The All-Russian tour and concert plan of the Russian Ministry of Culture aims to revitalize the country’s unified tour system. Moreover, it is implemented not only throughout the Russian Federation, but also in neighboring countries. It includes two large-scale federal programs – “Grand Tours”, which includes theatrical tours, and “We are Russia”, which are national group tours.
Thus, a total of nearly 500 applications were received for participation in the “Grand Tour” program in 2023. As a result of the election, 260 different theaters participated. These included the country’s leading theaters and interregional, children’s, youth, student and non-state (private) theatres. This year, eight foreign theaters from Belarus, Abkhazia, Armenia, South Ossetia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan also participated in the program. A total of 1,661 performances were held in 82 regions of the country, in 142 cities and towns from Kaliningrad to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk – almost 509 thousand spectators watched the “Grand Tour” performances.
“Of course, touring means a new audience, new working conditions, and this is very important. You meet a different audience, you feel a new atmosphere, a new life situation. The performance we bring is one, but each time it imperceptibly deforms within some living limits depending on the audience that comes to the hall. “If we are talking about another country, the viewer brings their own mood, goals, destiny, the common fate of Russian-speaking people,” said Konstantin Raikin, artistic director of the Russian State Theater “Satyricon”, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation. He talked about the importance of tours in the cultural life of the country.
Some theater teams traveled thousands of kilometers across the country to show their performances to audiences. Thus, one of the record holders of this year’s “Grand Tour” became the Moscow theater “Et cetera” under the direction of Alexander Kalyagin. His team managed to visit Lugansk, Kazan, Magadan and Kamchatka, covering approximately 7,000 km to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and 6,000 km to Magadan. The group performed in these cities for the first time.
“Participating in the Big Tour program is both more prestigious and more responsible for theatre. The theater becomes part of the state’s tour policy, developed intelligently and correctly. The leaders of the “Grand Tour”, who know the repertoire and artistic level of each theater, think where and which region is better for them to go; where it will be in demand, where it will be welcomed and where it will be successful. Therefore, of course, it is better to go as part of the “Grand Tour” program, you are more confident in every sense,” said Alexander Kalyagin, artistic director of the Moscow Et Cetera Theater and People’s Artist of the Russian Federation.
There were many new theaters among those participating in the “Grand Tour” this year. Thus, for the first time, the Berezniki Drama Theater from the city of Berezniki in the Perm Region participated in the program in an interregional direction. For children and young people – Nizhny Novgorod Youth Theater named after Mytishchi Puppet Theater “Ognivo”. S. Zhelezkina and the Krasnodar Regional Puppet Theater. As for the direction of supporting the touring activities of non-state (private) theaters, the program included the Tuki-Luki Puppet Theater from Perm, Oda Drama Theater from Vologda, Fora Dance Theater and Sreda Creative from Yekaterinburg. From Moscow to Central and St. Theater Workshop “ASB” from St. Petersburg. Moscow State Institute of Culture participated for the first time in the student direction.
Benefits for everyone
In general, only positive reviews were heard about the project. “Grand tours” give many opportunities and bright positive emotions to both spectators and players:
“Grand Tours” gives us players the joy of meeting new audiences. And this is a special responsibility; In every new city, audiences see our performances for the first time, they are not yet familiar with the aesthetics of our theater, and our task is to make the audience an ally from the first seconds, introducing them to our world. And if Muscovites can choose the time of their march, then the residents of the cities to which we came on the “Grand Tour” only now have the chance. “The more performances come to other cities under this program, the more people come to the theaters, but this is very important and necessary: to organize meetings of various groups with the audience,” emphasized the Moscow Art Theater actor. M. Gorky Alisa Grebenshchikova.
People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, artistic director of the Moscow Provincial Drama Theater Sergei Bezrukov agrees with him:
“It is very important for the theater to tour so that the shows are enjoyed not only by audiences who are regular fans of our theatre, but also by other audiences you may not yet be familiar with. This is necessary for the development of theater. For artists, meeting a new audience is like a first meeting: The same excitement, the same expectation, the same anticipation… These are new emphases, impressions and “reactions”. Additionally, tours always mean meeting cultural figures and administrators of the city the theater is touring. All this contributes to the creative development of theater in general and of each artist in particular. Therefore, we would like to thank ROSCONCERT and the “Grand Tours” program for giving us the opportunity to tour the regions where large, large-scale productions take place. Our theater toured various parts of the country, from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, thanks to the “Grand Tour” program.”
Make room for national teams
The program “We are Russia” is also very popular. 110 applications were received to participate in 2023. As a result, 52 creative groups performed in 235 cities and towns in 81 regions of the country; Some participants even went on various tours. The performances of the participants in the program “We are Russia” were watched by about 191 thousand spectators. Participants gave 398 concerts in total.
“Participation in the all-Russian tour and concert plan is a lucky ticket not only for our team, but also for all groups of our large and multinational country. Thanks to the “We are Russia” program, we preserve and develop the intangible cultural heritage of our great homeland. “Audiences get acquainted with a variety of concert programs and performances, including national features of choral and dance music of a particular region of the country,” shared Marina Kuklina, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, Director of Moscow State Academic Dance Theater “Gzhel”.
This year, 18 new groups joined the program. These are the Adygea State Folk Song and Dance Ensemble “Islamey” from Maykop and the eponymous State Vocal and Choreographic Ensemble “Rus”. Firsov from MN Vladimir is named after the State Academic Russian Orchestra. VV St. Andreeva from St. Petersburg, Russian Army Academic Song and Dance Ensemble. HUNTING. Alexandrova and others from Moscow.
“The last year has been very busy and rich in terms of tours and trips. We are grateful to ROSCONCERT and the Russian Ministry of Culture for their assistance in organizing the tour. We visited Yoshkar-Ola, Cheboksary, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl with our game “12”. During the first international tour of the Theater and Cinema Center in Tashkent, our performance opened the Russian Seasons festival of Russian art and culture. Our performance will soon go on tour in Minsk. And wherever and whenever we perform the play “12”, we are met with incredible interest and understanding from the audience! What we talk about concerns everyone, people are missing an honest conversation, and our performance is a realistic and serious conversation about the things that concern everyone today. It is very important and valuable for us how our performance is received by the audience not only in our country, but also in different cities,” said Nikita Mikhalkov, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, artistic director of the Center for Theater and Cinema.