Nikolsky Theater

Before the Revolution

The Nikolsky Theater was born in the summer of 1895 and became the first peasant theater in Russia. The founders of the Moscow Art Theater’s “elder brother” were Z. S. Sokolov’s sister , S. S. Stanislavsky, and her doctor, K. K. Sokolov.

The first production of the theater was a performance based on Stakhovich’s play “Night”. Zinaida Sergeevna first involved in the productions of peasant children, whom she taught reading and writing in a school organized by her and her husband, and then adults. For performances, a public barn was chosen, which housed up to six hundred spectators. The theater’s repertoire included plays by Ostrovsky , Chekhov , Potekhin , Shpazhinsky , Sollogub .

In June 1901, Konstantin Stanislavsky and his wife, the Moscow Art Theater actress Maria Lilina, came to Nikolskoye.

Brother Kostya and Maroussia stayed with us for five days. We played for them “Kruchin” and “The Deprived”. They were at rehearsals. The attitude of the actors to the matter, the game without exaggeration, they really liked. Kostya said that he was literally unsettled by everyone - the public, the stage-play, the game.

- Z. S. Sokolova ^[1]

Life in the theater did not end even in the most difficult times: during the First World War , when the Sokolovs placed a hospital in their house, the theater staged plays for the wounded.

In the USSR

After the death of K.K. Sokolov and the departure of his wife to Moscow, the theater was headed by a paramedic and primary school teacher of the Nikolskaya school L.F. Tupikova (1883-1955). In 1941, the Nikolsky Drama Club took first place in Voronezh. In the 1950s, his fame spread beyond the region. Here are the plays of Tolstoy , Gorky , Ostrovsky .

After the death of L. F. Tupikova in 1955, the theater was headed by M. A. Shiryaev. In 1959, the amateur theater in the village of Nikolsky was awarded a diploma of the 1st degree as the winner of the All-Russian amateur art show, by government decision he was awarded the title of "folk" (he became the first officially recognized folk theater in the RSFSR).

In modern Russia

Since 1994, the Voronezh Regional Center for Folk Art has been conducting regional amateur theater festivals "Theater Meetings in Nikolsky" in the village of Nikolskoye. The theater is led by a senior researcher at the regional center of folk art S.N.Sukochev, who attracts leading theater critics, artists of the Koltsovsky Theater and Puppet Theater to the theater .

Currently, the theater is located in the building of the village club, which the Sokolovs built for the school. There are two (?) Plaques on the house with the inscription: “In June 1901, the outstanding reformer of the Russian scene K. S. Stanislavsky and his wife, the Moscow Art Theater actress M. P. Lilina, stayed here.”

• Liquid A. That the light did not go out // Coast. - 2005. - July 1 (No. 26). - S. 22.
• Sokolova Z.S. Our life in Nikolsky. Village notes / comp., Preparation of the manuscript for publ. and comment. S. N. Sukocheva. - Voronezh: Center for the Spiritual Revival of the Black Earth Region, 2004. - 288 p.
• Sukocheva S. N. Folk Theater of Stanislavsky’s sister / S. Sukocheva, A. Celsus // Man and Science. - 2002. - No. 10. - P. 40–41.
• Sukocheva S. N. Theater fever in Nikolsky // Leisure in Voronezh. - 2002. - No. 12. - S. 4–5.
• Polyanskaya E. Unusual performance // Amateur art. - 1963. - No. 1. - S. 35.
• Timofeev N. The Sokolovs' Noble Nest // Voronezh News. - 2005. - June 22 (No. 25). - S. 4.

• Melpomene from the barn, on the website of the Association "Gallery Chizhov."
• Pages of the future book. The intelligentsia goes to the people, on the website of the newspaper Kommuna. (inaccessible link)
• Memories. Ogarkov F.V. - Materials of the diary.
• Voronezh regional center of folk art.
• Photo story about the peasant theater in Nikolsky.