The Bakhrushinsky Theater Museum held a seminar for curators of museums and theater archives in St. Petersburg

More than 80 participants from 29 regions of Russia took part in the XII All-Russian seminar “Theater Museum in the Space of Contemporary Culture,” which took place from December 5 to 7 in St. Petersburg. Curators of museums and theater archives from the Altai and Perm territories, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Komi Republics, Dagestan, Tatarstan and many other regions came to the northern capital.

Bakhrushinsky Theater Museum is a Federal scientific and methodological center of the Russian Ministry of Culture for the preservation of national theatrical heritage and work with theater museums. He acts as an integrator, helping institutions with collections of theatrical art to integrate into the domestic and world museum and theater space. The Association of Theater Museums, created on the initiative of the Bakhrushinsky Theater Museum, helps create an educational environment for communication and exchange of experience.

“The Bakhrushinsky Theater Museum unites more than 500 theater museums in Russia and Russian abroad,” says the director of the Bakhrushinsky Theater Museum, Kristina Trubinova. “With the active participation of curators, we managed in a short time to create a unified Russian museum and theater space and conditions for our professional communication. The main goal of the Association that we created is to preserve the unique theatrical heritage of Russia in all the diversity of its genres, as well as the memory of people who served or continue to serve the theater today.”

In 2023, the seminar was held with the support of the Alexandrinsky Theater, one of the founders of the Association. The key theme of the event is “Preservation of theatrical heritage in St. Petersburg: from the era of imperial theaters to the present day.” The largest theaters in St. Petersburg and the Russian Museum hosted guests from Moscow and regional theater museums to exchange experiences. For three days on the New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater. Sun. Meyerhold, in the Russian Museum, Bolshoi Drama Theater. Tovstonogov (BTC), the Lensovet Theater hosted practical classes and scientific and practical conferences. Presentations were made by the director of the Moscow Art Theater Museum Sofya Gracheva, the director of the Bolshoi Theater Museum Lidia Kharina, the head of the department of the Multimedia Center of the Russian Museum Svetlana Biryukova and many others.

The practical lesson took place at the Museum of Russian Drama of the Alexandrinsky Theater. This museum presents a unique collection of the theater, which reflects its history, starting from the era of imperial theaters. Employees of the creative research department conducted a tour, where the famous theater itself was presented as a museum. The seminar participants saw the historical interiors of the Alexandrinsky Theater, visited the imperial box, looked at St. Petersburg from the window of the imperial foyer, visited the set workshops, saw unique furniture, a historical curtain, costumes and other items from the famous play “Masquerade”.

The seminar continued at the Multimedia Center of the Russian Museum. Its director, Svetlana Biryukova, told how museum materials can be used to create “living paintings,” combining the magic of theater and Russian painting. This project was made with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, and the participants were students of Andrei Noskov, a famous theater and film actor, theater director, master of the course at the acting department of St. Petersburg State Institute of Cinematography and Theater. Students acted out “living pictures”, inviting the audience to identify individual scenes from the collection of the Russian Museum. As a result, the static plot of the classic work has become a fascinating story in a modern interpretation.

The topic of student laboratories aroused great interest. The Bakhrushinsky Theater Museum presented a project for a theater laboratory, which will begin work after the opening of the museum quarter. In the building of the former carriage house, rehearsals of the Student Theater of GITIS and VTU will take place. M. S. Shchepkina, master classes, exhibitions, productions of student sketches, inclusive theater festivals.

In the museum of the Bolshoi Drama Theater. G. Tovstonogov’s leader, Veniamin Kaplan, conducted a master class on the exhibition. It was made by artist Mikhail Barkhin and reflects all stages of the theater’s life. The guests visited the memorial office of Georgy Tovstonogov, heard memories of the great director, and visited the dressing rooms of famous BDT artists. These walls keep the autographs of many great people of our era: the artist Marc Chagall, the writer V. Maksimov; artists Laurence Olivier, S. Yursky, M. Vodyanoy, Vs. Tikhonov, O. Basilashvili and hundreds of others.

At the theater. Lensovet guests were received by the head of the museum, Vera Matveeva. It showed the results of restoration in a historical building and the modern exhibition of the theater museum, harmoniously integrated into the historical space.

Summing up the results of the three-day seminar, the head of the department of scientific and methodological work of the Theater Museum. A. A. Bakhrushina Tamara Burlakova noted the importance and significance of the event for the development of theater museums in our country, and therefore the preservation of the history of the entire national theater.

The Bakhrushin Museum is the custodian of the largest theatrical collection in Russia: more than 1.5 million exhibits - these are sketches of costumes and scenery by stage designers, stage costumes of great actors, objects of decorative and applied art, programs and posters for performances, photographs, portraits and rare publications.

The museum complex includes the House-Museum of the founder Alexei Bakhrushin and 12 branches. In Moscow: 3 memorial houses (A. N. Ostrovsky, M. N. Ermolova, M. S. Shchepkin), 5 museum-apartments (Vs. E. Meyerhold, G. S. Ulanova, M. M. Plisetskaya, V. N. Pluchek, the acting family of M. V., A. A. Mironov - A. S. Menaker), the museum-workshop of theater artist D. L. Borovsky and the museum-studio of the Radio Theater. Also, a branch of the museum is located in Zaraysk near Moscow, and another branch will soon open in the Museum Quarter in Tula.

With the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, within the framework of the museum’s comprehensive development program, Russia’s first Museum and Theater Quarter is being created on Paveletskaya.