Plans for financing Russian theaters abroad have been provided to the address of “Meetings in Russia-2022”.
The XXIV International Theater Festival of the CIS countries “Meetings in Russia” is coming to an end in St. Petersburg, which is observed by the Theater-Festival “Baltic House”. Theaters from six states took part in August. Also during the screening, it became known that in 2023 the Russian Ministry of Culture will support Russian theaters abroad – the media will be allocated from the federal budget.
About the program of the festival “Meetings in Russia”, which took place at the meeting of the “Baltic House” from April 4 to 10, we spoke in detail earlier. We remind you that theater reviews were observed in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Ossetia, Belarus and Russia: the Aitmatov State National Russian Drama Theater (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), the Gorky National Academic Drama Theater (Minsk, Belarus), the South Ossetian State Drama Theater Theater named after Khetagurov (Tskhinval), Yerevan State Russian Drama Theater named after Stanislavsky (Armenia), National Academic Russian Drama Theater named after Lermontov (Almaty, Kazakhstan), Drama Theater of the Republic of Karelia “Creative Workshop” and Theater “TriTformat” (Minsk, Republic of Belarus), who first came to the “Meetings in Russia”.
The head of the festival and the general director of the Baltic House, Sergey Shub, commented on the specifics of the Meetings in Russia 2022: “In 2022, our festival is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The program focuses on the new faces of Russian theaters abroad. Young directors, actors, artists, playwrights – today they present their own special vision of art, which in no way preserves a careful attitude and strives to preserve the traditions of the Russian repertory theater. Of course, at this stage there were losses – the theaters of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the evaluation of the spectral quality index includes our program, they failed to come, saying that we remain in the theatrical faith, but there are things that are higher than us. We were sympathetic to the decision of our colleagues. There was a backbone among the participants: these are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Armenia. In addition, theaters from the national republic of the Russian Federation appeared on the program – the St. Petersburg audience found two interesting performances by the Drama Theater of the Republic of Karelia from Petrozavodsk. “Meetings in Russia” took place. Ahead is the 25th anniversary festival.
The festival is not limited to performances. “In 2017, the Association of Russian Theater Workers Abroad was established, which today includes more than 150 theater workers from 45 countries,” the organizers remind in an official release. – This year, within the framework of the state activities of the Association in support of the interstate fund for humanitarian cooperation of the CIS member states, the III International Conference was held, the main topic of which was “New faces of the Russian language in foreign countries. Problems of Succession and Assembly of Congress”. At this conference, in particular, State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Alla Manilova spoke. She spoke about the fact that in 2023 funds will be allocated from the federal budget to support Russian theaters abroad. According to Manilova, “Russian theaters are our plenipotentiaries, ambassadors of the Russian language, Russian literature and culture. Russian theaters need various forms of support from our state” (quoted from a publication on the website of the Ministry of Culture). The funds allocated by the ministry will be used to create new spectacles and purchase modern equipment. “The need for 12 theaters from 8 countries of the post-Soviet space has already been determined: for the purchase of equipment – 65 million rubles, for staging performances – 58 million rubles,” the Ministry of Culture said in a statement.