Dramatic Theater (Nizhny Novgorod): history, repertoire

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The Drama Theater of Nizhny Novgorod named after M. Gorky is one of the oldest theaters in the country. It has existed for over 200 years.

How theater was born

Drama theater in Nizhny Novgorod began its existence in 1798. Its founder was Prince N. G. Shakhovsky. It was a fortress theater and all the actors came from serf families. Performances were shown in one of the prince's houses, which was located at the corner of Bolshaya Pecherskaya and Malaya Pecherskaya streets. The house was rebuilt as a theater, it had a parterre designed for one hundred spectators, a gallery for two hundred spectators, boxes for 27 and 50 seats. The building was dark and dilapidated. The lodges were more like stalls. There were huge holes in the curtain, into which someone's nose periodically protruded, someone's eyes looked out, and a head stuck out. From the day it was founded until 1824, the theater was called the Nizhny Novgorod City and Fair Theater of Prince Shakhovsky. The repertoire included tragedies, comedies, ballets and operas. Since 1824, the name has changed, from now on it was the Nizhny Novgorod Theater, and since 1896 - the Nikolaev Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod). The history of its existence in different periods evolved differently.

The years from 1824 to 1896 wereheavy for the theatre. After the death of Prince Shakhovsky, his heirs sold the theater, along with all the actors, to two rich theatergoers, but after 10 years the owners changed again. This could not but affect the quality of performances. The frequent change of entrepreneurs led to the fact that the performances became less interesting, the actors began to play worse, incomes decreased, while the building and the troupe had to be maintained, which led to losses. In 1853 the theater building burned down. 1855 can be considered the year of revival. Then, at the request of the governor, the theater was reopened, but already in the house that belonged to P. E. Bugrov. During the period from 1863 to 1894, the building survived several fires. The City Duma sought funds for its restoration, but N. Bugrov, its owner, did not want the theater to be located in his grandfather's house again. He allocated 200 thousand rubles for the construction of a new building. The city added 50 thousand to this amount, the government provided a subsidy, and after 2 years a new theater building was built on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, where it is located to this day. The opening took place in 1896, the premiere performance was the opera by M. I. Glinka's "Life for the Tsar", in which the young and still unknown F. Chaliapin sang. Over the years, such great actors and actresses as K. S. Stanislavsky, V. F. Komissarzhevskaya, M. N. Ermolova, M. S. Shchepkin and others.

20th century

In the 20th century, the Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod) changed its name many times. In 1918 it was called Soviet, in 1923 - the FirstState, since 1932 - the First Gorky (after renaming the city to Gorky), it was both State, and regional, and regional. The name that it now bears was received by him in 1990 - the Nizhny Novgorod State Order of the Red Banner of Labor Academic Drama Theater named after M. Gorky. During the period from 1928 to 1945, 191 new productions appeared in the repertoire. Among them were performances based on classical works, plays by foreign authors of that time, but the vast majority belonged to Soviet authors. The Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod) has repeatedly received awards and top prizes at theater festivals for its productions.

21st century

Now the director is B. Kainov (Honored Worker of Culture of Russia), the artistic director is G. Demurov (People's Artist of Russia). Since 2006, the Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod) has resumed its tour of Russia. In addition, he takes an active part in theater festivals (in Russian and international), as well as forums. The management remains faithful to the productions based on the works of the classics, but at the same time, work is underway to update the repertoire.

Actors and performances

The Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod) has gathered 40 wonderful actors into its troupe, 11 of which have the title of Honored Artist of Russia and three of them have the title of People's Artist. For the 217th season, the drama theater in Nizhny Novgorod continues to delight the audience. Novgorod.

The repertoire mostly consists of classical plays, although there are also works by contemporary authors, as well as fairy tales for children: “Twelfth Night” by W. Shakespeare, “The Marriage” by N. V. Gogol, "Imaginary patient" J-B. Molière, Beggar's Opera by J. Gay, Odnoklassniki by Y. Polyakov, Too Married Taxi Driver by R. Cooney, Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault and others.