Bohdan Strutynsky: “Cultural resource is the backbone of Ukraine’s diplomacy.”

He is a hero of our magazine and our country, a man who is building the Ukrainian theater day by day and brick by brick and promotes Ukraine throughout the world. A Ukrainian theater director, lecturer, producer, chairman of the National Union of Theater Artists of Ukraine, art director of Kyiv National Academic Operetta Theater, and a People's Artist of Ukraine Bohdan Strutynsky told us about theater management, the current situation in the cultural sector, this year's premiers, and his way to success.

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We met Bohdan Strutynsky in the cozy and, undoubtedly, magical atmosphere of the National Operetta Theater of Ukraine.

You are a theater director by education. When choosing your profession did you think that you would once lead such a large and beautiful theater of European significance, would chair the National Union of Theater Artists of Ukraine and organize international theater festivals? Have you ever dreamt of doing it, or did it all happen on its own?

Nothing happens on its own. When you choose your profession, you already dream about certain things to realize in the future. Everyone dreams big. But I cannot say I dreamt of leading a theater. However, during my tenure, the theater got the academic status, and then the national one, and started to develop quite quickly. When I led the Operetta, this theater was not as splendid and beautiful as it is now.

Once, while studying at school, I opened a guide to higher education institutions and saw the contact details of Ivan Karpenko-Kary National University of Theater, Cinema, and Television. And I told my mom, "I'm going to teach here." Not even to learn but to teach. And that exactly how it happened. I have given eleven years to this institution. My students are now very successful in their profession.

My parents were very tolerant of my choice. We lived in a family where everyone should have chosen and pursued his or her purpose in life and should have been responsible for that choice.

 

Why have you chosen the Operetta Theater? Was it your own choice or your destiny?

When I was a student, the Operetta Theater was not prestigious, and we were rather skeptical about it. Before leading this theater, I had been there twice – I watched performances of Moscow artists.

Much later, when I was invited to lead the Operetta Theater, then-Minister of Culture Yuri Bogutsky honestly said that he advised me both for and against this job because the situation was very problematic at that time.

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You were the youngest art director of a state theater in the history of independent Ukraine. You were 33 years old at that time. Were you scared of such uneasy way ahead? 

When I led the Operetta Theater, it had not even had an academic status and had been unable to recruit a theatrical company for six years. The repertoire consisted of seven performances per month. I had eleven years of teaching behind my back and many successful projects, such as Kyiv Day, Independence Day, Oles Honchar Anniversary, etc. When I was invited to lead the Operetta Theater, I said no and could not give my consent for an additional six months. Before the offer, I had taken several training courses abroad and have changed my thinking.  But here, in Ukraine, many things were still done in the Soviet way. Ukraine was still afraid of new methods and approaches, though the wind of change was already coming.

I had been thinking about the offer for six months and finally understood how to help the theater develop. Of course, I feared. The theatrical company lacked young artists. And I invited my 15 students to pour "young" blood to the theater. This idea led to some internal conflicts which turned to be rather mobilizing than destructive. We were playing fairy tales then because the repertoire was very limited.

At that time, the theater team consisted of 214 members, and now it is more than 440. Many talented actors worked in the Operetta Theater and continue to work now, but there was a problem of thinking in the society – working here was considered non-prestigious. I had to change such attitude and did it. Now, the Operetta Theater is a brand, and actors are proud to be part of its company. If an artist is involved, realized, and feels needed, he or she will completely devote himself or herself to work.

 

You led the Operetta Theater at the time of decline when there were no spectators, no appropriate working conditions, almost no premieres, and the quality of performances was far worse than we see today. Now, you are undoubtedly the first successful cultural manager in Ukraine. How many years did it take to achieve the set goals?

It took five years to build new thinking. And I think it took too long. The laws of nature say that man develops a habit in 21 days. So, everything could have happened much faster. But I got a theater with a negative balance – one million two hundred thousand hryvnias. It was a huge amount at that time. Whomever I called asked me to pay off debts. Besides, there were some lawsuits against the theater for large amounts. Everything was in ruins. All these problems paralyzed development. The previous management made some "fake" contracts and sewed theatrical costumes twice as much as we do now. The costumes came apart at the seams right on the stage. I have lots of examples of poor management.

The Operetta Theater has now two own costume sewing shops considered the best in Ukraine and equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment. Our orchestra artists play the best musical instruments available in the world. The Theater has five scenes, two of which are experimental for young directors and actors. In the past, the Theater used to run a business like a rental organization – it rented out everything.

It is difficult for me to say how I coped with it all. Maybe if I knew how it would be, I wouldn't say yes for the second time. But it happened as it happened. Our Theater is now operating to the highest standards. There were times when I left the Theater well after midnight. My working day lasted almost twenty-four hours.

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Now we all are pleased to see the Theater thriving. Can you say that this is already a sustainable, well-functioning mechanism of success? Do you or your team face any new challenges every season?

If you say the word problem, you will get it for sure. Of course, theater is a dynamic system, and we face new challenges all the time. It is a continuous process.

Two years ago, I switched to a linear management system. Now we do not hold large formal meetings. They take too much time for other team members and me. Now I communicate with a curator chosen for a particular project. In turn, he or she works with other stakeholders and participants. It is a more modern approach. I do not want to work in the Soviet way, which, unfortunately, still dominates in the practice of Ukrainian theaters. Just imagine: the occupational classifier does not have a theater marketing specialist. But if a theater wants to compete in the market, get a full house, and sell tickets, marketing and promotion are essential. We have three performances at a time and a full house. Besides, it is the marketing specialist who contributes greatly to the successful implementation of the Theater’s repertoire policy.

 

You travel extensively and have trained abroad many times. What have you learned from your foreign colleagues about operetta management?

I read a lot. Sometimes I find solutions intuitively. What I brought to our Theater from abroad was the practice of planning. The Theater has now scheduled performances until 2022. Spectators can buy a ticket six months or even a year before the performance. There was a time when cold sales gave us 10-15% of revenue, now they give us 35%. The viewer knows the quality of our performances and buys tickets many months before the event.

We are also the first who switched to e-ticketing I have seen in the Baltic States for the first time. We were the first theater to experiment with e-tickets until we amended and updated the Ticket Management Guidelines for Theatrical and Entertainment Establishments. Later, in 2012, we were able to introduce these amendments to the legislation.

Ви вже багато років займаєтеся фестивальною діяльністю. Розкажіть, що вас надихнуло на це, та як розвиваються фестивалі?

You have been dealing with festivals for many years. What has inspired you to get involved in such projects and how the festivals develop?

Now the National Operetta of Ukraine is a powerful syndicate that has two large festivals (Carpathian Space International Art Festival in Ivano-Frankivsk and O-FEST International Music Festival, Kyiv-Bucha), where we are both the founders and organizers. We bring participants from 22+ countries and strong headliners together. This year, for example, we invited The Hardkiss, KAZKA and other popular Ukrainian bands.

We organize the All-Ukrainian Theater Festival ГРА/GRA (Great Real Art). It is a national award (a kind of Oscar but in theatrical art). Founded by the National Union of Theater Artists of Ukraine, where I am a leader, the festival is held on the base of the Operetta Theater. We have recently won several calls of projects and got financing from the US Embassy to implement another huge cultural project called the Art Park in Bucha. But one of my most cherished dreams is to build a National House of Music.

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You have taught at Ivan Karpenko-Kary National University of Theater, Cinema, and Television for a long time. I think that today’s Ukraine lacks the professional teaching of cultural management. Wouldn't you like to start and run such a course? Is it necessary for young professionals?

Unfortunately, theatrical education and cultural management are buried in our country today. No doubt, it is an essential discipline, which we neither study nor teach. We used to have very good universities, there were many good theater institutes, such as in Odesa and Dnipro. Unfortunately, they were just shut down. It is necessary to change the educational system, our approach to teaching, and the teaching staff at universities. There should be high aesthetics everywhere. If not, we could hardly educate a student.

Working on one of my books (dealing solely with management), I started searching for background literature and surprisingly found nothing neither here nor in Europe and the United States. Therefore, it is necessary to adapt basic management models for the culture sector and then to the Ukrainian context.

Every year the theater university invites me to give lectures, but unfortunately, I do not have time for lecturing. For students, the teacher must be a father, a mom, a mentor, and a friend at a time. These children come not just to learn. They come with their problems and experiences. This idea may work out well only if you open and run a private school on a commercial basis.

 

I think that not only students but also managers of Ukrainian theaters would like to learn cultural management…

You’re mistaken. Our problem is that theater directors believe they know and can do everything. At the National Union of Theatrical Artists of Ukraine, we hold seasonal schools. We bring experts from abroad at our own expense, including management, time, fees, and flights. We do it all for people. But only the young attend our schools. Theater managers need nothing. They think they have nothing to learn anymore.

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In your opinion, what are the problems of Ukraine’s culture sector in general and the cultural community in particular?

First, amorphousness and indifference appear to be the major problems. Second, when I hear people shouting: "Give us the money, and we will do it all at once!" I don't believe them. Third, competition for ideas is very poor. Besides, there is little competition among people. People are afraid of going beyond their bodies, beyond their imagination. They afraid of the new. To develop an idea, one must strongly believe in it. People used to live within some programmed standards and do not want to take a step forward.

To overcome all these issues, Ukrainian theaters require a completely new model of existence and functioning.

 

Season by season, the Operetta Theater offers new performances, redesigns its interior, launches new collaborations with outstanding Ukrainian and foreign artists and opened the 85^th anniversary season in 2019. Do you have something special to surprise your spectators this season? 

This year we opened the season at the Conservatory on September 15th. One of the new ideas is our collaboration with Freedom Hall in eight projects. We have a very busy touring in September – Portugal, Hungary, and Slovakia. We had a very busy touring September - Hungary, Slovakia. Then there are premieres in the cities of Ukraine: Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk. We have a new Frank Sinatra premiere on the Stage-Lab stage and some more exciting projects. On the big stage, we are going to put on a musical which Ukraine has never seen before – Dorian Gray. The young contemporary composer from Hungary wrote the music for this performance.

We always have many interesting projects. We cooperate with many Ukrainian and foreign directors. For me, our artists must have different projects, different approaches, and different experiences. It is very crucial for me.

Besides, Kyiv National Academic Operetta Theater has the largest pool of cultural diplomacy. It is our strength. We are very active in working with embassies and the international community. Once, 69 diplomats attended our festival, including 29 top-level figures – ambassadors. No one has ever done it before.

I believe that cultural resource is the backbone of Ukraine's diplomacy. We have so many gifted artists. Our singers work for all European theaters. Dozens of very good vocalists once worked for the Operetta Theater. It is very painful that they have no working and comfortable living conditions in their homeland. Many choir and ballet artists work in China where their talents are in high demand. Others contract for cruise ships. It is even sadder. Artists can make money there, but they lose time, opportunities, and qualifications.

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What does success mean to you?

If we look at the theater, the success is a sell-out – the viewer votes with money and time. And in terms of personality, I believe, success is a matter of self-realization. When a person is realized and feels harmony and comfort, this is a success. Success is to learn not to pursue success. Every day you are in a whirlpool of events, tasks, or projects, and your life is going by. The theater is a very sacrificial thing. You have to give yourself to get the result.

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