Video conferencing "National Theater: Past and Present" united regions of Russia

World Theater Day, March 27 was celebrated by M. Gorky Volgograd Regional Universal Research Library with a series of events. One of the key was the interregional scientific and practical videoconference "National Theater: Past and Present", which was held under the auspices of the Presidential Library and Culture Committee of the Volgograd Regional Duma as part of the historical and cultural project "Theater as a testimony of the epoch".

Representatives from St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Kemerovo, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Tambov and Tver joined event via video-conferencing mode.

The Director General of the Presidential Library Ilya Bykovnikov, welcoming the participants of the conference, stressed that the study of the Russian theater in our country is unique, because if the history of the theater of the last decades is well known, then its origins, dating back centuries, still remain white spot for many people.

On behalf of Volgograd residents, the event participants were congratulated by the chairman of the Volgograd Regional Duma Committee on Culture, Ethnic Affairs and Cossacks, Issues of Public Associations, Religious Organizations and Information Policy Alexander Osipov. He especially noted that the Russian theater has completely unique features distinct from the western theater.

In the course of the conference were made presentations on a variety of theatrical topics. Thus, the participants of the event learned about the stages of formation of the national theater, about the space of the native city in the theater language of Vsevolod Meyerhold, about the activities of the Tambov Drama Theater during the Great Patriotic War, about the specifics of the formation of the repertoire on the provincial scene, about theater criticism in the provinces.

The videoconference program also included the work of the creative laboratory “Knocking Up to Hearts”, in which the winner of numerous awards, director of the Lensovet Theater Maria Romanova, actress of the Lensovet Theater Sofia Nikiforova and People’s Artist of Russia, leading actress of the Tomsk Regional Drama Theater, Director of the Literary and Art Theater of Tomsk State University Valentina Beketova shared their secrets of mastery.

March 27, 2019, 22 regions of Russia hosted events using materials of the Presidential Library. Thanks to them, schoolchildren and students learned the history of world and national theater, answered questions from an interactive thematic quiz, and also got familiar with local history electronic exhibitions devoted to the development of theatrical art in Russia.