Gogol Drama Theater: history of creation and repertoire

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

Moscow is a city where there is no shortage of famous theaters. Each of them has an interesting story and its own audience, who from year to year comes to see the play of their favorite actors. Among such centers of culture of the capital is also the former Moscow Gogol Drama Theatre, reorganized into the Gogol Center, which will soon celebrate its 90th anniversary. It is located at: Kazakova street, house 8a. Today its artistic director is K. S. Serebrennikov.

Gogol Theater (Moscow): history of creation

In 1925, under the Central Committee of the railway workers' trade union, it was decided to organize a new cultural institution. They became the “industry” theater, which was called the “Mobile Theater of Drama and Comedy”. His creative team, headed by K. Golovanov, immediately began to conduct a large cultural and educational activity among railway workers. In particular, in the first years of its existence, the theater often performed with multi-genre combined performances-concerts on the topic of the day, often of an agitational and journalistic nature. In 1934, the leading artists of the Moscow Art Theater (Second) - I. N. Bersenev, V. V. Gotovtsev and S. G. Birman took patronage over the theater. ATAs a result of their support, the young actors of the new theater acquired the necessary knowledge that allowed them to cross the border separating amateur performance from professionalism. In 1938, the theater was headed by N. V. Petrov, who is an adherent of realistic art, who in different years staged such performances as “It Can Happen to Anyone” by B. Romashov, “On the Eve” by A. N. Afinogenov and others.

At the height of the Great Patriotic War, the theater moved to a pre-revolutionary building located on Kazakova Street, which is still its permanent home today.

Activities in the postwar years

At the end of the Second World War, when the audience, hungry for art, began to attend cultural events again, the theater reached a new level of its development. In 1959, he was named after Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, and in honor of this event, the premiere of the play based on the story "Taras Bulba" took place.

Since the beginning of the 60s, the Gogol Theater has received new leaders. A. Dunaev and B. Golubovsky headed the cultural institution and carefully preserved its traditions. It was during this period that such performances as "Dinner at Senlis" by Anuja, "Colleagues" by Aksenov, "Shore" by Bondarev, "Ugly Elsa" by Rislakka and others were staged.

History from 1987 to 2012

The years of perestroika, the dashing 90s and the first decade of the new century, when director S. I. Yashin. Among the actors who performed on its stage, one can note Igor Ugolnikov, Yulia Avsharova, Alexander Bordukov and others, and from the most successful performances - "Theatrical Romance" by M. Bulgakov, "Mistral", "Unknown Williams" and "There in the distance, over the hill" V. Maksimov.

The end of the story

Each era dictates its own laws, and years must pass before it becomes clear whether the changes were justified or not. Be that as it may, in August 2012 the Gogol Theater received a new artistic director, who became Kirill Serebrennikov. A month later, he announced his plans to create a modern multidisciplinary cultural center. This idea was met with hostility by most members of the troupe, who stood up for the preservation of the traditions that have evolved over almost 90 years of continuous existence of this team.

The struggle of the actors was unsuccessful, in October 2012 the Gogol Theater ceased to exist, and the Gogol Center was created on its basis. It functions in the same building on Kazakova Street, and over the past year and a half has already managed to gain some popularity among the capital's public.

Gogol Center

Today, the residents of this new format cultural institution are:

• "The Seventh Studio", which arose on the basis of the acting and directing course of K. Serebrennikov at the Moscow Art Theater School, where students are trained to participate in a variety of projects, including avant-garde ones;
• studio "SounDrama", which aims to combine elements of theater, musical and concert;
• the company "Dialogue Dance", known for its extraordinary choreographic productions, in which a special place is given to the word;
• troupe of the former MDT named after N. V. Gogol.

Visitors of the center are waiting for interesting lectures and heated debates on the most pressing topics related to contemporary art within the walls of the discussion club "Gogol +" and the premiere of films by foreign directors that did not reach Russian distribution - as part of the "Gogol-kino" project. In addition, they have access to rare recordings of the great performances of the 20th-21st centuries, which are stored in the center's public media library, as well as the opportunity to become a spectator of musical concerts and performances by the most interesting domestic and European theater directors.

Gogol Theater: actors

As already mentioned, part of the old MDT troupe is today the residents of the newly created center. Among them, the oldest actress who came to the Gogol Drama Theater back in 1960 is Maya Ivashkevich, as well as Alexander Mezentsev, Svetlana Bragarnik, Olga Naumenko, Irina Vybornova, Oleg Gushchin, Anna Gulyarenko, Sergey Reusenko, Vyacheslav Gilinov and other actors.

As for the new generation of the troupe, last year it was a group of graduates from several theater universities.

Directors

Performances on the stages of the "Gogol Center" have already presented to the audience a number of famous and very youngdirectors. For example, a graduate of the Moscow Art Theater School in 2013, Zhenya Berkovich, presented there “Marina” based on the play by L. Strizhak and “Russian Beauty” based on the novel by V. Erofeev. The works of Denis Azarov, Ivan Estegneev, Evgeny Kulagin, Vladislav Nastavshev, Vladimir Pankov and others are also interesting.

Time will tell whether the transformation into the "Gogol Center" has benefited the MDT named after N. V. Gogol. One thing is obvious - a “theater inside the city” has appeared in the capital, which is also a “city inside the theater”, where you can get acquainted with modern trends in world art and see exceptionally interesting premieres.