Yesterday, on November 23, 2009, a conversazione with Distinguished Artist of Russia Semyon Sytnik took place at the Actors Lobby of the Alexandrinsky Theater.  The actor’s theater career is inseparable from the Alexandrinsky Stage:  he was admitted to the theater 40 years ago, in 1969, right after graduation from the Leningrad Theater Institute. Students of St. Petersburg universities were present at the meeting, which turned into a sparkling benefit one-man show, where bright episodes from his childhood and youth went along with theater events and actor’s contemplations of the nature of the theater, profession, traditions and modern life. 

Semyon Sytnik has also told about his students, answered questions about the contemporary young public that has come to the theater in the recent years.  In the beginning and the end of the conversazione Semyon Sytnik recited poems and prose in Russian and Ukrainian. For the young audience this conversazione has not only turned into a lively direct communication with their favorite actor, but also into an exciting tour to the past of the Alexandrinsky Stage.  Semyon Sytnik was telling them about his pedagogues: Vasily Merkuryev and Irina Meyerhold, whom he was lucky to learn from and work with at the theater.  He shared his reminiscents about many actors, whose names belong to the theater legend since long ago.  Actor’s stories were complimented with video episodes from performances “The Old Arbat’s Fairy Tales” by A. Arbuzov and “Mashenka” by A. Afinogenov, and photos from numerous performances where Sytnik participated.  He had played more than 100 roles at the Alexandrinsky Theater.  The actor had different periods in his actor’s biography: the popularity of his young characters – from romantic lovers to impressive rascals - was replaced by almost absolute absence of any roles and what seemed to be full oblivion.  His light comedienne talent, genre and style exactness, ability to transfer character and easily improvise within borders of a given mask, first revealed in Nickolay Sheiko’s performance “The Green Bird” by C. Gozzi (1976), where Sytnik played an unexpected Tartalya, happened to be back on demand only in the 2000s. Today, Semyon Sytnik is one of the leading and most popular actors of the senior generation.  The list of his roles includes characters in performances of all directors producing at the theater:  His Excellency (“The Double” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Director Valery Fokin, 2005), Visionary Teresy (“Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles, Director T. Terzopoulos, 2006), Prince Abrezkov (“The Living Corps” by L. Tolstoy, Director Valery Fokin, 2006), Sorin (“The Seagull” by A. Chekhov, Director K. Lupa, 2007), Professor Nemur and Charly’s Father (“Flowers for Charly” by D. Keyes, Director I. Sakayev, 2007).  Semyon Sytnik is engaged in all premiere performances of the new season: he plays Professor Serebryakov in A. Scherban’s “Uncle Vanya” and Astronomer Sergey Zaratustrov in Andrey Moguchy’s “Izotov;” in Oleg Yeremin’s performance after A. Vampilov’s writings, scheduled for the first night for November 30, Sytnik will play geography teacher Tretyakov from the one-act play “The House with Windows on the Field.”

The meeting took place under the frames of the program of “Formation of the Youth Audience and Cultural Theater Media.”