Today marks 95 years since the founding of the Samed Vurgun Russian Drama Theater in Baku. On the eve of the anniversary the theater's artistic director Alexander Sharovsky told Vestnik Kavkaza about the life of one of the most prominent cultural institutions in the capital of Azerbaijan.
As Sharovsky noted in the first place, the theater was created in the 20s for satire and propaganda, and wasvonly later turned into a drama theater." Meyerhold’s pupils worked in this theater, and it was created by Meyerhold’s pupils, and Mikhail Zharov and Faina Ranevskaya worked here in 30s. The theater was headed by some very interesting directors, some great artists and fine actors, who were written in to the history of this theater, were working here,’’ he said.
The artistic director of the theater drew attention to the fact that today it is a cultural center. ‘’We have about 30 performances, we work a lot for children and young people. Traditionally, the Samed Vurgun Theater, in addition to being a theater which people visit, is a cultural center. The performances are based both on the Western classics and on the Russian classics," Alexander Sharovsky said.
Still, all the performances are only in Russian. "It's a matter of principle, because it is the Azerbaijan State Russian Drama Theatre. On May 26th 2008, Dear President Ilham Aliyev, by decree of whom the reconstruction of the main theaters of the country is performed, our theater received him first, came to the opening with his dear wife Mehriban Aliyeva, congratulated our staff and gave me the order ‘Shohrat’. Ilham Heydarovich then addressed the team and said that the Russian theater is forever in Azerbaijan, because if the theater will start to work in another language, then that's another theater. The country has a Russian theater, and it should work only in Russian," the artistic director of the theater said.
For the 95th anniversary, which is not considered a round figure in the theater, they organized a large-scale Russian tour company. "I would like to thank the organizers – the Federal Agency, for the organization of the tours. They have taken the lion's share, in fact, they have taken everything, and organized our tour for the 95th anniversary of the theater. Also, this Federal Agency together with our Ministry of Culture and Tourism is organizing a visit by the great theater of the BDT for our anniversary. Alisa Freundlich and Oleg Basilashvili will play Dostoevsky's ‘Uncle's Dream’. I want to thank the Consulate General of Azerbaijan, the Consul Elshad Gulamov literally did not leave the theater. The date is not generally round so we decided that this time we will congratulate the great actors, and we will welcome them on the day of our birth," Alexander Sharovsky concluded his story about the anniversary of the Samed Vurgun Theater.
