Our newspaper’s writers also attended the event held at ENKA Auditorium for Genco Erkal, the founder of Dostlar Theater and the great master of Turkish theatre. Assoc. Dr. In the first session of the event facilitated by Ferdi Çetin, our authors Prof. Dr. Ayşegül Yüksel, Prof. Dr. Dikmen Gürün, Zeynep Oral and critic, writer, translator Seçkin Selvi expressed Genco Erkal’s contribution to the festival with his 65-year art struggle.
Ayşegül Yüksel participated via video and emphasized that Genco Erkal’s life and theater are a whole. Then, Seçkin Selvi said that he was a great artist who witnessed his age with his art, and talked about Erkal’s journey in the theater, which started with the Young Players, and the period until the establishment of Dostlar Theatre, which pioneered Turkish theater, in 1969.
‘HE WAS PRESSURED, HE DID NOT GIVE UP’
Zeynep Oral talked about this period, during which she continued her life as an actress, director and writer without compromising the art of theater until the last day of her life, by recalling many of her plays, from Alpagut Olayı to Sivas 93.
Oral said, “Two writers played a very important role in Genco Erkal’s life and theater. Bertolt Brecht, from whom he played many of his plays and from whom he took the dialectical method, and Nâzım Hikmet, whose voice I witnessed him carry to every continent of the world he breathed,” he said, underlining that he was under a lot of pressure because he was the voice of those who resisted, but he did not give up. He wanted his name to be given to a theater stage and his statue to be erected.
‘SOCIALIST ART’
Dikmen Gürün talked about the enjoyable and educational journey that started with “My People”, which they performed during the festival he directed between 1993 and 2012, and also included “A Gift to Nâzım”, which he staged at Rumeli Fortress with the women’s choir. Gürün said, “He never compromised on the socialist art policy he has been following for years. He brought the deep problems and questions about the society and system he examined through the filter of his mind to the stage. “It is the essence of the criticism that Genco has been making on stage and sharing with us for 65 years,” he said.
In the second session, musician Yiğit Özatalay and star actors Tülay Günal and Meral Çetinkaya talked about what a valuable experience it was to share the same stage with him.
Source: www.cumhuriyet.com.tr
