Sashenka: a nickname, term of endearment or diminutive form of Alexandra.
Nikolai Kolyada was a mentor and dear friend to Alexandra Chichkanova. When asked for his thoughts on this play, this production - he sent this note.
She came to study with me when she was 16. For 14 years I guided her through life and kept her beside me. I taught her to love theater.
The only thing I couldn't teach her - and I only understood that at her funeral: I didn't teach her to love life and value it more than anything in the world. She wasn't able to do that, she couldn't hold on.
She was much more than an employee at my theater, more than my director's assistant. She was more like my daughter.
A year has not yet passed since her death. My entire theater is still in shock. We all talk and do what we do but Alexandra constantly is everywhere with us. She appears in the dreams of many and everybody comes to me to tell me their dreams. She hasn't appeared in a single dream of mine. Her soul knows what I would say and it fears me.
"I am me," she said and she went and did what she thought she had to. It was her choice - to leave this life.
On the day of her funeral I gathered all the actors and I said, "We can't fall apart, we must keep playing our shows." We played "Hamlet" that day. I performed on stage as the Ghost of Hamlet's Father and I carried the dead Ophelia away in my arms. I carried her away, rocking her in my arms like a little baby. I carried away Alexandra.
She is no more. I am me. You are you.
Treasure who you are. Love yourself.
-Nikolai Kolyada, September 1, 2013
She came to study with me when she was 16. For 14 years I guided her through life and kept her beside me. I taught her to love theater.
The only thing I couldn't teach her - and I only understood that at her funeral: I didn't teach her to love life and value it more than anything in the world. She wasn't able to do that, she couldn't hold on.
She was much more than an employee at my theater, more than my director's assistant. She was more like my daughter.
A year has not yet passed since her death. My entire theater is still in shock. We all talk and do what we do but Alexandra constantly is everywhere with us. She appears in the dreams of many and everybody comes to me to tell me their dreams. She hasn't appeared in a single dream of mine. Her soul knows what I would say and it fears me.
"I am me," she said and she went and did what she thought she had to. It was her choice - to leave this life.
On the day of her funeral I gathered all the actors and I said, "We can't fall apart, we must keep playing our shows." We played "Hamlet" that day. I performed on stage as the Ghost of Hamlet's Father and I carried the dead Ophelia away in my arms. I carried her away, rocking her in my arms like a little baby. I carried away Alexandra.
She is no more. I am me. You are you.
Treasure who you are. Love yourself.
-Nikolai Kolyada, September 1, 2013
