- Trained as a theater director in Soviet-era Russia, he came to Memphis in the '90s and trained a generation of Mid-South students in Germantown High School's award-winning student-run television station.

In 2005, he returned home to produce and direct programs in Russia and Ukraine.

Today, he's the studio coordinator for GHS-TV with a unique perspective on the art of television.

I'm Caleb Suggs, and this is A Conversation with Leonid Mazor.

Thank you for joining me in the studio, Mr. Mazor.

- Oh, you're welcome.

We're glad to have you here in our studios.

- So, for those watching, we have actually left the typical WKNO studio, we're here in the studio of GHS-TV, Germantown High School's Award-winning television station.

So thank you for letting us host the show here.

It's pretty cool to be back.

- Wow, it's pretty cool to have you here.

You know, I never been interviewed by my former student, you know, so this is the great opportunity for me and for you as well.

- All right, so for those just tuning in, Mr. Leonid Mazor here is the TV studio coordinator of GHS-TV, which is Germantown High School Television, mentored and taught several generations of students at this point in television, film, and acting here at Germantown, even myself, who was a student here in the 2010s.

So it's pretty cool to just come back here and just kind of host this.

I didn't know I'd be back in this capacity, so this is pretty cool.

It's been about seven years since I hosted something in here.

But Mr. Mazor, this is something that I've been trying to do with you for a long time, have a whole show dedicated to your life, because you were kind of a man of mystery when it comes to a lot of your students.

Did you know that?

- No, I don't know that I am a mystery, you know?

But you know what?

Let's kind of establish our relationship - Sure.

- In this conversation, okay?

You don't need to call me anymore Mr. Mazor, like as you did seven years ago.

You can call me Leonid, you know?

- Oh my gosh, okay.

- That will be fine.

Even my name is hard to pronounce for many people, you know?

- Leonid, I got it.

- Yeah, so you see, you're good at it.

You know, not everyone could do that, obviously.

Yes, I mean, and no, I did not know that I've been a mystery, you know [laughs], for my students, you know?

So, honestly, I mean, I kind of felt that I'm pretty open, you know, to them.

- You have a very interesting backstory that not everybody knows the details of, just the story of how you came from Russia, or at that time, the Soviet Union, and coming to teach in America in Memphis, Tennessee of all places and just being one of the foundational people to set up this entire studio that is, you know, one of the most advanced, or the most advanced high school television station in the country.

Let's start at the very beginning.

What was it like?

- So we have to go back to the 20th century, actually, you know, and to the city called Luhansk, which is located in Ukraine.

You know, back then it was Ukraine.

There's many other, actually 16 republic, was the part of the former Soviet Union, you know?

And even in the early age, you know, I kind of feel the desire, you know, to be an actor, you know?

So I start with the different stuff, you know, that I did, the pantomime [laughs] and stuff like that.

Then in school, you know, I organized a little theater, you know, in the high school.

We didn't have, I mean, the luxuries we have here, you know, like the whole arts department, you know?

So it was extracurricular things, you know, and I was behind that to organize it, of course, directing those small plays, you know, and become to be a lead in those plays.

Actually, what has happened, when I was in the eighth grade, I was casting, you know, in a professional theater play.

You know, we have a professional theater in Luhansk, you know, and I was casted there in a small part of the big play.

So I was able for two years, you know, to kind of experience the professional theater, and so I was aware that I'm a great actors of the whole world, you know?

So then I made a decision, you know, that I have to proceed the career.

The education, the theater education and the film education as well is very different in Russia.

- Yeah.

- We do not have, like- Like, a universities here has a theater department, or the communication department.

Over there, it's different.

You know, we have a specific institute, you know, when the people receiving the bachelor's or master degrees, and that institute dedicated directly to the occupation, you know, what you want to take.

Actor, director, you know, the set designer, the writer, you know?

So this is kind of like a school, the high level school, you know, that you go to.

And it was so hard to enroll, because back then in Russia, it's only five theatrical schools, you know, that you can enroll is, and you understand that everybody would like to be an actor, you know?

It was hard to get it.

My parents was really opposite of this, you know, they don't want me to become an actor.

My mother, I mean, I was born in a Jewish family.

So in a Jewish family, oh, you have to be a violinist, you know, the doctor, you know.

- That's what I was gonna ask.

Like, was it normal for somebody to say I wanna be an actor in school?

- I mean, in the Jewish family, it's very unusual.

- Got it.

- But I mean, we know a lot of good Jewish actors, you know, the actors who are Jewish, you know, but, you know, so my mother was very opposite, but my father on contrary, you know, was very supportive.

So we kind of, behind my mother's back, you know, we decided I'm going to do that.

Unfortunately, and maybe fortunately for me, you know, I didn't get it.

[laughs] I didn't get it, you know, for some reason.

I try to just enter to every one of them, because you have to have a special additions, you know, to get there.

You know, in addition has like a three phases, and every one of them I get to the last phase, you know?

But unfortunately, I was not able to get in.

But I don't wanna come back to Luhansk.

Luhansk, you know, it's a very nice city.

Unfortunately, it's now part of the confrontation between the Ukraine and Russia, you know, and the Luhansk become to be a capital one of the republic with Russia's support, you know?

And this is actually one of the cause of the war, you know, what's going on over there.

So, but back then it was, everything was fine, you know?

But I don't want to come back to the city, you know?

And I honestly, I don't wanna become to be a doctor, you know, because that's what my mother want.

So, because I graduated the school as the valedictorian, you know, in Russia it's called the gold medalist, you know?

So I have an opportunity to get in any high institution, you know, like without the exams.

And for some reason, I have a very developed, very good love for chemistry, you know?

So one of the university, what I choose was the Moscow Chemical Technology Institute.

You know, that specific college has a good, I mean, the people who run the college has a heart for arts, you know?

So we have a different theater.

Every department, you know, has a small theater there, you know.

So I was a part of one of those theaters, you know, which is we developed with, it was only was 12 of us, you know?

And everyone beside study chemistry, you know, just have a heart for art, you know?

So we put all ourself in it.

And we become to be pretty famous, you know, around the Moscow and then around the whole Soviet Union, you know, as the student theater.

But I mean, the time passed by, you know, and we all graduated the university, you know, and obviously we have to go to work, you know?

And I have to go as well.

And I was one of the general manager of the fabric which produced the artificial Christmas trees, you know?

Yeah, I run that place for a couple years, you know, and then I was drafted to the army.

And in the army, you know, I mean, because of my love for the theater, I did organize the theater there.

- In the army?

[laughs] - In the army.

And honestly to say, this has kind of saved my life.

Because that year, when I was drafted, that was 1982, that was the year, you know, when the war between the Afghanistan and Russia, you know, and America as well, you know, go on, you know.

So everybody who was drafted actually supposed to be sent over there, you know, but I, there was a lucky thing, a lucky accident, let's say, what happened with me, you know, because I was delayed to the draft place, you know?

And so my whole, my command, you know, whatever it's called, the group, you know, they went to the Afghanistan, you know, and I, because I was delayed, you know, they didn't know where to place me.

So they sent me to St. Petersburg, you know.

And over there, actually, I was served as the sergeant over there, and I organized the theater over there, and that theater become to be very, very known all over the military base in Russia.

And we have our own airplane, you know, they flew us to all this military bases when we actually performed, you know, over there as well.

So when the army was done, you know, I came back working again in the factory, you know, as I said, keep producing those artificial Christmas trees.

- Gotta love it, yeah.

- All my friends actually has those, still have those artificial Christmas tree, when it was like 47 years, you know, passed by.

Anyway, so, and then actually, perestroika happened in Russia, you know, 1985.

And this things changed a lot.

And television, the Russian television, decide to reinstate, reestablish the show, what was actually established in 1963, that show called "KVN".

This is the mix, you know, of the sketches, parodies, improvisations.

And this is competition between the teams, you know, and they compete with each other, you know, and it's like a tournament, you know.

You have a quarterfinals, you have a semifinals, you have a final, and you become to be a champion, you know, the whole thing, kind of like "Saturday Night Live" combined with "Whose Line Is It, Anyway".

The show, since it was established in '63, you know, become to be very popular, you know.

Popular as well, that you can rob the stores, you know, when the show was on air.

The whole streets was empty.

People was glued to the television.

In 1972, show was closed, you know, because it's become to be so political sharp, you know?

And the government could not, because the whole television was under the government censorship, you know?

So the show was closed.

And so in 1985, since 14 years, They reestablished the show again, because the perestroika gave so much freedom for the people who want to have a freedom of speech, you know, who wanna establish their own opinion about this stuff.

And that specifically format of the show, you know, that politically sharp, you know, was very needed back then, you know, demanded.

And that's what that was reestablished, - And that opened it up for you to get involved?

- Yeah, and that's what our team, our student theater, when I was in the Moscow Technology Institute, because they know us as a good, well-known theater, you know, they ask us if we can be a team of this.

So I participate as a part of the team.

I mean, I was a director of that team as well, you know, and one of the lead actors.

- It was like your big break, as they say.

- Yeah, it was a big break, you know.

[chuckling] But we were pretty successful, you know, and that first tournament, we didn't won all the way, you know, we won most of the phases of this, but we lost in the finale, you know, for more humorous and more advanced team, you know.

But we were recognized, you know?

the people noted us.

- And that jumpstarted your career.

- Actually, yeah.

and with my friend, you know, who I actually known since 1975, you know, we were close together.

We were together in the theater, you know, everything, everything great what I ever done in my life, you know, I just kind of owe to this guy, you know.

We work together.

So they offer to us.

I'm not mentioning his name because I don't want to make any harms to him, you know, because he's in Russia right now and I'm here, you know, and you know, the Russian government not like the people who is in America talking about the peers who could still be in Russia.

- Speaking of America, we gotta ask the elephant in the room.

How did you end up going from Russia to Memphis, Tennessee of all places?

- Yeah, part of my family in 1978, that was the second wave of the emigration, Jews from Russia to United State and Israel as well.

And so they decide to move to United State.

So that's happened in 1978.

You know, my grandmother, my grandfather, and two of my cousins, you know, come here.

And Memphis obviously was the first place when they choose for a very strange reason.

There is a legend about that, you know, because when they were in Italy waiting for the sponsor who will take them into United States, you know, there was several offers, you know, what they receive.

But that year, Memphis, the Memphis Jewish community, decide to host it, you know, the Russian immigrants.

So they received that offer.

And my grandfather, you know, who didn't know anything about Memphis, and when we keep asking him why you decide to choose the Memphis for that, he said, you know, "I don't know anything about Memphis, "but I know one thing, you know, "that the Elvis Presley was born there, you know.

That's why I want to go and see it."

You know?

So obviously, I...

I don't think that was a real reason.

But we would like to tell that story.

So they were the first family who came in Memphis.

And then all my other members of my family, my father, my brother, you know, uncle.

And they, year by year, they kind of reunited, you know, my decision to move.

We were the last one, my family, you know, which is my wife and two, my childrens, you know, we were the last one who made the decision to go there, to move to United States, you know, because our life was pretty much established.

- Right, from the show, you've kind of established your television/film career.

- Yeah, I've become to be one of the 10 top TV directors in the nation, you know, and beside that humor show, you know, that I mentioned that I kind of write, was the screenwriter, you know, and the director, you know, I also did several lot of shows.

So, and I did a lot of commercial.

I did the first commercial in Russia, you know, ever.

That's happened with me as well.

[laughs] There was a lot of things, what happened.

So we feel fine, you know, in a way.

But the things in '92, things get pretty sore in Russia, you know, was no food.

You know, the perestroika, I actually start kind of not going well, you know, and the economy goes down, and we kind of feel that there is a way to just change our life, you know?

And because we have a place, you know, to go, and because of my adventure-y character, you know, because I mean, actually the move here was a real adventure.

So we just decided to move here to Memphis, you know.

That's how we ended up in Memphis.

- Okay, so you're here in Memphis, Tennessee, and you know, Germantown High has been around for a hundred years, but GHS-TV, that comes in the form of Germantown Cablevision back in '81.

Then Bluestein founds the whole place, turns to GHS-TV in '82, and you get here in '94.

Okay, so what gets you associated with Frank Bluestein, the founder of the whole Poplar Pike Playhouse in GHS-TV and gets you on board with all of this?

- Well, very short, you know, because it's hard to find a job in Memphis, especially with my occupation.

You know, every station, every TV station when I get to it, you know, I have a stamp overqualified, you know.

So they don't even, I just said, "I ready to do everything, you know, "I ready to carry the tapes, you know, from one place to another."

They don't want to do this to me, you know?

But luckily, Memphis in May, that year was dedicated to Russia.

So the Theatre Memphis did the play called "Anastasia", and Sherwood Lohrey, who was the general manager of this, he offered me to direct the play because that was cool, you know, to have a Russian director to direct the play about the Russian princess and all of this.

So this is kind of make my name knowing in Memphis.

I also worked at Rhodes.

Somebody get in sabbatical, you know, so they offer me the year to teach at Rhodes, acting, and I direct the play over there as well.

A couple of those kids who were students, who was in this play, now running the high schools all over the city, the theater department over there.

Chris Luther, by the way, in Collierville as well.

When I've been looking for the different theater with my resume, you know, we are run, kind of go around the city to try to stick my resume to anybody, you know, I came, I found out the name Poplar Pike Playhouse, which sounds so great, you know, so I didn't realize that this was a high school.

So when I came there, you know, and Allison Long, you know, who is now the chairman of our department, she was a student back then.

She was the first one that met me there, you know, now since so many years, you know, we're still very close friends and actually worked with each other.

Anyway, so she introduced me to the Bluestein, Bluestein did "Chess" back then, you know, the musical, you know, and he invited me to as an acting coach for that, you know, and then I work with this, and then all of a sudden the people from Moscow, this is a similar school as ours, you know, it's called the Moscow International Field School, came here, you know, so Bluestein met them and he was amazed, you know, about the braveness of these people, you know, who rented two van and traveled from the Los Angeles to New York performing, without no money, performing on the streets and stuff like that.

There was no English actually involved in those people as well.

You know, so Bluestein called me and said, "Can you help me, you know, to talk to these people?"

So I came and we did talk and because Bluestein was amazed, you know, of what these people do, he said, "I will do it.

"I will take 40 students and 20 faculty members.

"We will do the play, we will give "to each student the camera in their hands, "and we'll go over to Russia, you know, and perform there, and do the documentary about all of this adventure."

And he invite me to be the consultant for that.

That's what actually lead us to the documentary "100 Visions", you know, with Jim Barrett, actually one of our alumni, you know, he actually put it together, you know, and Dan Bluestein, seeing me how I'm working, just actually offered me the job here in Germantown.

- To run the studio?

- Yes.

- He offered me to run the studio and actually directing the plays there.

So, for- - Oh, you were doing both.

- So we did both.

- At first.

- Because the production class, the nature of the production class with Bluestein actually running doesn't have a distinction, you know, that you're theater major or television major, they're working together.

- Right.

- You know, so we did the plays and we did the TV shows, you know, and so he put me in charge here to run the studio.

And also, I taught.

I taught Intro to Film.

I taught Intro to Theater.

I taught acting, and I taught advanced class Film 2 and the production class.

So actually for 10 years, there was a 7/24, work, you know.

[laughing] - Good grief!

- Well, that's what we did, you know.

but Mr. Bluestein, I'm really thankful for him, you know, when he extend the hand, you know, and kind of take me under his wing, you know, I learned a lot from him.

He actually retired in 2013.

Me and my colleagues, you know, we all together try to keep the legacy, you know, with what established in 1972 when he started the Fine Arts Department in Germantown High School, only Fine Arts Department all over the Shelby County schools in 1972.

So thank you, Mr. Bluestein, you know, for giving me that opportunity.

- Just to kind of cover, you know, why you stayed around, 'cause I know you had the stint where you went back to Russia for 10 years in 2005, I believe.

- That's right.

- And so, what got you to come back, and then what keeps you teaching here?

And what, I guess, how have you kind of grown a teacher from those first years where you're kind of working, I don't wanna say overtime, doing everything, but also how has your role kind of changed and how has your perspective changed on teaching, since this has been your primary thing for so many years now?

- Yes, for 10 years, you know, I kind of gave my life to the GHS-TV and the Poplar Pike Playhouse, actually for fine arts department.

And it was fun.

You know, it wasn't hard...

It was hard, you know, to kind of change the venue, you know, because the shows what I did was much bigger scale, you know, and the people who I work much more professionals, you know.

- Adults.

- Yeah.

But I learned, oh, you know what?

I can tell you sometimes, you know, it's hard to distinguish adult and the child, you know.

And especially my students, you know, even now and back then, you know, they are more professional than some adults that I work with.

Those 10 years was very, very interesting, intense, you know, and very creative.

Then in 2005, I got the offer from Russia, which is, as the Godfather would say, "I could not refuse", you know.

That was a salary-wise, and the most important things this is, was the golden years in Russia when the oil money was very high.

The price for the oil was very high.

There was a lot of money there.

There actually was not that much censorship, you know, it was a lot of creative freedoms, you know.

So they offered me to come back, you know, to Russia and actually did the adaptations, you know, for American sitcoms.

So I did several of those adaptations, you know, I did "Grace Under Fire".

I did "Suddenly Susan", you know, I work on "I Love Raymond", you know, I did "Sanford And Son", you know, there was a lot of cool things that I did it, you know, and it was interesting, you know, to wait to work there, because I can share a lot, you know, the things, what I learned over here in the state, you know, as well.

I mean, I can bring something new, you know, to them, to the new approach of adaptations, you know, and absolutely shooting this stuff.

- Right, 'cause you get that firsthand experience of what they're actually- - That's right.

- Supposed to do.

- Right, then I was involved, you know, go back to Ukraine and I become to be the CEO of one of the biggest networks in Ukraine, you know, and I run that place for a couple years, you know?

Then I decide to actually, I don't like to be the TV bureaucrat, so I decide to go back and just become to be creative.

So I produce, direct several mostly TV series, you know, that I did.

There is different events, some of them still running in Russia, but they kind of wiped my name out, you know, as a director from those shows.

But then, you know, the things getting sore between Ukraine and Russia, and actually inside of Russia as well, with the Putin kind of dictatorships and stuff like that.

You know, I kind of, and because I was in opposition of the government politics, you know, and I said a lot of things, you know, I went to the marches, I went to demonstrations, you know, I tried to express my opinion about that.

So the things getting sore, and I feel emptiness around me, you know, somehow the budget was smaller, the offers was less, and actually none, you know, so, and my wife kind of start worrying about the things would go on there.

And so Mila told me, this is my wife's name, which I love that name as well, as much as I love my wife.

But Mila told me, "You know, we need to go.

You know, we need to go back."

I was hesitated to go back because I almost was back then, oh, 50-plus age, you know, so I don't know what I'm gonna do it.

But Allison Long, you know, who ran the department and still running the department now, you know, she said, "Do you want to come back, you know, and teach?"

But that was an escape, you know.

So I came back, I went into my office, you know, with the same pictures around, on the same table, and I'm surrounding with my former student who is working with me.

You know Mallory Kenny, you know Bobby Ramsey.

Of course, we're very close with Allison, you know, as well.

So I kind of felt like back home, you know?

So honestly to say I didn't see a lot of changes, you know, in myself.

You know, I still doing what I've been doing several years ago, and it's almost nine years and I'm back.

- Has anything changed from that first year coming back in 2015 to now?

- Everything has changed, you know.

I mean, everything changed.

The attitude, you know, the approach, the way how we are supposed to teach, you know, everything has changed.

Can I say that was worse than it was before?

No, it's not.

It's different.

We have to modify.

So things change, you know, but it's changed in a good way.

And that's only what I can say.

Legacy's still there, because our legacy, it's a high quality.

You know, this is only what we required from the students.

We are not here to produce the professionals.

This is not our goal.

I don't really care if some of them are not gonna become to be a director, or the anchor, you know, or the cameraman.

I don't care about that.

I mean, I'm not care as much as I want them to be a decent people.

Honest, polite, you know, to understand what good and bad and what the high quality means, you know, and how to be honest in your occupation.

That's our goal.

You know, we teaching them that, and this has become, this is their consist with the manners.

This is the consist with discipline.

This is the consist with time management, and that's what the life skills we want to give them.

You know, it's more important for me that you, right now, sitting in front of me, interviewing me, and I know how successful you are.

You know, and that's make my life valuable or meaningful in a way, you know?

And that's what I like about teaching here at GHS-TV.

- Thank you for joining me on A Conversation With, and of course, I mean, anybody can tune into ghstv.org and see more of what you're doing and what the new generations, 'cause I think there's, what, probably like three or four generations of students and professionals now that have all been mentored through you?

- I would say 10.

- 10.

So, yeah.

Thank you for joining me.

- Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And thank you for coming up here.

And by the way, I just wanna mention that very quickly.

You might cut this, but the cameras, you know what, running right now done by my students, you know?

And this is, I'm so proud of that, you know?

Thank you again for giving us this opportunity, - And thank you for joining us for A Conversation with Leonid Mazor.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]