Metamorphosis of a Female Character
GrachtenFestival, Amsterdam 2019
In 2019 I formed an ensemble called SamoDivas and together with them we created “Metamorphosis of a Female Character” based on my final Masters exam. In 2019, the project was awarded the Themaprijs and Oorkaanprijs and premiered at GRACHTENFESTIVAL in Amsterdam.
Metamorphosis of a Female Character is a dramatic and humorous music-theatre performance about Nina Zarechnaya - an underexposed character from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. Nina tells us a story of courage, endurance, empowerment, and maturing out of life’s hardships. Her overwhelming and confusing experiences can be compared to our experience of modern-day life in a fast-changing society. Through all this chaos, Nina chooses not to identify with the narrative of a victim; she goes through an unseen - until now - metamorphosis that transcends her grief and finds a strong inner connection to her true self and art. She serves as a powerful role model for us today.
Performers: Viktoria Nikolova (creator, voice),
Bilyana Grudanska (piano, voice),
Elisabeth Lusche (trumpet, voice),
Natalia Rogalski (voice)
Electronics and composition: Domenic Jarlkaganova
Directors: Natalia Rogalski, Nele Menes, Caecilia Thunnissen (Oorkaan)
Video documentation and trailer: Sabijn Peeters
Photos by: Rob Van Damme
“It is a beautiful whole in which music, theater and song art form a perfect unity, with exciting lines of development. From now on I look differently at Nina from Chekhov’s Seagull.”
