This morning, January 19, 2012, died suddenly Distinguished Artist of Russia Rudolf Kuld. He was 76; for more than half a century he had served at the theater. Rudolf Kuld was invited to the company of the Pushkin Theater in 1959 from the Tallinn Russian Drama Theater, where he was the leading young actor. From his very first seasons, the young and talented actor had very actively joined the repertoire and played very different roles, such as Vaionen (“The Optimistic Tragedy” by Vs. Vishnevsky, 1961), Lyalin (“The Friends and the Years” by L. Zorin, 1961), De Brizar (“Flight” by M. Bulgakov, 1962), Alber (“The Short Tragedies” by A. Pushkin, 1962), Egmont (“Before the Sunset” by G. Hauptmann, 1963), Jacob (“The Wild Captain” by Yu. Smuul, 1965), and other. In the years of his work at the Pushkin Theater, the actor had played over a hundred roles.

On December 21, 2011, Artistic Director of the Alexandrinsky Theater, People’s Artist of Russia Valery Fokin will give a lecture on “The Psychology of Theater Life: Management and Creativity” at the Stateroom of the Graduate Association of the SPbSU Higher School of Management (Basil Island, #3 Volkhovsky Per.).

Nominees of the St. Petersburg Breakthrough Youth Theater Award for the 2010/2011 season have been announced. Young actors of the Alexandrinsky Theater were among them.
Alexandra Bolshakova (for the role of Catharine in Oskaras Korshunovas’s performance “Taming of the Shrew”) and Yanina Lakoba (for the role of Mitil in Andrey Moguchy and Konstantin Filippov’s performance “The Fortune”) were nominated in the nomination of “The Best Young Dramatic Actress.” Dmitry Lysenkov was nominated in the nomination of “The Best Young Dramatic Actor” (for the role of Petrucio in W. Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”). Maria Lugovaya (for the role of Cat in the performance “The Fortune”) and Maria Zimina (for the role of Khorevt in the performance “The Tsars” after J. Cortazar) were nominated in the nomination of “The Best Performer of a Secondary Role in a Drama Theater.”

On December 7-17, 2011, the festival named “Andrey Moguchy’s Theater Space” will take place for the third time. The first festival, which had taken place in 2009, was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Formal Theater established by Andrey Moguchy. The 2010 festival was focused on the dialogue between the contemporary theater and young playwrights. In an abandoned apartment in the Pertrogdskaya Storona young actors and directors in search of new theater language had been working with texts of young playwrights. In-parallel to this, convesazioni with leading figures of the European theater had been taking place in the space of the Loft Project.

On November 29, 2011, 2010/2011 season award ceremony for the International Theater K.S. Stanislavsky Award took place in Moscow. This year, Artistic Director of the Alexandrinsky Theater Valery Fokin became laureate of this award. His performance “Konstantin Raikin. An Evening with Dostoyevsky” after Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Letters from Underground” produced at the Moscow Satiricon Theater was named among other drama performances of the last season.

President of Russia awarded Artistic Director of the Alexandrinsky Theater, People’s Artist of Russia Valery V. Fokin with a Certificate of Merit for “The Great Merits in the Development of National Culture and Fruitful Activity of Many Years” (Verdict № 762-rp of the President of Russia of November 22, 2011)

On November 9, 2011, at 17.00, a personal exhibit Dante Inferno of the extraordinary theater artist Michael Platonov will open at the small exhibit hall of Anna Akhmatova’s Apartment Museum in the Fountain House. The exhibit will show improvisations inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy. The idea of the exhibit appeared last year: to celebrate the artist’s 60th birthday. However, for a number of reasons this project had to be postponed. Michael Platonov has worked as industrial designer at the Alexandrinsky Theater since 1978; later on, in 1982, he started teaching at the Production Department of the St. Petersburg State Theater Academy.

On November 23, 2011, an Alexandrinsky Theater Director and founder and artistic director of the formal theater Andrey Moguchy will celebrate his 50th birthday. Andrey Moguchy is one of the key figures of the modern Russian theater. Last season, a repeated incumbent of the Golden Soffit and Golden Mask theater awards, Andrey Moguchy was honored with the International Stanislavsky Theater Award in the nomination “Director’s Mastership” and the European New Theater Reality Award for the last years’ jobs. The Formal Theater he had founded in the early 1990s united together dozens of talented artists, actors, and musicians; from a semi-amateurish theatric laboratory it turned into one of the brightest and nontrivial collectives carrying out experimental quests in the field of stage forms and languages.

On November 20, 2011, Distinguished Artist of Russia Svetlana Sheichenko will celebrate her Jubilee. Svetlana Sheichenko, one of the best students of Vasily Merkuriev and Irina Meyerhold, belongs to that Alexandrinsky’s galaxy whose biographies were entirely connected with the oldest Russian theater. She was invited to the company in 1973, right after her graduation from the institute. She debuted in the role of Victoria in A. Stein’s romantic drama “No Stars in the Night” (1974). The nimble, graceful and knowing biomechanics actress was immediately introduced to the performances of current repertoire, where she had played a whole series of bit-part roles; in 1979, Svetlana Sheichenko was introduced to A. Arbuzov’s performance “The Old Arbat’s Fairy Tales” in the role of Viktosha, which she had played more than 100 times.

Today, November 17, 2011, the 2010 / 2011 season’s nominees of the GOLDEN MASK, Russian national award and festival, were announced at the press-conference in Moscow. Alexandrinsky Theater performances: Andrey Moguchy’s “The Fortune” (“The Big Form Drama Performance” nomination) and K. Filippov’s “Your Gogol” (“The Smaller Form Drama Performance” nomination) are among the nominees. Producers of these performances, Artistic Director of the Alexandrinsky Theater Valery Fokin and Director Andrey Moguchy, were nominated in “The Best Director’s Job” nomination. Actress Yanina Lakoba, who plays the role of Mitil in “The Fortune,” was nominated for the award in “The Best Female Role” section, while Distinguished Artist of Russia Igor Volkov, who played the role of Gogol, was named in “The Best Male Role” nomination.