Recently, the actress of the Theater of Young Spectators Mariam Ghazanchyan presented a mono-performance at the hall of the Cultural Center in Şişli, Istanbul, which was staged by the Director of at the Theatre of Young Spectator, Hakob Ghazanchyan. The basis of mono-performance “Marcel” is the sufferings of the legendary French singer Edit Piaff after the tragic death of her beloved Marcel Serdan. During the performance, there are 12 songs from Piaff’s repertoire.
In an interview with Aravot.am, the actress Mariam Ghazanchyan said that “Marcel” was staged back in 2012, as for the invitation from Istanbul, they just loved it and invited me. To our question of whether it was easy to embody a dramatic fate woman and the artist, Mariam Ghazanchyan replied, “There were some complexes, of course. On the other hand, I have not tried to look like her visually or sing like her, because it was not possible. We realized that it is just necessary to play the psychology so that the rest would be understandable. I would not say that it was easy, because generally, it is difficult to understand Piaf. During the rehearsals, I started reading a lot of books about Edith Piaf by various authors, and everything became clear to me.”
And what was the best assessment for the actress received in Turkey. “The highest assessment for me is the fact that the tickets were sold out from the booking-office. In fact, people were interested, have bought and attended the performance,” said the actress. As for her father and grandfather, Yervand and Hakob Ghazanchyans, in Mariam Kazanchyan’s words, they are different in assessments. “Grandpa always has his own opinion, my father – has his own opinion, incidentally, in this case, my father was the staging director. Generally, my father never likes to speak after the performance, and never say whether it was good or bad. I feel it from his mood what is what. He always gives one question, “Were you feeling good on the stage?” This is how he analyses whether the performance is good or bad. He never says, “Well done, you played well…”.
To our next question of whether there is another fatal woman whom she would like to embody, Mariam Ghazanchyan replied, “At this point, I have no one in my mind, simply Piaf was staged unexpectedly … I had never thought about staging a performance by the motives of Piaf. Incidentally, the performance was more addressed to Marcel Serdan than to Piaf. We have chosen the second phase of Piaf’s life, the piece that comes after Marcel Serdan’s death. Therefore, the performance is called “Marcel” rather than “Piaf.” As for another character, I do not think of anyone at this point, now, I do not want to play a mono-performance. I do not think it is an interesting theme, which I would like to accomplish,” replied the artist.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
Photos from the website of Young Spectators Theater, www.youththeater.am
