The Witcher 4 is out! It was a pleasure to be part of this scene! Very inspiring acting wise and generally fun 🙂
Watch the episode 3 especially, my favourite character of the Priest is doing an amazing job, just like in the books 😻
Those 3 days in the fields on Farnham were also incredible because of the beautiful location of Waverley Abbey and it’s famous monastery ruins with an ancient tree. Unforgettable memories !
Happy Halloween everyone!
I am changing acting representation!!!
My agent is sadly closing doors of her agency so I had to jump ship pretty quickly 👀.
In this industry you never know what will happen tomorrow. You think you have a solid agent one day and the next they have to close business because it’s so tough out there and you have 2 weeks to find a new agent….
I am very grateful to Mel from Chaos Acting Management for all her hard work and her coaching and support. That’s what happens quite often in this industry – a change. We need to be ready for it.
But this time also the situation is teaching me something new. Last time when I left my agent in very different circumstances I was in a state of panic, I felt like a failure and from this space of mind I sent almost 100 emails looking for a new representation and I had NO positive response. Mel responded to my pity-post on Twitter 🙂 and took me in. I was so grateful because she was the only one who decided to give me a chance in that moment and it helped me just feel better about myself and the industry as a whole.
This time was completely different. From the moment I heard the agency is closing I felt that it’s gonna be alright 💚. I sent around 10 emails and although no one responded I still felt it’s fine and it will resolve itself somehow. Then the day before agency closing came and my dear friend (thank you 💜) when heard I m still without new representation offered to contact his agent. The next day I got signed, it took a 1-minute phone call :-). So I didn’t even miss a day.
Different mindset 👉different results.
I am now represented by Imperial Artists Agency, very honoured to be part of the team and to have Robert as my agent 🥰🥰🥰.
Feeling also very grateful for this smooth transition and looking forward to new adventures 🙏💚💜🖤
Yesterday I was sent a great article – interview with Teodor Dore, the composer of Rachmaninov Variations album on which I read a letter from an Ukrainian refugee.
I am so grateful for the mention and for Teodore’s kind words, this project is very special and close to my heart because of the w*r and the obvious social and political consequences of it all.
Please listen to the whole album if you get a chance:
https://fanlink.tv/rachvariations
The article came just before the World Theatre Day which is also a very special day for me as it took me a long time to call myself an actress and see myself as part of the performance industry. So it’s a good reminder where I got in my journey.
Sending you all warm wishes with a bit of a holiday vibe going on 💚
Finally a thorough and in-depth review of our show The World Of Yesterday. I wasn’t even surprised when I read it and saw that the reviewer from the Eastern European Arts platform Izba Arts, on the contrary to many others that came to see our show, was not confused, surprised and resentful by our show but approached it with curiosity, open mind and experience and knowledge of a different types of theatre making.
Eastern European influenced theatre differs greatly from the Western, especially British one and what I often came across in my own as well as other Eastern European theatre works is this incomprehension of the ways it’s made and tools that are chosen to make it. If the story is non linear, even a little bit surreal and varies from a typical script-based story telling it is met with bewilderment and often dismissed. I blame the lack of context, especially historical, cultural but also perhaps low exposure to variety of theatre making in a whole world which would loosen a bit the traditional format through which the Eastern European creators are perceived.
The differences between the Eastern and Western European theatre and the reasons for it are a great subject for a next blog post which is coming shortly so watch this space.
Full review over here:
https://www.izbaarts.com/all-the-bridges-are-broken-between-today-and-yesterday/
We finished The World Of Yesterday play just a week ago and the life is already speeding up, pulling me in so many different directions that it’s hard to stop and reflect on what actually happened that week.
Well we played a show, twice!
The space was small, much smaller than we expected and were used to but we made it work (somehow).
Was it stressful? – obviously.
Was it amazing to be on stage again and become many different characters, and sing and dance, and almost cry, and be part of this moving machine which is the company, even only for one hour – absolutely.
That’s what it’s like in this business.
Often uncomfortable, never perfect, never 100% how we want it to be, always under rehearsed, with lots of pressure, last minute changes and green room dramas.
But we do come back to that place on stage, to that moment, to this feeling. We never have enough of it. Even if we are frustrated – it passes and then we try again and again.
And we dream about big stages with strong lights, full audiences and spatial mirrored changing rooms, we dream about it being our one and only, well paid job.
And we do it underpaid or for free, in tiny cupboard changing rooms, with one mirror for 10 people and one toilet, with 15 minutes at the end for changing, packing costumes and all the set up of the microscopic size stage, we do it anyway, because it’s LOVE.
The World Of Yesterday was a very short meeting of more than 10 talented people with dreams of a life different than their own. People of synchronised passions, of enough space inside themselves to compromise, be patient, let go and handle rejection, and enough energy to keep going, offer their own thoughts and feelings, deal with stress and dramas and still, despite everything, love what they are doing.
Is it incredible ? – yes
Is it impossible? – yes it is.
All actors and other creatives know what I mean but I feel that we are not talking about it enough with the wider public.
With the people who often look at us from an outside, who come and enjoy the show but maybe don’t know exactly how that happens that it comes to life. Who don’t follow us on our every day journey to rehearsals through the chains of tube and trains, through frustration and revelation moments. But mostly trains.
Who often don’t know how many times we wanted to give up, kick this life in a butt and slide into a comfort of a 9-5 bank job.
And how many times we didn’t and all those times made this show happen.
All those times we didn’t give up created a moment for all of us to share on that one evening.
This post was supposed to be about reviews because for many years I chased the reviewers for their feedback, for this star of validation of our temporary creation.
Because I thought that the art to be shown publicly has be GOOD, in opinions of others GOOD. That reviewers needed to like our play, announce it online on their blogs and then it would matter, then we would be welcomed in the circle of artists who are allowed to create MORE.
But that was before, years before even.
Now, after all the effort and life troubles of recent years, I am proud and grateful that we can just DO it, that we can make it happen. I know so many people don’t have that luxury.
Between everyone’s jobs, lack of funding for arts, lack of time and lack of money in people’s pockets to buy a ticket we still managed to create a show in a few months, perform it on a festival and sell it out on the last night.
It’s a success despite what anyone thought about the show. It’s a success because it was made, it had an imprint on our material plane and in people’s minds and hearts and wasn’t, like in so many other cases, just a thought, just an unfulfilled dream and that’s it.
My big and warm thanks to our director Anya Ostrovskaia for making it happen and to all the cast and crew for sticking with her.
~ Zuza
🖤https://ayoungishperspective.co.uk/2024/11/21/review-the-world-of-yesterday-a-cabaret-evening/?amp=1
Last show of The World Of Yesterday is done!! Thank you everyone for coming to watch us ♥️ Special thanks to my friends Malwina and John who came to support me despite the cold weather and middle of the week kind of evening.
Big thanks to the whole amazing cast Adam Hypki, Zora Owen, Yanina Hope, Abraham Kleinman, Tanya Lyalina, Pini Brown and our director Anya Ostrovskaia, producer Jack Carr, designer Shahaf Beer, movement director Mari Camiloti, costume designer Carolyn Corben and photographers Valya Korabelnikova and Lucyna Kaniecka.
Also thank you Paulina Palian Design for the beautiful dress that I am wearing in the show.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to Voila Festival for choosing our show, that was my first time performing as part of the festival and also first time in Camden’s People Theatre.
It was a pleasure working with you all!
I am not sure what are the further plans for the play but I will keep you updated if there are any more performances.
For now – au revoir !
We are back with The World Of Yesterday by Anya Ostrovskaia in Camden’s People Theatre on Voila Fest on the 19th and 20th of November, get your tickets now if you want to see our show!
Book here: https://www.voilafestival.co.uk/events/the-world-of-yesterday/
We finished our run of The World Of Yesterday on Camden Fringe!!
Big thanks to all the cast Adam Hypki ,Zora Owen, Yanina Hope, Nadav Antman Ron, Tanya Lyalina, Pini, our director Anna Ostrovskaia and producer Jack Carr, movement director Mari Camiloti and costume designer Caroline, it was great working with you!
Also huge thanks you to Liberal Jewish Synagogue and Artfix London for offering their space for rehearsals and to our wonderful photographers @valya_korabelnikova and Lucyna Kaniecka , thank you to Eddie Saint-Jean, @lostintheatreland for reviews and interviews and to The Courtyard Theatre and The Camden Fringe for having us ! ♥️😍🙏
Very grateful to every single person who came to see our show!
One of the roles I am playing in the wartime drama The World Of Yesterday is Theodor Herzl, come to see us perform for just 2 more evenings at The Courtyard Theatre, part of The Camden Fringe, don’t miss it!
Pictures by Lucyna Kaniecka
Tickets: https://camdenfringe.com/events/the-world-of-yesterday/
Day 3 of The Camden Fringe is done, 3 shows to go! It’s been an emotional few weeks building up to the Premiere of The World Of Yesterday but now we are more grounded and settled in our show 🙂
Tickets: https://camdenfringe.com/events/the-world-of-yesterday/
We are running only until the 25th of August in The Courtyard Theatre , don’t miss it!
Pictures by Valya Korabelnikova
Dress by Paulina Palian
We are performing The World Of Yesterday in 3 days!!!
Come to The Courtyard Theatre on the 20-25 at 6pm to find out what is this all about.
Tickets: https://camdenfringe.com/events/the-world-of-yesterday/
Lovely announcement from our production team!
I am playing the Young Woman in our upcoming play The World Of Yesterday based on the writings of Stefan Zweig and directed by Anya Ostrovskaia.
We are performing at Camden Fringe on the 20-25 August in The Courtyard Theatre
Please come to see us in 3 weeks!
Tickets: https://camdenfringe.com/events/the-world-of-yesterday/
We had our first review of Naked Truth written by Chelsea Patel for LONDONTHEATRE1, thank you so much!!
https://www.londontheatre1.com/reviews/naked-truth-at-the-welwyn-civic-centre-review/
Edinburgh Fringe tickets: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/naked-truth
Zuza Tehanu 