Armenian Culture Returns to Shakespeare’s Globe

LONDON—Beginning in January 2014, a series of productions—including “Armania: A journey through Armenian folksong, dance and poetry”—will mark the inaugural season at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Founded by the American actor and director, Sam Wanamake, Shakespeare’s Globe in London is a faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse built in 1599, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed. January 2014 will see the opening of the Globe’s new indoor Jacobean theatre, the Wanamaker Playhouse.

“Armania” will be performed in this groundbreaking theater on April 13-14, 2014, and will feature the Dudukner Ensemble and the Chilingiran Quartet. Below, the performance curator and director, Seta White, tells us how this opportunity came about.

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Some months ago Bill Barclay, music director at Shakespeare’s Globe, contacted me to come up with an idea to bring Armenian music to this Jacobean stage. I’d met Bill through his involvement in “Salon Mashup,” a production I had conceived and directed in the winter of 2013 for the Armenian Institute in London, an organization dedicated to making Armenian history and culture a living experience.

“Salon Mashup” had brought together more than 40 artists to collaborate on works around the themes of displacement and regeneration, focusing on the Armenian experience of loss and resettlement. Over 3 evenings, 13 performances took place in our labyrinth venue of basement tunnels at London’s Shoreditch Town Hall. One of these was an excerpt from “Deported / a dream play” by Boston-based playwright Joyce Van Dyke, and directed by Bill Barclay. The response to “Salon Mashup” was overwhelming, and performance evenings filled the venue to capacity.

Levon Chilingirian visiting the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Bill had also had contact with Armenians in the UK when the Globe brought Armenia’s Sundukyan National Academic Theatre to London to perform “King John” in May 2012 as part of the Globe to Globe World Shakespeare Festival. Bill wanted to tap into this energy and excitement for Armenian culture again.

The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, named after its founder, was part of Wanamaker’s vision and extended beyond the now familiar and iconic “wooden-O”, the Globe itself. Some years after the original Globe had been built, Shakespeare’s acting troupe also leased a smaller indoor playhouse that served as their winter house. So Wanamaker incorporated an indoor Jacobean theatre into his blueprint of the theatre complex. When Shakespeare’s Globe opened in 1997, the indoor theatre was left as a shell. Now, 17 years later, it will at last fulfill its purpose.

The Playhouse is based on a set of drawings discovered in the late 1960’s in Worcester College, Oxford. Dated 1660, they are the earliest known and most comprehensive designs for an indoor Jacobean theatre in existence. They have been attributed to the English architect and scholar, John Webb, protégé of the renowned architect Indigo Jones.

Candlelit and timber-framed, the theatre has pit seating and a musicians’ gallery above the stage. This beautiful interior will be the setting for plays, operas, and concerts. Being an indoor theatre, it will also enable productions to play at the Globe throughout the year.

“Armania,” playing in April, will celebrate the work of great Armenian poets and composers from medieval times to the present day. My vision is to ground Armenian music and performance in the genre of Jacobean theatre and, through the poetry, explore the powerful influence of Shakespeare in Armenian literature.

Instruments have been chosen to reflect the Jacobean period, and costume, poetry, and song will all play an important part in delivering this style of theatre. Musicians and artists from both the UK and Armenia will be brought together to collaborate for the concert. The Dudukner Ensemble, including some members that played with “King John,” will be joining us from Armenia.

Levon Chilingirian, a violinist and the founder of the Chilingiran Quartet, is Armania’s music director and has put together a rich and varied repertoire. Levon himself will be playing, alongside prize-winning cellist Alexander Chaushian, harpist and singer Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian (who is currently composer in residence at Handel House), and soprano Tereza Gevorgyan (the acclaimed star of the recent London Armenian Opera’s production of “Anoush”).

Over the last few years in my work, I have focused very much on exploring Armenian arts and culture on a professional platform in the UK and abroad. This began with a project where I undertook research and development in Armenia to bring into contemporary theater the well-known Armenian play “Namus” by Alexander Shirvanzade. I directed the first UK performance of “Anoush” with London Armenian Opera, and am currently directing the Armenian comic opera, “Garineh.” I am also working on an exciting project with the British Council Armenia and Candoco Dance Company to establish Armenia’s first inclusive (disabled and non-disabled) dance company.

I am, therefore, truly delighted to have this platform to bring Armenian music and culture to Shakespeare’s Globe, and thrilled that it will be a part of this wonderful season in this incredible new theatre.

“Armania: A journey through Armenian folksong, dance, and poetry” will be on at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, in association with the Armenian Institute, on April 13 and 14, 2014. To book, visit www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/sam-wanamaker-playhouse/armania. To learn more about the Armenian Institute, visit www.armenianinstitute.org.uk.