Moscow Theater “Sovremennik”
The Sovremennik Theater is located on Chistoprudny Boulevard in Moscow and is directed by People’s Artist of the USSR Galina Borisovna Volchek. “Sovremennik” appeared in the middle of the last century. It became one of the first Russian theaters, which was born by a group of enthusiastic like-minded people who managed not only to rally around common interests, but to defend their right to exist. The face of the Sovremennik Theater and the basis of its repertoire were formed by the talents of its main directors. The company’s traditions were laid by Oleg Yefremov, and continued and developed by Galina Volchek.
General information
At first, the young theater group did not have its own building, so it worked on the stages of houses and palaces of culture, on concert stages, in the Moscow Art Theater and the Pushkin Theater. In 1961, the actors received a building on Mayakovskaya. Different stages and a small room, where there was not enough space to store scenery, gave rise to a special ascetic style of the Sovremennik theater.”
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In 1974, the troupe changed its address and moved to 19A Chistoprudny Boulevard. The mansion, which the theater occupies today, was built at the beginning of the last century in the traditions of neoclassicism with Art Nouveau elements, designed by the famous architect Roman Ivanovich Klein. At that time the Coliseum movie theater, popular among Muscovites, was located here. In the 2000s the historic building was reconstructed. The theater uses it as its main building, but in addition, it holds performances at the Palace on the Yauza, near the Elektrozavodskaya metro station.”
.For more than half a century of history, the Sovremennik Theater has become well known not only to the residents of the capital. Its tours have taken place in many Russian cities and abroad, and the theater’s productions have always been very popular with the audience.
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History of the Sovremennik Theater
More than half a century ago, in 1956, a new Moscow theater appeared, thanks to a group of young actors who came together. It was a period of thaw. The country had just recently exposed the personality cult of Stalin. The creative intelligentsia was thirsty for change and protested against the dominance of lies and formalism in the arts.
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The history of the famed theater group began with a play performed by a group of graduates from the Moscow Art Theatre Studio School. The production based on the play by V. С. Rozov’s play “Eternally Alive” shook the audience so much that they did not leave until morning. A little later on the sensational play filmed the movie “The Cranes Are Flying”, and the story of its main characters became the hallmark of the new theater.
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Contemporary productions
In the 2000s, the Sovremennik Theater staged new productions: “The Naked Pioneer Girl,” “Antony & Cleopatra. Version” and “Woe from Wit.”
Today on the stage of the theater you can watch Chekhov’s plays “The Cherry Orchard” and “Three Sisters”, a play based on William Gibson’s “Two on a Swing”, Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, Simon Stephens’ “The Mysterious Nighttime Murder of a Dog”, Eugenia Ginzburg’s “Steep Route”, Alexander Volodin’s “Five Evenings”, Rodion Ovchinnikov’s “Happy New Year”, Elena Chizhova’s “Time of Women”, Tadeusz Ruzhevich’s “The Lady”, Alexander Galin’s “Amsterdam” and others.
How to get there
The main stage of the Sovremennik Theater is located in the Basmanny district of Moscow, on Chistoprudny Boulevard, 19A. The building can be reached in 10 minutes on foot from Chistye Prudy, Sretensky Bulvar or Turgenevskaya metro stations.
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The Palace on the Yauza, where actors from the Sovremennik Theater also play, is located next to Elektrozavodskaya metro station at 1 Zhuravlev Square.
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