EVITA IN TURKEY by KENNETH URMSTON It all started in Munich. The hotel receptionist gave me a message from someone in Turkey. I said it must have been for the prior hotel guest as I knew no one in Turkey. She said they had my name correct, so I returned the call. Unbelievably, they wanted me to direct a production in Turkish. The producer, Che, and the director came to Hamburg to meet me, and see the production of Americans that I had directed there. They also came to Amsterdam at another time to see it there. When I first landed in Istanbul for the auditions, I said to myself, 'What am I doing here? I don't know the country, the language, the people, the culture, etc.' and I was all alone. But their theatre was very impressive. In one week, they did Chekhov, a Turkish musical, an English musical, M. Butterfly, and others. I was amazed. This was their repertory company. For Evita, people from the opera company, the ballet company, and 'outsiders' came to audition. The singers from the opera company were insulted that they had to sing for me. I explained that I had to know where to cast them in the show and that all would be in the cast. Half of the dancers were extremely good, and the other half had to work hard to keep up. The dancers were terrified about singing, and several started to leave when I asked them to sing. I said, 'Please stay. You will probably do the show even if you can't sing now.' The Che and Eva were chosen by the producer. I chose another Eva, who turned out to be rather controversial. Apparently, when I was back in the states, she appeared on TV and did a number from Evita. This was against the rules set by the Turkish producer, Gencay Gürün, and she and Fusun Önal never got along after that. I okayed another Eva who had auditioned, and then by the time I got back to Turkey, they asked if I approved of yet another actress for Eva whom I had seen in a Chekov play. She was the wife of the new television sponsor. So we had four Evas! The Ches, Perón, Magaldi and the Mistress were all exceptionally good. Fusun Önal was terrified of Gencay Gürün, and would be terrible whenever Gencay came to rehearsals. She would literally choke up and unfortunately, Gencay never got to see Fusun at her best. On Fusun's opening night, she forced her voice and the audience did not get to see her that night at her best. In rehearsal, Fusun was a fabulous Eva. She did several good performances after, but it was too late. To rehearse with four Evas was not easy. In run-throughs, I would sometimes have all four do some part of it--otherwise too much time would elapse until they got to do it again. Since there was only one Perón and one chorus, it was tiring for them to have complete run-throughs with four Evas. The dancers, who turned out to be great, eventually loved the singing. It was a whole new world to them. My tango couple [who perform during 'I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You'] were incredible. There was a bit of gossip as the Peron supposedly had an affair with one of the Evas. Newspaper reporters would sneak into rehearsals and take photos of him, his wife and child. It was bizarre. The technical people were great, and the set designer fabulous. I got an American, Ken Farley, to do the lighting so that it was identical to Broadway. We were in an outdoor arena that sat 6,000 people, and I used actors carrying torches [for 'A New Argentina'] that entered through the audience, which was a spectacular effect. There were two musical directors, one from the repertory company and one from the opera company. They were both good, but argued with each other to the point that there was a small physical fight. Our Che argued with a tenor once and the next day the tenor was fired. Not knowing Turkish, I would just stand back and hope it would all resolve itself. Every day at lunchtime, I would have interviews with newspapers and magazines. There was a press conference once at which there were at least 30 flash cameras operating at the same time. It made me feel like a Hollywood director. My translator, who was also my assistant director, did a great job. To wrap this up, it all turned out to be the best show business job I have ever had in 50 years in the business. On opening night, I could not believe how fabulous the show was. I said to myself, 'Did I do that?' The audience yelled for Yoneten (director) so I came from the audience to take a bow. The roar was deafening. It was so thrilling! There truly was a love affair between the cast and crew and myself. They had a party, at which we went on a boat down the Bosphorus, and then to a restaurant on the shore where we had fresh fish and an amazing spread. Cihan Ünal, who played Che, called me in New York for several years afterward, and said the cast wanted to send their love. He started studying English because of Evita. Several times, I went back to teach yet another Eva for a tour with which I traveled to Adana, Bursa, Bodrum, Ankara, and other cities. It was fascinating to live and travel with the company. Again, I shall always cherish my memories with the Turkish cast who gave me my most thrilling moments in show business. I shall always love each and every one of them! © 2000