Yana Vologzhanina: “Do good for goodness sake!”

22.07.2016

Musical creation is a hard work and dedication of both project participants and the creative team. In the large rehearsal hall, the choreographic performances are being staged and “polished” to perfection; the director works with the children in so-called “chillout” to sharpen their roles too. Meanwhile in the music room, soloists learn their parts together with the musicians. Yet this is not enough for everything to work out good. The actors need to choose the appropriate, attractive, stylish and bright outfits. To understand the creative process of costume making, we visited the cozy workshop near the rehearsal hall, where Yana Vologzhanina and Khetag Tsabolov work.

Yana is a student of Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS). It is not her first time on the NucKids Project. Last year Yana was an assistant costume designer. This year she has taken the leading role of this difficult mission. Her task is literally to paint the performance, design, create a unique costume for each performer, and then bring this brightness and visual beauty to the stage.

As a costume designer, do you feel anything specific about working with a group of kids?

 – I have been working on our project for two years already, although before that I only worked with adults. I am also very interested in working with kids. In terms of its complexity, this work is not easier than adult project. In many ways, it depends on what expectations you make of yourself. Creating a costume for a kid requires a lot of effort. For example, last year we had a historical performance, and we had to make children look like adults. Moreover, this year there are a lot of futuristic and alien costumes, future period outfits. I mean, not everything is that easy.

 – Of course, kids have a different sort of energy. It is something extraordinary. They are just learning to play on stage, learning something new. Their eyes are shining. Being already an established artist, adults have a lot of habits and peculiarities that you have to adjust to. And it is easier to work with children. You feel their responsiveness and willingness to work together.

This year we have a very unusual performance. It has a lot of imagination, fantasy stories and vivid characters. What is the difficulty of working with costumes for this musical?

– It seems to me that every production is difficult in its own way. The complexity is realized somewhere at the very end of the journey, rather than at the beginning or in the middle of the working process. When all the kids go on stage, the lights turn on, and you realize what a great job has been done. The process is alive and ongoing. You cannot say for sure if it is going to be difficult or not. I mean, sometimes things that seem so easy turn out to be much more challenging.

You create so many costumes every day. Do you have a favorite one?

– No, I do not have any favorite costume. They are all significant to me. Because children wear them during the perfoemance. A costume can make an artist’s work harder; it can disturb him or her in some way. Therefore, it’s my job to contribute to each costume as much as possible, so that the kids would feel comfortable and cozy. However, in this respect I am lucky, because I have Khetag Tsablov, my assistant and friend. We work together every day, and he helps me both in creating sketches (many of them Khetag came up with himself) and in working directly on the costume. Especially this year’s costumes are futuristic with lots of elements to interact with.

The costumes are used in the play to infuse it with colors, to make it vivid and memorable. However, the main thing is still the story. Is it close to you?

– If it weren’t close and interesting to me, I wouldn’t have taken the job. Of course, there are people who accept certain projects simply because of money. Everyone is motivated by different reasons. I am interested in working with kids again. Also, there is a lot freedom for creativity, which means that on this project you can experiment and try your hand at something new. And generally do something in together with interesting people. In my opinion, it is always great!

Creating costumes is not an easy job. Do the participants of the project help you in your work?

– Oh, yes! This is a matter of great gratitude. The wonderful kids from the Czech Republic – Martina, Lucy, Stefania and Wojtek – are very helpful. I am glad that they come here and work enthusiastically, with interest, excitement and imagination. We are open for any help, ideas and suggestions. The main thing is that the kids themselves are interested in it, because later they will put these costumes on, but for now they need to look at the texture, get used to it. I think it is important that before the premiere for the actor to wear the costume for a while, so that the actor has a chance to work in it, and feel it.

One last question. You spend almost a whole month working on the costumes, and then the end of the project comes, the premieres are over, and that is it. This play will never be staged again, and the costumes will end up somewhere in a warehouse. Won’t you be offended for the work done?

– I will reply with a simple phrase: “Do good for goodness sake!”

Lev Suslov,

Specially for nuckids.ru