December 06, 2022 | 15:06
Education
DISCOVERING UNIVERSITY PERSONS. KARINE DAVTIAN
Karine Davtyan has been the director of the YSU Charles Aznavour Cultural Center for more than 16 years. She stages various plays, exposes students to the real culture, and very often listens to them as a senior friend. In a conversation with us, she told us about her childhood dream, her great love for theater, art, and culture, and her years of experience.
Narrated by Karine Davtyan.
The first play staged at YSU
I have been working at Yerevan State University for 17 years, having the bright future of youth as a source of inspiration. To create a theater in the university, first, we had to be able to transform the thinking of students, leaders, and professors. I have to admit that the process was quite complicated. Together with the YSU alumni association, we built the stage, and the first performance was "Hello out there?" answers "Jim Dandy". Now you will say that such a play does not exist, and you will not be wrong: they are different plays, but I thought that in "Hello out there?" Saroyan asks many questions about humanity, and in "Jim Dandy", he gives answers to his questions. I combined those two plays and the title was the above. After the performance, confusion arose in the university; the performance was very impressive and interesting. I used to choose a thinking person to play in the performances as I value the existence of a thinking person in stage art.
My love for theater was born with me...
Becoming an actor has been my dream since childhood. Putting on plays was part of my daily routine as a child. The theater was everywhere with me always.
How to walk towards your goal despite everyone being against...
The biggest difficulty and test was that my family was against my admission to the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema. In the end, realizing that it is impossible to convince my family with words, I decided to show the validity of my goal. In Z. Khalapyan's play "Lullaby", I took on the role of Anahit, the main character. After watching the performance, everyone unanimously agreed, and my theatrical career began...
It is interesting to live a creative life.
I consider my work a very important mission because discovering young people and their talent is not only for the benefit of art but also for the benefit of our motherland.
Meeting with the source of inspiration.
My source of inspiration is first my greatest love, William Saroyan, then Yeghishe Charents, and then Vahan Teryan. There is infinite goodness in Saroyan's character, he is a bright, vivid phenomenon, and he is able to find a ray of light even in the darkest things: this is very dear to my heart. I can say that I was lucky. I met him when I was in my first year of theater. When I saw his eyes with oceanic depths, they were forever imprinted in my soul. It was one of the happiest days of my life.
The unique part of the performance...
For me, the process of creation is special, whereas the result is the end, which often gives rise to a sense of vanity.
Lyudmila Shirvanyan
