An accurate and tough director, who has his own view of things, is Yanovskaya Henrietta Naumovna. She is alien to the political paradigm, but her performances are always modern. Today is our story about this amazing woman.
Henrietta Yanovskaya - who is she?
Henrietta Yanovskaya can without fear be called a great theater director, incredibly talented, with an individual and unlike any other style, energy, and intelligibility. The profession of the director is a complex specialty and, in principle, not female, requiring a persistent character, a rigid hand and iron will. And when a woman took part in this profession, she not only survived, but breathed into the theater life something new, hitherto untried, made a breakthrough, created something unlike anything else - this is a talent that not everyone can use even if there is one.
Henrietta Yanovskaya, whose biography begins in Leningrad, was born shortly before the start of World War II, in June 1940. In 1967 she graduated from the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinema. I must say that she was lucky to get on the course of G. A. Tovstonogov - the most talented director, of which few. And this largely determined the character of the girl herself and formed the skeleton and basic tenets of her as a theater director.
Choosing a creative path
Remembering her conversation with Tovstonogov, Henrietta says that at first she could not at all get used to the fact that she was next to a great man. The girl listened to him, opening her mouth, and each time she pulled herself, understanding - where he is and where she is. Tovstonogov is a representative of totalitarian theatrical art. He is great, but his character is very difficult. It was difficult to work with the director, but it was terribly interesting - studying with the maestro brought incredible pleasure.
At the institute, fate brought the girl with her classmate - Kama Ginkas, he later became everything for Yanovskaya - both her husband and shoulder, and a colleague in the workshop (Kama Ginkas is a theater director).
Henrietta Yanovskaya, whose photo resembled Hollywood actresses, could become a wonderful theater artist, all the data was with her. Only one quality prevented her from taking part in the acting profession - excessive love of freedom. She could not obey the will of others, Yanovskaya was the leader. Nature rewarded a woman with beauty, but Henrietta Yanovskaya never really dwelled on this. Height, weight, diet - these issues did not concern a pretty girl. She almost immediately dismissed the actress's work from her, deciding to seek inspiration in directing. And I was not mistaken. And what is even more paradoxical - Henrietta Naumovna managed to develop her directorial gift in difficult times (in the Soviet era), when everyone was humiliated and crushed, not to mention women.
Beginning of the directorial profession
Yanovskaya’s directorial debut took place in the Leningrad Regional Maly Drama Theater in 1967. It was a production of the play by L. Zorin “Warsaw Melody”. However, work in the city of childhood was over. Yanovskaya left for Krasnoyarsk, following her husband. But here it should be said that the girl did not go to another city because of hopelessness - on the contrary, she rushed there with full confidence that this city would be the center of the universe, because Yanovskaya and Ginkas would be in it - it was with this charge of energy that this beautiful young woman set off to meet her fate.
Kama Ginkas headed the
Young Spectator Theater in Krasnoyarsk
, where Henrietta Yanovskaya worked for two years, from 1970 to 1972.
The first directorial work of Yanovskaya in the northern city was done in 1970. The play was called “Who performed the miracle” and told the story of the training of a deaf-mute girl.
The directorial work of this production clearly testified to the fact that Yanovskaya in her natural essence is not like anyone, she stands separately from all other directors.
Job in Moscow
Since 1984, a new stage began in the life of Henrietta Yanovskaya, when the director presented her production of the Widowed Steamboat to the court of the Moscow public at the Mossovet Theater. The production was very successful. However, the truly famous performance in the capital, Yanovskaya, was staged by the play “Dog Heart” according to Mikhail Bulgakov. The theater season of 1986-1987 was remembered by the triumphal premiere of this performance. By the way, the production of “Dog Heart” is considered one of the best for the entire period of perestroika. And the writer Mikhail Bulgakov is the closest author to Yanovskaya.
Later there was another wonderful production of the play - “Thunderstorm” on Ostrovsky, where Henrietta Naumovna conveyed her vision of the world, her view of the heroes, which in many respects did not coincide with the stereotypical opinion that had been established before. For this performance, Yanovskaya was nominated for a State Prize.
Since 1986, Henrietta Naumovna has been leading the Moscow Theater of Young Spectators, she is its main director. I must say that with the advent of Yanovskaya in the Youth Theater everything changed radically. The woman did not plan to make a revolution in theatrical art. She wanted to adjust something, but was not going to radically change everything. However, today the Moscow Youth Theater is something new, different from the theater in its usual sense.
About the theater
Today the Moscow Youth Theater is a wonderful theater, but it is not at all for children, or rather, it is not only for children. In the daytime of the day off, the troupe's actors instill a love of art for a small audience, but in the evening the performance gathers adults in its hall and tells about serious life things, problems of the individual and society as a whole. Moscow Youth Theater is a family theater, because the director of the performances is Yanovskaya's husband, Kama Ginkas.
Yanovskaya Henrietta Naumovna loves to think about the modern theater, about its role in the life of every person, about the modern audience. For example, the director believes that the old theater, as something great and intriguing, has disappeared forever. Rather, that audience has disappeared, intelligent, demanding something big, educated, exalted. Today, everything has become much simpler, the attitude to the theater is different - people consider it entertainment and go to performances more often than to cinema or to concerts of pop singers.
But, in spite of everything, Yanovskaya’s productions find their true connoisseur. Colleagues say that at the performances of Henrietta Naumovna they plunge headlong into the story that they are telling from the scene, do not pay attention to details, do not analyze, do not think - they simply perceive emotionally. And this is a sign of the greatest directorial skills.
Every performance is a hurt story
In the life of Henrietta Yanovskaya there were different periods, there were ups and downs. She knows firsthand the situation when there is no work, but around there is a void that needs to be filled with something. During the period of lack of money, Yanovskaya knitted - consistently, scrupulously, bit by bit - which fed the whole family. Maybe that’s why the director believes that every theatrical production needs to be brought to perfection - to suffer, survive, drink to the bottom. That is why, probably, after each performance, the director feels a temporary loss of strength and devastation of the soul.
Speaking of theatrical productions as a whole, Yanovskaya compares them with a cone, the peak of which is the director’s idea; the fact from which he builds. The task of each leader is to do everything possible so that the effect of the performance is scattered as far as possible in space, like the base of this figure. And each point on the surface of the cone is the perception of the situation by each individual viewer. Each has its own, different from the perception of the other and from the original ideas and thoughts of the director too. Only such a model will make sense; only by this principle will the theater work.
About life
In the track record of the director Yanovskaya more than thirty productions. She does not often perform performances. This happens no more than once a year, or maybe even less. And yet she has a ton of ideas, ideas and plans. She is in demand, and is not afraid of competition from young people.
Speaking about contemporary filmmakers who come into the profession today, Yanovskaya notes that they are trying too quickly to cover everything - they take risks and hurry. This, of course, is not bad - fresh energy, the spirit of youth never hindered anyone in achieving their goals. However, according to the master of directing Yanovskaya, this is not enough. In order to create something true, catching on to the viewer, knowledge, worldly experience, and suffering are necessary. And for this you need to at least live in the world.
At the 75th year of her life, a woman frankly admits that even at such a mature age, not everything is clear to her in this life, not all secrets are revealed. Henrietta Yanovskaya, whose family is her husband, still devotes the lion's share of her time to the profession. There she draws inspiration, strength, wisdom. Yanovskaya and Ginkas have a son, however, he chose the spiritual path for himself and now lives in another city, far from his parents.