This article needs to be updated.(April 2023) |
Formation | 2001 |
---|---|
Type | Theatre group |
Purpose | Physical Theater: fusing drama, movement, dance, mime, and music |
Location | |
Artistic director(s) | Paata Tsikurishvili (founder) |
Notable members | Irina Tsikurishvili (founder, choreographer) |
Website | http://www.synetictheater.org/ |
Synetic Theater is a non-profit physical theater company located in the Washington metropolitan area. It performs at the Crystal City Theatre in Crystal City in Arlington County, Virginia. [1] Since its founding in 2001, its productions have received numerous awards.
Founded in 2001, [2] Synetic Theater began as an artistic subgroup within the now defunct Stanislavsky Theater Studio which performed at the Church Street Theater in Washington, D.C., the result of an artistic split by the husband and wife team of Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili from Andrei Malaev-Babel, the other co-head of The Stanislavsky Theater Studio. [3] [4]
In April 2002, the theatre made its artistic debut with a wordless adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet , known as Hamlet…the rest is silence. The production was remounted the following season, receiving the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play, Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Director. [5] Despite the artistic split, Synetic Theater and The Stanislavsky Theater Studio continued to share resources and performance space into the following season.
In 2003, after a series of disagreements over financial matters, Synetic set off on its own. The following year, in 2004, Synetic merged with Classika Theater, [6] a children's theater in Shirlington, Virginia. [7]
In 2014, Synetic co-founders Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili were honored as Washingtonians of the Year by Washingtonian magazine for their contributions to the Washington theater community. [8] I
n 2010, the American Theatre Wing awarded Synetic with their National Theatre Company Grant. [9]
The Synetic Theater's offices and administrative spaces are located at 2155 Crystal Plaza Arcade in Crystal City, Virginia, in Arlington County, Virginia. [10]
Until 2010, Synetic performed most of its shows in the Arlington County-run Rosslyn Spectrum. In September 2010, it moved into the Crystal City Theatre space outfitted by the Arena Stage after the Arena Stage moved back to its newly renovated spaces in Washington D.C. [11] Between 2006–2010, it performed one show each spring in the Kennedy Center. [12]
In the 2009–2010 season, it produced the premiers of its "Silent Shakespeare" series at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh Theatre. [13] With the company's move to Crystal City, the relationship with the Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Lansburgh Theatre ended.
[ citation needed ]
† Remounted
In 2010, Synetic Theater moved to the Crystal City Theatre in Crystal City, Virginia. [21]
Synetic Theater was invited to perform in Tbilisi, Georgia. Remount performances of King Lear and Host and Guest were presented at the Rustaveli Theatre 3-19 Nov 2012. The tour was supported by the U.S. Department of State, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. [22] [23]
In 2013, Synetic raised funds for new studio space in Crystal City near the theater space. The studio has 3 classrooms that can be used for camps, classes and rehearsal space as well as a green room and a reception area. [21]
In 2014, Synetic Theater produced its 10th "silent Shakespeare" adaptation "Twelfth Night." [24]
Also in 2014, Synetic Theater's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was invited to the 10th Festival Internacional in Chihuahua, Mexico. Subsequently, they also performed at Teatro Victor Hugo Rascon Banda, Juarez, Mexico. [25]
Synetic is noted for performing well known Shakespeare plays without words. Hours long plays are pared to 90 minutes of highly stylized dance, movement, acrobatics, pantomime, music and story without a word being spoken. [26]
In a letter to patrons in a program, Michael Kahn, the Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, says, "Synetic's signature blend of music, movement, and dance represents a novel approach to Shakespeare" [27] In the Directors Notes of The Tempest program Paata Tsisurishvili stated "Since our first production in 2002, I have often been asked, without the language, is what we do really Shakespeare? I believe it is. Since Shakespeare has been translated into multiple languages, his words having found multiple expressions and becoming a truly universal institution in the process, we believe the language of movement is no less valid method of exploring his work than any other. As Shakespeare himself painted with words, we attempt to paint his words with our images, offering an archetypical Shakespeare that we know, as one reviewer put it, 'in our bones'" [28]
Productions are regularly remounted in the years following their initial production.
The series includes the following well reviewed and award-winning productions:
Play | Initial Production | Reviewed |
Hamlet…the rest is silence ^ | April 2002 | The Washington Post [29] |
Macbeth ^ | January 2007 | The Washington Post [30] |
Romeo and Juliet ^ | January 2008 | The Washington Post [31] |
A Midsummer Night's Dream ^ | May 2009 | The Washington Post [32] |
Antony and Cleopatra † | January 2010 | The Washington Post [33] [34] [35] |
Othello | June 2010 | The Washington Post [36] |
King Lear | March 2011 | The Washington Post [37] |
The Taming of the Shrew | March 2012 | The Washington Post [38] |
The Tempest | February 2013 | The Washington Post [39] |
Twelfth Night | January 2014 | The Washington Post [40] |
Much Ado About Nothing | February 2015 | The Washington Post [41] |
^ – Helen Hayes Award Winner
† – Named one of the year's "10 best" by the Washington Post [35]
In January 2011 A Midsummer Night's Dream was remounted by invitation at the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College in Williamstown, MA, [42]
Play | Initial Production | Reviewed |
Host and Guest | 2002 | The Washington Post [43] |
Dracula | September 2005 | The Washington Post [44] |
Frankenstein | September 2006 | The Washington Post [45] |
The Dybbuk (joint with Theater J) | February 2006 | The Washington Post [46] |
Faust | June 2006 | The Washington Post [47] |
Carmen | May 2009 | The Washington Post [48] |
Don Quixote | June 2011 | The Washington City Paper [49] |
The Three Musketeers | May 2013 | The Washington Post [50] |
The Washington Post named Host and Guest as one of the ten best performances of the decade. [51] The Harriman Institute at Columbia University requested its presentation it at the university's Miller Theatre [52]
Overall, Synetic has earned a large number of Helen Hayes Nominations and won many Helen Hayes Awards in ten seasons. Most of the awards have been for its wordless Shakespearean repertoire. [5] [53] Its more prestigious awards include:
The name Synetic was coined by founding artistic director Paata Tsikurishvili from the words Synthesis (the coming together of distinct elements to form a whole) and Kinetic (pertaining to or imparting motion; active ... dynamic ...) yielding "Synetic Theater – a Dynamic Synthesis of the Arts" [54]
Synetic Theater is a member of the League of Washington Theaters (LOWT). [55]
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