I don't know what to tell you about. Death or love? Or is it one and the same? What shall I tell you? We were newlyweds. We still held hands in the street, even if we were just going to the store. I told him: "I love you." But I didn't even know how much. I had no idea. We lived in the hostel of the fire station where he worked. On the second floor. There were three other couples, and we all shared one kitchen. Below us, on the first floor, were the fire engines. Red fire engines. That was his work.
- A Solitary Human Voice
You're going to write about this? This! I would not like people to know this about me. What I experienced there. On the one hand, I would like to open up, to talk it through, but on the other, I feel that I am exposing myself and I do not like that.
- Pytor S., Psychologist
It is my feeling that VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL should constantly breath new life, for new audiences, with a variety of artists and various venues, and retain Drafts that are then used as educational entertainment, urging its audience to investigate the world around them.
I am not a writer. I can't describe things. My mind is not big enough to comprehend it. And my education is not sufficient either. There you are, living life, an ordinary person. Nothing special. Like everyone else around you -- you go to work and you come home from work. You get an average salary. You take a vacation every year. A normal person! And one fine day you suddenly turn into a Chernobyl person. A freak! Something that interests everyone and that no one knows anything about. You want to be like everyone else, but you no longer can.
-Nikolai Fomich Kalugin, father
Adaptor & Director, Cindy Marie Jenkins
D I R E C T O R
CINDY MARIE JENKINS is a freelance Theatre Director & Playwright. Her adaptation of VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL has been presented as part of the New Voices Festival at the Empty Stage Theatre, Edgefest, and is planning to be presented as a fundraiser for the UK & USA Chernobyl Children's Funds. She currently also teaches playwrighting and acting to students in The City of L.A. through Safe Moves' Teen DUI Theater Program, a free service to schools that believes in education through immersion. Cindy is also a regular contributor to www.lasnark.com, is a reviewer for www.uktheatre.net and you can also catch her thoughts on Chernobyl at www.voicesfromchornobyl.com/blog.
Recent directing includes: VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL: CHRONICLE OF THE FUTURE at the New Voices Festival, BOY GETS GIRL by Rebecca Gilman at the Attic Theatre, Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS with Sight Unseen, FOE PA:EPISODE 6 performed at the Fountain Theatre, VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL at Edgefest 2007 & PHILOKTETES at the Open Fist Theatre. She is currently the Dramaturge for VENICE: the Musical by G.F. Mlely (www.jazcraft.net).
She graduated from NYU with a BFA in Drama Direction and directed many works in New York, including MISSING SOMETHING by Stephen A. Fulchino, ANTIGONE & THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE by Brecht, and THE LAST HOUR by Donald Breckenridge.
Cindy is currently working with needtheater on TEN, a play exploring one's individual worth in times of war.
She has adapted many stories to the stage, including KING ARTHUR for children, and is also working on a one-woman show about Mary Todd Lincoln for Delvena Theatre Company in Boston. Her husband is a Lighting and Set Designer in L.A., whose work can be viewed at www.danjenkins.com
The evolution of VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL begins with my search for a one-act in 2005; I was handed a 160-pg printout of Voices From Chernobyl, interviews compiled by Svetlana Alexievich. My friend Nina had seen a French actress perform the piece “A Solitary Human Voice” and thought it would make a good one-act monologue. I read the first piece and then the entire book, then I felt compelled to adapt all of the stories. Since then, VOICES has had 2 incarnations, at the Open Fist and in the 2007 Edgefest. The latter performance was when the producer of the New Voices Sunday Series requested our participation in her festival, which will be VOICES’s 3rd incarnation.
