Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod): history, repertoire

The Drama Theater of Nizhny Novgorod named after M. Gorky is one of the oldest theaters in the country. It exists more than 200 years.

How the theater was born

The drama theater in Nizhny Novgorod began its existence in 1798. Its founder was Prince NG. Shakhovsky. It was a serf theater and all the actors came from serf families. Performances were demonstrated in one of the houses of the prince, which was located at the corner of the streets of Bolshaya Pechorskaya and Malaya Pecherskaya. The house was rebuilt for a theater, it had a stalls for 100 spectators, a gallery for two hundred spectators, lodges for 27 and 50 seats. The building was gloomy and dilapidated. Lodges more like stalls. On the curtain were huge holes, in which periodically protruded someone's nose, peeped out someone's eyes, sticking out his head. From the day of its foundation and until 1824 the theater was called the Nizhny Novgorod City and Fairy Theater of Prince Shakhovsky. There were tragedies, comedies, ballets and operas in the repertoire. Since 1824, the name has changed, henceforth it was the Nizhny Novgorod Theater, and from 1896 - the Nikolaev Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod). History Its existence in different periods developed in different ways.

The years from 1824 to 1896 were for the theater heavy. After the death of Prince Shakhovsky, his heirs sold the theater together with all the actors to two rich theatergoers, but in 10 years the hosts changed again. This could not but affect the quality of the productions. Frequent change of entrepreneurs led to the fact that the performances became less interesting, the actors began to play worse, the revenues decreased, while the building and the troupe needed to be maintained, which led to losses. In 1853 the building of the theater burned down. The year of revival can be considered 1855. Then, at the request of the governor, the theater was reopened, but already in the house owned by P.E. To Bugrov. During the period from 1863 to 1894 the building survived several fires. The City Duma sought funds for its restoration, but N. Bugrov, its owner, did not want his theater to be located in his grandfather's house again. He allocated 200 thousand rubles for the construction of a new building. The city added to this amount 50 thousand, the government granted a subsidy and in 2 years a new theater building was built on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, where it is located to this day. The opening took place in 1896, the premiere of the opera was M.I. Glinka "Life for the Tsar", in which the young and unknown F. Chaliapin sang. In different years on the stage of the Nizhny Novgorod theater such great actors and actresses as Stanislavsky, VF started their career. Komissarzhevskaya, M.N. Ermolova, M.S. Shchepkin and others.

20th century

In the 20th century, the Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod) changed its names many times. In 1918 it was called the Soviet, in 1923 - the First State, in 1932 - the First Gorky (after the renaming of the city in Gorky), it was the State, and the regional, and the regional. The name that he wears now was received by him in 1990 - the Nizhny Novgorod State Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Academic Drama Theater named after M. Gorky. During the period from 1928 to 1945, new productions appeared in the repertoire in the number of 191. Among them were performances of classical works, plays by foreign authors of the time, but the overwhelming majority belonged to Soviet authors. The Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod) has repeatedly received prizes and prizes at theatrical festivals for its productions.

21 century

Now the director is B. Kaynov (Honored Worker of Culture of Russia), art director - G. Demurov (People's Artist of Russia). Since 2006, the drama theater (Nizhny Novgorod) has resumed its tour around Russia. In addition, he takes an active part in theatrical festivals (in Russian and international), as well as forums. The management keeps fidelity to productions according to the works of the classics, but at the same time work is under way to update the repertoire.

Actors and performances

The Drama Theater (Nizhny Novgorod) has assembled 40 wonderful actors in its troupe, 11 of which are the Honored Artist of Russia and three are People's Artist. The 217th season continues to delight the audience with the drama theater in Nizhny Novgorod.

The repertoire for the most part consists of classical plays, although there are works of contemporary authors, as well as fairy tales for children: "Twelfth Night" by W. Shakespeare, "Marriage" N.V. Gogol, "The Imaginary Ill" Zh. Moliere, "The Opera of the Poor" by J. Gaia, "Classmates" Yu. Polyakov, "Too Married Taxi Driver" R. Cooney, "Puss in Boots" S.Perro and others.