Interview with actress Violeta Sekuj

The Interview

I am carefully looking sometimes through my glasses and sometimes through a magnifying glass at some yellowed sheets with an age of more than four decades. They are the only relics besides the photographs of the various performances found in the folder.

On those pages colored by time, through the writing of a fountain pen and sometimes a ballpoint pen; actress and director Violeta Sekuj has recorded her roles since 1975. I take those yellowed sheets in my hands. They whisper to me and turn into memories. It makes me whisper and the letters turn into characters, which Violeta interpreted with love and talent, those characters that fix certain times and realities.

Those characters… as in: “Upside down” (Ksenja’s slave, dubbing), “Agimi” (Hana’s slave), “Our land” (File’s role, dubbing), “Tartuffe” (Marjana’s role), “Entangled engagement” (the roles of Lucy and Gina, dubbing), “Mother” (the role of Marija), “Seven Shaljans” (the role of Lufa), “Crown of Nurije” (the role of Zyhra), “Marches” (the role of Rina, dubbing), “Doll’s house” (the role of Kristina), “The lottery ticket” (the slave of the Swallow), “Maiden of Mountain” (the role of Mara), “The Cartridge in Dowry” (the role of Maria (Gjelina), “People of our days” (the role of Flutura), etc., etc.

In his studies for the “Migjeni” theater of Shkodra, Prof. Dr. Josif Papagjoni has this perspective on the actress Violeta Sekuj: “She is among the first educated actresses of the “Migjeni” theater of Shkodra. She stood out with the role of the heroine in the drama “Zekthi” by E. Vojnis in 1964, where she presented a fragile female world, generally held in psychological tones with dramatic impregnation.

In 1968, she breathed Gjelina’s slave in the drama “Fisheku ne paje”, with which she managed to reveal a soul and contradictory behavior, trapped and afraid of the exercise of patriarchal power in the family, with the enthusiasm that comes from the encouragement that she gains from the chance of an expected equality and emancipation. The role of the queen in the drama “Gjaku i Arbërit”, 1981 by Fadil Kraja, she conceived it in two interpretive ways: in the sensory planes of an openly expressed cynicism and in the arrogance that was fueled by destructive consciousness.

I take those sheets in my hands again… They bring me years, memories, characters and a name: Violeta Sekuj.

Violeta confesses… in this interview made nearly four decades ago… (there from 1981) “Beginnings!..

– Everyone has their own special. I have mine too. I keep them in my memory. I came to Shkodra at the age of 19. I was appointed an actress in the “Migjeni” Theater. To tell the truth, I had the courage great for the young age I had. I was a foreigner, that is, an unknown city with a radiant tradition in the field of dramatic art remembered a verse of the poet F. Shiroka! However, I was not disappointed. It was the passion for the actor that gave me wings!

I came I found a warm environment in the theater. Someone welcomed me as their child, someone as a sister, someone as a friend…

I grew up and learned a lot. Indeed, school gives you several paths, but you need a stage, partner to perfect the profession, like this one of the actor!

There are roles that leave an impression, there are others that… What does your experience say?

Violeta: The actor plays many roles. Of course, the director gives these roles. And giving it to the director, he has his own opinion, his own concept for the spectacle. But every actor, when they read the part, a figure remains in his mind. If that figure is not given to them, they suffer disillusionment, gets disappointed. However,… working in the theater has made the actor play roles that he doesn’t like. However, to honor himself, the actor, to maintain professional dignity, in my opinion, should work to do something about that role. On the contrary, when you like the role, you work with all your passion. I remember when I came to the theater for the first time, the director Let Shllaku gave me a role that I really liked in the play “Servant of two masters” by Goldoni. I had the role of Smeraldina, the maid. In a word, I felt myself in my waters. I think the film was well received.

In your activity, you have a special voice and direction..?

I really liked it passion. Having this passion, I put on several pieces at the “Migjeni” theater, several concerts with the House of Culture, several children’s festivals… I was lucky enough to work with knowledgeable intellectuals, such as: Prenke Jakova, Tonin Harapi, Albert Paparisto, etc. I have learned a lot from them. Maybe one day it will turn into a profession. But it seems that the conditions and opportunities were not created

Aspects from the drama “Djemte te mbare” directed by V. Sekuj.

I put on stage “Djemte te mbare ” by F. Kraja, “Nora” by A. Skanjeti, etc.

What is your role model for the director?

Violeta: The director must be patient, prepared person. To know well literature, music, painting… All these components are needed to create a spectacle. Above all, the director must have fantasy and must put fantasy at the service of creating the spectacle. This fantasy, I think, is called talent. In addition, the director is the soul and mind of a theater. As we talk about directors, I remember Andrea Skanjeti. It worked very well for unraveling the inner world of the actor. That’s how he worked with me for the role of Anika in the drama “Prodigal Son”. While Esat Oktrova was another director, who had his own way of working. Esati, usually worked at the table for a long time, then jumped into the mise-en-scène.

I worked in “Zekthi” by E. Vojnić, in “Nora e lbsen. With these directors, as well as with Lec Shllaku and Serafin Fanko, I perfected my acting skills, so I grew as an actress in terms of the interpretive and artistic level. Even I want to add something: The good director knows how to divide the roles well. That’s where his success depends.

I believe you also have memories of your colleagues?

Violeta: I said it at the beginning of the conversation, in the theater “Migjeni” I found very good actors, for example Zef Juban. For me, the scene of the miser or Tuc Maku in the drama “Our Land” is unforgettable. One feature, among many to this day, I remember Zefi’s features. Before he came to the show, he filled himself with music. He told me: “You know what I heard now that I came? “What?” — I asked him. “Rigoleto” – he answered me. “Did you hear it for pleasure!?” — I asked him for the second time. In “Rigoleto”, – Zefi continued the conversation, – I have found the core to break down the role of Harpagon. Just as Rigoleto cries over the girl when she finds her dead, so I cry over the money box, which for me is everything. So Moliere has treated it. This is how I will treat it. In this tragedy-comedy Zef Jubani shone and became as great as it was, because the spectator understood the character, the style of this work, which leaned more towards drama than from comedy, he conceived the role of Harpagon not in a comic sense, but in a dramatic sense, and in some cases in a tragic sense. wealth.

A more social question. Do you still feel like a “foreigner” in Shkodra?

I would feel like a foreigner. But in Shkodra, no. Shkodra has become my city! Here I found Shkodra warmth. I grew up, I was formed as a person, as an actress and… I created my family that I love very much. Shkodra has offered me a lot. It has offered me the humor that I like very much, the smell of the flowers, the water of the wells with a tap, the scents of the shermasheks, of the carnations that Shkodra has. In Shkodër, as I mentioned during the conversation, I worked with knowledgeable and cultured people. I spent the most beautiful casts of my life, I spent my youth, the most beautiful and most expensive thing.

Exclusive for the page August 12, 2021 / Excerpted from the book “Memory of a city” (Xhahid Bushati) – albas 2019, p. 236-240
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