Description of the attraction
The oldest puppet theater in Russia is the Bolshoi Puppet Theater of St. Petersburg. It is located in the building of the former apartment building of the honorary citizen of the city A. E. Burtsev on Nekrasov Street (No. 10), which was built from 1912 to 1913 according to the project of I. P. Volodikhin.
The house has come down to our times without significant changes. The building was built in the Art Nouveau style. Inside the house there are exhibition halls where book, art, historical exhibitions and galleries were held. The project of the house has survived, in which there was a cinema hall on the 1st floor for 250 people. The first reconstruction of the building took place in 1914. After her, it was given over to the theater - one of the 2 sites in St. Petersburg of the P. P. Gaideburov and N. F. Skarsko. The studio "Palestra" under him existed until 1928. A little later, the building hosted performances of the State Farm and Collective Farm Theater. Regional Executive Committee.
The history of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Puppet Theater began with a meeting of five friends: A. A. Gaka, N. K. Komina, A. N. Gumilyova, M. G. Pharmacist and V. F. Komi who decided to create their own theater. In the beginning, they found shelter in the House of Communist Children Upbringing, where in May 1931 the first theatrical season was opened with the play "Incubator".
From 1932 to 1948 the theater was headed by V. Meyerhold's student, theater director and reviewer S. N. Shapiro. The theater's repertoire included performances on contemporary themes, foreign and Russian classics, and children's plays. The theater, uniting talented people, grew, changed and in 1939 already received the status of a state theater. Since 1940, Burtsev's house has become a permanent place for rehearsals and performances.
During the war, the troupe was evacuated. The actors played in hangars of airfields, in factories and factories, in village clubs. The target audience was both adults and children. The actors performed twice in besieged Leningrad.
After the end of the war, the theater was one of the first to return from evacuation. The season was opened with the performance "The Scarlet Flower". At that time, the theater had an established team and its own repertoire. The names of the actors: Valeria Kiseleva, Ilya Alperovich, Vladimir Kukushkin, Alexander and Vladimir Korzakovs - forever entered the history of Russian theater. S. N. Shapiro died in 1948. His era ended with the performance "The Legend of Lebedinets-City".
From 1949 to 1963 the theater troupe was headed by M. M. Korolyov. At this time, the famous performances "Wild Swans", "Ruslan and Lyudmila", "The Little Humpbacked Horse", "Burning Sails", "Ivan the Peasant Son", "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "Thumbelina" were staged.
Since 1954, performances for an adult audience have been included in the repertoire. At the end of the 50s. for the first time the works of I. Ilf and E. Petrov were staged on the stage of the puppet theater. These theatrical performances were awarded the highest awards of national festivals, a bronze medal at the 1958 Brussels World Exhibition. In 1959 M. M. Korolev for the first time in the USSR created the department of puppet theater.
From 1964 to 1986 the troupe was headed by 28-year-old Viktor Borisovich Sudarushkin. He became the youngest artistic director in the USSR. The theater has performed in 18 countries of the world, having won high awards at all-Union and international festivals. In 1981, the theater group was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor for services in the development of art.
After the early death of Sudarushkin, the theater was headed in different years by V. Maslov, A. Belinsky, V. Bogach, A. A. Polukhina, a former student of Georgy Tovstonogov. V. Stein, R. Vinderman, V. Biryukov staged the performances as invited directors. After Sudarushkin, Alexander Belinsky became a director who resumed the repertoire for adults in the puppet theater.
Since April 2006, the theater has been headed by R. R. Kudashov. The theater's current repertoire includes 22 performances for children and 9 for adults.
