Nabi Abdurakhmanov - a traveler between worlds, a 'wandering star'?! Not only an experienced and
unconventional theater director, one of the most prominent figures of the contemporary Uzbek stage.
A connoisseur of Eastern and European theater, a long-time successful organizer and inspirer of
International Theater Festivals in Tashkent, a director-teacher who received solid professional
education "first-hand" in the system of K.S. Stanislavsky.
He has grasped the very essence of this system and, enriching his understanding with the discoveries
of E. Vakhtangov, V. Meyerhold, M. Chekhov, P. Brook, E. Grotowski, the experience of commedia
dell'arte theater and ancient square Uzbek folk theater of masqarabozes and kizikchi, created his own
unique system of training and "infecting" students with the idea of Theater as the embodiment of
Divine love, elevating and enriching Human, a theatre as a festive. Theater as a parallel reality?
Director-demiurge? Perhaps so... With each of his productions, he creates a special World and allows
Spectator, no, invites Spectator to become a co-participant and co-creator of this world. The action -
always towards Spectator.
Facts of his biography can be compared to the beginnings of biographies of child stars of American
cinema.
Nabi Abdurakhmanov is a descendant of a family almost all of whom were firmly associated with
Uzbek cinema. At the age of 10, he starred in a sensational historical series shown throughout the
Soviet Union. He grew up, one might say, behind the scenes of "Uzbekfilm". It would seem - a
direct path to the film industry. But to "fall in love" with theater is already forever. The further is the
heritage of the history of one of the richest periods in the development of the diverse theater art of
Uzbekistan, starting from 1980, up to the collapse of the empire and during the period of the
flourishing independence of Uzbekistan after 1991.
From the age of 22, he has dedicated over 40 years of his life to directing. To realize about 70
productions, among them works in Uzbekistan on the most diverse stages up to large-scale open-air
compositions, in Russia, Israel, and now, in the USA. Nabi Abdurakhmanov knows and masters all
the crafts of theater. Of course, a perfectionist, but also a super-professional. To create and nurture
three Theaters and to raise the entire troupe oneself. Only with a "single blood group" can one
understand each other almost without words. Such maximalism in our fast-paced and slightly
superficial era. No, it's not a waste of years to create like-minded actors. And where to find them, if
not to form them oneself?
Yes, Nabi Abdurakhmanov is also a theater builder. It's almost a separate profession, implying a
special scale. A director - a theater builder possesses the ability to see the outlines and anticipate the
development, as if from the height of a bird's flight, of what does not yet exist in space and time. To
feel and capture these fluid currents and, like a sculptor, to pour them into one or another form of
reality.
All this painstaking, tireless, sometimes almost "Sisyphean" work of creating a new theatrical
organism, laying the foundations, the process of maturation and "hatching" from virtual space into
real. The action is almost magical, akin to magic.
So it was in 1988: the creation of the "DARD" Theater-Studio based on the graduates of the acting-
directing course, where Nabi Abdurakhmanov taught at Alma Mater - the Tashkent State Theater and
Art Institute. It was: absolutely non-theatrical territory outside the theatrical-concert sanctuaries of
Tashkent, lack of funding, the last shaky years of the empire... It became: a small versatile troupe of
high-class professionals, a repertoire that now leaves no doubt - Chekhov, Delaney, Schaffer,
Mrożek, Pinter, their loyal and grateful audience, performances at festivals, the attention of critics
beyond Uzbekistan.
And in the beginning of 1991, Nabi Abdurakhmanov took over one of the oldest theaters in Central
Asia - the State Russian Theater for Young Audience, founded in 1928. The troupe of the "DARD"
Theater-Studio merged with it, like young wine into old wineskins. And there were almost legendary
25 years of forming a completely new theatrical organism. The School-Studio at the theater, its own
actor releases at Alma Mater allowed to create an actor's Guard. Otherwise, you can't define it. Since
1998, under the name of the Youth Theater of Uzbekistan, Nabi Abdurakhmanov's "construction
project" has become one of the most interesting young Russian-speaking theaters of the "near and
far abroad."
Uzbekistan's entry into ASSITEJ (International Association of Theaters for Children and Young
Audience) also occurred at the initiative of Nabi Abdurakhmanov.
The need to explore new horizons and a belief in the high mission of Theater led Nabi
Abdurakhmanov to New York in 2016. After successful master classes and productions at the Stella
Adler Studio ("Phaeton" based on M. Milligan's play), Tisch School of the Arts at New York
University ("Three Sisters" by A. Chekhov), and York College of the City University of New York,
an almost adventurous idea emerged to create his own project.
And here the narrative takes on almost mythological proportions. A whirlwind of energies begins in
the bustling, commercial, restaurant-filled, but not purely theatrical space of Brooklyn. How else to
imagine the creation of a Theater when an imagineered, yet meticulously detailed plan needs to be
projected into reality?
In 2018, Nabi Abdurakhmanov, together with his wife, actress and costume designer Vassa Vasileva,
founded the ESSENCE Theater-Studio, based in Brooklyn, New York, as well as the
TALENTLAND Children's Acting Studio.
Few believed that this project would survive in the "wilds" of New York. But already for 6 years,
both children's and adult courses are overflowing, and premieres are always openings for demanding
audiences. Plays by Russian classics - Nekrasov, Pushkin, magical parables by Timur Zulfikarov,
Iddo Netanyahu, intellectual parables by Jean Anouilh. Nabi Abdurakhmanov's own dramatizations
are a separate topic. The ability to see the "dramaturgical architecture" in a prose or poetic text,
subtly, without "injuring" the author, to translate the action into a "theatrical" language – is another
rare gift.
But this is also what is demanding of actors. Versatility, mastery of movement, vocals, dance, all the
technical arsenal of a Master. And, most importantly, a belief in the life-giving power of Theater.
And complete dedication.
Collaborating with Nabi Abdurakhmanov for any theater is enrichment, new experience, an exciting
adventure, and an encounter with the unknown.