Public Radio of Armenia · 2022 · Radio Play
A radio play · A documentary about waiting
For William Saroyan's 115th anniversary, Public Radio of Armenia staged the play he wrote out of his own orphanage childhood — the story of a boy who asks Santa Claus to bring his father back. Ten years after his first visits to a children's home in Stepanakert, director Garik Hovhannisyan chose this play, and began tracking down the children he once met there to learn what became of them. Out of that search a documentary is taking shape: a film about the kind of waiting that leaves a mark.
«Of the many powers a person is born with, the greatest is the power to wait»
01 — Two Stories, One Thread
Three-year-old Willie, a boy in an orphanage, asks Santa Claus for one thing at Christmas: his father back. He is handed a wrapped box instead, and runs. Nearly three decades later Saroyan hears a radio report about a Christmas party thrown for children from broken homes, and starts writing that same night. By Christmas 1941 the play is on the air at CBS.
For ten years Garik Hovhannisyan kept returning to a children's home in Stepanakert. In 2022 he decided to stage this particular Saroyan play — and, at the same time, to find the children he had known there. Who had they become? What had their lives turned into? The documentary grew out of those questions.
«It is strongest in youth, and though the years wear it down, it never disappears entirely»
02 — The Radio Play
Produced by Public Radio of Armenia for William Saroyan's 115th anniversary, translated by Elfik Zohrabyan, and first broadcast just before the New Year.
Audio · full recording
03 — The Film · In Production
Documentary feature · currently filming
Ten years after the director's first visits, the crew is looking for the young people who grew up in that Stepanakert children's home. We film them as they are now: what they became, what they remember of the place, and what they are still waiting for. The material is being assembled into a feature-length documentary.
Support the project
If you know someone who grew up in the home, or you'd like to help the filming continue, write to us.
Stills from the shoot · more to come
04 — Credits
Artistic Director, Director
Translation
Video, Editing
Full cast