Armenian Culture Returns to Shakespeare’s Globe
By Contributor // January 3, 2014
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.
The Dudukner Ensemble from Armenia
`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.
* * *
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
To learn more about the Armenian Institute, visit
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2014/01/03/armenian-culture-returns-to-shakespeares-globe/
www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/sam-wanamaker-playhouse/armania.
www.armenianinstitute.org.uk.