Veliky Novgorod will host the 17th International Theater Kingfestival from 21 to 25 April 2023. The festival will be held with the support of the Government of Novgorod region, the Administration of Veliky Novgorod, the Theatre Union of the Russian Federation, Russian Center ASSITEJ and Novgorod Theater for children and youth “Mali”.
The festival program this year includes 10 performances from 4 countries of the world. Russian participants are St. Petersburg Academic theatre named after Lensovet that will perform “Marshak-Marshak” directed by Maria Romanova, Saint Petersburg KUKFO theatre that will present “Waffle Heart” directed by Anna Victorova, Moscow Regional State Puppet Theatre will perform “Petrograd District’s Moiras” directed by Alexandra Lovyannikova, State Puppet Theatre of the Republic of Karelia (Petrozavodsk) will present two performances “The Orchard” directed by Alexander Yanushekevich and “Moidodyr” directed by Lyudmila Fedorova, St. Petersburg Theatre “Open Space” will perform “Romeo and Juliet” directed by Ruzanna Movsesyan, Novgorod Theater for children and youth “Mali” will present “Medea” directed by Nadezhda Alekseeva. Brest Puppet Theatre, the Honored Collective of the Republic of Belarus will show “Kholsomer/Horse Story” directed by Ruslan Kudashov.
The festival will continue introducing foreign performances by the means of online broadcasting. This year, a special place at the festival is taken by the Brazilian theater – Projeto Gompa from Portu-Alerge (Brazil) will open the festival with the play “Frankinh@ – A story in little pieces” based on the the horror classics by Mary Shelley. China National Theatre for Children from Beijing will finish the festival performances with the play “Sandpiper, Clam and Fish”, a vivid folk story inspired by pantomime and movement theatre. All online broadcasts of the performances will be free for the audience and will be held online at www.kingfestival.ru.
The Brazilian theater occupies a special place at the festival this year. In addition to the performance presentation, the festival and the Russian Center ASSITEJ open the exhibition “Theatrical Poster from Brazil”. Previous festivals have demonstrated the art of theatrical posters from France, Poland, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden. This year, together with the National Center ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) Brazil, the festival will host a presentation of Brazilian artists at the exhibition “Theatrical Poster from Brazil”. More than 20 posters of theaters for children and youth and theater festivals from Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, São Paulo will show the spectrum of modern productions and projects of the Brazilian theater. The organizers note that such exhibitions allow you to see the visual range, the variety of art forms, the names of performances and a special artistic look at the theater for children of modern Brazil. The audience of festival performances will be able to see the exhibition for free in the foyer of Novgorod Theater “Mali”.
This year festival performances will be held on the stage of Novgorod Theatre for children and youth “Mali” and in the Novgorod Regional Philharmonic Hall, as well as online at www.kingfestival.ru.
The festival keeps developing the “Lecture Hall” special program, aimed at educational meetings and introducing modern theater to the young audience. This year the “Lecture Hall” program includes seven lectures held in different city locations. Lectures with theater critics (Elena Gorfunkel, Alexey Goncharenko, Anna Kazarina), festival producers (Arthur Ghukasyan, president of the “HIGH FEST” Festival, Armenia), theater journalists and writers (Katerina Antonova, the “Nedorosl” portal), the creators of performances Ruzanna Movsesyan and Alla Danishevskaya (St. Petersburg Theatre “Open Space” will present the book-theatre
“Romeo and Juliet”) are planned. The writer Nina Dashevskaya (author of the books “I’m Not Slow”, “Willie”, “Theo is a Theater Captain”) will hold a workshop on writing skills for children.
The festival events will be daily discussed online within the “Festival Talk” discussion club which will be live streamed on VK. Theater critics Yulia Kleiman, Natalya Efendieva, Elena Gorfunkel, Sergey Kozlov will talk about the trends of contemporary theater for young audience and share their impressions of what they saw at the festival. The theater students at Russian State Institute of Performing Arts will also take part in online discussions.
International Theater Kingfestival has been engaged in topical theater for a young audience since 1992 and is one of the most significant cultural events in Veliky Novgorod, one of the oldest festivals for children and youth in Russia. The festival is organized every two years by the Novgorod Theater for children and youth “Mali” and its artistic director Nadezhda Alekseeva.
When creating the program, Kingfestival strives to present the richness and diversity of forms of modern theater to the young audience, to show the best performances that educate humanism and humanity. The International Theater Kingfestival gathers drama productions and modern dance, puppet theater and object theater, visual theater from Russia, Europe and Asia.
INTERNATIONAL THEATRE KINGFESTIVAL
Velikiy Novgorod, Russia
THE FOUNDERS OF FESTIVAL:
Novgorod Region Goverment
Theatre Union of the Russian Federation
Administration of Velikiy Novgorod
Russian national center of ASSITEJ
Novgorod Theatre for children and youth “Mali”
THE PARTNERS OF FESTIVAL:
Novgorod State University named after Yaroslav The Wise
Tourist Office in Velikiy Novgorod “Red Izba”
Library Center «Chitay Gorod»
We are happy to announce official video of fiuture 17 International Theatre Kingfestival, welcome to Velikiy Novgorod 21-25 April 2023!
EXHIBITION «THEATRE PLAYBILL OF BRAZIL»
Theatrical poster belongs to the art of a theatre. This is a kind of a mirror of the performance, its mood and message, with which the theatre goes to the viewer at the moment of their first acquaintance. Even before the premiere, these «letters» to the spectator create the image of the future performance, grant the viewer an imagination about the upcoming meeting with the theater.
Today, due to the development of new digital technologies, when everything can be immediately posted on the Internet and social networks, the traditions of a printed theatre poster are going to the past from the streets and poster-display cabinets. Our exhibition tries to support the culture of this theatrical form.
Presenting theatrical posters of different countries (in different years these were posters of Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, France, Sweden) at each festival, we thus become acquainted not only with the repertoire variety of posters of theatres, but also with the variety of artistic dialogue between the theatre and the audience at the moment of the first meeting of the premiere and the viewer. A new exhibition is a mix of theatrical illusions and messages, an attempt by the theatre to save its face in the motley world of modern promotional materials.
17 International Theatre Kingfestival presents to your attention the exhibition of the Brazil theatrical posters, kindly provided to the festival by the CBTIJ/ASSITEJ Brasil and its head Cleiton Echeveste.
Huge thanks to Mrs. Bebe de Soares, Vice-President of ASSITEJ for her kind help and coordination of process.
We thank our colleagues from Brazil for the opportunity to get acquainted with the theatrical culture of Brazil, to get a new experience of theatrical promotion to the spectator and to find amazing paper artifacts of the visual image of the plays created by the hands of theatre artists and designers. This year we’ll present more then 20 wonderful works of theatres from Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo, Porto Alegre ets.
The exhibition is open during all the festival days in the foyer of Novgorod Theatre for children and youth “Mali” and is available for all viewers.
