The Sakha Academic Theater
after Platon Oyunskiy
Short name: Sakha Theater
URL: official home page at www.sitc.ru
Address: 1, Ordzhonikidze str, Yakutsk, Sakha-Yakutia, Russia 677000
Tel/fax: +7 (4112) 34-33-40
Email: sakha_theatreATsakha.ru
In 1881 in Yakutsk a circle of amateurs of literature and music functioned and the local elite and young adults participated in it. The Russian Theatre which held its first opening night with Maxim Gorky's “At the Bottom” is also a product of this dating back to 1920. This theatre also had 20 artists of local sakha youth. The government in those years was confronted by a problem, namely to create a national Yakut theatre. The first play was perfomed on October 17, 1925. It was the comedy “Malicious Spirit” written by the Yakut writer Nikolay Neustroev.
Between 1942-1971 the theatre worked as a musical drama theatre and promoted musicals of Yakutia. Starting in 1971 a separation of ways began in the State Opera and Ballet Theatre as it is known today took its own road and at present there are several theatres: Nyrba's Drama Theatre, Theatre of Satire and Humour, Theatre of Dance, the Sakha Academic Theatre, etc.
Since 1983 Andrey Borisov has been leading the theatre as the main director. The art director is Vasily Fomin.
The theatre basically consists of graduates from the Moscow Theatrical School named after Mikhail Schepking, the Malyi Theater. The School released its first group of talented young actors in 1995. This first group had its own repertoire. The second Yakut studio from the Schepkin school graduated in 1996 and has departed away to Nyurba where the Nyurba Drama Theater is located today. It is known near and far among theater fans in Russia and abroad. The third happening with Schepkin's school- studio was the year 1974. Names such as Andrey Borisov, Stepanida Borisova, winner of the State prize, Efim Stepanov, winner of the State prize, Gerasim Vasilyev among others. The fourth group of Schepkin's students graduated in 1985. Honored artists of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Petr Basnaev, Elena Sergeeva and some others are now the basic creative teamwork of the theater. The honored worker of arts of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Jury Makarov is the art director of the Njurba Drama Theater, and Petr Skryabin is the Director of the theatre of Actor and Dolls (Neryungri). The fifth Yakut studio graduated in 2002, 16 graduates work in the Sakha Theater. Besides Schepkin's students there are graduates of the Far East Institute of Arts and the Republican College of Culture and Arts.
In 1981 Andrey Borisov, being still the student of GITIS, has supervised the thesis for a degree based on stories by Chingiz Aytmatov «Skewbald dog, running on the edge of the sea» per formance «Desired blue my shore ...». The play has been performed as part of a program at numerous festivals in many cities of the USSR and abroad. In 1986 Andrey Borisov, set designer Gennady Sotnikov, actors' Efim Stepanov, Simon Fedotov and Gerasim Vasilyev were awarded the State prize of the USSR for the per formance. And in 1998 Andrey Borisov, Gennady Sotnikov, Efim Stepanov and the young actor Innokenty Lukovtsev were awarded for the King Lear play with the State prize of Russia .
In June, 2000 a play based on the Yakut national epos-olonkho «Kyys Debiliye» directed by Andrey Borisov was awarded with a special prize by critics of the National Theatrical Prize «the Golden Mask».
Theatre performances are met with success in International and Russian festivals in Finland , Germany , Norway , Poland , Mexico , USA (Chicago), Switzerland , Turkey and in the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg .
The theatre is in the midst of a new creative rise. In the year 2005 on October 17th it will be exactly 80 years since the first opening night. |
