Interview with Nurlan Asanbekov

Nurlan Asanbekov was the director of Kyrgyz State Theatre and trained at the Russian Theatre Academy of Arts in Moscow. Asanbekov founded Sakhna Theatre in 2002. The artists work and experiment with traditional material, creating contemporary experimental versions of the great Kyrgyz epics. They study the oral folk traditions of their nomadic culture in order to help them revive these epics through ritual theatre. The universal theme of man’s relationship with nature is at the heart of their productions. The epic stories are accompanied by traditional songs and instruments, further preserving this 1000 year old culture. To date they have created three productions: “Kerez” (The Testament) which won the main prize in Bishkek’s “Art-Ordo” International Theatre Festival, “Kurmanbek” and “Maktym-Dastan,” which were created with support from the Swiss Agency for Development.