MOSCOW, 16 December. /Corr. TASS Olga Svistunova/. "Big Tours" in 2016 took place in almost a hundred cities in 45 regions of Russia, where about 315 thousand spectators saw the performances of 27 largest Russian and seven foreign Russian-language theaters. Summing up the results of the outgoing year, he cited such statistics in an interview with TASS on Friday. CEO Federal Center for Support of Touring Activities Anton Prokhorov.
large-scale project
"Big tour" - one of the most large-scale projects Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, supervised by the Federal Center for Support of Touring Activities," Prokhorov said. He recalled that the Center he headed was established in 2014.
"Over the three years of operation, the Center has managed to restore cultural ties between the center of Russia and the regions, to intensify the touring activities of Russian theaters and to establish cultural ties with Russian theaters abroad. In total, 90% of Russian regions have been included in the Big Tour program over the years, which are held at affordable prices for the region, and the collection from ticket sales remains with the host theater," the source said.
Leading drama and musical theaters and puppet theatres. The priority areas of the Center's work are still theater tours in remote and subsidized regions, which are not able to afford tours of famous theater groups, Prokhorov noted.
The geography of the "Big Tour" stretches from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, from Sevastopol to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The uniqueness of the project is also in the fact that it necessarily includes tours of children's performances, which are not very profitable for commercial distributors for financial reasons, as well as special programs that include master classes and seminars for professionals, creative meetings of directors and artists with the audience. This year, as part of a special program, 53 such events took place, the general director of the Federal Center for Support of Touring Activities stated.
From Kaliningrad to Vladivostok
"Big tour - 2016" began on April 21 and ended on December 16. Drama, musical theaters and puppet theaters took part in them, showing more than 300 performances in almost a hundred cities in 45 regions of Russia.
So, the Russian Youth Theater traveled through the cities Far East. Theater "Satyricon" visited Perm and Kudymkar, the Theater named after F. Volkov performed in Magadan, Makhachkala, Vladikavkaz, Cherkessk and Stavropol. The Vakhtangov Theater showed 13 performances in Ufa, the School Theater visited Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky modern play", the Puppet Theater named after Obraztsov toured in Tyumen and Surgut, in three regions Central Russia made a tour of the Moscow Art Theatre. Chekhov, listed Prokhorov.
The performances of the Alexandrinsky Theater went on for seven days in Ulyanovsk, he continued. Opera troupes also toured - the Pokrovsky Theater in the Republic of Crimea, and New Opera in Astrakhan. As part of the foreign program, the Donetsk theater "Donbass Opera" visited Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don.
Theater without borders
According to the head of the Federal Touring Support Center, the foreign program deserves special attention.
"This year, 11 theaters became participants in the program. Seven foreign Russian theaters, which showed 70 performances in 27 cities of 20 regions of Russia, and 4 Russian ones, whose tours took place in four states," Prokhorov specified.
According to him, the tours of the Yerevan Russian Theater in Novosibirsk, Barnaul and Kemerovo, the Minsk National Academic drama theater them. M. Gorky in Chelyabinsk, Kurgan and Magnitogorsk, and the Griboyedov Tbilisi Theater triumphantly traveled around five regions of Central Russia.
"The effectiveness and importance of this direction of the Center's activity can hardly be overestimated, - its head believes. - Tours of Russian foreign theaters in the regions of Russia give artists a unique opportunity for direct contact with modern Russian audiences and the opportunity to immerse themselves in the language environment, not to mention the joy of creative and human communication with colleagues".
On the other hand, according to Prokhorov, Russian theaters they go to neighboring countries where they have not been for many years. For example, the last tour of the Maly Theater in Tashkent took place half a century ago.
"Big Tours" are very necessary, - Prokhorov is convinced. - The program for 2017 is already being drawn up, moreover, there are plans and applications from the regions for 2018. The program is becoming more and more popular, and, perhaps, very soon the "Big Tour" will be held in every region of Russia."
Funding will not decrease
In turn, Deputy Minister of Culture Alexander Zhuravsky noted that the amount of funding for the "Big Tours" program of the Federal Center for Support of Touring Activities next year will not only not be reduced, but may even be increased. In 2016, the total budget of the project amounted to about 350 million rubles.
"We do not expect a reduction. We'll see how much the increase will be. Now the maximum financial limits will reach us, we will understand our capabilities. But we will definitely not reduce the presence of a good theatrical offer in the regions," Zhuravsky said.
According to him, the total budget of the project this year amounted to about 350 million rubles. "This year, more than 270 million rubles were allocated from the federal budget for these projects and another 70-80 million (we have not yet summed up) from the funds of subjects, municipalities that provide theater venues for free and finance travel and accommodation on the territory of the screening cities. That is, in general, the budget of this project is in the region of 340-350 million rubles," the deputy minister said.