We had a pleasant interview with the award-winning actor İbrahim Sevinç, one of the founders of Curtain Art Theater, about his theater life.
–Hello Mr. İbrahim. When and how did you get into theater?
Hello. My debut in theater was in the summer of 2009, when I saw the announcement of acting education at Kızılay, and I went for an interview because I was so curious. I hadn’t thought of continuing it for very long. I started as a hobby. I’ve always heard the phrase ‘Art heals’, but I never imagined it would do me good. Afterwards, I took training from my esteemed teacher Rüstü Asyali in order to extend my education and improve myself. I took part in various theater teams. With the experiences I have gained and the knowledge I have learned, I have been obsessed with acting in order to improve myself. I decided to exist in this business by trying different methods and getting training.
Since 2009, I have been actively playing theater plays and continuing to improve myself in directing.
In addition to the theater, I have been working in the purchasing department of a private company for 13 years.
–You are the founder of the 2nd Curtain Art Theater. Can you tell us the story of the establishment of your theatre?
Perde Sanat Theater was a project that we talked about with Caner Karadağ for a long time, but could not bring it to life. At that time, Caner was playing in state theaters, and I was playing in municipal theater plays. We couldn’t find time and dare to set up our own theater. We finally found a good script and read it, and we did our first reading rehearsal in June 2016. We made a premiere with the play of Roulette on November 18, 2016 and declared that day as the founding day of Perde Sanat. The purpose of Perde Sanat is to gather actors who want to do theater together and it is a group of mostly volunteers. Our team is currently 18 people. In our theater, everyone works both in their own professional jobs and plays theatrical plays.
–Which character do you give life to in the play called İstibdat Kumpanyası?
Reading rehearsals of the İstibdat Company started in September 2021. The pandemic period has affected our theater and the rehearsals of our play, as it has affected everyone and everything. There was a rehearsal period of about 4 months. We made its premiere in February 2022. Istibat Kumpanyası was staged for the first time in Ankara by the Perde Sanat Theater. And it continues to be staged.
Our story is from the year 1876. It is a play within the theater, where the adventurousness of the middle actors and Şeref Pasha used the theater by arousing the public, the famous actor from France, Samuel Andre, is at the forefront of the theater and the feeling of not being able to be done is at the forefront. So far, we hear that most of our audience has left happy. As such, the tickets for our shows are sold out long beforehand. The Ankara audience did not leave us alone again and motivated us even more by filling our halls days in advance. I play the character of Sefer in the play. I’m the pasha’s squire. This is my first time playing such a character. I can say that Sefer and I got along well on stage. (laughs)
–Can you tell us about the awards you have received?
At the beginning of the pandemic period, we were very bored. We couldn’t play plays either. We were always thinking of making a short film and Caner wrote a script. It’s called War Crime. We shot it as a team. Hayri Çölaşan and Tamer Akçay had great support in this film. We had our shortcomings, our mistakes. But there was labor and we wanted to try our luck at the festivals. It got good results, which motivated us to shoot a new short film. We talked to the writer Hüseyin Alp Tahmaz of the play “Where to”, which tells the story of refugee migration, which we could not complete during the pandemic, and asked it to be adapted into a short film. We thank him very much, he did not hurt us and helped us in this process.
We shared this project with Gürsel Ateş, the director of TV series such as Bread Boat and Kurtlar Vadisi. He liked the script very much and stated that he would be happy to be a part of the team and agreed to be the director of our film. Working with Gürsel has been an education for us. We shot this movie on a theater stage (Fade Stage) in July of 2021. It lasted two days, and we also played foreign actors living in Ankara in addition to the screen art theater actors. It turned out nice job. The festival process has just ended. We are currently negotiating with digital platforms. Of course, we would like it to be published on a digital platform in Turkey. It will become clearer in the future.
The film received a total of 19 awards in different categories in Turkey and abroad.
It won the Best Film, Best Drama, Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Actor awards. I received the ‘Best Actor’ award, from two different festivals. This honored me very much. I am very happy with this situation. There has been no change in my life, but receiving such an award, of course, helps you to develop yourself better in this business. I hope I have the chance and opportunity to receive this award in the field of theater as well.
Brazil International Monthly Independent Film Festival
“Best Actor in a Short Film” Award to İbrahim Sevinç
Latin American Film Awards
“Where To” Short Film
“Best Actor” award İbrahim Sevinç
World Independent Film Awards. Italy
The movie “Where To” with the Best Acting Ensemble.
Alternative Film Festival. Canada
Semifinalist:
Best Actor Nominee (İbrahim Sevinç)
V.i.Z. Movie festival. Bulgaria
CANDIDATE (Final) İbrahim Sevinç
How many plays have been staged at the 5th Perde Sanat Theater so far?
Perde Sanat Theater aims to play the plays it plays for a long time.
Our roulette theater play is our first sight. It was staged in Ankara and different cities for 4 seasons. He also took part in the Sabancı Theater Festival held in Adana.
Unfortunately, our theater play could not be completed in its first season due to the pandemic. It was adapted into a short film during the pandemic period and received many awards from international festivals.
Our play called Alaaddin is a puppet theater and it is our first and only children’s play for now.
Thom Pain – If Nothing is Screen art’s first “single player” play. And in the 2022 season, he took part in the Adana Theater Festival.
For the last two seasons, we continue our theatrical adventure with our play Istibdat Kumpanyası, which has been sold out in Ankara and other provinces.
–Finally, what would you like to say to theater lovers?
I know that everyone around me goes to DT games, or I see that they go to a famous person’s play and buy very expensive tickets. But I hear they rarely go to private theater plays. This really upsets teams like us. There are already very few private theaters in Ankara that can be counted. We always need an audience for them to survive and produce better content.
I must state that private theaters had a very difficult time, especially during the pandemic period, and that there were still teams that could not recover. I think it would be beneficial to have more private theater plays and to produce better works. Ticket prices, especially our ticket prices, are sold at a very affordable price. I am waiting for your support and wish everyone to watch the play of tyranny.
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