Riga Russian Theater named after Mikhail Chekhov

In the autumn of 1883 , on October 2 , in the hall of the Russian artisan artel, who arrived in Riga for a whole season, the troupe of the entrepreneur E.V. Lavrov showed I. Shpazhinsky ’s play “Mayors”. An independent professional Russian theater appeared in the city, until 1902 it performed on the stage in a building owned by the Ulei joint-stock company.

From 1902 until the outbreak of World War I, the troupe worked in the building of the Second City Theater (architect August Reinberg ), which was opened by the city authorities for the 700th anniversary of Riga.

Vera Komissarzhevskaya , Marya Savina , Varvara Strelskaya and many other venerable actors toured the theater ^[2] .

In the history of the theater, 1902 is associated with the name of the actor and director Konstantin Nezlobin , who held an anticipation in Riga. With his direct participation, a stable core of the troupe was formed. Nezlobin managed to attract talented directors, decorators and actors. The repertoire has noticeably expanded and enriched.

Outstanding actors were invited to the troupe - M. Andreeva , M. Roksanova , A. Kharlamov , N. Mikhailovsky, V. Likhachev. Of great importance were the productions of director K. Mardzhanov , a student of K. Stanislavsky .

In 1904, M. Gorky came to Riga, at the invitation of his friend Nezlobin personally, and took part in the production of his plays. In November, the premiere of the play “Summer Residents” staged by K. Mardzhanov took place. Next year during the tour, this performance was well received by the Moscow audience.

During the leadership of the troupe of the theater, N. Mikhailovsky, one of the invited directors was young Alexander Tairov , whose performances the Riga residents had the opportunity to meet.

After the war, the theater resumed operation in 1921 . The troupe was headed by the actor of the Moscow Maly Theater M. Muratov who came from Bulgaria and played here for several seasons. The repertoire was dominated by the performances of Russian classics staged on the rented stage of the Latvian society . Despite state subsidies, part of the funds had to be raised through the efforts of the Theater of Russian Drama partnership.

Many outstanding artists came on tour to Riga. Mikhail Chekhov played for two seasons, the audience could see Vasily Kachalov , Grigory Khmara , Olga Gzovskaya , Pavel Orlenev .

At that time, the troupe itself also had many bright talents: E. Zhikhareva, E. Marsheva, E. Roshchina-Insarova, M. Vedrinskaya, L. Melnikova, E. Bunchuk, G. Terekhov. The famous Latvian actress L. Stengele performed on the stage of the theater.

Pursuing the leadership of the newly created Workers' Theater, Yuri Yurovsky found time for playing and staging new performances.

The play “ Duck Hunt ” by A. Vampilov was first staged at the Riga Russian Theater. ^[2]

For many years, one of the leading principles of PPT was to maintain the genre diversity of the repertoire: the audience was offered deep psychological and psychological performances, spectacular musical performances, unexpected creative experiments with form, and academically rigorous “classical” performances.

In August 2010, Igor Konyaev became the main director of the theater. He held this position until October 2015.

Outstanding productions of past years

See list - Performances of the Riga Russian Theater named after Mikhail Chekhov .

• " Barbarians " by M. Gorky ^[2]
• " At the bottom " M. Gorky
• “ For every wise man of rather simplicity ” A. N. Ostrovsky
• "The Caucasian Cretaceous Circle " by Bertold Brecht
• West Side Story by L. Bernstein and A. Lorents
• “The Man from La Mancha” by W. Wasserman and D. Darion

The main directors and artistic directors of the theater

• 1964-1988 - A.F. Katz
• 1988-1999 - L. S. Belyavsky
• 2003-2004 - V. S. Petrov
• 2007-2009 - A. M. Prikotenko
• 2010—2015 - I. G. Konyaev
• 2018— present - S. A. Golomazov

In parentheses are the dates of work in the theater:

Since 2000, the theater has developed strong creative relationships with the legendary Latvian composer Raymond Pauls . Following his musical “Kerry”, musical performances appear on the stage of the theater with the direct participation of the maestro - “Nights of Cabiria”, “Solo for the actress and orchestra”, “Antique clock”, “Raymond Pauls. Favorites "," Odessa, the city of witchcraft ... ". In May 2017, the PPT’s repertoire was replenished with the musical performance “Girl in a Cafe”, based on the verses by Austra Skuini translated by Olga Peterson.

In September 2006, the theater (formerly called the State Riga Russian Drama Theater) regained the historical name “Riga Russian Theater” and received the right to be called the Mikhail Chekhov Theater, paying tribute to the brilliant actor, director and teacher, who devoted two years to his life (1932- 1934) work in Riga and opened his first school here.

In 2010, the reconstruction of the theater building was completed, thanks to which PPT equipment is currently one of the most modern theaters in Europe. In the same year, the well-known director from St. Petersburg, State Prize laureate Igor Konyaev (who held the post until October 2015) became the artistic director of the theater; he also assumed the duties of master of the acting course, which he scored together with the professor of the St. Petersburg Theater Academy Elena Chernoy at the Latvian Academy of Culture - especially for Russian theater. In 2014, graduates of this course successfully joined the PPT troupe.

In 2014, the theater received the International Theater Award of Spectator Sympathy “Theater Star” in the nomination “The Best Russian Theater Outside Russia”.

Until November 2017, the director of the theater was Eduard Tsekhoval, who held this position for almost 30 years and in 2013 received the Stanislavsky Prize “for preserving the traditions of the Russian theater in Latvia”. Since January 8, 2018, the director of the theater is Dana Byork.

October 1, 2018, Sergey Golomazov became the artistic director of the theater.

The PPT's repertoire includes both Russian and world classics, as well as works by young playwrights. Performances of all genres, including children's and musical performances, are played on the Big, Small, and Experimental scenes. The theater is actively touring and successfully performing at the festival arena.

Modern Theater Troupe

Contemporary Repertoire

• 2001 - “ Dinner of Fools ” by Francis Weber . Director: Roman Kozak
• 2007 - "Odessa, the city of witchcraft ..." ("The Red King") based on the stories of Isaac Babel . Director: Vladimir Zolotar
• 2008 - "The Aristocrats of the City" by Eduardo Scarpetto . Director: Paolo Emilio Lundy
• 2009 - “One-way ticket” by Alexander Uglov . Director: Dmitry Astrakhan
• 2009 - “Warsaw Melody” by Leonid Zorin . Director: Sergey Golomazov
• 2010 - "Stop" by Alexei Shcherbak . Director: Mikhail Gruzdov
• 2010 - "Anniversary soft-boiled" by Anton Chekhov . Director: Leonid Belyavsky
• 2010 - "Uncle's Dream" by Fyodor Dostoevsky . Director: Mikhail Bychkov
• 2011 - “Retro” by Alexander Galin . Director: Leonid Belyavsky
• 2011 - “Winter” by Evgeny Grishkovets . Director: Inese Puja
• 2011 - The Granhenka by Elmars Senkov . Director: Elmars Senkov
• 2011 - “Not All Cat Shrovetide” by Alexander Ostrovsky . Director: Igor Konyaev
• 2011 - Meisinger by German Grekov . Director: J.J. Gillinger
• 2011 - The Grenholm Method by Jordi Golseran . Director: Sergey Golomazov
• 2011 - "The Man and the Gentleman" by Eduardo de Filippo . Director: Paolo Emilio Lundy
• 2011 - “Noble Blood” by Inga Abele . Director: Mikhail Gruzdov
• 2011 - The Big Journey of the Little Christmas Tree by Ruslan Kudashov . Director: Ruslan Kudashov
• 2012 - Tango Between the Lines. Fantasy to the music of Oscar String in two acts by Alexei Shcherbak . Director: Igor Konyaev
• 2012 - “Indranas” by Rudolf Blaumanis . Director: Elmars Senkov
• 2012 - The Maestro. The musical evening of Raymond Pauls .
• 2012 - “Forest Song” by Lesia Ukrainka . Director: Igor Konyaev and Elena Chernaya
• 2012 - “Forest” by Alexander Ostrovsky . Director: Igor Konyaev
• 2013 - "Not All Cat Shrovetide" by Alexander Ostrovsky .

• Baltic Russians: history in cultural monuments. / Ed. A.V. Gaponenko. - Riga: Institute for European Studies, 2010. - 736 p. - with. 343—347. - ISBN 978-9934-8113-2-6
• Riga: Encyclopedia = Enciklopēdija "Riga" / Ch. ed. P.P. Eran. - 1st ed .. - Riga: Main Edition of Encyclopedias, 1989. - S. 711-712. - 60,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89960-002-0 .

• Official site of the Riga Russian Theater named after Mikhail Chekhov. // trd.lv
• Virtual Theater Salon. // rrt-salon.livejournal.com
• Video channel of the Riga Russian Theater named after Mikhail Chekhov (RigaRussianTheatre_LV). // youtube.com
• Page of the Riga Russian Theater named after Mikhail Chekhov (Latvia). // twitter.com
• Page of the Riga Russian Theater named after Mikhail Chekhov (Latvia). // facebook.com