(January 7, 2008)

Andrejsala's Power Shop used to contain showers and locker rooms for the needs of Andrejosta's industrial workers, but more recently, after a massive spring-clean, it became the home of the Theatre of Dreaming, an independent dramatic society. Apart from experimenting with theatrical productions, they also address the genres of dance and short film and every now and then organise arty happenings.

It began, more specifically, on the 13th of March 2006, when theatrical director Ogata Samoletova gathered an enthused team of young people who seriously wanted to give drama and acting a try. The Theatre of Dreaming did not strictly require diplomas and professional experience from the applicants, since Samoletova believes that there is a dormant acting gift in everyone; the key job would be to help to discover and express it. Currently the troupe has stabilised with 15 young actors who with growing confidence take up ever-new challenges of playing, entertaining and producing.

At the Theatre of Dreaming, everything goes, as they explore not just acting but also literature, dance, movement arts, video, photo, music and painting. At the same time, its director and troupe are just at the beginning of their theatrical careers, which enables them to try out new approaches, concepts and methods of creating sound artistic productions. They wish to talk to their spectators' hearts and souls and to uncover feelings that tend to fade in the daily rush. And this search for new theatrical avenues has proved fruitful: ToD's intimacy and clarity attracts plenty of viewers whenever there's a performance. 

They also have contributed to a number of local theatrical and arts festivals, such as the White Night, the Dance Day of the Latvian Academy of Culture, the CIFRA electronic music festival and several other events at the ID club of arts and entertainment. The natural addressees of the work of the Andrejsala-based Theatre of Dreaming include young russophones, which makes their productions a special part of the biggest Andrejsala festivals (e.g., the Museum Night and Andrejdiena); during the international poetry day the troupe offered an evening of Russian poetry.

There is a favourite range of motifs: dramatic and fairytale events, relationships, discovery of parallels between mythical archetypes and the secrets harboured by the human subconscious. It is during dreaming when the various hidden facets of human mind can be unravelled; while in the unconscious, extraordinary symbols and analogies become evident quite naturally. The interplay of symbolism and dreamful states has been used to stage Alice?, based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and A Nightlong Navigation, sourcing from Milorad Pavić's prose material. For ToD's Samoletova, a fairytale is a form replete with symbolism and metaphor, ready to be staged not just for kids' entertainment, but also as a thought-provoking drama for grown-ups. Let's see what new re-interpretations of fables and folk tales the Theatre of Dreaming will bring us.

Contact: teatr_sna@inbox.lv,      

Nataliya Kladova, +371 26893408,

Ogata Samoletova, +371 29672188.