Kaluga Puppet Theater

The theater opened its doors to viewers in 1992 . The premiere was held on March 27 (the play “Little Fairy” based on the play of the Yugoslav playwright Voymila Rabadan). The first artistic director of the Kaluga Puppet Theater was Andrei Andreevich Kosenkin. In the next 20 years, more than 50 performances were staged. Each year in the repertoire of 14-15 puppet shows ^[2] .

For a long time the theater did not have its premises, being located in the building of the theater of the young spectator and the regional drama theater . The theater received its first permanent premises only in 1995. They became a small hall of the cinema "Central", designed for 50 seats ^[3] . Since then, the theater has repeatedly tried to move to another place or close altogether.

In 2016, it was decided to transfer the theater to the building of the Kuptsov house located on 48 Kirov Street (the total area of ​​the building is 860 m ^{2) [4] [5] [6]} . On October 27, 2018, the puppet theater officially acquired its own building and, for the first time, staged a performance in it - the fairy tale “Tereshechka” ^[3] .

A new puppet theater museum was opened in the new building ^[7] . However, the final transfer of the theater to a new building will be completed in December 2018 ^[8] .

The puppet theater does performances not only for children, but also for adults. The first such performance "Cabaret Seсond Hand" was held on September 21, 2017 (director - Peter Vasiliev, artist - Alevtina Torik) ^[9] . Evening performances for adults are planned on the new stage, in particular, The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio ^[8] .

Among the theater workers there were directors: Honored Artist, Laureate of the Golden Sofit Prize - Nikolai Borovkov, Golden Mask Prize Winner P. Vasilyev, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation V. Golovanov, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Laureate of the Golden Mask Prize Biryukov, A. Volotovsky, A. Stroganov; artists: Alevtina Torik, O. Chistik, L. Borisovskaya, L. Lipovskaya and others.

In 2014–2015, Sergei Nikolayevich Balykov ^{[10] [11]} worked as the main director of the theater.

The participant of theatrical festivals: the 4th All-Russian Festival of Puppet Theaters "The Anthill" in Ivanovo ^[12] ,

International Festival of Chamber Puppet Theaters "Theater Carousel" in the city of Lobnya ^[13] .

XX International Festival "Slavic theatrical meetings" in Bryansk ^[2] . Repeated winner of the competition of the Department of Culture and Art of the Kaluga region among Kaluga theaters in the nomination "The Best Performance for Children".

The full staff of the theater troupe can be found on its official website on the Internet.