60 Moscow theatres to join Theatres Night action

On 26 March, Moscow will, as usual, host Theatres Night, presented by the Department of Culture. Around 60 theatres will offer programmes of their own: aside from repertory performances, there will be workshops, meetings with popular actors and playwrights, and behind-the-curtain tours.

Though all events are free, advanced registration is strongly advised.  Either call the theatre of interest or go to the official website or social network page. Registration will begin at noon on 20 March.

What to see at the main venue

The Theatres Night’s opening ceremony will start at 10:00 pm during the Moscow Culture Forum at Manezh on 26 March. The Centre of Drama and Directing will present its episodes of four eras – the Revolution, the Great Patriotic War, the “Thaw” and Our Days. Verses written by outstanding poets of those corresponding periods will be read.  The programme at Manezh will include scenes from one of the Moscow Operetta Theatre’s best-known musicals, “The Free Wind of Dream,”  the Roman Viktyuk Theater’s “Phaedra” and “The Venetian”,  the Mayakovsky Theatre’s scenes tracing its 95-year history, as well as mini-performances by actors from the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop, the Praktika Theatre and the Gogol Centre. Finally, the Moscow Ballet will present a scene from its 2016 Golden Mask-winning ballet “Café ‘Idiot’.”         

Meet celebrities and join memorial parties

Meeting directors and actors is a popular Theatres Night format. This year’s action will be unique in offering a chance to meet with Galina Volchek, director of Sovremennik. For two hours, from 8:00 to 10:00 pm, she will be talking with audience members at Sovremennik’s Smaller Stage. There will be a similar meeting with actor Gennady Sayfulin at the Theatre on Malaya Bronnaya. The Modern Theatre will pay tribute to actor Alexei Petrenko by hosting a memorial party with actresses Larisa Guzeyeva, Anna Ardova and Yekaterina Volkova, singer Ninel Shatskaya, actors Valery Barinov and Alexander Pashutin, and composer Vladimir Dashkevich sharing reminiscences of their late friend and colleague.

What performances to visit

Despite the diversity, there will not be enough time for full-time productions. So in most cases, only fragments will be shown. Those who wish to enjoy a full performance can visit the Community of Taganka Actors Theatre for an immersive (with viewers being plunged into the action – mos.ru) version of Mikhail Bulgakov’s play “Beg” (Flight). The audience will be asked to split into two groups, each of which will tour the night spaces of the theatre. One group will be led by the “red army” and the other by the “white guard.” Both groups will meet in the final in the main theatre, where old-time photographs will be projected on a large screen along with shots of scenes from “Beg.”

The Et Cetera Theatre, directed by Alexander Kalyagin, invites visitors to a pre-premiere reading of scenes from “Inspector-General,” and the Theatre on Taganka will present a stage adaptation of Andrei Bely’s novel “Petersburg,”

The Theatre Na Yugo-Zapade will give two performances: “Moscow-Petushki” based on Venedikt Yerofeyev’s novel of the same title, and a one-person version of Nodar Dumbadze’s novel “I, Babushka, Iliko and Illarion.”

The Moscow Youth Theatre directed by Vyacheslav Spesivtsev will show “How the Steel Was Tempered.” There will be a literary-historical performance, “Great Duchess Yelizaveta Fyodorvna Romanova,” at the Glas Theatre.

Behind-the-curtain tours

The Lenkom Theatre will offer a tour devoted to its 90-year history. The School of Modern Drama Theatre will combine an excursion with karaoke: after the tour, guests will be invited to sing revolutionary and counterrevolutionary songs together with the actors, followed by a lecture during which the theatre’s director Iosif Raikhelgauz will share secrets of acting and directing.

For children, there will be exciting tours at:

— Kuklachyov’s Cats Theatre;

—  Granpa Durov’s Corner;

— Children’s Variety Theatre;

— Moscow Theatre of Shadows;

— Moscow Puppet Theatre;

— Moscow Children’s Chamber Puppet Theatre;

— Teatrium on Serpukhovka;

— Moscow Fairy Tale Drama Theatre.

Guests will see the main theatres, and wardrobes and dressing rooms. They will see how props and costumes are made, where stage animals live and where they rehearse, how puppets are created and what’s behind a folding screen in a shadow performance.

In most theatres for adults, events will start at 9:00-10:00 pm, and in children’s theatres they will run from 6:00 till 8:00 pm.

As usual, Theatres Night closes the Moscow Culture programme and is a prelude to World Theatre Day, which is marked on 27 March.

The full list of Theatres Night events is available on the Department of Culture’s website and it will also appear on mos.ru  на mos.ru soon.

Source: mos.ru