The list of my roles in theatre is short, but impressive. As a student I staged an episode from Oscar Wilde\u2019s \u201cAn Ideal Husband\u201d where I played Mrs. Cheveley, and I also staged a play by Prosper Merimee \u201cLe Carrosse du Saint-Sacrament\u201d where I portrayed Perichole. After that I focused on films and made 4 movies. In 2 of them \u2013 first ever screen versions of Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s plays \u201cBefore Breakfast\u201d and \u201cThe Movie Man\u201d I portrayed Mrs. Rowland and Anita Fernandez respectively. My big stage debut as a professional theatre actress was on Hollywood stage \u2013 nothing less, nothing more. I played Antonia in Alim Kouliev\u2019s show \u201cTill Death Do Us Part\u201d. And currently I play Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s third wife, actress Carlotta Monterey in my theatre production, comedy with elements of opera \u201cChaliapin\/O\u2019Neill\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NY Glam:<\/strong> Define your job as a performer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Making people\u2019s life happier, their cultural life brighter and spiritual life richer. Through my films and stage productions, plays and scripts, songs, lectures, master-classes \u2013 through everything I do I try to enlighten my audience. I want to inspire people through my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam:<\/strong> How long have you been a theater artist and when did\nyou get your start?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ever since I was born. We had a class of theatre at school in Nalchik. Before that every year we participated in amazing theatre shows at a kindergarten in Nalchik. It may sound childish and amateur for someone, but our shows for New Year\u2019s Eve or graduation party were fantastic and truly professional. Starting from the costumes and ending with talented performances by then kids. I studied acting for 4 years in Moscow and graduated from the most prestigious Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in 2007. I decided to found my own International Luxurious Theatre \u2013 AM\/NA THEATRE. 10 years later my dream came true and in 2017 I staged 2 shows \u2013 \u201c7 Days. 7 Nights\u201d and \u201cFaithful Wife\u201d, in 2019 I directed my third and biggest theatre show so far \u2013 \u201cChaliapin\/O\u2019Neill\u201d. It\u2019s been a very long way, but it\u2019s my way and it\u2019s truly original. There\u2019s nothing greater than performing on stage, and I intend to make more theatre shows in the close future, star in them and write original soundtrack for all of them. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said: \u201cWithout music, life would be a mistake\u201d. I will rephrase his line and say \u2013 Without my music, my theatre productions would be a mistake. People love it. Those who don\u2019t read the program before the show, think that O\u2019Neill\u2019s theme \u2013 jazz \u2013 is written by George Gershwin, and they guess who\u2019s the composer of Chaliapin\u2019s theme \u2013 instrumental composition \u201cHeaven\u201d. Both themes are written by me. I am so happy people love my music and I am happy to be confused with Gershwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam:<\/strong> What is the\nmost exciting opportunity you have had as a freelance artist?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Playing Antonia in \u201cTill Death Do Us Part\u201d opposite Alim Kouliev on Hollywood stage \u2013 at Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre \u2013 was the most exciting opportunity I\u2019ve had. I really enjoyed working in Hollywood with brilliant actor\/director Alim Kouliev. Starring in Kouliev\u2019s production was an honor and joy. I wrote an adaptation of Dario Fo\u2019s and Franca Rame\u2019s play \u201cThe Open Couple\u201d for this show and it was an additional pleasure to perform it, especially my monologue, new dialogues and sarcastic lines and jokes I added throughout the play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam:<\/strong> Where do you get your inspiration from? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n From Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s work, he is my biggest inspiration. Rudolf Nureyev inspires me each time I see his beautiful face, I mean he doesn\u2019t even need to dance to inspire me. Michael Jackson is my never-ending music inspiration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam:<\/strong> What advice would you give to someone who wants to\nhave a career in Theater performing? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Respect your\ncolleagues. If you are ready to perform 9 shows a week on the highest\nprofessional level and if you are a team player, you\u2019re going to make it\neverywhere. Discipline, hard work and work ethic will get you where you dream\nto be. Of course, it\u2019s great to perform on stages of famous theatres worldwide,\nbut at the end of the day it\u2019s not the most important thing. It\u2019s incredible to\nhave a sold-out show in the well-known buildings with a lot of history, but\nstill buildings must not be the main aim. More important, in my opinion, is how\nyou will be remembered as a professional and as a human being, a humanist, a\ntrue artist who doesn\u2019t bring drama backstage and doesn\u2019t have a diva attitude.\nSomeone actors\/directors would love to work again with, someone people would\nlove to see on stage and meet off stage after the show. I\u2019m talking about real\nclass many actors miss today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam:<\/strong> Are there any new exciting shows or projects that\nyou are working on or have lined up in the near future?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are so many of them! In 2017 I wrote an adaptation of one of Alexander Kuprin\u2019s stories. I hope to stage it soon. It\u2019s Russian classics and the production will be in Russian language. I am revising my play about Rudolf Nureyev at the moment. When it\u2019s ready, I will stage it in English. Literally can\u2019t wait for it to happen. I have 2 amazing movie projects \u2013 short and feature, both in a comedy genre. I am beyond excited about the upcoming 9th<\/sup> International Filmmaker festival of New York (IFFNY) – May 15-19, 2020. As a Festival Art Director, I want to underline that IFFNY becomes global, we have a lot of submissions from around the world. IFFNY is respected within United States and internationally, it is prestigious and unique. By the way submissions are open till March1st, 2020, you can submit your films and music videos on www.filmfreeway.com<\/a> or www.iffny.com<\/a>. This year is set to be the biggest yet. All filmmakers who participated at IFFNY, want to come back to our festival with new movies. It again proves the highest level of IFFNY, incredible atmosphere and diverse, strong program where gifted independent filmmakers dream to see their films. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam: Do you express yourself creatively in any other ways?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I do, in all the\nexisting ways \u2013 I compose music, write songs, poems, scientific articles,\nscripts, plays, reviews on Broadway productions of Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s plays. With\neach show in my theatre I expand the format of the evening. <\/strong>AM\/NA THEATRE is more than a theatre. It\nis a festival in one night. <\/strong>In Addition to 3 sold out shows \u201cCHALIAPIN\/O\u2019NEILL\u201d\n(2019) in Moscow we made an exclusive exhibition \u201cChaliapin and O\u2019Neill\u201d for\nthe audience. MTS Bank was the General Partner of the Performance on December\n16th<\/sup>, 2019 in the Museum of Music. I gave a lecture \u201cAmerican media\nin the life of Feodor Chaliapin and Russian media in the life of Eugene O\u2019Neill\u201d\nat the Russian Presidential Academy. Right after the World Premiere of my\nplay\/production in April 2019 I had a PUBLIC TALK with the Principal of Russian\nAcademy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) Grigory Zaslavskiy. After each performance\neveryone can meet and greet cast of the show. Like on Broadway, people can get\ntheir program signed by actors, also program is included in the price of the\nticket. Starting ticket price has increased 4 times because of huge success of\nthe show. I am very happy with the result in Moscow and looking forward to\nmoving my production to Broadway \u2013 where my favorite playwright Eugene O\u2019Neill\nwas born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam: What can we\nexpect from you in 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An international tour of \u201cChaliapin\/O\u2019Neill\u201d and new theatre productions.\nInshAllah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam: Where can\neveryone keep up with you to learn more? \u2026social media\u2026website <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On Facebook: aminazhamanofficial, amina.zhaman and<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instagram: aminazhamanofficial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exclusive Interview with Amina Zhaman- Filmmaker & Theater performer NY Glam: Tell me about your experience as a Theater performer? The list of my roles in theatre is short, but impressive. As a student I staged an episode from Oscar Wilde\u2019s \u201cAn Ideal Husband\u201d where I played Mrs. Cheveley, and I also staged a play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19329,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions\/19329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nyglamour.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Photo-by-Anna-Gabitova-1-478x1024.jpg\")
Photo by Anna Gabitova <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n