Ayla Algan has passed away

Theater artist, director, singer, and instructor Ayla Algan has passed away due to a brain hemorrhage.

The master artist Ayla Algan was 86 years old.

WHO IS AYLA ALGAN?

Ayla Algan was born on October 29, 1937, in Istanbul. During her childhood, she took piano, ballet, and vocal lessons. She continued her piano studies, which she began at the age of 5, for 11 years until she went to France for high school. She attended middle school at Notre Dame de Sion in Istanbul and high school at the Lycée de Versailles in France. She married Beklan Algan (1933-2010), whom she met while continuing her high school education. After receiving stage training with her husband Beklan Algan at the New York Actor Studio Actor’s Repertory Theatre on Broadway in America, she returned to Turkey and joined the Istanbul City Theatres, where she played her first role in the play 'Tarla Kuşu' (The Lark) in 1961.

In the same year, she took part in the play 'Hamlet'; she played the character of Hamlet despite it being a male role, as well as the role of Ophelia. For this reason, she was referred to as the 'Male Hamlet'. In 1965, she was deemed worthy of the İlhan İskender Best Actress Award for the play 'The Physicists', but she turned it down on the grounds that theater is a collective art. She left the City Theatres in 1966 following the resignation of Muhsin Ertuğrul and spent some time teaching theater and acting coaching at the LCC Language and Culture Center Theater School. Valuable actors and directors such as Macit Koper, Taner Barlas, Cezmi Baskın, Meral Çetinkaya, and Rutkay Aziz emerged from there.

Algan, who took the stage at Paris's famous concert hall, the Olympia, in 1971, participated as a guest in Peter Brook's Theater Workshop at the Recamier Theater in Paris in 1972, directed by Jean L. Bazault. She lived in Paris between 1972 and 1979 and focused on music. In 1972, at the request of the Ministry of Tourism, she prepared an album for the 650th anniversary of Yunus Emre. She named her daughter, who was born in 1975, 'Sevi', inspired by Yunus Emre. Algan, who won second prize at the International Golden Orpheus Song Contest in Bulgaria in 1973 by singing an anti-war song, was awarded the UNICEF Honorary Award. In 1977, she won first place in the world at the Sopot Festival in Poland with a song about the problems of the Oda Native Americans.

She went to Berlin in 1980 and spent four years performing worker theater at the Schaubühne Theater with artists such as Tuncel Kurtiz, Şener Şen, and Macit Koper. In 1984, she founded the BİLSAK Theater Workshop with colleagues such as Erol Keskin, Beklan Algan, Prof. Cevat Çapan, Taner Barlas, Ahmet Levendoğlu, Macit Koper, Haluk Şevket, Yekta Kara, Müge Gürman, Metin Deniz, Ergüder Yoldaş, Prof. Süleyman Velioğlu, and Oben Güney.

In 1988, she co-founded the Theater Research Laboratory (TAL) with Beklan Algan, Erol Keskin, and Haluk Şevket Ataseven, where she contributed to the training of young theater actors by carrying out many experimental projects. Additionally, she served as the Assistant General Art Director at the Istanbul City Theatres in 1996. She retired from the City Theatres after performing in the play 'Aşk Hastası' (The Love Patient) by Şeyh Galip, which was staged by Kenan Işık at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theatres in the 1999-2001 season. Ayla Algan acted in dozens of films such as 'Seni Seviyorum Rosa' (I Love You Rosa), 'Harem Suare', and 'O da Beni Seviyor' (He Loves Me Too), as well as various television series such as 'Biz Size Aşık Olduk' (We Fell in Love With You), 'Üzgünüm Leyla' (I'm Sorry Leyla), and 'Aliye'. She also provided acting coaching to famous actors through her 'Creative and Contemporary Theater Techniques' course.

As both a theater instructor and narrator for the Koroporte Art Group, she took part in Koroporte's 'Carnival of the Animals 2005-2006-2007' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition 2007-2008' shows staged at İş Sanat. In 2011, she took on the roles of General Art Director at the Istanbul Drama Art Academy, as well as instructor for the "English Theater Certificate Program" and "Cinema-Theater Acting Workshop," which use theater and creative drama methods for foreign language education.