Funeral details for Ayla Algan have been announced

The funeral program for Ayla Algan, who passed away following a brain hemorrhage, has been finalized.

A ceremony will be held for Ayla Algan, who taught at the Istanbul Drama Art Academy until the end of her life, on Saturday, January 6, at 10:30 AM at the IMM City Theaters Muhsin Ertuğrul Stage.

The artist's funeral will be laid to rest at Aşiyan Cemetery following the funeral prayer to be held at Teşvikiye Mosque after the noon prayer.

WHO IS AYLA ALGAN?

Ayla Algan was born in Istanbul on October 29, 1937. In her childhood, she took piano, ballet, and singing lessons. She continued her piano education, 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 Versailles High School 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, the artist returned to Turkey, joined the staff of the Istanbul City Theaters, and played her first role in theater in 1961 with the play 'Tarla Kuşu' (The Lark).

In the same year, she took part in the play Hamlet; she portrayed 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. In 1966, she left the City Theaters following the resignation of Muhsin Ertuğrul and for a time gave theater teaching and actor training lessons 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 here.

Algan, who took the stage at Paris's famous concert hall Olympia in 1971, participated in Peter Brook's Theater Workshop as a guest at the Recamier Theater in Paris in 1972, directed by Jean L. Bazault. She lived in Paris between 1972 and 1979 and became interested in 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 deemed worthy of 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 Indians.

She went to Berlin in 1980 and performed worker theater for four years 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 founded the Theater Research Laboratory (TAL) together 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. She also served as Deputy General Art Director at the Istanbul City Theaters in 1996. She retired from the City Theaters after acting in the play 'Aşk Hastası' (The Love Patient) by Şeyh Galip, which was staged by Kenan Işık at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theaters in the 1999-2001 season. Ayla Algan acted in dozens of films such as 'Seni Seviyorum Rosa', 'Harem Suare', and 'O da Beni Seviyor', and in various TV series such as 'Biz Size Aşık Olduk', 'Üzgünüm 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 shows 'Carnival of the Animals 2005-2006-2007' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition 2007-2008', which were staged at İş Sanat. In 2011, she took on the roles of General Art Director of the Istanbul Drama Art Academy, as well as instructor for the "English Theater Certificate Program" and "Cinema-Theater Acting Workshop," which are foreign language training programs using theater and creative drama methods.