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Extraordinary extras

06.12.2016

Extraordinary extras

Among the winners of the first Onegin National Opera Awards which took place recently was Irina Kuzmina, extras director at the Mikhailovsky Theatre. She was recognized in the “Soul of the Theatre” out-of-competition category.

Irina, please accept our heartfelt congratulations on this professional award. You’ve been involved with the extras for 50 years now...
And it’s my first professional award ever — and the first one for extras specifically. You might think, well, what are extras, anyway? They’re barely noticeable in a performance. But Sergei Leiferkus, who established the Onegin prize, was once an extra himself — during his time as a student at the conservatory. Incidentally, he and I were both in L’elisir d’amore. We performed as a pair. Many well-known performers were extras as students.

Tell us a bit about your creative journey. Why the extras?
After graduating from the Vaganova Leningrad State Choreographic Institute, I left for my state assigned job in Petrozavodsk. Then I returned to St. Petersburg and got married. We had two children. My husband was unhappy that I was never at home: “The children need a mother, not a ballerina!” So I moved from the ballet company to the extras. And I don’t regret it: my former ballet colleagues have long since finished their careers and are sitting at home, while I continue to work.

How difficult is it to be an extra?
Extras bear a large responsibility. It’s not just about crowd scenes — they provide genuine help to the soloists. For example, in L’elisir d’amore, Dulcamara’s servant Riccardo is an extra. If Dulcamara suddenly forgets what he’s supposed to do, Riccardo will hand him the right bottles or other props at the appropriate moment. I always tell our performers: “You have to respond to the soloists.” If the singer is doing something wrong, you have to help them rather than simply adhere to your own role. How else could it work? There’s no other way to do it. Soloists do sometimes make mistakes: they might forget, or they might not have had the time to learn things — that can happen with guest performers, for example. That’s where the extras come in — they help, they offer prompts. We need responsive people who can think on their feet.

Do you need to have any special skills or particular qualities to be an extra?
Sometimes we cast acrobats — that’s the case with Dvořák’s Rusalka right now. In Andriy Zholdak’s production of Eugene Onegin, the extras have significant roles; they’re very important to this director’s interpretation. For example, the character called “Onegin’s servant” is played by Alexey Ingelevich, who is 1 metre tall; there’s no other artist like him in this city. I’ll admit, we tried to find a substitute for him, but to no avail. The performance would be unimaginable without him.

It really is a special part, unique within opera. Who makes up the core of the ensemble?
Right now, we have 23 extras; before, we had only 5. Most of them work part-time and have other jobs. There’s someone who sings in the conservatory choir, someone else who works as a props master; we even have a realtor. But everyone here holds a university degree, whether in philology, geography, or something else. They’re attracted to the theatre because they have acting talent, and they are simply addicted to the stage. Incidentally, we often get people auditioning from Lenfilm (a major film studio in the city), but they rarely make it in. For the camera, literally one shot, they can do something, but to work with us you have to have the stamina for an entire act. What you need is a feel for theatrical space, and that doesn’t come on its own.

We often see crowd scenes involving children. Whose children are they?
As a rule, they’re the children or grandchildren of members of our company. The really little ones are four — we don’t go any younger than that.

What production requires the largest number of extras?
The biggest crowd scene we have right now is in La Juive. That one requires over 40 people. It’s my job to make sure that all 40 are able to participate in rehearsals and then in the performances themselves. Every scene, every cue and entrance in La Juive is mapped out down to the minute. All extras have to go through casting, just like the performers in the main roles. The results of these kinds of castings are usually unpredictable, and it’s impossible to plan everything in advance.

You have some pretty diverse responsibilities: you’re a performer and a director at the same time. Can you describe your role as the extras director and also talk about your favourite stage role?
My responsibilities include casting all the performers beforehand, calling everyone to find out if they’ll be able to participate, finding subs if I have to, and overseeing costume fittings. Our costumes generally have a long lifespan, but occasionally they have to be adjusted or altered, for example when someone gains or loses weight, or when we have a new person for a particular role. After the fitting, I usually watch from the auditorium or from offstage to see how they do. If someone can’t manage, we switch them with another performer. I only select extras from people we already have some connection to, and trust. They come from personal recommendations — I don’t take just anyone from off the street. As for my favourite stage role, that’s the Empress in the Queen of Spades, and also an unnamed part in Barkhatov’s version of Eugene Onegin, where I drummed on the bottom of a basin in the winter festivities scene. I liked that a lot. The director asked me to drum off the beat, which was hard. In Der fliegende Holländer, I played the so-called “disgruntled woman.” I was supposed to walk across the stage as though everyone was annoying me and was in my way. I had a great little hat in that one, although the best costume is definitely that of the Empress.

Have you ever gone on tour with the theatre?
If the theatre goes on tour, so do the extras. We’ve been to London several times, to perform Spartacus and Laurencia. We took The Flames of Paris to the States; we spent a whole month there.

Could you tell us a funny story about the life of an extra?
Funny things happen to us quite often. I remember we were doing Prince Igor, where the extras enter with halberds. When the backdrop was being lowered, the net caught on a halberd, and the poor extra couldn’t get it loose. Everyone had long since turned around and left the stage, but he had to stand there through the whole act, just like that, until the curtain fell!

Does your ensemble discuss new productions? Does it have its own opinions about different performances?
Of course! Just like anyone who’s involved in the theatre. We discuss new productions, and we like certain things but not others. We have our own opinions. We’re not at all apathetic about what the theatre puts out. All in all though, we’ve got a great team, everyone means well, and as a rule we pretty much like everything.
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