It is very difficult to write a theater play, and Turkey has been a mere spectator for years, watching the rest of the world write good theater plays. This, however, is changing.
It has been several years since some independent and new theater venues opened in Istanbul. The important and significant thing about these places is not only that they have gathered an exclusive audience, but that they have given support to the creation of new Turkish playwrights.
Thanks to those venues, Turkey’s playwrights are developing themselves and opening new dimensions in terms of writing plays.
Currently, venues such as Sıfırnoktaiki, Dot and garajistanbul are currently showing plays, most of which come from Turkish writers.
Among them, Hakan Günday’s “Malafa” was staged in Dot and drew lots of attention from the Turkish audience. It was not only the actors and actresses’ success; it was also the success of the play and the playwright.
There are lots of good actors in Turkey, but how many of them have a chance to play in a really good theater play?
The scenarios are dull and repeat themselves all the time. We can also observe the same thing among soap opera and movie plots. There is not enough creativity.
This situation affects everything. If there are no good plots, there are no good theater plays and there are no successful critics. This chain can go on forever.
Sıfırnoktaiki is focusing on creating new and creative plays for Turkish audiences. With the opening of sıfırnoktaiki, the scene has woken up. Sıfırnoktaiki, meanwhile, usually focuses on translations, something that is really rare in Turkey.
Translating theater is such a detailed and hard job, and it differs greatly from other kinds of translations, such as literary and technical translations.
Another decent venue is Kumbaracı 50. Kumbaracı 50 has also created very good playwrights such as Yiğit Şener, Esin Taşçı, Seray Şahiner.
All these places run on funds, meaning that there are some people in Turkey who are finally funding independent theater venues.
We hope that this new movement will expand and everyone will profit from this.