Kyrgyzstan: Dark Days for Performing Arts in Osh

Southern Kyrgyzstan is a region where residents experience plenty of every-day drama, much of it rooted in a prevailing sense of financial uncertainty. The preoccupation with economic issues is such that the performing arts are an afterthought. Yet, one troupe of young Uzbek thespians based in the southern capital of Osh is defying long odds against them, filling a niche and finding a small audience.

The troupe is named Navnihol, which translates from Uzbek as Newest Sprout. Now in its 11th year, it is the brainchild of Ravshan Tursunov, who heads the Uzbek Language and Literature Department at Osh State University. His mission is to both entertain and educate.

"Through our performances, we try to evoke interest and love for literature and the arts. Also, in our plays, we touch upon vital problems in our society like [challenges with] education and raising children, including inter-ethnic relations, adolescent problems and the consequences of drug addiction," said Tursunov.

"So far, we have staged over 10 plays and acts written by Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Armenians and others," he adds. Ethnic Uzbeks, numbering over 700,000, form the largest ethnic minority group in southern Kyrgyzstan.

The troupe has participated in a number of drama festivals, and has received critical acclaim, including praise from authorities in neighboring Uzbekistan, a country that has had bouts of tension with Kyrgyzstan over the past few years. In 2006, representing Kyrgyzstan at the Nihol Theater Festival in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, Navnihol took second place among the 21 student drama troupes competing.

Back at home, Navnihol mainly tours schools and other venues in southern Kyrgyzstan. In 2004, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Education, Science and Culture recognized the group's popularity and contributions, and granted the ensemble status as an official Folk Theater.

"The [troupe] is making a great contribution to the development of spiritual values as well as the ideological upbringing of our students," says Zamir Bojonov, the Director of the Educational Department at Osh State University. "In addition, Navnihol promotes the image of our university across the whole region. We have students from Uzbekistan, too, who study here at our university."

Navnihol actors say they love what they do, but they wonder if the theater has a future in Central Asia. Interest in the performing arts continues to fall off at an alarming rate, they report.

"It is sad, but I have to admit that very few people among my relatives and friends care for the theater," says 21-year-old actress Malokhat Batyrova. "People simply don't want to go to the theater. However, when we deliver our performances to primary and secondary school students, certain interest in the dramatic arts arises. But maybe our efforts are not enough."

Ganijon Kholmatov, former director of Osh's Uzbek Drama Theater, said that in the not too distant past, state-supported theater enjoyed widespread popularity. "Uzbek dramatic arts in Kyrgyzstan were so strong and in such great demand that you had to buy tickets in advance. Nowadays, people do not want to go to the theater," Kholmatov lamented. "People are struggling to feed their families. People will want to enjoy performing arts when they enjoy prosperity and don't have to be worried about survival."

Economic conditions aren't the only factor contributing to the decline in attendance. Falling education standards are also playing a role, some local observers contend. "Lack of interest in the drama arts has emerged due to little interest in literature, which is, in turn, the result of poor quality of education at Uzbek language primary and secondary schools [in Kyrgyzstan]," Munojat Tashbaeva, an ethnic Uzbek sociologist based in Osh told EurasiaNet.

"Secondly, now textbooks for Kyrgyzstan's Uzbek language schools are developed and printed here in Osh, not in Tashkent like in Soviet times. This makes it impossible to trace and reflect new trends in Uzbek dramatic arts," she adds.

Erkin Bainazarov, an Osh-based playwright, expressed concern that a shift in social values, in particular a growing emphasis on materialism, is negatively influencing aesthetic tastes.

"Even when the Uzbek Drama Theater has so-called open-door days [when tickets are free], not many people come to the theater," said Bainazarov. "The main reason is that people nowadays are more interested in material rather than spiritual values. This is, unfortunately, the current reality."

Despite giving such a gloomy assessment, Bainazarov said he remained optimistic about the future of theater in Osh, and throughout Central Asia. "I am still positive that the local dramatic arts will not perish, and the old days when we had many theater lovers will return," he said.