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A ceremony was held this morning at the Harbiye Muhsin Ertuğrul Stage for Ayla Algan, who passed away at the age of 86 following a brain hemorrhage.
Speaking at the ceremony, master actress Aliye Uzunatağan said, "Ayla sister was a true artist. She taught me not to fear death. She would say, 'Death is just a sleep, look at Shakespeare, he said it so many years ago.' Then we grew up and became friends. We started talking about women's issues. She used to say that to be a good actor, one must destroy their ego. I will miss her very much," she stated.
Following the ceremony, Algan's body was brought to Teşvikiye Mosque.
'I HAD TO SHARE MY MOTHER'
Speaking to reporters, Ayla Algan's daughter Sevi Algan said, “I always had to share my mother with others. With the workers in Germany, with the children… She would say, 'Let them learn Turkish theater too.' I had to grow up very early. I was traveling alone by plane at the age of 5. When she was lying sick in the hospital, my mother would be by my side. Whenever someone came up to greet my mother, she would forget about me to attend to them," she said.
The master artist was laid to rest at Aşiyan Cemetery following the funeral prayer held after the noon prayer.
WHO IS AYLA ALGAN?
Ayla Algan was born on October 29, 1937, in Istanbul. In her childhood, she took piano, ballet, and singing lessons. She continued her piano education, which she started 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. The artist, who received stage training with her husband Beklan Algan at the New York Actor Studio Actor’s Repertory Theatre of Broadway in America, joined the Istanbul City Theaters staff after returning to Turkey 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 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 upon the resignation of Muhsin Ertuğrul and taught theater and acting coaching at the LCC Language and Culture Center Theater School for a while. 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, directed by Jean L. Bazault, in Paris in 1972.
She lived in Paris between 1972 and 1979 and was interested in music. In 1972, she prepared an album for the 650th anniversary of Yunus Emre at the request of the Ministry of Tourism. She named her daughter, who was born in 1975, 'Sevi', inspired by Yunus Emre.
Algan, who won second prize by singing an anti-war song at the International Golden Orpheus Song Contest in Bulgaria in 1973, 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 various TV series such as 'Biz Size Aşık Olduk', 'Üzgünüm Leyla', and 'Aliye'. She also worked as an acting coach for famous actors with 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 duties 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 education programs using theater and creative drama methods.
News Source : 12punto
