Description of the attraction
The famous Theater of the Word is a large project led by a graduate of the Shchukin Theater School, director Leonid Izotov. The development of the theater began in 1975. From the moment of its foundation, it was created as a poetic theater, as well as a theater of the artistic word. The main part of the team was young people - students and schoolchildren.
The very first performance, which brought unprecedented fame to the new theater, was a poetic publicistic performance, staged in 1976 on the verses of the Spanish poet Lorca Federico Garcia, entitled “I write your name, Freedom!”. It was this performance that became the laureate of the All-Union Amateur Theaters competition. Immediately after this production came another performance based on the poem "The Twelve" by Alexander Blok. Both performances have survived about 100 performances.
The theatrical block of the repertoire, concerning the poetic direction, is widely represented by performances that have been performed more than once on the poems of Langston Hughes ("And there is nothing to grieve about", "In the style of the blues"), Andrei Voznesensky ("I want silence!", "Nostalgia"), the great Russian the sweat of Alexander Pushkin ("Autumn", "Winter, what should we do"), Vladimir Mayakovsky ("Mayakovsky laughs. Mayakovsky smiles. Mayakovsky mocks"), Russian classical poets of the 18-20th centuries, based on the works of the famous poets of the Silver Age; there were also performances based on poems by Sasha Cherny, Sergei Yesenin, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam, Boris Pasternak.
An important part of the repertoire of the Theater of the Word was made up of dramatic works, most of which were oriented towards the youth and children audience: Nina Dolinina "They and We", Lev Ustinov "The Island in Half", Vladimir Konstantinov and Boris Ratser "Levsha", Korney Chukovsky "Aibolit", Samuil Marshak "The Cat's House" and many other famous works. An outstanding stage in the work and activity of the Theater was the performances of a dramatic orientation: Grigory Gorin "Forget Herostratus", Anton Chekhov "Joke", Nikolai Erdman "Mandate".
The theater prepares evenings of music and author's poetry, evenings of Russian romances, as well as creative personal evenings of leading and famous actors: Irina Barabanova-Kalinina, Artem Tasalov, Vladimir Lutsker, Oleg Grigoriev, Svetlana Bogdanova, Masha Obodova, Alexei Kuz'min, the Grigor'ev family. One of the artists and photographers of the Theater during the 1980s was Tatyana Danilova, who later received the title of “Best Woman Photographer in Russia”.
In the period 1977-1987, the Theater of the Word was able to use a unique form of cultural and educational traveling, namely, summer and two-week winter "landings" in regional districts. In the summer - with a wagon and a horse, and in the winter - on skis, and once - on bicycles. Concerts and performances were given in rural schools, clubs, "red corners", just on the street or even in the field. In general, more than 250 performances were held in rural areas of the region, which attracted an audience of about 10 thousand spectators. The Theater of the Word went around almost all regional districts. There were five summer "landings" and eleven winter ones.
To a greater extent, the Theater itself was looking for its audience, performing at factories, educational institutions, clubs. Most often, after such performances, new actors came to the theater. Over the entire period of the Theater's work, about a hundred people have become actors. The children of most of the previously working actors in the future also took part in his life.
Today the Theater of the Word also conducts its rapid creative activity. A variety of performances are held on Saturdays in the theater building on Sovetskaya Street. At the moment, the theatrical repertoire includes seven performances, and two productions are still being finalized in the project. On the theatrical stage, a unique in its kind, ethnographic, musical and theatrical project “Pskov dolts” has been brought to life.
