Artist Profile: Ana Breznik ’24 on Art and Tenderness

Ana Breznik ’24 believes in experimental theater — in daring to go “outside of the convention” and taking “a step that people may question.” According to Breznik, an artistic idea worth pursuing — whether related to directing, costume, design, or another element — “scares you a little.”

“I just love the feeling when you see a show and you’re like, what the fuck did I just see?” Breznik said. “I just think it’s something that we need as humans.”

In her time on campus, Breznik has auditioned for a wide range of productions, including Shakespearean drama, conventional plays, and musical theater.

“But somehow, every year, the ‘weird show’ of the semester somehow pulls me in,” she said.

In fall 2021, her first in-person semester, Breznik performed in “Ubu Roi,” a 19th-century absurdist play by Alfred Jarry, staged on the steps of the Widener Library. The next semester, she performed in “Disonia,” a play publicized in email newsletters sent to students as “the most insane production of the season.”

Although she is drawn to the “weird,” Breznik carries her bold visions with a calm and meditative presence: She speaks softly and smiles often. Breznik is originally from Slovenia, one of the smallest countries in Europe, where a person could drive from one end to the other in just a few hours. She grew up in a village with, as she said, about five hundred residents, with a church, three bars, and one store. However, she went to school in Maribor, the second-largest city in Slovenia.

“The earliest form of art I was involved in by myself was ballet,” Breznik said. “It was actually my dream in middle school to become a ballerina.”

She started dancing at age six and continued for nine years. However, the intense training eventually caused a back injury, which forced her to quit ballet. While she turned her attention to theater, her ballet foundation still influences her approach to and understanding of the performing arts.

“I still understand theater primarily through movement.” she said. “I'm very interested in conveying the story and emotion with as little words as possible, rather with other elements of theatrical storytelling, such as movement, music, lighting.”

“I came in thinking I was going to do a lot of science,” Breznik said. “But art is beginning to take more and more time as Harvard goes on.”

Breznik pursues a concentration in Integrative Biology with a secondary field in Theater, Dance, and Media. When she came to Harvard, she thought she would only focus on science — but she spends increasingly more time on art. She does not consider the two disciplines in stark opposition; rather, she finds science and art “more connected” than most people often believe.

“They’re both a process of exploration and searching for answers,” Breznik said. “As you find some answers you think of new questions. They just have very different ways of going about it. At the core, they’re just this beautiful, never-ending cyclical process of never fully getting the answer.”

Since coming to the United States, Breznik has appreciated the popularity of the theater market, but also recognized that this popularity often causes productions to focus on profit.

“I sometimes really miss […] boldness and daringness. I feel like all the shows are made to be liked, rather than questioned or talked about. And so I really want to bring more experimental theater to Harvard,” she said.

Breznik has been working on “Museum of Tenderness,” an experimental play dealing with loneliness, connection, and finding tenderness with the self.

“Museum of Tenderness” began last spring, when she took Directing Lab, a course taught by Shira Milikowsky where students directed scenes. She found something exciting in “starting from scratch” and developing her own vision. She expanded the two scenes originally created for Directing Lab to seven scenes. Breznik calls these scenes “dreams” because they lie “on the edge” of the “conscious, unconscious, and subconscious.”

The dreams are akin to “a collection of short stories” that stand alone but are connected through an overarching theme. Breznik also acts in the play.

“I think a good scene will always tell something about the director,” she said. “So I think directing myself into [the first] scene kind of speaks to that. And that scene is about accepting parts of yourself that exist within you, that you sometimes like to push down.”

Breznik said that there are many “unknowns” and “puzzle pieces” that she has to work through and put together. She has found it difficult to create a campus production as an independent artist, but she has also found other students who are passionate about the arts and excited to help with the production.

“Museum of Tenderness” is personal to Breznik. She found the process of creating it and seeing it performed as “healing.”

“My scenes have a lot of the components that I sometimes miss in my own life, but which I strive to implement,” said Breznik. “There's something quite meditative about my process of writing the scenes.”

Breznik strives to see more people embrace compassion and understanding and aims to bring these values to audiences through theater. During a preview of two scenes from “Museum of Tenderness,” Breznik saw her audience connect and relate to universal emotions that “we often like to hide.”

“Tenderness is something that we should always strive for in life… Force doesn't really get us anywhere,” Breznik said. “Among students at Harvard, everyone is always very strict with themselves. A lot of the time, people beat themselves up over the smallest things. And I think remembering to be gentle and patient with yourself is always helpful, healthy, and makes you better at everything you do. And also makes you a better person.”

Experimental theater may hold connotations with the bold and uncomfortable, but Breznik focuses on connection — by pursuing the ideas that scare her a little, she reminds people to stay in touch with their tenderness.