A conversation recently took place on Monday in the foyer of Frankfurt Rüsselsheim Theater during the 5th Frankfurt Turkish Theater Festival.
Speaking alongside moderator Nur Onur, the Turkish State Theaters' head stage director, Hakan Çimenser, explained that they want to establish a State Theater region in Skopje and Berlin.
"Our aim is not staying dependent to Berlin. We want to reach cities where Turkish people densely live and perform our plays," he said.
Noting that the State Theaters are one of the biggest institutions in Turkey, he said, "We perform nearly 160 plays on five stages in 12 different locations in Turkey throughout the whole year."
The head stage director said they organized nine national and international festivals in the year.
"Seven of these festivals were international while two of them were national. We generally have 540 actors but there are nearly 2,000 workers if we include people behind the scenes and administrative and technical staff," he added.
"That is, it is a big factory which produces plays. It has many experienced actors and actresses. We do not perform with only regular actors in our plays. Our veterans and retired people join us in some projects. This is a chance for us," he continued.
'The theme of this year is women plays'
Istanbul State Theaters Deputy Director Kubilay Karslıoğlu said they determine a theme every year.
"For example, the theme of this year is women plays which reflect women's problem or are written by female writers. We have a project to ensure the plays by female writers will be directed by females. It is good to both feature female writers and support female participation in directing. In our plays will be both classics and works from modern writers," he said.
'Out of Order,' last play of festival meets theater lovers
Directed by Haldun Dormen, "Out of Order" met spectators in Frankfurt's Rüsselsheim Theater at the 5th Frankfurt Turkish Theater Festival, which is being held with the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and State Theaters (DT) under the auspices of the Consulate General of Frankfurt by Theater Frankfurt.
The two-act play featured Erkan Taşdöğen, Fatih Kahraman, Ali Ersin Yenar, Rüyam Perihan Dirin, Özden Çiftçi, Ebru Demirdöven, Aral Seskir, Sinan Cem Çabuk, Cem Şahin and Suzan Sabancı.
At the end of the play, video messages by Haldun Dormen, Ayla Algan, Selçuk Yöntem, Güven Kıraç, Cihat Tamer, Yurdaer Okur, Bahtiyar Engin and Musa Uzunlar were played for the audience.
Written by Ray Cooney, the play tells the story of a respectable minister named Richard Phillips. Phillips rents a hotel room in order to have a fling with the secretary of the opposing party. However, things turn into a mess when they come across a dead body in the room.