News of theatre

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.