Drama Theater of Gogol: history of creation and repertoire

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

Gogol Theater (Moscow): history of creation

In 1925, under the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Railway Workers, it was decided to organize a new cultural institution. They became an "industrial" 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 activities among railway workers. In particular, in the first years of its existence the theater often performed with different genre performances-concerts for the day's rage, often with agitational and publicistic character. In 1934, the leading artists of the Moscow Art Theater (the Second), IN Bersenev, V. V. Gotovtsev and S. G. Birman took patronage of the theater. As 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 has staged such performances as B. Romashov, On the eve of AN Afinogenov and others.

In the midst of the Great Patriotic War, the theater moved to the building of the pre-revolutionary building, located along Kazakova Street, which today is its permanent home.

Activities in the post-war years

After the Great Patriotic War, when the spectators who were hungry for art again began to attend cultural events, 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" was held.

Since the early 60-ies the theater named after Gogol received new leaders. At the head of the cultural institution stood A. Dunaev and B. Golubovsky, who carefully preserved his traditions. It was during this period that such performances were staged as "Dinner in Sanlis" by Anuya, "Colleagues" by Aksenov, "Bereg" by Bondarev, "Ugly Elsa" by Rislakki and others.

History from 1987 to 2012

Particularly difficult, but also interesting for the theater were the years of perestroika, the dashing 90th and first decade of the new century, when the management of the troupe was entrusted to director SI Yashin. Among the actors who performed on his stage, it is possible to mention Igor Ugolnikov, Julia Avsharov, Alexander Bordukov and others, and from the most successful performances - The Theatrical Novel for M. Bulgakov, Mistral, Unknown Williams and "There in the Distance, Over the hill "by V. Maksimov.

The final of the story

Each epoch dictates its own laws, and it takes years 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 multi- cultural center. This idea was met with hostility by the majority of the members of the troupe, which advocated the preservation of traditions, which formed almost 90 years of continuous existence of this collective.

The struggle of the actors was unsuccessful, in October 2012 the Gogol Theater ceased to exist, and on its basis the Gogol Center was established. It functions in the same building in Kazakova Street, and over the past year and a half has already managed to acquire a certain fame from the metropolitan public.

Gogol Center

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

• "The Seventh Studio", which arose on the basis of the acting-directing course of K. Serebrennikov in the Moscow Art Theater School, where students are prepared to participate in a variety of, including avant-garde projects;
• Studio "Soun Drama", which aims to unite the 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 to the center are waiting for interesting lectures and sharp disputes on the most relevant topics relating to contemporary art, within the walls of the discussion club Gogol + and the premiere of films by foreign directors that did not reach the Russian box office in the framework of the Gogol-Kino project. In addition, they have access to rare records of great performances of the 20th and 21st centuries, which are kept in the public media center of the center, as well as an opportunity to become a spectator of musical concerts and performances of the most interesting domestic and European theater directors.

Gogol's theater: actors

As already mentioned, some of the old troupe of MDT today are residents of the newly established center. Among them is the oldest actress who came to drama theater Gogol back in 1960 - Maya Ivashkevich, as well as Alexander Mezentsev, Svetlana Bragarnik, Olga Naumenko, Irina Vybornova, Oleg Guschin, Anna Gulyarenko, Sergei Reusenko, Vyacheslav Gilinov and other actors .

As for the new generation of the troupe, last year it was a group of graduates of several theatrical high schools.

Directed by

Performances on the stages of "Gogol Center" were already presented to the audience by a number of well-known and quite young directors. 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. Also interesting are the works of Denis Azarov, Ivan Estegnev, Evgeny Kulagin, Vladislav Nastavshev, Vladimir Pankov and others.

Time will tell whether the conversion to Gogol Center has benefited the MDT named after NV Gogol. One thing is obvious: a "theater inside the city" appeared in the capital, which is also a "city inside the theater", where one can get acquainted with modern trends in world art and see extremely interesting premieres.