a proposal happen.
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  And so I have an idea of how I would propose to somebody, but I expect the actor to figure out how they would propose, how the character would propose.
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  um So instead of telling them what to do, I take a uh little box with a ring in it and I say, here it is, go propose.
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  So it's like, right.
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  So it's like, it's one of those things.
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  And uh it's sometimes it's figuring out, do we, does the author call for a proposal?
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  And if not, like, uh is it, is in the name?
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  Do we actually need a ring?
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  And it...
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  Or did the author mention a ring?
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  If they didn't, do we need one?
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  Are we going to put one?
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  And it's coming up with those ideas.
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  And I like that you have a very collaborative approach too of just being like, hey, this is kind of what needs to happen or what we want to happen.
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  Go make it happen.
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  Right, right, right.
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  And I think uh some actors are comfortable with that.
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  A lot of actors are used to being told what to do.
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  And I'm the very opposite.
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  uh I, myself, as an actor, I like the ability to make things myself.
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  I feel like that's the creative process.
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  That's what an actor is there to do.
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  ah Their number one thing is to memorize the lines that the author wrote.
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  And then the next thing is...
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  be creative with those lines.
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  And so I feel like the less the director has to give to the actors, that means the actor is doing uh it themselves.
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  um So my approach uh is encouraging the actors to figure it out themselves.
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  And it takes uh a certain type of person to be able to do that and to be comfortable with that.
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  so that's another thing that I have.
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  I've started to understand just directing um and acting.
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  As an actor, I thought that's how everyone functioned.
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  And now I'm beginning to think, I'm beginning to see that it actually takes a certain type of person to be comfortable with that.
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  I mean, that makes total sense.
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  So one final question for you is just uh what conversations are you hoping the audiences have after seeing a night at Chekhov?
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  Mm-hmm.
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  I wanna say there's so many silly things that the characters in the play fight about.
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  And I would like them, even though we're playing on those parts and we're taking it to the extreme and we're making fun of it, I would like them to take that into real life and see
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  where in the world, where in the news today, where is that happening on a larger scale and...
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  Why is it that we can laugh at those situations when they're done on a smaller scale on the stage and then uh when it's done in real life, uh there's a lot of unfortunate wars uh
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  and uh homelessness and just things that spiral out of control.
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  So I would like people to uh come out in a good mood having laughed.
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  and having seen that uh the things that we fight about as human beings uh are actually trivial things and there's more to life uh than war.
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  So that's something that I would like uh people to come away with.
• 25:35
  Well, thank you so much for being here and joining me today.
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  It's been such a pleasure talking with you.
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  And again, we are so excited for the show.
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  So thanks for being here and chatting with it.
• 25:42
  Thank you, Brian.
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  It was my pleasure.
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  I enjoyed talking to you and hope to talk to you again in the future.
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  Absolutely.
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  So a night of Chekhov arrives at the Actors Temple Theater on May 16th and runs through June 28th, so get your tickets now and we'll see you at the show.
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  See you all.
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  Thanks.