Today's Zaman - Istanbul, TurkeyFriday, June 15, 2007
Circus theater to depict life, work of Mevlana
With activities going on all over the world and around Turkey as part of UNESCO's 2007 Year of Mevlana, private initiatives are also bringing forth new and interesting ways to publicize the life and work of the Sufi scholar and poet Mevlana Jelaladdin Rumi.
Circus theater to depict life, work of Mevlana
With activities going on all over the world and around Turkey as part of UNESCO's 2007 Year of Mevlana, private initiatives are also bringing forth new and interesting ways to publicize the life and work of the Sufi scholar and poet Mevlana Jelaladdin Rumi.
The most recent type of these initiatives is one not normally counted among Turkish stage arts: the circus theater. For the first time ever in Turkey, a circus theater that includes foreign artists will attempt to explain and explore the life of the famous 13th century Sufi saint.
Eurasia Circus Coordinator Sümer Dinçer told the Anatolia news agency that circus founder and leader Servet Yalçın had prepared a project aimed at explaining the life of Mevlana in Konya from the time the Turkish thinker moved there with his father when he was 7.
Dinçer, talking about the nature of the production, said it would include aspects both of classic theater and classic circus show techniques.
"Think about the story itself being presented in a theater style, but then add in the show opportunities that a circus provides. With a theater scene, you play a one-dimensional show aimed at the audience. But a circus is different; you have audience on all four sides that you are playing to. This in itself creates a difference.
It also adds a certain freedom. There are no worries about 'We can't turn our backs on the audience.' There are also the opportunities for flying that a circus provides. This is a project in which the audience will be able to see giant birds.
This is a project that everyone is excited about. It will be completely different from anything before; something completely different for the world, actually."
Dinçer said that the scenario for the Mevlana project had been written by Aylin Gündoğan Yalçın, and that rehearsals would start sometime in June. The Mevlana project is set to include not only Turkish artists, but participants from countries as varied as Iran, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, Belarus, France and England.
"Even at this point, there are many countries asking if we can come and put on performances," he said. "We hope to be able to start performing this show at the end of the summer season."
Eurasia Circus Coordinator Sümer Dinçer told the Anatolia news agency that circus founder and leader Servet Yalçın had prepared a project aimed at explaining the life of Mevlana in Konya from the time the Turkish thinker moved there with his father when he was 7.
Dinçer, talking about the nature of the production, said it would include aspects both of classic theater and classic circus show techniques.
"Think about the story itself being presented in a theater style, but then add in the show opportunities that a circus provides. With a theater scene, you play a one-dimensional show aimed at the audience. But a circus is different; you have audience on all four sides that you are playing to. This in itself creates a difference.
It also adds a certain freedom. There are no worries about 'We can't turn our backs on the audience.' There are also the opportunities for flying that a circus provides. This is a project in which the audience will be able to see giant birds.
This is a project that everyone is excited about. It will be completely different from anything before; something completely different for the world, actually."
Dinçer said that the scenario for the Mevlana project had been written by Aylin Gündoğan Yalçın, and that rehearsals would start sometime in June. The Mevlana project is set to include not only Turkish artists, but participants from countries as varied as Iran, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, Belarus, France and England.
"Even at this point, there are many countries asking if we can come and put on performances," he said. "We hope to be able to start performing this show at the end of the summer season."
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