Istanbul->New York->Istanbul

10 mühim bir sayı.
New York’un Yukarı Batı bölgesinde 86’ıncı sokaktaki evimize ilk taşındığımızda, 3D kapı numaramızı gören bir arkadaşımız “Üç kere üç dokuzdur. Dokuzun gücüne inanın!” demişti. Bizi güldüren bu yorum, o zamandan beri kendi aramızdaki bir şakadır. Fakat bu defa da ben 10’un gücüne inanın diye yazıya başlayabilirim.
New York’ta önce öğrencilik, sonra da sanat işleri ile dolu dolu geçen 10 yılın sonunda, hayat ve iş ortağım Emir Gamsızoğlu ile hayatımızda yeni bir sayfa açıldı. 10 yıl New York’ta yaşadıktan sonra doğduğumuz şehre ve anadilimize geri dönme isteği ile adeta yanıp tutuşur olduk. 11. Yılın sonunda da Istanbul’a geri döndük. Bizi bu yanıp tutuşma haline getiren, daha evvel sahip olmadığımız bakış açısını son dönem işlerimizde irdeleyip farklı formlarda paylaşıyoruz. Ben bu konuyu daha dallandırıp budaklandırmadan kendi temel alanımdaki kısmına değineceğim.
Okul
2006’da Bilkent Üniversitesi Tiyatro Bölümü’nden mezun olduktan sonra Fulbright bursu ile Amerika’da Yüksek Lisans eğitimi için önümde çok şanslı bir kapı açılmıştı. Bu şansımı New York şehrinde olabilmek için kullanmak istedim ve neredeyse sadece adresini beğenerek başvuru yaptığım bir okuldan kabul alınca hem mecazi hem de fiziki anlamda uçarak Manhattan’ın yolunu tuttum. Biraz da hasbelkader gittiğim okul, New Actors Workshop, başıma gelen en iyi şeylerden biri oldu. Beni hem oyuncu, hem yönetmen hem de yazar olarak hazırlayan bu okul Amerikan tiyatro ve sinemasının temel taşlarını koyan isimlerin

founders
Paul Sills-George Morrison-Mike Nichols

büyük bir özenle tasarlayıp sunduğu bir programdı. Amerika’daki doğaçlama geleneğinin annesi Viola Spolin’in oğlu Paul Sills ve Sills’in kumpanyasında yetişen Oscarlı yönetmen Mike Nichols ve George Morrison’ın kurduğu bu okul benim için sanat eğitiminde bir ışık oldu. Biliyorum ki bu ışık bana hayat boyu yol gösterecek.
Çırak
Carol Sills rehearsal-1
Carol Sills ile provada

2009’da New Actors Workshop’tan mezun olduktan sonra hemen Spolin-Ist kuruldu. New York’ta öğrendiklerimden beni en çok etkileyen Spolin Metodunu hemen Türkiye’ye taşımak istedim. Spolin ve Sills ailesi ile iletişime geçerek Spolin’in metod kitabını çevirmek için izin aldım. 2010-11 sezonunda kitapların da editörlüğünü yapan yönetmen Carol Sills’in asistanlığını yaptım, bir yandan da Hareket Doğaçlaması derslerinde asistanlık yaparak ve Mike Nichols’ın ustalık sınıflarını asla kaçırmayarak eğitime bir yıl daha devam ettim. Nasılsa çıraklık işimizin en mühim öğrenme sürecidir ve bu süreç hayat boyu devam eder.
 
Gelişme
New York’taki tiyatro ve diğer sanat işlerimle beraber Spolin eğitmenliğini hiç bırakmayarak devam ettirdim. New York’taki Spolin-Ist Oyuncuları gösteriler yaparak seyirci ile buluştuğunda uzun süredir kurduğum bir hayal ete kemiğe bürünmüş oldu.
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Çehov New York’ta

Tiyatro işleri devam ederken bir gün Woody Allen’ın setine konuk olmak Emir ve bana hikayelerimizi film yoluyla anlatmak konusunda cesaret verdi. Hocam Mike Nichols’ın da öğütlerini kulağımıza küpe yaparak 3 farklı film projesine daldık. Artık her anlamda New Yorklu olmuştuk.
Lakin içimde uzaklardan gelen bir ses vardı, gittikçe de yakınlaşıyordu. Hani siz evdeyken sokaktan bir arabanın alarmı öter, önce sizi rahatsız etmez ama zamanla sizi deliye döndürecek bir hale dönüşür, camı açıp “Kimin bu araba kardeşim!” diye bağırasınız gelir. İşte buna benzer bir ses.
Türkçem benim ses bayrağım! 
Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca
Dağlarca

Lise yıllarımda üç kafadar olarak gezdiğimiz arkadaşlarım Yasemin ve Okan ile beraber Kadıköy’deki Hayat Kahvehanesine gidip büyük şair Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca ile sohbet ederdik. Şişe dibi gözlüklerinin ardında, bizimle hep ağzında hınzır bir gülümseme ve biraz huysuz ifadesi ile konuşurdu Dağlarca. Türkçe aşığı şair bize kelimeler uydurmamızı söylemişti. Bir de “Her gün yazın, hep yazın.” demişti. -Aynı öğüdü yıllar sonra Emir’in bestecilik hocası Pulitzer ödüllü David Del Tredici de ona söyleyecekti. Ustaların vardır bir bildiği.- “Türkçem benim ses bayrağım!” cümlesi hiç aklımdan çıkmaz. Benim içimdeki gitgide yakınlaşan ses de bana Türkçe konuşmamı, anlatmamı, yazmamı söylüyordu. Dağlarca neden bayrak kelimesini seçmişti? Çünkü bayrak bir kültürü bir nevi varoluşu temsil eden bir simgeydi. Benim”eve” dönerek bu”yeni ben” ile varoluş yolcuğuma yeni bir durak eklemem gerekiyordu. En azından ben şu an böyle hissediyorum.
Istanbul’un çekirdeksiz bir karpuz dilimini andıran bu tatlı ve sakin Ağustos ayında Spolin-Ist’in yeni programını hazırlamak, Emir ile kültür işlerimizi geliştirip paylaşacağımız bir yeni ev yaratmak benim için tarif edilmez bir mutluluk. Yeni sezonda Spolin-Ist 3 aylık kurlara bölünen toplamda 2 yıllık bir Spolin doğaçlama metodu eğitimi programı açacak. New York’taki okulum ve okul sonrası edindiğim deneyimlerle yoğrulan kısa süreli eğitimler programımız dahilinde olacak. Spolin-Ist’in yeni programının ismini koyduğumda bir arama yaptım, ve karşıma yine Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca çıktı.* Böylece bu işin iyiliğine inancım perçinlenmiş oldu. Spolin-Ist Oyun Okulu 2018 – 19 eğitim yılı programı çok yakında spolinist.com dan duyurulacak.
Daha ne yazayım, bizi izlemeye devam edin 🙂

Ege.

Ağustos 2018, Istanbul

Transformism #indiefeature in progress!

Our independent film Transformism continues to call “action” all over New York City! Our fundraising campaign ends in only a couple of days. We are grateful to our friends and followers who believe in our work and support us. Please check it out and contribute, share, help us make some noise: www.indiegogo.com/projects/transformism-film
TR: Bağımsız film projemiz Transformism New York’ta çekimlere devam ediyor! Fon destek kampanyamızın son günlerindeyiz. Bize inanan ve destek veren dostlarımızla takipçilerimize minnettarız. Siz de destekçiler arasına katılın, çorbada tuzunuz filmde isminiz olsun: www.indiegogo.com/projects/transformism-film
Şimdiden teşekkür ederiz.
Here’s our latest teaser with footage from the film, enjoy!
Filmden görüntülerle son indiegogo fragmanımız yayında!


Snapshots from our set… // Ve setten anlar…

TRANSFORMISM

“We must cultivate our garden.”
Director: Emir Gamsızoğlu
Screenplay: Ege Maltepe & Emir Gamsızoğlu
Director of Photography: Yiğit İlke Yücesan
Cast: Ege Maltepe, Kaan Çakır, Eurydice El-Etr, Cihangir Duman, Dylan Grunn, Eva Cavadini, Elizabeth Raia, Atakan Oğuz, Carol Asch, Jeffrey Sweet, Jenny Burks, Mary Anne Holliday, Yessenia Rivas, Eamon Speer, Mason Sullivan, Amanda Jungquist, Kevin Kilcullen, Valentina Layne, Rich Layne, Ali Pınar, Emin Maltepe, Defne Maltepe, Nil Maltepe.
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What we see in the world is a collapse of culture and we had something to say! “TRANSFORMISM is about a new philosophy on our power to transform ourselves & our culture.
What we see as the savior of the future is culture. Politics and economy are only the subsets of culture. If we transform the culture, the politicians and the approach to economy will transform as well. To transform culture to a better version of itself, philosophy is essential. To create a new philosophy, we need thinkers and for people to think, we need to color their lives with arts and literature.
The story is told through Claire’s transformation from a being a blind consumer of popular culture to a philosopher with widespread views. Claire’s encounters with new people has a big role in her transformation.
We took Voltaire’s suggestion to “cultivate our garden”, mixed it with the ideas of other philosophers from Confucius to Sartre and todays social ideological needs and transformed them into a new philosophy.
This is an independent project with a very small budget. We are currently in the production process. We have a super talented and international cast and crew. New York scenes are almost finished, and now our story will take us to Istanbul and Paris.
Your contributions will be helpful in the future steps of our production and post production process. We thank you for your support!
 

What's in the works? Transformism!

After a looong break from my blog, it is time to announce my new big project… drumroll… a feature film!
We wrote TRANSFORMISM with my partner in crime Emir Gamsizoglu. We gathered an amazing cast, and are currently getting ready to start filming in New York. Our crowdfunding campaign is now live to support the upcoming steps of the production!
After living in New York for 10 years, I saw that we collected a lot of experience, memories and ideas on how the world is the way it is now.  From the ongoing refugee crisis, to having a shrewd business man, and a reality tv star as the president of USA; from the overwhelming flood of information that eventually blinds us all, to terrorist attacks all around- the events of our days have been reminding me my responsibility as an artist. Emir and I decided to “say something” and to have a work that is reachable and long lasting so that it finds its place in the history.
What we see in the world is a collapse of culture and we had something to say! “TRANSFORMISM is about a new philosophy on our power to transform ourselves & our culture. The story is told through Claire’s transformation from a being a blind consumer of popular culture to a philosopher with widespread views. Claire’s friendship with Selma, a Syrian emigre pianist, has a big role in her transformation. We take Voltaire’s suggestion to “cultivate our garden” to the next step and suggest a “how”.
I believe our film Transformism will make philosophy cool again!

Here’s the link for our indiegogo campaign – contribute today!

 http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/transformism-film

No matter how much you can contribute we’ll be grateful for your support.
In solidarity!

The Sound of Istanbul is the Sound of #Love

Turkey, especially my hometown Istanbul has been the target of so many terrorist attacks for the last couple of years. In this age of instant information, the news goes around quickly, along with comments, and we pray and we share and pray and share…
Turkey is the bridge between two continents. Anatolia and Istanbul have always been the intersection of cultures and just like Turkish cuisine, Turkish music melts the elements of these cultures into a great mix. This time, composers Emir Gamsızoğlu and Erkin Arslan “cooked” Rhapsody on Istanbul Tunes in Western classical music style. The piece is based on three very famous Istanbul tunes and a Bach style basso continuo. Some of the greatest Western Classical Music composers are quoted in the piano part just like the people of Istanbul crossing the bridge between East and West every single day.
Standing in solidarity with all nations in East and West suffering from terrorism, we share the sound of Istanbul as a message of peace to heal our souls.
Listen to the sound of Istanbul and join our fight against war and terror by sharing the music that brings us together! Let’s spread the “good”.

Confessions of a Pianist's Wife

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Bilkent Symphony

When I was in the acting school in Bilkent University, I used to sneak into the concert hall next door to hear Bilkent Symphony and sit in the balcony and listen… I have to confess that couple of times I fell asleep while they were performing, not because I was bored – I hope- but the music was so soothing after a long day’s work in the acting school. It was also because I didn’t know almost anything about the composers or the pieces and I wasn’t engaged enough with what was happening in front of me.
Then I met Emir. He was a classical pianist. My interest in him was not because he was Mr. fancy pants playing the piano, on the contrary from the get-go I have understood that piano will be his true love and I had to act accordingly!
I remember one day, just couple months after we started dating, he was getting ready for an important concert in which he was going to play Mendelssohn’s Violin-Piano Concerto with Marina. This peanuts-700x290_lineartopia_1was a piece that he never played before and he only had 50 days to get ready (Which is crazy, if you have any idea about playing piano). So he was practicing in the apartment with his second lover, the metronome (Miss Metronome is very annoying) and was working on a particular passage, over and over again. He has started from a VERY slow tempo and one notch at a time he was getting faster and was still struggling. He stopped, and said “Okay” took a deep breath “Let’s start over” And he went back all the way down to the slowest tempo one more time. I was stunned and annoyed and shocked and scared all at the same time. I said “I’m going”, “Where?”, “I will take a walk”. He didn’t question he knew that it was unbearable.
While I was walking I thought “If I keep dating him, and if this relationship goes somewhere, this will be my life… Do I really want this?” Then I called my friend Yasemin telling her what happened and while I was talking to her, I remember feeling good about this overall situation. Because I knew what it was to put up with the struggles and sometimes pain in order to make your dream come true.
photo 1Years went by, piano, metronome, Emir and I are happily married for 6 years now, living in a tiny apartment in New York all four of us. We don’t have children yet, but our foursome gave birth to projects that combine the two loves of our lives; music and theater. Together we created projects like Drama in Beethoven, Talking to Schubert, Genius by Chopin, Two Faces of Schumann… and produced casual concerts and shows in Caffe Vivaldi. Now we are getting ready for a big chamber music concert which will feature seven great musicians from our interdisciplinary group “New Yorker Ensemble” playing a fun concert themed “Folk in Classical Music”.
Obviously along the years I became a huge classical music fan. I often find myself bored while listening to other genres, except when there is a great virtuoso or a truly great voice performing. I find it boring because I feel like the music keeps repeating itself instead of making me travel from land to land, tickling my mind and touching my heart, like classical music does. Some people say that classical music is a “special” thing, they often use the word “education” with classical music. And with “education”, “institutions” come to mind, which I think take it away from our daily life and makes us see it “special”. So this may be seen as a nice round vicious circle, a loop-hole in our culture.
Emir used to say that it takes a little bit more time, maybe requires some effort to become a classical music lover. So you can build patience to follow a long piece of music without words (Of course not every classical music piece is without words, I’m speaking generally here). Also having a context helps, knowing about a composer’s life, what was he or she trying to achieve at that point of his/her life. But hey, every good thing has a price, so this is the price for classical music; taking a moment, slowing the time to breathe with music, to stay present with music. I find it entertaining. I will always remember my first time hearing The Rite of Spring from Concertgebouw Orchestra in Istanbul’s Ataturk Kultur Merkezi. It was like listening to a rock concert, my heart was pounding so hard the whole time. After the concert we couldn’t stop talking about it. So, exposure to live classical music helps tremendously, especially if you are witnessing great musicians playing with all their might.
New Yorker Trio @Caffe VivaldiOur cafe concerts at West Village’s Caffe Vivaldi have been so powerful for our audience, because they get to witness music being created right in front of their eyes; no stage lights, no musicians in black dresses coming from a backstage, no “magic”, just music… Once a young audience member came to us after concert and said “This is the most real thing I have seen for a long time”. His feedback made us very happy. Because that is what we’re tying to achieve. No dress codes, no procedure, no institution, no tickets, just a donation box… We said, if people like what we’re doing, they will support. We named ourselves “Classical for All”
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Miss Metronome

As for our “foursome”, I find myself lucky to be sharing my tiny apartment with Emir’s lovers, although I still want to choke Miss Metronome at times.
Here’s a little clip as a sneak peek into Folk in Classical Music that will be performed on May 20th at Greenwich House Music’s intimate Renee Weiler Concert Hall:

Our story on NY Press!

As Emir and I are getting ready for our next performances (Dec. 7-8th 3pm). It was nice to see our story (as a celebrity couple:) and the story of DRAMA in BEETHOVEN on NY PRESS. We hope to bring more music and laughter around the town. Shoot us an email to classicalforall@gmail.com to receive notices of the upcoming shows and classes.

Striking a Chord with the Younger Generation

Classical music can really bring out the creativity in a couple. Ege Maltepe, an actress from Istanbul, and her husband Emir Gamsizoglu, a Turkish pianist, decided to move to New York City to pursue their artistic aspirations. They credit Gamsizoglu’s constant playing of classical music in their Upper West Side apartment as one of the reasons they created Drama in Beethoven, which they are performing this winter at Caffé Vivaldi in the West Village.

Click HERE to read the rest of the story.

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Beethoven is back! This time with stories…

2013_11_08-DRAMAinBEETHOVEN-Poster.001 Once upon a time there was a short German guy with a bad temper and a huge spirit and passion for music. His name was Ludwig.
Drama in Beethoven is a fun experiment to connect stories with Beethoven Sonatas. Developed as a CLASSICAL 4 ALL project, the show aims to create a direct and unique connection between listener and the classical music. “Music is just music! We are the ones who are labeling it with fancy halls and dress codes says Ege Maltepe, an actress, playwright and a former student of Mike Nichols, right before diving into a bloody scenario along with the 2nd movement Sonata No.7.
Emir Gamsızoğlu is a unique type of virtuoso, who started to play the piano at the age of 20, after quitting his career as a basketball player. He suggests using the help of stories about music and also making up your own stories on the pieces you listen or play. “I have my own relationship with music by visualizing stories or creating dialogues while I play. I ended up having scenarios that go along with pieces” This technique gives depth and color to Gamsızoğlu’s interpretation, but it’s also a great way to connect with classical music as a listener.
“I think it opens a door in your imagination, you become a child again! It sets your imagination free of labels, and through that freedom you can have a direct relationship with music. This is a paradox; we give classical music such an importance, which is great, but eventually it becomes so “important” that people think they won’t understand classical music, because it’s complex. There is nothing to not to understand and they just miss an amazing legacy!” adds Maltepe, happy to be developing this project since 2010.
Learn about how Beethoven is related to Shakespeare and how his love to Countess Guicciardi influenced him to compose the Moonlight Sonata and how can a musician creates his own stories through music.
Music plants stories, stories grow with music. Get ready to create your own story with Herr Ludwig !
DRAMA in BEETHOVEN
November 23rd – 24th, 3pm (Saturday-Sunday)
December 7th – 8th, 3pm (Saturday-Sunday)
Caffe Vivaldi, 32 Jones Street 10014
Call 212-691-7538 for reservations
Suggested donation $20