The text below is taken from the newspaper "Drita" – 1987 A conversation between the actor Andon Qesari and the famous director Piro Mani. A,Q – The rare collaboration of the director Piro Mani and the stage designer Agim Zajmi for the staging of the Opera "Cuca e maleve" – Ismail Kadare writes about the Opera: "a sphinx rises before the fate of people "The Ancient Canon"" "Cuca e mountains", a play by the writer Loni Papa, has entered the best tradition of Albanian theater both for its interesting dramaturgy, but above all, for its directorial treatment. It has taken place among the most successful performances of the People's Theater and has been followed with special interest by thousands of viewers for a long time. What path did director Piro Mani and set designer Agim Zajmi follow for staging? We will try to make this answer clear below, through the conversation with People's Artist Piro Mani, focusing more on the theatrical spectacle than on the drama, about which the critics have spoken a lot. AQ – What motivated you to take on this work? PM – You've seen me hanging out with Dawn often. We drink coffee, light a cigarette and discuss, among other things, our creative plans. That's how we used to hang out before the show. At that time, a powerful movement for the further emancipation of women and against backward customs had erupted everywhere in our country. This message would become a great program of work for all our creators. Precisely "Cuca e maleve", this heroic ballad for the Albanian woman, we thought was a worthy work that was born from the events and heroics of the time. The drama inspired not only us, but the entire creative collective of the theater. A debate was born, it aroused emotions, it stimulated the imagination of the collective. The inspiration of the director is worthless without the inspiration of the creative team. But that was just the beginning. 
AQ – Of course, it is necessary that through this inspiration, through imagination, the creative collective, but especially the direction and scenography should have its say. So, the key had to be found so that the message of the drama not only came across clearly to the viewers, but it also had to bear the stamp of your creative individuality. We had to look for what is called a directorial "finding" in theatrical language. So what is this finding and how did it come about? PM- From the first reading of the work, I had the first emotions. Although the events of the drama take place in the first years after liberation, I remembered many scenes and stories that I had heard or been told about those days in February 1967. They began to connect with my inner vision the wave of emotions of life with those of the work. And from this moment, special moments of scenes, various details, bits of mise-en-scène, characters, the style of the future show were born. At first they did not have a logical flow between them, but the moment would come for these links to be connected in a single idea. From the first reading I felt the beginning and end of the play, bits of lighting, sound effects. AQ – At such a stage, as you know, imagination plays a decisive role, right? PM – I agree, but one thing must be taken into account: This imagination must have a real basis, be grounded. For the director, this "earth" is the work of the author, it is life. Imagination or supposedly fantastic creations, which are not related to the author's work, therefore to its idea, are not valid. 
AQ – Let's go back to "Cuca e male". No doubt, your finding is quite interesting. According to me, it also stems from the words that the investigator says to the enemies: "It wasn't the habits, but the letter "A". It was just a letter, but you were too shocked to foresee that it would bring you great trouble and confusion… That sign was no longer a letter for you. It became a knife, it became a lance that pierced your eyes, so you wanted to face the lance with a bayonet alone to hinder the progress of the country… Therefore, you wanted to erase the letter "A" from people's minds, that's why you Cuca with the letter "A" became terrible. PM – We wanted the thought synthesized in this phrase to be embodied on stage. This is how Ismail Kadare wrote in those years, about your appearance and finding: "A blackboard where the letters a, b, c are written, reminds us all of those ordinary blackboards, where we learned to write for the first time with chalk in our childhood. As the board moves the mountains rise before us, a quadrangle that seems to have been cut straight out of the rugged northern landscape. In this quadrangle, the people of our mountains revolve, opposing classes collide, muffled indignation, bells ring, slander and gossip creep, angry men with scissors in their hands want to cut girls' hair, a sphinx rises before the fate of people "Kanuni ancient”; the drums of joy resound, the word of the Party clashes with the word of the enemy and ignorance. The lone bullet whistles of the killer who remembers that he finally killed Cuca" This is exactly the image we wanted and apparently, we achieved it too. A, Q – Who us? PM – Me and Agimi, my co-author and collaborator in many other works. AQ – Is this a coincidence or something else? PM – Of course not. With Dawn, as the people say, "the star shines", our taste and temperament shine. And this is necessary in performing arts where a series of authors interact. Without an ideo-aesthetic unity between direction and scenography, you cannot claim directorial discovery. Many ideas can arise in your head as a director, the basis of which can be a dramaturgical work, it can be full of your inner vision with characters, pieces of mise-en-scène, lighting, noise and full of details, and again as a director of don't be able to embody the idea through the directorial find. This is because the idea, and along with it the finding, require a stage space. Sandër Prosi used to say that the stage for the actor (we are not talking about the stage board) is like the stadium for the football player; without this stadium with two gates of certain dimensions, with certain rules and divisions, he would not be able to show his mastery. So it turns out that it is necessary that the scenography has the same saturation for the work that the direction has. 
AQ – Who first came up with the idea for the find? PM- I can't say that it was born to me, but surely if you ask Agim you will get the same answer. I emphasized above, the creation of a show is a collaboration, it is the result of a number of arts, the art of the actor, the scenographer, the composer, the lighting, etc. The directorial finding is the result of collaboration, conversations, many sketches, many sleepless nights, many debates between the director and scenography. It is never the creation of one or the other, but we can say that both inspire each other. AQ – So, if Agimi, as a scenographer, were to stick only to what the author qualifies, that is, if he only made clear the place of action such as the church yard, Cuca's house, Zefi's house, etc., he still cannot we were talking about a scenographic creation. Even in "The General of the Dead Army", Dawn "opens" a pit on the stage that also serves as a passage to the lower floor of the general's house, but at the same time, it will also serve as a tomb where you as director, through the mise-en-scène, you will put the general together with his "soldier" already turned into a cellophane bag! PM–Be careful that the finding does not sound like a frame, like a beginning and end of a scene, or beginning and end of a painting. It must definitely be exciting, deep, concrete, because being so, it will find its expression in other elements of the form available to the director, such as mise-en-scène, noise, lighting, music, etc. It seems to me that you have used mise-en-scene enough. I would remember the times when Dom Mark urges his tools to do the killing and the cross in his hand, that cross so "suffering" until then, suddenly, from an energetic extension of the hand forward, a "knife" appears that hits the ground. The scene when Cuca teaches the village women their first letters and which is built from the mise-en-scène as a block, the lyrical scene under the blossoming tree where Cuca expresses those fresh but restrained feelings for his friend, etc. In a word, this directorial poem is full of such details, it is a whole life. I'll stick to the word you mentioned at the end. Without knowing life, without knowing how to observe it, you cannot create. Is it enough? It would be a mistake not to look for other ways and different means to get to know the world of work. The director must know everything related to the atmosphere, the circumstances in which the work takes place. But, at the same time, everything else that the author wrote. This moment has special importance for directorial creativity. The individuality of an author affects the individuality of a director and he, as a result, the individuality of a theater. AQ – By the way, what is directorial talent? PM – A talented director is that artist who not only makes clear the philosophical message of the author, but also his ideo-emotional attitude by harmonizing in an artistic whole all the components that participate in the art of the stage. The directorial finding that is the artistic figure of the play, the core, the seed of the play from which the tempo, the penetrating action, continuity and the whole figurative perspective is determined, has a first-hand importance in the creative individuality of the director. DRITA newspaper May 17, 1987 ____________________ Albanian cinematography in activity since 2013
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