An interview with theater director Andra Sentivani–Berkolda.
Andra St.Ivanyi-Berkolda (USA) has staged several plays and musical productions in Los Angeles (“Gudrais padomiņš” with music by Lolita Ritmane), in Latvia (Andrejs Jansons’ “Lolitas brīnumputns”), in Garezers (Andrejs Jansons’ “Sprīdītis”), and her own original play “Hotel Paradiso” with music by Dace Aperāne at the Latvian Song Festivals in Ventura and Milwaukee. For her work in the field of theater, she has received awards from the Goppers Foundation, the World Federation of Free Latvians, and the American Latvian Association.
At the Grand Rapids festival, two comedy performances of “Please, be Seated!” directed by Andra will be staged. (Tickets available here.)
1.The play you will be presenting at the Festiva has an intriguing title “Lūdzu, uzgaidiet!”
The play is called “Please Have a Seat” because it takes place in the waiting room of a psychiatrist’s office (which is already intriguing) The premise is simple: due to a technological glitch, all the patients for that day have been instructed to arrive at 9 a.m. instead of their usual times. As they wait for the therapist, they argue about whose crisis is more important.
So, the office manager tries to keep peace. Adding another layer of complication is that a man who's not a patient has dashed into the office to take cover. He can't leave. He's trying to navigate what's going on until he finally realizes, okay, this is not a dentist’s office, it's a psychiatrist's office. He jumps into their arguments and points out what to a healthy person seems obvious, but to people in the midst of crises there are insults or harsh truths they can't escape and are desperately trying to get help to manage.
That's the first half. In the background, adding fuel to the fire, is an off-screen crime, and in the second half of the play, they tentatively cooperate to try to protect themselves against their own creeping paranoia about the criminal that's on the loose ... and solve the mystery. They are not very successful on either count.
2. Why did you choose this topic?
It's a British-style farce, a comedy. I have had very great responses from audiences with my comedies. I very much want to present something uplifting for the Song Festival.
I enjoyed some of the heavier pieces I've seen at recent Festivals, especially those that are based in history. I considered another idea, more of reflection about the American Latvian community building lives in the U.S. after the refugee years; I have great admiration for that generation. But it didn't feel appropriate for this occasion and my initial plot ideas were clumsy (and not funny). Maybe one day I'll return to it. "Please Have a Seat" is not specifically Latvian. It doesn't explore any specifically Latvian themes. It is more a comment about today’s pop culture, the flood of available information and influences, and how people must sift through it all as they search for truth. I think the light mood is appreciated and draws more people into the theater.
3. What can you tell us about the play's creative team?
I have invited three actors from the West Coast, one from Garezers, three from the New York, New Jersey area and two from Latvia.
None work in the theater professionally. We're all just theatre nuts and amateurs.
Most of them, except for one, have all had acting experience but we all chose different careers. For example, Juris Žvikovs from Latvia is an accomplished, award-winning pianist from Rīga who made such a memorable impact playing Banga in "Hotel Paradiso!"
But it was also very important to me that my cast be composed mostly of American Latvians, because this is our “Svētki” and our Festival, one where we should show off our talents.
The talented Set Designer, Kat Blakeslee, is connected to Grand Rapids Civic Theater. My sister, Marika Szentivanyi, will be the stage manager. The other two people who have been enormously helpful are Dziesma Tetere, the play's producer who was instrumental in the show's casting, and Diāna Pone who has been my liaison with the Festival board. Diāna has been incredible in dealing with logistics - finding a rehearsal area and living spaces for the actors in Garezers, and many other critical details.
Another important addition to our team is the former Garezers administrator Andrejs Dumpis, who will be catering the meals for the entire group during the rehearsal period in Garezers.
Your experience as a director working with Latvian theatre is quite impressive. I remember your wonderful collaboration with Andrejs Jansons working on the play “Sprīdītis” in summer 2006.
In 1986, I appeared in a movie, and Andrejs Jansons got wind of that and invited me to participate in his play “Gundega” for 1988 Indianapolis Song Festival. It was then that I met Paul Berkolds, who so kindly volunteered to act as my vocal coach. We married the following year.
In 2003, I wrote and directed “Gudrais padomiņš” (Good Advice), a musical with Lolita Ritmane’s original music. It was specifically tailored for the ages and talents of the students in our Los Angeles Latvian school, and it was warmly received.
I jumped at the chance to direct “Sprīdītis” in 2006, and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding undertakings. It's a wonderful story with so many different types of characters and sets. I find my greatest joy in shaping scenes and directing the actors. I love to encourage them to go bigger, to take risks. I love to draw out of them what they didn’t know they had, to emphasize what they bring to the stage and find humor in small moments. It's so much fun.
The assembled support team with “Spīdītis” was so extensive and well-oiled that I didn’t have to worry about anything except the actors. The entire Garezers community was all in; everybody was participating at some level, and everybody had, as far as I know, a really good experience. I still consider that one of my most rewarding summers spent in theater.
Andrejs Jansons was pleased with the result and later invited me to direct the musical “Lolitas Brīnumputns” in 2018 in Rīga, Latvia for the 100th anniversary Song Festival. I get along well with younger people, with the teenage crowd, with creative types, and that was also a memorable experience.
5. While many of the Festival organizers highlighted their Latvian Latvian roots, your upbringing stands out: a Hungarian father, growing up in Saudi Arabia, but your mother enforced Latvian language at home.
Yes, living in Saudi Arabia means we were obviously isolated from other Latvians. We spent summers in Garezers and I limped along as best I could with my fragmented Latvian. Because our school in Arabia ended after ninth grade, requiring us to head off to boarding school, my mother told us (my older sister and a younger brother) that we had to spend one year at the Latvian Gymnasium, Munster, in West Germany.
But to prepare us, she had to teach us proper Latvian. She made us translate an hour a day, which is a lot for a twelve-year-old! My older sister tried to get out of it but had no luck; my mom had incredible force of will. And I watched that and thought, well, I’m not even going to fight my mother here. I just must do it. (I fought a little, to be truthful.)
All three of us attended the Latvian Gymnasium and of course, in the end we were grateful for the preparation. Years later, when I began to think about my own family, I didn't want to put my children through that. So, I thought, if remaining part of the Latvian-American community is important to me, I better marry a Latvian so my children grow up with the language and are naturally bonded to the community, or I marry an American and regard my roots as a kind of interesting historical fact with no real impact on my identity. I was blessed to meet Paul, and so the former option sort of chose itself.
We now have property in Latvia and spend time in Rīga, as Paul has a wide circle of friends and colleagues there. Naturally questions about the future come up. I really enjoy visiting.
Do I ever want to live there? I'm not sure. Paul and I have three children. I will one day have grandchildren here in the States, so living here seems right for us. It seems that in every phase of life, the question has to be answered again in a different way.
My mother spent half a year here in the U.S. and half a year in Latvia. And she was very happy to do that. That kind of compromise might work for everyone.
Your mom Ieva Auziņa–St. Ivanyi has transformed thousands of Latvian Dainas into English over 18 years. Can we say it was her life's work?
I think so! Her passion for the dainas didn't begin when I thought it did. She had always been interested in literature, poetry, and history. When she couldn't find English translations or transpositions of her beloved dainas that really rang true for her, she wondered, Maybe I could do this. She started to scribble down various transpositions and soon she had hundreds. But how do I organize them? And who would read them? Her goal was always to bring the wisdom and beauty of these four-lined Latvian poems to an English-speaking audience, and of course, there are various layers of meaning to them that required explanation.
All four beautiful books were self-published with the support of the Latvian Foundation and the American Latvian Association Cultural Foundation. The books have been quite popular. A composer with the Berlin Philharmonic set some of them to music, and The Economist wrote a short article about them. Soon we will be placing the books into libraries in Ireland, England and Latvia.
Yes, it seems like an unusual project, even for her, but it drew on several of her strengths and interests. One important life lesson I've drawn from her years of work is how this undertaking galvanized and rewarded the final decades of her life. Once your professional life ends, some other endeavor must give you a sense of focus and purpose and passion.
You and Pauls are moving to Garezers. Do you have plans of what you will do there? There is a big Latvian community at Garezers, it is sometimes called little Latvia, but I assume that lifestyle in Michigan is different from California.
I will have to figure out how to live there, what my plan is to do there, how to build my own circle of friends and participate in and contribute to the richness of the community. I'm ready to leave Los Angeles and the big city and embrace a new life in a beautiful new place.
The best part of the move is the fact that my husband is so happy there! So that's 90% of my worries gone. Of course I fantasize, like most people, about devoting myself to all the things I never had time to do. Read all the books I never had time for. Learn to garden properly. Take classes in woodworking and Japanese cooking ... and of course find out where I fit in, what I can offer the Latvian community. I know some people who live there year-round, so we'll see what the good Lord has in store for me!
What events and concerts do you hope to attend?
I'm going to go to whichever events that I'm able to go to! Anyone who has led a particular event of this scope knows that one becomes so consumed by the details of the rehearsals and the show, but it may be that this group and this particular play moves quickly and all of us will have the headspace and time to enjoy the other events.
From my vantage point, the Festival has been so well organized, the hierarchy is so clearly delineated and the competent, creative people volunteering at every level are really on top of things that I can't wait to see the results -- crowds of happy people coming together for a long weekend of Latvian bonding, enrichment, friendship and fun.