Obraztsov Central Academic Puppet Theater, which has no analogues in the world, the largest representative of theatrical puppet art, is located in Moscow, on Sadovaya-Samotekhnaya Street, at number 3, near the metro station Tsvetnoy Boulevard.
The founder of the Moscow Puppet Theater is Sergei Vladimirovich Obraztsov, a graduate of the VHUTEMAS art university.
Creating a puppet theater
In 1920, Sergei Obraztsov laid the foundation for theatrical puppet shows, gathering around him a group of like-minded people and craftsmen who can create puppet characters at a high artistic level. So the puppet theater of Sergei Obraztsov appeared. The first performances were in the nature of children's productions on a fairy-tale theme. Then the repertoire of puppet shows expanded, diversity became possible with the advent of new dolls, which he created samples with his assistants. Sometimes the Muscovites brought home-made heroes of the performances, and it happened that friends and actors who came on tour in the USSR brought from abroad. The Obraztsov Puppet Theater was known all over the world, he had many friends and admirers.
People of various professions tried to get into the creative group of the master . The specifics of the puppet theater work requires both technicians to develop kinematic schemes for dolls to move along with, and professional theatrical costume artists, since the "actors" must be dressed in costumes of their time. Portrait painters also had a place in the creative team of the Obraztsov Theater. Many performances required dolls with a characteristic expression, and it was not an easy task to give the character's face an optimal facial mask, suitable for all occasions, for all episodes.
Parodies
By 1930, Sergei Obraztsov gained unprecedented popularity, became a well-known pop artist in Moscow, he managed to create programs in a parody genre called "Romances with Dolls", and later staged several vaudeville performances. Performances were held at random venues, however, the popularity of the puppeteer Obraztsov and his performances grew at a rapid pace.
Theater and professorship
In 1931, in the wake of general interest in puppet shows, Sergei Obraztsov created the Central Puppet Theater in Moscow, which is already operating on an ongoing basis. Sergei Vladimirovich was the director of performances and the artistic director of the theater. In 1949, Obraztsov became director of the Moscow Central Telecommunications Center and remained in this position for 43 years, until his death in 1992.
Puppet Theater Obraztsova is a unique structure that requires constant creative renewal, which is an endless process. Despite the fact that Sergei Obraztsov devoted all his time to the theater, he also managed to work in the cinema, was a screenwriter and director of documentaries. In addition, Sergei Vladimirovich was engaged in pedagogical activities. In 1973, he became a professor at GITIS and taught theater art for many years.
Master Achievements
In 1976, Sergei Obraztsov was elected president of the International Union of Puppeteers, and in 1984 became his honorary president. Since 1955, Obraztsov was a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the city of Berlin.
Among other things, Sergey Vladimirovich for his fruitful life has collected a unique collection of exotic dolls, which he found in different parts of the world.
Relocation
In 1970, the Obraztsov Puppet Theater received a new building on Sadovo-Samotechnaya Street. The new house was successfully matched - a spacious foyer and a large auditorium for the restless children's audience fit perfectly. On the facade of the theater placed the clock of the Obraztsov puppet theater, they are considered one of the most important attractions of Moscow. There are 12 houses around the perimeter of the dial, their doors alternately open every hour, and fairy-tale characters come to life after them . The Obraztsov Puppet Theater (photos are presented in the article) is a diverse children's world, each visit of which is an unforgettable holiday for a child.
Children's repertoire
The Obraztsov Puppet Theater has created more than one hundred and twenty children's performances . And how many times they have been played in 80 years, it is impossible to calculate. The repertoire includes performances for the youngest spectators - these are funny good tales in which there is nothing frightening. There are performances for older children, mostly these are also entertaining stories, but with meaning.
Staff
At present, the troupe of the puppet theater includes 57 actors, three of them are people's artists of the Russian Federation, seventeen are honored. For 37 years - from 1945 to 1982, the theater and film actor Gerdt Zinovy Efimovich worked in the theater (who doesn’t know Panikovsky from the movie "Golden Calf", shot in 1968 from the novel of the same name by Ilf and Petrov?). Zinovy Gerdt played many roles in the Obraztsov Central Exhibition Center, but his star character was entertainer Eduard Aplombov from the play “An Extraordinary Concert”.
The repertoire of the theater has five performances for adults:
- In 1941, the play "The Night Before Christmas" was staged based on the play by E.V. Speransky.
- In 1946 - "Extraordinary Concert" according to the script of Alexander Vvedensky.
- In 1961 - "The Divine Comedy" based on the play of Isidor Stock.
- In 1976 - two performances: "Don Giovanni" - staged by VB Livanova, G.Ya. Bardina, Z.E. Gerdt, as well as "Noah's Ark" according to the script of I.V. Stock.
Performances for adults
The most popular performance for the wise experience of the public is considered "Extraordinary Concert". The Obraztsov Puppet Theater first presented it to the audience in 1946. This is one of the five performances of the repertoire for adults, staged on the play by Alexander Vvedensky "Concert Variety." Initially, the play was adapted for a play for children, the characters in it were animals. Then the performance was staged as a satirical parody for adults, making fun of stereotyped pop singers. This work was very popular. Her fame went not only in the capital, but also in many other cities of the Union.
In 1968, the “Extraordinary Concert” in the new edition was even more successful, was recognized as the best puppet show on a global scale, played about 10 thousand times, due to which it was included in the Guinness Book of Records.
In the play "Divine Comedy", staged in 1961, Zinovy Gerdt played Adam. The author of the play was the dramatist Isidor Stock. The performance of Obraztsov's puppet theater has nothing to do with Dante’s Divine Comedy. The production script was written based on the drawings of Jean Effel's Creation of the World, where God is trying to restore order in paradise, but he does not succeed. Eve and Adam got bored in paradise, they decided to go down to earth. “Let there be nothing to eat down there, but you can do whatever you want,” they thought.
Another adult performance, Don Giovanni, was staged in 1976 as a satirical version of a foreign musical. The authors of the play are the artist-animator G.Ya. Bardin and the famous film actor V.B. Livanov. Few people know that Vasily Livanov - everyone's favorite Sherlock Holmes - is also a talented animator. The production of "Don Juan" is aimed at ridiculing theatrical fashion in art. Sergei Obraztsov always believed that true art cannot follow fashion.
How to understand the incomprehensible
It is characteristic that the play "Don Juan" is played in the language of "gibberish", when the words are mixed in a chaotic sequence, they sound ironic and unpredictable. However, the viewer in some incomprehensible way easily recognizes the meaning of all this gibberish. Creating character dialogues in an incomprehensible language is also a kind of art. The author of the texts for the play "Don Juan" was Zinovy Gerdt.
Simultaneously with Don Juan, the play Noah's Ark was staged according to the script of Isidore Stock. Archangel Michael several times reported to God about the atrocities committed by people on earth. God, in order to restore order, created the Flood, which lasted forty days and forty nights, but before that he had gathered in the wooden ark the animals "all creatures in pairs", the righteous Noah, his wife and three sons and wives. What came of all this, the play tells.
"Moscow, Obraztsov Puppet Theater" - this phrase is familiar to everyone who is interested in theatrical art. The founder still lives in the unforgettable performances created by him for children and adults.