Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:34:01 -0500
From: Alexander Winfield <sheepwpunks-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Nikolai Shiskin


I'm sorry to hear of Mr. Shishkin's passing away. I've felt the double-edged
sword of moving to a vastly different country full of opportunity, but
lacking all the small, comforting details of home. I hope his return to
Russia was a happy one for him before his accident.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,   Their sober wishes never
learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life* *  They kept the
noiseless tenor of their way.
-Thomas Gray


On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 10:45 AM, <puppetpro-AT-aol.com> wrote:

> Thanks for this, Robert.
>
>
> Recently read "How Many Days to America" by Eve Bunting. It's a touching
> book of refugees coming by boat to America. The children I read it to were
> very moved.  Several children were immigrants, and knew first hand the
> reasons their family came here. It opened up a pretty intense discussion.
>
>
> Rolande
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Rogers <robertrogers-AT-robertrogerspuppets.com>
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Sent: Fri, Nov 27, 2009 9:33 am
> Subject: [Puptcrit] Nikolai Shiskin
>
>
> Nikolai Shishkin, Russian-born puppet theater and director has died.  His
> story
> is one of great irony.
>
> He previously lead the Moscow Regional Puppet Theater Company, second in
> size to
> the Obraztsov troupe.  For the last several years he was on the staff of
> Marquis
> Studios in New York City, an arts-in-ed organization.  Feeling frustrated
> and
> homesick, he accepted a temporary job to direct a new production for the
> Obraztsov group.  Unfortunately, because of what was described to me as a
> mysterious traumatic blow to the head, he fell into a coma and lived his
> last
> days in a Moscow hospital.
>
> In his earlier life as a theater director, he enjoyed the perks of a
> successful
> Soviet artist: a limousine and driver, designated nightclubs and vacation
> resorts for the art elite.  But once on tour in the U.S. when the Soviet
> Union
> began to collapse, he found himself stranded in New York City when his wife
> was
> struck by a taxi, and wound up severely injured.  He went to the Soviet
> embassy
> and asked for help but was denied - embassy officials had bigger problems.
> Nikolai quickly ran out of money and eventually fell into the trap of
> living the
> life of a poverty stricken, unemployed immigrant.
>
> To make a long, momentous story short, Nikolai and his wife Galina, endured
> and
> rebuilt their lives.  They moved to upstate New York, found employment
> (Galina,
> in a calendar factory and Nikolai with the Catskill Puppets) and eventually
> won
> a law suit against the taxi company, that allowed them to purchase an
> apartment
> in midtown Manhattan, and a country home in the Catskills.
>
> I once asked Nikolai how he felt through this ordeal.  He said, "I had many
> benefits in Russia, but I did not feel like a free man until I came to the
> States, even when times were really tough."
>
> Rest in Peace.
>
> R. Rogers
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