İKSV Istanbul Theater Festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary. In this context, this year's Honorary Award was presented to dear Tilbe Saran at the press conference held recently. While watching the ceremony, I thought about her achievements over the years and how the meaningful beauty in her face and voice was reflected in her art. I have watched Tilbe in almost every play she has appeared in since 1984, when she fell in love with theater and stepped on stage professionally for the first time at the Kenter Theatre. And in every play I watched, I was impressed by his power of interpretation that grasped the audience.
A BRIEF TRIP AMONG THE GAMES
While listening to Tilbe Saran's elegant speech, I remembered our first meeting at the Theater Festival. In 1986, Zeynep Avcı translated Ronald Duncan's play "Abelard and Heloise", which was the first production of Aksanat Production Theatre, into our language and Işıl Kasapoğlu interpreted it. Duygu Sağıroğlu's stage design, Joel Simon's music and Cüneyt Türel and Tilbe Saran's acting enriched our festival and remained on the posters for a long time afterwards. I remembered the plays that Tilbe starred in, which were the guests of the festival between 1993 and 2012. In fact, he has acted in so many plays outside of the Theater Festival, added dimension to TV series and movies with his presence and continues to do so... I wish I could mention them all, but it is impossible.
August Strindberg's "Creditors" fascinated me in 1998 as a work that brought together Işıl Kasapoğlu, Zeynep Avcı, Duygu Sağıroğlu, as well as Cüneyt Türel, Köksal Engür and Tilbe Saran. “Creditors” was based on the showdown of three people within a mathematical fiction, and Tilbe Saran, with her successful interpretation, examined the position of women who rebel against the system in a male-dominated society. In "Molly S.", produced by Aksanat Production Theater in 1999, she played a blind girl and expressed the problems she would face with her sensitive acting...
And in the same year; She appeared as an unforgettable Nina in Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull", which she played with Kent Actors. With his measured play, he captured the joys, longings, rebellion, silence and undying resistance of the young girl. It was undoubtedly a pleasure to work with a team consisting of legendary names such as Yıldız Kenter, Müşfik Kenter, Şükran Güngör and many other valuable artists.
'A GIFT TO NÂZIM' AND...
I have written a lot about this project so far. As you may remember, our festival started to be held every two years in 2002 due to the economic problems of the country. As a result of the help of Genco Erkal, whom I remember fondly today, the Theater Festival production "A Gift to Nâzım" was born: The women's choir consisting of Yıldız Kenter, Ayla Algan, Zeliha Berksoy, Jülide Kural, Zuhal Olcay, Tilbe Saran, Sema, Zeynep Tanbay, Işık Yenersu were accompanying Genco Erkal with their voices, words and acting. On the Rumeli Fortress stage, which was taken from the art world in 2008... Metin Deniz, Selim Atakan, Bilge Mesci, Kemal Yiğitcan were the master names in the project.
The festival audience met once again with Işıl Kasapoğlu, Duygu Sağıroğlu, Cüneyt Türel, Köksal Engür and Tilbe Saran in Behiç Ak's play "One Man City", produced by Aksanat Production Theatre. This play was a reckoning between mechanized, stuck and overwhelmed individuals with their own history and the history of the city they lived in, turning into nothingness.
In 2012, in the 40th anniversary of İKSV, Tilbe Saran speaks to us once again from a huge giant screen, this time in the "Istanbul Istanbul" project implemented by La Fura dels Baus at the Haliç Camialtı Shipyard.
AND 'YOUR HAND IS IN MY HAND'
