The Balashov Drama Theater opened in 1918 with the performance of L.N. Tolstoy "The Power of Darkness." In different years, directors and actors worked here: Bityutsky V.S., Balaev A.G., Popov I.S., Tokmakov E.A., Borisova A.G., Aleksandrov L.N., Fomenko V.G., Rudyakov A., Nikitina N.Ya., Kornyukov L.A.
What kind of theater is this? What is the repertoire of the Balashov Drama Theater? Where it is located? It is about the theater and its history that will be discussed in the article.
Background
According to legend, the fugitive peasant Balash settled in the place where the modern city is located. Later, a settlement arose here, which began to be called his name. In 1780, the village of Balashovo became a city in which there were about 60 yards. The urban settlement was expanding, and by 1838 there were already about 230 houses and more than 2, 000 inhabitants, and by 1910 the population was 22 thousand people. Before the revolution, the city was a typical outback.
Mugs, the birth and formation of the theater
Soviet power in the city was established immediately after the Revolution. Numerous creative circles started their activity in the city, on the basis of which in 1918 a nationwide theater was created.
Over the year, after the opening of the theater, more than 20 performances were shown, among them Ostrovsky's “Forest”, Gogol's “The Examiner”, Gorky's “At the Bottom”.
From 1921 to 1922 Over 80 performances were staged. The popularity of the theater was very large, about 250 people attended each performance. The repertoire of the theater and the composition of the troupe were updated annually. Theater life and activities were covered on the pages of the local newspaper Izvestia.
Theater in Soviet times
In the 30s, the form of work in the theater changed dramatically: permanent troupes began to form, which favorably affected his repertoire.
The theater began to leave with its performances in villages, where the main tasks were to agitate the peasants for the best sowing and political work among the population.
In 1934, the theater became the first Interdistrict Collective Farm and State Farm Theater.
The repertoire of the renovated theater included the performances: Kirshon V. “Wonderful rafting”, Bill-Belotserkovsky V. “Life is calling”, Gorky M. “Egor Bulychev”, Furmanova D. “Rebellion”.
A year later, the theater took second place at a republican-scale viewing of collective-farm and state-owned theaters in Moscow.
The work of the theater in the village continued. In addition to performances, sketches and concerts were prepared, at which ditties were performed.
The theater’s repertoire at this time included plays: Afinogenova A. “Far”, Gusev V. “Glory”, Brushtein A. “To Be Continued”, Pogodin N. “Aristocrats”, Gorky M. “The Last”; for children, the works of Schwartz A. "Treasure", Kron A. "Rifle" were delivered.
The theater was very popular with the collective farm audience.
Over three years, more than 700 performances were staged, which were seen by about 250 regular viewers. The theater helped collective farm circles, issued a wall newspaper, every theater visit to the village was a holiday.
The best in the repertoire of the Balashov Drama Theater at that time were considered the performances of such plays: A. Ostrovsky “The truth is good, but happiness is better”, Gorky M. “The Last”, Korneychuk A. “Plato Krechet”, Gusev V. “Glory”, Gorky “Children of the Sun”.
In 1937, the theater became urban.
Before the war, the Balashov Drama Theater staged plays: Prut I. “The Nineteenth Year”, Rakhmanov L. “Restless Old Age”, Tour E. “Full-time”, based on the novel by Virta E. “Earth”, Shkvarkina V.V. “Loneliness” and “Simple Girl”, based on Ostrovsky N.'s novel “How Steel Was Tempered”, A. Ostrovsky “Thunderstorm”, Schiller F. “Cunning and Love”, Gorky M. “Vassa Zheleznova”, Korneychuk A. “Death of the squadron”, Markish P. “Ovadis Family”, VA Naydenova “Children of Vanyushin”, Balzac O. “Stepmother”.
The best performances of the season 1938-1939. The productions of Skiba E.’s play “A Glass of Water” and the novel by Voynich E. “Gadfly” were recognized.
In the season 1940-1941. plays were staged: Gorky M. "The Last", Ostrovsky A.N. “Guilty of no fault”, Devala “The Governess”, Shkvarkina V.V. “Alien Child”, based on the novel by I. Goncharov “Cliff”, Treneva K. “Love of Spring”, Calderon P. “The Invisible Lady”, Ostrovsky A.N. The Last Victim, Nettles K.K. "Who laughs last."
The big event was the production of Gogol's comedy N.V. The Examiner.
Years of war
In the 41st year, a war came to the country, many actors went to the front as volunteers. The war turned the life of the theater on a war footing. The repertoire began to be dominated by military-themed performances; plays were staged: K. Simonova “A guy from our city”, A. Korneychuk “Front”, A. Afinogenova “On the Eve”, Mdivani G. “Honor”, Gorky M. “Egor Bulychev”, Simonova K. “Russian People”, Chekhov A.P. Vaudeville and many others. The time was very difficult, the city was constantly bombed, the theater was not heated, there were problems with electricity, but, despite all the hardships of wartime, it continued to work.
The post-war life of the theater
After the war ended, the theater began to switch to a peaceful lifestyle, which was reflected in its repertoire, works were staged: Mass and Chervinsky “Somewhere in Moscow”, Lavrentev B. “Break”, Naidenov S. “Children of Vanyushin”, Ostrovsky A N. “Poverty is not a vice”, Goldoni K. “Mistress of the hotel”. For the first post-war season, 9 performances were staged, the best of which were Children of Vanyushin.
In 1948, the theater was withdrawn from state subsidies and transferred to cost accounting. The right to independently compose his repertoire was transferred to him, but the Regional Culture Department still claimed it.
The performance “Dowry” by A. Ostrovsky, who put forward the Balashov Drama Theater in first place among the theaters of the region, was very popular among the audience.
In 1957, the theater became regional, having lost the status of regional.
In 1964, a major overhaul of the building was carried out.
About 750 performances have been staged in the theater over its entire history of existence; in different years about 40 actors and directors worked here. The most famous of them: Karataev Alexey, Spelov Victor, Borisova Anna, Bityutsky Veniamin, Yukhnevich Innokenty, Andreev Boris, Radionova Galina.
In 1989, the building was declared damaged, from then until 2017 the theater did not have its own stage.
Theater at the present time
Currently, the theater annually shows more than 280 performances. It is widely known in all areas of the Saratov region.
The theater is headed by Vladimir Popov, Honored Artist of Russia, 23 actors work here.
The theater organizes exhibitions of stage costumes, charity performances. He works with youth; in 2016, the Youth and Theater Forum was held.
At the turn of the 100th anniversary, the theater received its own stage, which it lost in 1989. The stage is equipped with modern technical capabilities. The new theater complex now also has a summer playground.
The opening of the Balashov Drama Theater, a new stage, took place on September 3, 2017. On this day, the premiere of the play "Hanuma".
