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MOSCOW, December 19. The troupe of the Moscow Sovremennik Theater prepared the premiere for the 90th anniversary of the birth of People's Artist of the USSR Galina Volchek — the play «Next — Yourself.»
The genre was defined as «almost a fairy tale.» The playwrights were Semyon Shomin and Polina Rashkina, the director was Ivan Komarov. The team previously staged a dedication play “Kvasha: what if?”
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“Our main task was to write a story that would be interesting not only to those who know Galina Borisovna and the history of Sovremennik, but also to ordinary people who come without knowing the context,” Shomin said.
The performance is based on real facts from the biography of Volchek and the theater.
““It was important for us that we do not copy the people we are talking about, because this is still a fairy tale. We try to give “decoys”: maybe it’s about him?” — said Komarov.
They decided to make the performance musical. “We constantly heard from different people that Galina Borisovna loved music very much,” explained the director.
The music for the production was written by Dmitry Shugaikin, a member of the indie pop group OQJAV.
As an aesthetic reference, the directors chose the films of American director Wes Anderson with their “brightness, graphics and paradox.”
“»Galina Borisovna was bright in life hero, she loved the scope. That is why our team has about 30 people — a densely populated story,» Shomin emphasized.
The brave girl Galya from the Land of Cold Winds with elves, crybabies and a witch who sets off on a journey will be played by Anastasia Mishina, Victoria Romanenko and Varvara Feofanova.
«»Coming into contact with the image of Galina Borisovna is an incredible gift, because I live what she invested in my heart, my personality, acting potential and charge of creative energy in life,” Romanenko shared.
The performance also stars Ivan Stebunov, Alena Babenko, Gosha Tokaev, Natalya Ushakova, Maxim Tenyakov and other stars «Contemporary».
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“First of all, we invite you to a celebration where we invite you to once again remember the history of those who created the theater,” said Stebunov. “They were incredibly happy, bright, loving people.”
He will play the role of the Chief, in whom you can guess Oleg Efremov. The actor decided to move away from trying to repeat the image of the legendary founder of Sovremennik.
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"I am trying to recreate my association, the feeling of this person. This is goodness, light, love for art, for the journey that a team of talented young people set off on,” he shared.
The premiere will take place on December 20. And on Volchek’s birthday, December 19, there will be a private screening of the play “Galya. The Magic Story,” the plot of which is based on events from the life of Galina Borisovna and the memories of contemporaries.
Galina Volchek was born on December 19, 1933 in Moscow in the family of the famous cinematographer Boris Volchek. In 1955, she graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School (workshop of Alexander Karev). A year later she became one of the founders of the Studio of Young Actors, later — Sovremennik. For almost half a century — from 1972 to 2019 — she was the artistic director of this theater.
Having successfully started her career as an actress, she also began directing. She opened for the Soviet and Russian stage the names and works of playwrights who became known throughout the country after their debut in Sovremennik: “Echelon” and “Hurry to Do Good” by Mikhail Roshchin, “Climbing Mount Fuji” by Chingiz Aitmatov and Kaltai Mukhamedzhanov, “Feedback” by Alexander Gelman, “Stars in the Morning Sky” by Alexander Galin, “Murlin Murlo” and “We are going, going, going” by Nikolai Kolyada.
Volchek has been acting in films since 1957. She played in such films as «Don Quixote» (1957), «Beware of the Car» (1966), «King Lear» (1970), «My Destiny» (1973), «About Little Red Riding Hood» (1977), «Autumn Marathon» (1979), «Unicum» (1983), «Black Castle Olshansky» (1983) and others. In 2015, Galina Borisovna starred in the series “Mysterious Passion” based on the novel of the same name by Vasily Aksenov.
Volchek passed away on December 26, 2019 at the age of 86.