Brothers united on the same stage.
In the Name of a Legend
The Russian Academic Youth Theater and the State Academic Theater for Children and Youth of Kazakhstan share a significant point in history. The birth of both is tied to the name of a remarkable personality and a delicate, beautiful woman. Indeed, Natalia Sats was the founder of six children's theaters and the first dramatic and musical children's theaters in the world. However, her two creations in Moscow and Almaty emerged from the most fortunate and tragic events of an incredibly interesting and eventful life.
The RAMT evolved from the Children's Theater of the Moscow Soviet, established in 1918 at the initiative of 15-year-old Natasha Sats, who had to persuade the very Narcompros Lunacharsky. With her characteristic energy and determination, she advocated for the Almaty Theater for Young Spectators in the offices of party and Soviet officials after being released from camps – she, the wife of two executed "enemies of the people," was typically sentenced to five years without the right to return to the capital.
The first children's theater in Kazakhstan opened in 1945 with the historical performance "Little Red Riding Hood." Sats worked in Almaty for 13 years and returned to Moscow during the Khrushchev thaw to create her unparalleled masterpiece – the only Musical Children's Theater in the world. Throughout her life, steadfast, passionate, and obsessed, she dedicated herself to two pursuits – serving the arts and children.
About the vibrant life path of the mother of children's theaters worldwide – as Natalia Ilyinichna will henceforth be referred to – through personal tragedies, losses, and triumphs to the greatest and brightest dream, which forever remains embodied in the image of the Blue Bird, in the Almaty Theater for Young Spectators, director Galina Pyanova staged the performance-reconstruction "Sats. Chronicle of One Rehearsal" in the autumn of 2023. The premiere coincided with the 120th anniversary of the founder of the children's theater movement and stunned the pampered Almaty audience.
The artistic canvas seems to be woven from biographical plots, incredible intertwining of fates with epochal events, encounters with giant personalities, and poignant scenes of "small" tragedies of ordinary people. Natalia Sats's destiny was indeed extraordinary, and her talent, indomitable spirit, and dedication made her a legend that her followers – those who today create professional, lively, modern theater for young audiences – will not let be forgotten.
We Need to Meet More Often
The Russian Academic Youth Theater is significantly older than its Almaty counterpart, celebrating its 104th theater season this year. It is even strange that the troupe visited Kazakhstan for the first time. The two ensembles met thanks to the large project "Big Tours," which has been led for ten years by the federal agency of the Russian Federation, "Rosconcert," with the support of the cultural ministries of Kazakhstan and Russia.
– The "Big Tours" program also includes an international direction aimed at supporting Russian theaters in neighboring countries – we also send them with our productions to various regions in Russia. Our task is to maintain cultural dialogue between countries. And of course, for theaters, tours are important both as an exam and a great celebration – they get to know each other, exchange experiences, and forge friendships, – says Yulia Zaitseva, Deputy Head of the Touring Programs Department at "Rosconcert."
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Yulia also shared good news – the State Academic Theater for Children and Youth of Kazakhstan will visit Moscow this autumn with a reciprocal visit, presenting two of its performances on the RAMT stage: the romantic fantasy "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and, of course, the staged biopic "Sats. Chronicle of One Rehearsal." The Almaty Theater faced competition from 450 theater groups from Russia and neighboring countries during the selection process – a record number, according to a representative of "Rosconcert," 254 of which will rightfully receive support from the organization, and quite substantial support at that.
For RAMT, for instance, bringing just two performances from its repertoire to Almaty required three truckloads: props, costumes, decorations, lighting equipment, and sound – practically all theater departments traveled with the artists, allowing the audience to see the performances in their original form.
– We brought everything with us except for the helium for the balloons; that’s local, – clarified the director of the performance "Thomasina," Alexandra Lovyannikova.
Until Better Times
The repertoire for the Kazakhstan tour of RAMT was not formed immediately. As the deputy director of the theater, Kirill Rybkin, admitted, everyone understood how crucial it was to make the first appearance on the Sats Theater stage "show the face." They were eager to bring eventful performances from recent years, including the much-talked-about premiere of Tom Stoppard's play "Leopoldstadt," directed by the theater's longtime artistic director Alexei Borodin.
– However, the choice narrowed due to the technical capabilities of the stage, – explained Kirill Rybkin. – Such eventful performances require special conditions; for instance, "Leopoldstadt" needs a revolving stage. We wouldn’t have been able to present any of Alexei Vladimirovich’s performances. There were even thoughts of postponing the tour until the reconstruction of the TЮЗ was completed, but a compromise solution was eventually found: for the introduction, we brought two good performances. Everything else will come next time.
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Coincidental or not, but the RAMT tour program included two completely different productions – the performance "Thomasina," based on the fairy tale by "American Andersen" Paul Gallico, and the timeless comedy by Alexander Ostrovsky "Our People – We'll Count Ourselves." However, this choice had a particularly thought-out subtext.
In the "children's" story about the friendship between a girl named Mary and the red cat Thomasina and her father – veterinarian Macdui, a man with a broken heart who doesn’t love animals and has a strange love for his daughter, there is much death. But that is not what it’s about. It’s about love that can revive a sleeping cat, disperse a cruel circus, and mend a broken heart. It's about the possibility of correcting any mistake, even a fatal one, and that it’s never too late to change oneself.
In Ostrovsky's play, no one dies at all; on the contrary, they get married, build life plans, and rejoice in their successful dealings, but love is in short supply. There’s calculation, deceit, eternal temptations, and betrayal. The three-hour dramatization of a fictitious bankruptcy from the last century begins to resonate strongly at some point – the vices are all the same, and we are just as we were. The bitter "adult" truth: people do not change.
Without Khryusha and Stepaneshka
In the performance "Thomasina," the distinguished artist of Russia Yuri Grigoryev (the main character in the Soviet comedy "Married Bachelor" and the unforgettable Uncle Yura from the TV show "Good Night, Kids!") does not have a double, unlike other performers in the second cast of the production. He plays a rural priest and, together with the forest witch, pulls veterinarian Macdui out of the swamp of disbelief and resentment toward fate. He does this with such soft, velvety intonations that he captivates even the youngest and most restless viewers with lines full of philosophical meaning.
Colleagues say that Yuri Gerasimovich simply cannot have doubles – he is a master who has served in Alexei Borodin's theater for nearly 50 years, a spiritual and believing person, and simply "because there’s no one else like him who has led 'Good Night, Kids!' for 20 years."
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Uncle Yura is the only member of the RAMT touring troupe who has previously been to Almaty with the "Spokushki" tour: with the inseparable Khryusha and Stepaneshka. Because of this experience, he knows the local audience's peculiarities very well: it amazed him on his first visit and surprised him again on the second. However, the director of "Thomasina," Alexandra Lovyannikova, described this more substantively:
– It was an amazing show. Your children are different from ours. They reacted vigorously in places where our audience does not. For instance, in the scene with the circus, where the trainer tortures the animals, the audience began to buzz ominously, and one of the actors confessed that he was waiting for the viewers to go fight the villain. This has never happened at performances in Moscow. Surely, the audience thinks the same way there, but they don’t react as strongly. We staged our performance for such emotions.
The curtain call was also distinctly Almaty. Young viewers rushed to the stage with chocolates and candies, so soon the actress playing the cat Thomasina, Evgenia Beloborodova, resembled a "robber from a candy supermarket." For their sincerity and openness, the visiting actors truly appreciate the Kazakh audience. Meanwhile, "Rosconcert" promises new tours from other