The chair of Brandeis University’s theater arts department, Professor Dmitry Troyanovsky, had an email interview with The Brandeis Hoot to shed a little light on the theater arts department, its future and himself. This interview is part of a series of interviews with the chairs of a plethora of different academic departments and programs at Brandeis.
Why did you choose Brandeis?
I have a very personal and long history here. I was a Brandeis undergraduate in the 1990s. I double majored in theater arts and politics. I loved my experience. As a student, I found a very dynamic creative and intellectual home, I had amazing mentors and made lifelong friendships. Some years later, I came back to teach because I’m passionate about continuing the tradition, passing on the knowledge and the ethos, which shaped my own life as a young person.
What do you think that the theater department does right?
We do many things right. We welcome all students, regardless of their experience with theater. We open possibilities for students who have not had the opportunity to be exposed to theater and encourage students with prior experience to discover new aspects of theater. If you acted before Brandeis, here you might realize that you’re also excited about design or playwriting. Students are encouraged to explore directing, technical theater, costume design and so on. The excellent artists and scholars who work in theater arts are dedicated to helping students unlock spaces of deep creativity. Our students use the language of theater to understand themselves and their place in the world. In a recent newsletter, we featured a story about a student from China who came to Brandeis to study Biochemistry, took a class in theater literature to fulfill his creative arts requirement and found it so meaningful and relevant that he’s now taking more theater classes and is considering a minor in theater arts. That’s a great example of what we do right. Obviously, we love when students major or minor in theater. But that’s far from the only way to participate. Our classes and productions are open to all. Every student at Brandeis is welcome to audition for our shows, take classes or try their hand at a backstage job.
What do you think that the theater department could do better?
We can be better at connecting with different communities on campus. We are always thinking about how to be more inclusive. How can we extend an invitation to as many students as possible? What are the obstacles preventing students from taking our classes or being in our shows? Of course, it’s important to recognize that we are a part of a large institution. We exist within the bigger university framework. Not everything is up to us. For example, we have no control over things like financial aid or scholarships. We can’t offer a limitless number of new courses. Expanding our staff and faculty is a challenge. Nevertheless, we are trying to find creative solutions, work around the limitations, be as inviting and vibrant as we can. We can also do more to position ourselves at the center of the intellectual and creative life on campus. Over the past few years, our public programming has engaged with topics from race and bigotry to gender and sexuality to religion and zealotry to science, technology and the environment. We’d like for more members of our community to be a part of these conversations. Theater is essential to a healthy, functioning society. Theater is a place where we come together to feel alive, to understand our differences and learn to be together in our imperfect world. One of my favorite theater artists, the great American director, Anne Bogart, says that theater is an art of resonance. Our department could have even greater resonance within our community.
What do you wish students knew about the theater department?
We recognize and respond to students who are hungry for experience. We have a very caring faculty. Teaching, mentoring and nurturing students are high priorities for us. These bonds don’t disappear upon graduation. We maintain ties with our former students. Recently, several graduates came back to collaborate with us as designers, directors and stage managers in our 2020-2021 Season. Spingold theater is a wonderful playpen for students who want to make the most of their time at Brandeis. Our department offers plentiful opportunities and resources for students to create and present their own work. An upcoming highlight is the annual Senior Festival—a culmination of a yearlong thesis process. This year the Senior Festival coincides with the Festival of the Arts April 28 to May 1. Students can enroll in independent studies and senior projects to experiment and research with our support. We believe in artistic freedom and innovation. There isn’t one right way to make and experience theater. We encourage students to find their unique path.
What can graduates do with a theater degree?
Students with a B.A. degree in theater can succeed in every profession. It’s not necessary to go into theater to make use of your degree. Theater, as an art form, requires many areas of knowledge and proficiency. When you major in theater, you learn to understand historical contexts, analyze human behavior and hone your communication abilities. Daily, you deal with critical analysis, research, imaginative problem solving, organizational skills, just to name a few things. You also come out with important life skills like focus, emotional intelligence, resilience, collaboration and intuition. These are extremely useful no matter what you end up doing after Brandeis. Today, these abilities are highly prized everywhere from the arts and non-profits to corporate boardrooms to research and development to the world of startups, entrepreneurship and innovation. My former students rely on their theater foundation to thrive in law, marketing and science. I would also add that the study of theater is a tremendous lens for self-knowledge, a key to success in any endeavor.
How does this department fit into Brandeis’ DNA?
There are multiple ways Theater Arts fits into Brandeis’ DNA. Our mission is to foster new ideas and artistic expression and challenge our students to enact change through the arts. We believe theater contributes to a more just, diverse and free society. Theater inspires us to be culturally and socially aware individuals and global citizens. Together with our students we aspire to theater that seeks collective and individual “truth even unto its innermost parts.” Brandeis is a small liberal arts school with a big research mission and that too is perfectly reflected in our department where students conduct research side by side with a top-notch group of professional artists and scholars.
What do you work towards in your free time?
Two weeks ago, I would have said that I’d love to travel more for pleasure because there are many fascinating places and cultures I’ve not experienced yet. The tragic events unfolding in Ukraine are pushing me to reevaluate my priorities. I’m considering spending time in Europe as a volunteer, working with Ukrainian refugees. If I have free time, I’d like to get back to yoga, which I haven’t kept up with since the start of the pandemic.Yoga is generative to my artistic practice and overall wellbeing.
What do you wish the students knew about you?
For me theater is life changing and transformative. Early in life I experienced the full force of history. I was born in the former Soviet Union, in Kyiv, the city being assaulted by the Russian army as we speak. As the Soviet regime was coming apart, my family fled antisemitic persecution and instability. We spent months being refugees in a stateless limbo while the United States vetted us for entry. As a teenager in New York, I craved a sense of belonging. I was figuring out how to fit into my new home, wrestling with my budding awareness of being gay and seeing my parents struggle. Theater became a refuge to share my experience of the world. It gave me a space where I communicated with my body and images. My four years at Brandeis were vital. This place offered me resources to discover my artistic identity. As a first-year student, I took a class on the avant-gardes, which changed everything. I encountered a slew of experimental theater makers and alternative aesthetics. I realized I wanted to direct and that I didn’t care for mainstream, commercialized American theater. My mentors in the department took what I was doing seriously. They prepared me for graduate school and beyond. Now, I’m trying to pass the baton. When I teach, I do my best to convey to students that I see them as artists and thinkers.
What is the most innovative theater production that you have ever seen?
I’ve seen a lot of tremendous theater over the years. It’s hard to name one production. As a graduate student I saw a hallucinatory production of Macbeth, directed by a Lithuanian visionary Eimuntas Nekrošius. The whole experience felt like an incredible fever dream. It was theater at its most complex: beautiful, disturbing and very human. Twenty years later, the images still haunt me. I talk about this production with students in my course on Russian theater.
Out of all of the theater productions that you’ve taken part in, which was the most challenging?
That was probably 4:48 Psychosis, which I directed in Shanghai with Chinese speaking actors. The play from “in-yer-face” theater movement is notoriously opaque. It’s not a play in a traditional sense. It’s a semi-abstract prose poem without defined characters, action and stage directions. Then there were cultural and language barriers in the process. It takes time, even under the easiest of circumstances, for the director to build bonds with new performers. It’s a delicate dance. I had to do it with a translator, jet lag, cultural differences… after each rehearsal I would return to my hotel room drained. Eventually, it turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life as a director. A few years later, I came back to Shanghai to stage another production. I plan to direct there again when it becomes possible to travel to China. I miss my Shanghainese theater friends.
What is your favorite class to teach?
I love teaching directing. While directing is, of course, a specific craft, it can be of interest to anyone interested in the art of composition, visual imagination, the mind-body connection and the way our physical environment affects us. I enjoy teaching Russian theater. One of the fundamental questions we delve into in Russian theater is how to be a free artist in un-free or undemocratic circumstances. Can theater be a force of resistance? Given the horrific current events, the question is very relevant. What’s happening now in that part of the world is tragic. Sometimes, theater helps us make sense of the unimaginable. Speaking of which, I’m now putting together a new course on theater and the Holocaust. I’m researching the topic together with a brilliant theater student, Ruthi Wasserman ’23, who’s contributing to the development of the future course. We’re looking at plays, opera and dance. Antisemitism and anti-Jewish violence are on the rise globally. Antidemocratic governments with fascist-like ideologies are making a comeback. Just look at the war crimes being committed by Putin’s regime in Ukraine. We need to talk about how to represent atrocity on stage. It’s going to be an important class for our community. Students will be able to take it next fall.
