Job description of the artistic director of the theater. Artistic director - Donkovye - organization of events and recreation Comments on the post

Unified qualification directory for positions of managers, specialists and other employees (UN), 2019
Section “Qualification characteristics of positions of workers in culture, art and cinematography”
The section was approved by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation dated March 30, 2011 N 251n

Artistic director

Job responsibilities. Manages, within the powers determined by the constituent documents and (or) employment contract, the creative activities of the performing arts organization, bearing responsibility for the artistic and creative results of the organization’s activities. Organizes the work and interaction of artistic and artistic personnel, structural divisions of the artistic and creative part, directs their activities to the development and improvement of the creative production process in order to create the most favorable conditions for collective creativity, taking into account specific artistic and social tasks. Ensures the artistic quality of the repertoire, determines the readiness of performances and makes decisions on their public performance. Ensures, together with the director (general director), that the organization fulfills its obligations to viewers (listeners), creative workers of the organization, authors and performers of the works (phonograms) used, as well as other partners in creative activities. Takes measures to provide the organization with qualified creative personnel, the rational use and development of their professional knowledge and skills, the creation of safe and favorable working conditions for their life and health, and compliance with labor legislation. Participates on the part of the employer of the organization in the development, conclusion and implementation of a collective agreement. Ensures compliance with labor and creative discipline of the artistic and creative staff of the organization. Entrusts the management of certain areas of creative activity to other employees of the artistic and creative department.

Must know: laws and other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation relating to the activities of performing arts organizations; the basics of directing and acting, stage and musical design of productions, vocal, choral and choreographic art; history of domestic and world theater, music, circus, and other types of arts and literature; the state of modern domestic and foreign theatrical art and other types of performing arts; modern and classical dramaturgy; the procedure for developing and coordinating plans for creative and production activities and long-term development plans in the field of performing arts; fundamentals of management, management psychology, sociology of art, stage technology, economics and management in the field of performing arts, labor and civil legislation; Copyright; internal labor regulations; labor protection and fire safety rules.

Qualification requirements. Higher professional education (culture and art) and work experience as a chief director (conductor, choreographer) for at least 3 years or as a director (conductor, choreographer) - stage director, artist, head of a creative department in the field of performing arts for at least 5 years.

Note. Specific rights, responsibilities, additional requirements and other conditions of creative work (staging, artistic, musical design of a performance, playing a role, etc.), performed by the artistic director at the place of main work and not included in the duties of the artistic director, are determined when concluding the employment contract agreements in the prescribed manner.

Theater director

Education:
GITIS im. Lunacharsky, 1985 release, workshop of People's Artist of the USSR I.V. Ilinsky and prof. Topchieva L.G.

Serves as an actor in the theater "NEAR the Stanislavsky House" since 1977.
He is the director and actor of the Moscow State Budgetary Educational Institution “MDT “ApARTe”.
Artistic director of the leisure cultural institution "Theater House "Old Arbat".

Roles in the ApARTe theater:

• Polonius - “Hamlet” by W. Shakespeare (dir. G. Strelkov);
• Mayor – “Inspector.” 1835 » N.V. Gogol (dir. A. Lyubimov);
• Gazgolder Dmitry Alexandrovich - “Road of Flowers” ​​by V. Kataev (dir. T. Arkhiptsova);
• Baron - “Little tragedies” based on the works of A.S. Pushkin (dir. A. Lyubimov);
• Glov Sr. - “The Players” by N.V. Gogol (dir. D. Efremov).

Director of the play "MDT "ApARTe" "The fool took pity on the fool" based on the play "Julieta" by S. Rubbe (premiere of the 2015/2016 season).

FILMOGRAPHY:

• 1987 “Subjects of the Revolution” Sverdlovsk Film Studio, film, dir. Serg. Martyanov, role of Kostromin;
• 1992-1994 “Goryachev and others” series, Channel 1, role Ivan Afanasyevich;
• 2000 “Portrait of Madonna”, Culture Channel, dir. Yu. Pogrebnichko, role of Mr. Abrams;
• 2003 “The Return of Mukhtar” series, dir. V. Shalyga and A. Polynnikov, role of Tambur;
• 2004-2008 “Blind” (Liquidator), series, dir. S. Mokhovikov, S. Lyamin, episodic role Psychologist;
• 2006 “Ostrog. The Case of Fyodor Sechenov", series, dir. S. Mats, S. Danelian and other episodes. role of Lawyer;
• 2007 “Atlantis” series, RWS studio, dir. A. Sukharev episode. role of Lawyer;
• 2007 “Alibi Agency” series, dir. P. Safonov (series: “The Philosopher’s Stone”), role of Professor;
• 2008 “Door” short film, dir. O. Galin, ch. role of Mikhail Ivanovich;
• 2009 “The Serpent’s Lair”, TV series, dir. Yu. Kuzmenko, role of chief physician;
• 2010 “Fomich” short film, Preobrazhenie studio, dir. Nick. Shkunov, lead role Fomich;
• 2011 “Furtseva” Channel One, series, dir. S. Popov, role A. Mikoyan;
• 2011 “Gyulchatai” series, dir. R. Prosvirin, role Lev Davydovich;
• 2102 “Team Che”, TV series, dir. A. Sukharev, (series “Players”) role of Goikhman;
• 2014 “Craftsmen”, series, dir. Sun. Aravin, role of Sturm;
• 2016. A series of feature-journalistic films “Dear Great Books”, Culture channel, dir. T. Arkhiptsova, presenter (librarian).

ROLES IN THE THEATER (today):

• Zhevakin - “The Marriage of N.V. Gogol, dir. Yu. Pogrebnichko, theater NEAR Stanislavsky's house,
• Man - “Man and Woman” S. Zlotnikov, dir. Yu. Pogrebnichko, theater NEAR Stanislavsky's house,
• Glov - “Players” N.V. Gogol, dir. A. Levinsky, theater NEAR Stanislavsky's house,
• Nagg - “The End of the Game” S. Beckett, dir. A. Levinsky, theater NEAR Stanislavsky's house,
• Slocum - “About All Those Falling” S. Beckett, dir. And Levinsky, theater NEAR Stanislavsky’s house,
• Aramis - “The Three Musketeers” by A. Dumas, dir. Yu, Pogrebnichko, theater “NEAR Stanislavsky’s house,
• Uncle Julius - "Kid and K." A. Lindgren, dir. I. Oks, theater NEAR Stanislavsky's house,
• Julitta – “We Need a Tragic Actress” A. Ostrovsky, dir. Yu. Pogrebnichko, theater NEAR Stanislavsky's house,
• Mr. Abrams - "Portrait of the Madonna", dir. Yu. Pogrebnichko, Williams, theater NEAR Stanislavsky's house.

Actor, director, founder and artistic director of the ApARTe theater.

Education: in 1985 he graduated from the State Institute of Theater Arts with a degree in drama theater actor, and in 1989 with a degree in musical theater director.

Since 1979, A.G. Lyubimov attended a serious theater school at the Youth Theater-Studio “On Krasnaya Presnya” under the direction of V.S. Spesivtsev, where he was involved in almost all the famous Krasnopresnensky performances, and since 1981 he himself staged performances and taught youth .

In 1987 he created the theater-studio “Group of Citizens”. His performances “Heart of a Dog” based on M. Bulgakov and “Invitation to Execution” based on V. Nabokov became laureates of the “Lefortovo Games-87” festival.

In 1993, the theater-studio “Group of Citizens” was transformed into the Moscow Center for Performing Arts “ApARTe”, and in 1998 - into the Moscow Drama Theater “ApARTe”, where A.G. Lyubimov currently serves, stages performances, plays roles .

Director Lyubimov's performances are always positive and moral. The main thing in them is “an analysis of modern morality, designed for a thinking viewer, questions of a person’s responsibility for his actions, careful attitude to the language of the work” (“The Moscow Times”). The productions created by the director based on modern material are also permeated with the urgent theme of responsibility to society and one’s own conscience.

His performances were presented at festivals in Moscow, Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt, Magnitogorsk, Pskov, Omsk, Vitebsk.

As a director and actor, Lyubimov is constantly mastering new genres. In 2009, at the Matisse School of Contemporary Dance, he staged the choreographic performance “Yin without Yang”, and as part of the International Festival “ARMMONO” - a solo performance “A Call from Above”.

A. Lyubimov is the founder and artistic director of the International Festival “Young Theaters of Russia”, which promotes the achievements of the Russian theater. He is raising a new generation: he teaches at the Slavic University of Moscow, runs a children's theater studio at the Old Arbat Theater House.

A. Lyubimov is an actor with enormous potential, which he successfully realizes both in his own productions and in the performances of his colleagues. “His acting work always sets the rhythm of the performance, becomes its semantic core” (Theater Box Office magazine about “Measure for Measure”, awarded by the Moscow Department of Culture for the best directorial debut in 2006). “He is always different and always the conductor of the play” (“Planet Beauty” about the play “About the Wet Snow”).

1979-1987 - actor and director of the Theater on Krasnaya Presnya.

Performances:

• “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by R. Bach (1980);
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1980);
• “Imagine” J. Lennon (1981);
• “Fantasy” by K. Prutkov (1982);
• “Goodbye, my friend...” B. Vasiliev (1983).

1987-1993 - thin Head of the theater-studio “Group of Citizens”.

Performances:

• “Heart of a Dog” by M. Bulgakov (1987);
• “Run, rabbits, run” by F. Iskander (1988);
• “Invitation to Execution” by V. Nabokov (1989);
• "Tsar F.I." A. Tolstoy (1990);
• “Captain, captain, smile” by J. Verne (1991);
• “Oedipus the King” by I. Stravinsky (1992);
• “The Death of Tarelkin” by A. Sukhovo-Kobylin (1993), GITIS.

Artistic director of the Moscow Center for Performing Arts (MCCA) "ApARTe".

Performances:

• “Telephone” by K. Menotti (1994), Moscow, RATI;
• “Once upon a time” A. Gladkov (1995), Omsk, State Musical Theater
• "Crime and N." F. Dostoevsky (1995), Berlin, "ORPTNEATER" (with ICCA "ApARTe")
• “Playing Gogol” N. Gogol (1996), Paris, “ARIATEATRO” (with ICCA “ApARTe”)
• “The Innkeeper” by K. Goldoni (1996), Omsk, State Fifth Theater
• “Talents and Fans” by A. Ostrovsky (1996), Yekaterinburg, Academic Drama Theater
• “Three Visits of Doctor Astrov” by A. Chekhov (1997), Omsk, “State Fifth Theater”
• “Belkin's Tales” by A.S. Pushkin (1997), Omsk, State Chamber Theater

From 1998 to the present - artistic director of the Moscow Drama Theater "ApARTe".

Performances:

• “Ivan and the Devil” F. Dostoevsky (1998), Moscow, “ApARTe”
• “What’s in my name for you” A.S. Pushkin (1999), Omsk, State Chamber Theater
• “Woe from Wit” by A. Griboedov (2000), Moscow, Class Theater
• “About wet snow” F. Dostoevsky (2000), Moscow, “ApARTe”
• “Captain, captain, smile” by J. Verne (2001), Moscow, “ApARTe”
• "Masha, Irina, Olga and others." A. Chekhov (2003), Moscow, “ApARTe”
• “Trouble from a Tender Heart” (Vaudeville) V. Sollogub (2004), Moscow, “ApARTe”
• “Phaedra” by J. Racine (2005), Moscow, “ApARTe”
• “And I loved this fool” A. Yakhontov (2006), Moscow, “ApARTe”
• "Solaris. Inquiry" S. Lem (2006), Moscow, "ApARTe"
• “French passions at a dacha near Moscow” (2007), Omsk, “State Fifth Theater”
• “Chronicle of a Forgotten Island” by G. Egorkin (2006), Laboratory of Contemporary Drama, STD RF
• “Strangers Don’t Walk Here” V. Zuev (2007), Laboratory of Contemporary Drama of the STD RF
• “Strangers don’t walk here” V. Zuev (2009), Moscow, “ApARTe”
• "Agatha Christie. Detective" - ​​Meredith Blake (dir. A. Lyubimov), "ApARTe"
• “About Lyubov Ranevskaya” based on A. Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” - Lopakhin (dir. A. Lyubimov), “ApARTe”
• “Inspector. 1835" N. Gogol - Artemy Filippovich Strawberry (dir. A. Lyubimov), "ApARTe"
• “Little tragedies” based on the works of A.S. Pushkin, “ApARTe”
• “Fathers & Sons” I. Turgenev, “ApARTe”
• “At the Bottom” M. Gorky, “ApARTe”
• “Saving Captain Grant” J. Verne, “ApARTe”
• “Scary Tales” based on the works of V.F. Odoevsky; A. Pogorelsky; V.P. Titov and A.S. Pushkin, “ApARTe”

Film roles:

• “Golden Wedding” (dir. N. Motuzko).

Who is the “owner” of the theater – the artistic director or the director?

Everyone knows that Vladimir Putin loves sports, since he has been doing it for a long time, thereby confirming the well-known truth: “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” But hardly anyone knew that the prime minister had become partial to the

No country in the world can boast of such a number of stationary groups that exist at the expense of the budget and require more and more funds for their maintenance every year. There's a lot to think about here. For example, are they needed in some small town with a population of 5 thousand people? Or in the Far North, where the polar night lasts 7-8 months, and frost reaches 40 degrees? Not to mention the fact that these theaters employ mostly altruists, and damned poverty peeps through all the cracks, no matter how hard they are plugged. And the patrons of art, on whom they relied so much at the beginning of perestroika, still do not come and do not come.

So here it is. On the eve of the elections to the State Duma and New Year's Eve, when all the theaters are “on their ears”, giving three performances a day for children, Vladimir Putin again gathered the artistic directors of famous Moscow and St. Petersburg theaters and told them the good news: now they can spend without holding bidding from 100 to 400 thousand rubles. It would seem that the figure is rather large and one can understand Valery Fokin, the artistic director of Alexandrinka, who thanked Putin for such a generous gift... But the former favorite of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko more than once received grants for his performances, including from the government of the Northern capital. As, indeed, those present at this meeting were Oleg Tabakov with his Moscow Art Theater from the Moscow government, and Galina Volchek with Sovremennik, and Mark Zakharov, in whose theater this significant meeting took place, and the actors were exempt from rehearsals. It was Zakharov, during the period of declared glasnost, who proposed closing unprofitable theaters, which aroused the righteous anger of the province. After which Mark Anatolyevich had to justify himself for a long time and explain that he meant not only theaters outside the Garden Ring, but also those in the capital.

What's true is true. Thus, the Stanislavsky Theater, located in the very center of Moscow on Tverskaya, has been shaken for many years by changes in artistic directors and inflated estimates of its own creativity, which have nothing to do with the real state of affairs, accompanied by scandals with alien “appointees.” It is no coincidence that Vladimir Putin raised the question: who is in charge in the theater - the artistic director or the director who controls the expenses and income of the theater?

Galina Volchek, experienced in conflicts, tried to smooth out this double-edged issue, since she has a complete alliance with the director, but, apparently, rumors about “velvet revolutions” in the same Stanislavsky Theater, on Taganka, associated with the departure of the legend of the Russian stage Yuri Lyubimov, the overthrow Sergei Artsibashev in Mayakovka did not go unnoticed by the Prime Minister. And the meeting with the chairman of the Union of Theater Workers of Russia, Alexander Kalyagin, on the eve of the re-elections provided rich food for thought. First of all, concerning the reformation of the repertory theater, which should begin with a contract system for all theater workers: from the acting workshop to the props department. It was clear from everything that Putin liked this idea, and no matter how bitter it may be for the institute of directors, but the main thing in the theater, in the opinion of the prime minister, should remain the artistic director. So Lev Dodin, who heads the Maly Drama Theater in St. Petersburg, could breathe a sigh of relief; his throne would not shake.

But this is in Moscow and in the city on the Neva, where artistic directors (with rare exceptions) have subjugated obstinate directors and, with their long-standing authority, keep theaters afloat, no matter what critics write about them. Well, if you take the province, then there is a completely different calico and a different life, where everything depends on the governors, who can cut off the oxygen, or can organize international festivals at their own expense, as in Saransk or Belgorod. By the way, in this city bordering Ukraine, the so-called “morality police” recently appeared, and plays by Yevgeny Grishkovets, Ivan Vyrypaev, Yaroslava Pulinovich, allegedly corrupting youth, were banned from showing in the student theater of the Institute of Culture. Here are the first signs of censorship, which some representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation are so concerned about. Or maybe this is a kind of manifestation of the fear ingrained in the genes that continues to live in us, despite all the democratic transformations and freedom of speech? This same fear - not to be left behind - forces directors of provincial theaters to rely only on themselves, and not on visiting artistic directors who, like Khlestakov, promise three boxes, and then remember what their name was. This means that here, too, it is necessary to establish a separate column related to the obligations of the invited chief director.

It is no coincidence that Vladimir Putin supported the idea of ​​​​inventorying creative personnel. After all, only federal theaters are visible, and what is going on in the outback is a secret behind seven seals. We must pay tribute to the artistic director of the Maly Theater Yuri Solomin - he always defended the theatrical periphery with his chest: both when he was the Minister of Culture and now, which he demonstrated at the meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Oleg Tabakov, the main builder of a public art theater with a commercial streak and tickets sold a month in advance, long ago introduced a contract system at the Moscow Art Theater and won many cases with fired actors, since he was always guided by the principle “water does not flow under a lying stone.” Any theater is like a bicycle, which either moves forward or falls if the pedals are not turned. Despite his advanced age, Oleg Pavlovich continues to turn the pedals of management, knowing full well that nothing ensures the success of a performance and filling the box office more than an ensemble of well-trained actors who later become stars.

Finally, Vladimir Putin once again reminded the assembled masters that a Concept for the long-term development of theater business until 2020 has been prepared, that is, over the next eight years there will be a reorganization of stationary theaters, as a result of which, as Putin assured, provincial theaters should raise their artistic standards. Well, those who have to do this are still trying to survive...

Artistic director

I have been heading the Vakhtangov Theater for twenty years, but it is difficult to talk about myself as an artistic director. Therefore, I would like to dwell only on some general aspects of my activities.

When I was offered to take this position, I thought about it for a long time, it was not easy for me, because I imagined the responsibility that this post imposes, and I experienced a completely understandable feeling of fear: can I cope? But he still agreed, because he knew that the Vakhtangovites would not accept the “Varangian”. Also, and this was shown by the experience of the Moscow Art Theater at that time, it is impossible to run a theater collectively. It can only be led by one person. Only one person can lift it. And, having weighed all the pros and cons, I hoped that I would still be able to maintain the prestige and level of our theater. Therefore, I took office with the main task before me - to preserve the Vakhtangov Theater and not allow its staff to disintegrate into groups.

To do this, he formulated three points of his program. Firstly, attracting famous directors to the theater to stage individual performances. Secondly, reliance on talented dramaturgy. And thirdly, already having experience in theater and film directing, I promised not to stage the plays myself, because I knew: as soon as the artistic director begins to stage plays, they immediately become the dominant feature of the repertoire. But I don’t have a real director’s gift. If I understand anything, it’s only in acting.

Over these twenty years our theater has been judged differently. In the difficult decade after perestroika, some said that the theater was ruined, others only complained that its former glory had faded. However, at first we survived when, along with the collapse

The USSR lost a lot of what was Soviet, and then the theater came to life and is now actively developing, and in this I partly see my merit.

There was a time when we, to some extent, shared the fate of all theaters: with a sharp decline in the ideological press, it was as if we were struck by a disease like a caisson. Indeed, for decades everything was strictly regulated, sometimes they just loosened the valve a little and suddenly they declared complete freedom! Wasn’t it a sharp change in pressure?.. And we had to live in a new way in conditions of a market economy that were unusual for us.

The destruction of the aesthetics of associative art turned out to be a big disaster for the theater. Aesopian language suddenly turned out to be unnecessary in our country. And Shatrov’s “Peace of Brest-Litovsk,” which was shown to sold-out audiences even abroad, began to be shown in our theaters to half-empty halls, and had to be removed from the repertoire. The audience also reacted coolly to the highly relevant play “The Ides of March” based on Wilder.

What can we say if even in Taganka, where fierce, civil performances were staged, everything also became “normal and cool” due to the suddenly decreased attention of the audience. And the theater-wrestler Yuri Lyubimov seemed to pause in bewilderment: who should he fight with? For some period he also lost his voice. This strange time of change required new colors and words from theaters. And it became increasingly difficult to find them.

People visited theaters much less often, not least because ticket prices were unaffordable for an impoverished society. Of course, people lost a lot, but the theater suffered no less, deprived of thoughts, experiences, and feelings in common with the audience. He simply could not keep up with life when events fell like rockfalls on the confused citizens of Russia. Was it possible to shock them with a theatrical performance when life itself surprised and shocked every hour? Therefore, more than one of our theaters is stuck at a crossroads: what direction to choose now in their work, where to look for points of contact with the audience? But I didn’t want to go to any lengths in pursuit of him, lose face, sinking to the level of the service sector, or even outright connivance with incivility. But there was a great desire to preserve the eternal values ​​of art in the theater under new conditions!

And many commercial theaters were created around, which lived and live, essentially, for the sake of the ruble. By and large, not a single significant performance has been staged there, not a single actor has been trained. Because it’s profitable to take already recognized professionals there, and they go because they pay well! Humanly speaking, you can understand them: who doesn’t want to earn more money and faster. But famous actors cannot stay in one place for long; they are expected everywhere. Hence the hackwork, the decline in the level of acting, the surprise of the peripheral viewer: where did the talented actor of the name go? And he labored in some French trinket. In the end, this was, is and will be. And let it be, at least so that a gray background is preserved for a sharp depiction of real theatrical discoveries in the foreground!

Despite all the difficulties that we had to endure in the past, we still did not fully experience what a spiritual crisis is. You can sneer at this as much as you like, but we still have a lot of educated people, although there was a time when education was not in fashion. How much was this little phrase worth: “Why are you so poor if you’re so smart?” But our public - and this is noted by everyone - has remained the most sophisticated when it comes to art, be it theater, music or painting. And I don’t want this level to drop at all. But there are reasons for concern.

Look what's happening on our stage. Who is the idol of youth, the hero, so to speak, of our time? Philip Kirkorov. He has a sea of ​​fans and admirers. He is highly praised. They imitate him and envy him. Yes, he is not devoid of talent and beauty. But they envy not so much this as his wealth. In fact: he practically flies on his own plane, and his Lincoln is loaded into it, because only in the Lincoln can the idol enter Krasnoyarsk or some other city. But even this is not so bad, because Kirkorov is at least recognizable, he has an individuality. However, new fads from mass culture have been fooled by some kind of “star factories” that churn out faceless performers, and they change in batches in the composition of precocious vocal groups without harm to their commercial program. However, there is nothing particularly harmful there, if we consider the issue from the perspective of culture.

I understand that all this is advertising, shocking. However, if our Vakhtangov Theater wanted to advertise any of its performances, it would not have found even a hundredth of the funds spent by show business on promoting its favorites. In addition, it seems to me that the theater will not learn to advertise itself at all. He is old-fashioned, as if he is dressed in ancient clothes that restrict movement. He is embarrassed to talk about himself and maintains his dignity.

It seems that through the joint efforts of public and private structures the country can be brought out of the general economic crisis. But each theater is looking for a way out of its problems almost alone. This is a difficult path, but the one who walks can master the road.

When Evgeny Rubenovich Simonov left us, he did not break ties with the Vakhtangov Theater. The name of this director went down in the history of the theater, which I, like all Vakhtangovites, sacredly honor - with all our victories, defeats, gains and losses. And we will not rewrite it, “tailoring” the past to the favorable alignment of the present. Evgeny Simonov devoted his last years to the creation of the Theater named after his father, considering it his filial duty to perpetuate his memory. And the theater has existed for many years. It is located in the Arbat lanes very close to us, and today it is directed by one of the leading actors of the Vakhtangov Theater, Vyacheslav Shalevich. And we solve many problems of our current existence together: the Vakhtangov Theater, the Shchukin Theater School, the Ruben Simonov Theater, actors and directors of all generations of Vakhtangov students.

We're still looking. We are looking in the precious storehouses of Russian classics, in modern drama. Our goal is to defend the theater as a temple of culture. Capturing the viewer’s emotional pull is the key to success. And all theaters today are in search of that, perhaps, very simple stage action that will bring people into the auditoriums who are eager to understand who we are today, what we need in order to feel our human height, our necessity in life. I think that literature, theater, and art in general are needed in themselves in order to increase, add to the amount of kindness in the world. So that people can draw from this source of truth and justice, faith and love as much as they can.

When you think about what is most important in the art of theater, you understand that it is skill, professionalism, an ear that hears today's times, a voice that can tell about the times.

First of all, the director must have this skill. By creating a performance, he becomes everything: an actor, an artist, a musical designer, a wizard, a creator, a liar, a dreamer - everything! Finally, he releases the play, and it lives on its own, regardless of its creator.

Today's problem with directing is that a certain “hammock” has arisen, a sagging between the cohort of great theater experts of the 20-30s of the last century - Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko, Vakhtangov, Meyerhold, Tairov, their students Ruben Simonov, Zavadsky, Okhlopkov , Akimov, Lobanov, Tovstonogov - and modern directors.

The generation of “teachers” has not grown up, which has a significant impact on the director’s field. I feel that this reproach of mine is unfair: raising a director from a person who has no natural gift for it is the same as trying to teach someone to become a great writer. Georgy Aleksandrovich Tovstonogov stated bluntly: “The director cannot raise a successor, because this is artistically impossible.” Shouldn’t he know all the directions of directing?

Modern directors, for the most part, did not grow up naturally through “gradual maturation”, but instead pumped up their muscles. The “jocks” stage a lot, they are energetic, skilled, and you can’t blame them for not knowing their job, but the lack of school affects their work. The philosophical understanding of the theme, spirituality and convincing life “equipment”, which was present in the performances of famous directors of the recent past, who proceeded in their work from the deep essence of theatrical art, is sorely lacking in current productions.

I can’t judge everyone, I’m speaking based on my own observations of the theater’s artistic director. From what young directors bring to us, I see: they are “cerebral”, coldly calculating professionals. This is not their fault: they live in an era when old concepts and familiar categories have been broken in the theater, and in everyday life a person does not always feel solid ground under his feet. Here, as they say, there is no time for spiritual comprehension and looking into the heavens, here many are thinking about how to get along in this extravagant world, what to cling to in this “Brownian movement”, in the chaos that is going on. And directors bring exactly this chaos to the theater. And spiritual comprehension of beauty requires peace and creative leisure. But in pursuit of material things, neither one nor the other exists for anyone today. Unfortunately, the needs of the audience have also changed: having run errands, the modern public mostly wants one thing from any staged action - the opportunity to let off steam. Here is the talk show “To the Barrier” on television. It is led by the most talented journalist Vladimir Solovyov, he skillfully manipulates the actions of the most influential politicians in the country and simply famous people. They are his actors. But what does its transfer decide? Nothing! This is all empty talk, cries of stage puppets insisting that they are right, but none of them listens to anyone. To some extent, this is beneficial for talk show participants - this way they attract public attention. What does the viewer get? Fatigue, a tiresome bedtime story, a dose of a kind of sleeping pill and - at the same time - a slow-acting doping, which, after taking a few hours of rest, can again rush headlong into the hustle and bustle of business. So now talk about the fact that directors are priests of beauty...

The picture is the same in modern drama: there seem to be a lot of plays, but they all talk about the same thing - how bad we feel today and how good it will be if we do this and that. This is something that won’t surprise the viewer!

In this regard, for some reason I remembered the play “Oginsky’s Polonaise” by Roman Vikgyuk. It showed general collapse. And what did this performance reveal to me? That the world has gone crazy? I already know that. That people turn into beasts through temptation? I have often seen this happen in my life. That they don't know where to go? I sometimes feel this myself. So why such a performance if they don’t tell me a way out? If there is not even a gap in it? But they keep pouring salt into my wounds! For what?

Real theater is not a sedative drug, but it is also not a psychotropic drug to stir up warped souls. I would say that he is an example of a more normal, smarter and more complete world than the one that often remains outside the threshold of the auditorium. An ideal world? It is quite possible, since art is almost always a striving for the ideal.

Yes, theater should be modern, but the viewer, and the actor, need more figures and collisions that contain timeless values. And they remain values ​​because they always have something in common with what is happening today. But also a reminder that life is not only about the dollar exchange rate and operational police reports. However, being in the seething cauldron of everyday life, we are not always able to grasp the essence of what is happening, and therefore cannot ourselves answer the questions that reality poses to us. Then the classics come to the rescue. It contains eternal spiritual riches - answers to the questions of human existence, which means it provides support for all those living today.

It is impossible to imagine what we would do today without Ostrovsky, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Shakespeare! But you can’t just play classics today. It must be read anew in every new era, at every new turn of time. After all, everything is constantly changing. Something dies and is born in society. A person, his attitude and tastes change. The aesthetics are updated. And the performance should fit organically into our “crazy, crazy, crazy world.” You can’t be complacent over a cup of tea with jam, against the backdrop of a painted wooden Zamoskvorechye from the 19th century, when skyscrapers made of glass and concrete are being built behind the wall.

But there is something that unites both settings - the recognition of human passions and the immutability of moral values, which in all centuries allows the theater to draw and draw from a truly bottomless well of dramaturgy of all times and peoples.

Love... No matter how much we talk or write about it, no matter how deeply we experience it ourselves, it remains a mysterious, intimate, incomprehensible feeling. There is no definition of love that fits all occasions. She is always a discovery. It is difficult to predict what action it will inspire or push a person to do. Yes, almost all the classics are love stories. And none of them are like the other. To paraphrase the poet, we can say: love is the only news that is always new...

Classics are always new too. But it doesn’t always happen that you scoop it up - and here it is, the goldfish of success! And we argue until we are hoarse in the theater about what to include in the current repertoire. The director suggests The Inspector General or Chekhov's The Seagull. It seems to me that it has become a kind of obsessive fashion to always interpret Chekhov and Gogol in your own way. It’s as if every theater is trying to find something in Chekhov that no one has found before. Yes, both Chekhov and Gogol are great experts on man, but I am afraid of fashion, which in the theatrical repertoire is becoming as compulsorily indispensable as jeans.

Once upon a time, when I became artistic director, I set myself the task of opening the doors of the Vakhtangov Theater wide to new, relevant drama and sharp, modern-sounding classics. To do this, it was necessary to invite both serious, well-known directors and young, but already interesting directors who promised to reveal themselves in their own way. This is what I worked on, and there were successes along the way, although no one gave me insurance against failure. Only successes and failures are normal for creative search. It’s impossible to list everyone I invited. However, I will mention that Robert Sturua, Pyotr Fomenko, Arkady Kats, Roman Viktyuk, Vladimir Mirzoev, Vyacheslav Shalevich, Sergei Yashin, Alexander Gorban revealed their directorial plans to us. Under their leadership, such performances as “The Peace of Brest-Litovsk”, “Lessons of the Master”, “Ides of March”, “Guilty Without Guilt”, “Alibaba and the Forty Thieves”, “Chasing Two Hares”, “Dedication to Eve” were staged. “Cyrano de Bergerac”, “For the Iguana” and many others. But, of course, not everything that was done was crowned with laurels of great audience success. Nevertheless, these performances are stages in the formation of our theater in difficult years, when in Russia all our compatriots were looking for their own, often new, place in the sun.

But this, so to speak, is the creative part of the artistic director’s concerns, and it is based on an economic foundation and partly depends on interpersonal relationships in the troupe - and you also have to think about this. Such problems were extremely aggravated in the 90s of the last century, and, probably, the easiest way for me would be to brush them aside and take some convenient and somewhat detached position. But, I must admit, to this day I feel responsible for the cause that I have served all my life - for the theater.

At one time, the euphoria of perestroika ended, and it turned out that, along with some administrative independence, theaters acquired a bunch of problems, but did not master the mechanisms for solving them. And I had to do a lot of things myself.

Our props were worn out, the stage equipment was outdated, and in a disastrous financial situation (it is well known what was happening in the economy in that era), the theater did not have the means to eliminate this hole. This means that we must go to the officials, the bosses, whose names have always been legion. We still have more bosses than workers. There was a lot, but it became even more. Everywhere you go, there are a lot of committees, parliaments and departments. It would be nice to introduce uniforms for officials - then we would absolutely become like Nikolaev’s “stick” Russia, as it was described in Soviet times. Only then we never dreamed of what we have now! Walking through high offices is akin to Dante’s circles of hell: it’s not a fact that they will allocate what you need, but you will definitely suffer humiliation. But you need to go so that your work is not stopped, so that the best traditions of theatrical art and national culture in general, which in many ways are already dying out, are not given up for a long time.

So I went. For example, near our theater on Arbat for a long time there was a dilapidated house that could not be restored and did not belong to anyone. We, like air, needed a second stage for experimental activities in the theater, to expand the repertoire, and finally, to provide work for the entire troupe. But it was not possible to obtain land in the neighborhood with the wording “for full management” in order to attract investors and builders. There was only one answer to our requests and reasons: “no funds, no opportunities.” And it could all end with the fact that some smart businessman or the ubiquitous mafia would lay their paw on these ruins and another casino would appear in the middle of the Arbat. After all, in post-Soviet Russia it happened that even under the theatrical sign, dubious shops were opened for the sake of profit, and for this, newly minted businessmen easily forgot about the true significance of performing arts for society. However, the Vakhtangov Theater still managed to prove that it was right, and the land was allocated to us.

There were also difficulties with touring. It even so happened that due to economic troubles, for two or three summer off-seasons, Moscow was left without invited theater groups - there was simply nothing to invite them to. Back then, even traveling from St. Petersburg to Moscow was fraught with considerable problems. Moreover, the country was really threatened by the loss of a single cultural theatrical space. Moreover, the capital's troupes also found themselves in serious difficulty when organizing their creative trips to the periphery. We got out of the situation as best we could. And we got out! At the beginning of 2002, the Vakhtangov members went on tour in full force to Kyiv and gave performances at the Lesya Ukrainka Theater. This means that the troupe’s employment in the productions was full.

How to keep all the actors occupied in plays, provide them with opportunities for creative growth and decent earnings - this is a special conversation. The problem is not unique to Vakhtangov theaters; it is universal for all theaters. While there was no money, until we learned how to earn it, theater troupes that had been created over the years began to resemble huge, clumsy dreadnoughts. On the one hand, young actors came - they had not yet gained enough experience to carry the repertoire, but they already needed to be given a perspective. On the other hand, there were a lot of pensioners who played less and less due to health reasons, but they could not be fired under any circumstances - the pensions were meager, and to take away a role in another production from an honored person, your long-time stage comrade, means to stage him to the brink of half-starvation. Therefore, as much as I could, I fought to maintain the precarious balance between the older generation of actors and the youth, so to speak, creatively supported the old people, while still orienting the theater towards young, fresh blood. And here is the result: over the past twenty years, real masters have grown up on the Vakhtangov stage - A. Dubrovskaya, M. Aronova, E. Sotnikova, N. Grishaeva, S. Makovetsky, M. Sukhanov, V. Simonov, E. Knyazev, A. .Zavyalov, you can list more names. Many of them are known abroad as excellent professionals, they are invited to collaborate on various theater and film sets, and they constantly appear in our troupe. But my old actor friends are still honored - through the example of many, many wonderfully played roles, they have raised worthy replacements for themselves, that is their merit. And then very young guys, recent graduates of theater school, gradually begin to make themselves known... And all the actors in our theater have their own creative voice, they have the right to tell the viewer something important from the stage.

One of the greats has a wonderful statement about the difference between the oratory skills of Cicero and Demosthenes. When Marcus Tullius Cicero delivered a speech, the Roman Senate was overcome with delight: “God, how he speaks!” And when Demosthenes gave a speech to the Greeks, the Athenians shouted: “War to Philip the Great!”

The same can be said about the differences in the art of both directing and acting. Art in general has many faces - and that’s what makes it interesting. Art is limitless - and that's what makes it beautiful. Art is omniscient - and that’s what’s wonderful about it.

Today, art is still looking for ways, as in a blocked mine, to people, to light, and often finds them with the help of classics. And also a classic - a staff in the hand of a tired traveler wandering through life.

If necessary, in difficult years we relied on it, but we also included works by contemporary authors in our repertoire. Both plays could be sold out or not.

But it is important that with their help the Vakhtangov Theater survived. He also survived thanks to his amazing, sparkling acting school. For twenty years I preserved our traditions as best I could, and now, looking back, I can state with satisfaction: on my part of the path I succeeded. Perhaps because I perceived the success of any director, any actor in our theater as my own. And I didn’t see any benefit for myself other than the success of the theater.