... "Good evening, good evening, good evening, dear audience! We are starting an extraordinary concert!"
It seems that the voice of this world's best Entertainer comes from childhood. His sweet, slightly wispy smile, a magnificent glossy bald head and a tight, tightly covered with a snow-white shirt, an outstanding belly are familiar to everyone and anyone who has ever seen this famous act performed by artists of the equally famous puppet theater Sergei Obraztsov. And, perhaps, there will not be a single person who would not at least once in his life dream of being behind the very screen behind which the dolls come to life ... And it all started with a person who did not want to part with his childhood and subsequently became a real Doctor of Puppet Sciences.
The genius of the puppeteer
Sergei Obraztsov was born in Moscow at the very beginning of our century - in 1901, and belonged to those geniuses who tried to humanize this truly “Iron Age”. His friends, acquaintances, associates were: Gordon Craig, Solomon Mikhoels, Charlie Chaplin, Jim Henson, Gerard Philip, Jean-Paul Sartre, teachers - Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. Already being a pop star of the 20s, having conquered hundreds of thousands of spectators with his parody of “romance with dolls”, he founded and headed the Central Puppet Theater, which bears his name today, in 1931.
They say that the theater begins with a hanger, but the Obraztsov Theater begins with ... The Museum of Theater Puppets. Spectators come into it long before the start of the performance and look at the unique collection with interest. The Museum’s foundation date is considered to be September 16, 1937, when the theater broke up with a “vagabond life” and received its own building on Mayakovsky Square, where there was everything necessary for work: an auditorium, workshops, rehearsal rooms, but also a balcony in the hall . Since it is impossible to place spectator seats on the balcony in a puppet theater, otherwise virtuoso work will cease to be a secret for spectators, it was decided to arrange a puppet exhibition on the balcony fenced from the hall.
In 1970, the theater moved to a new building on the Garden Ring - an architectural complex that has become the standard for all stationary puppet theaters in the world (a complex sliding curtain, transforming walls of the hall, allowing the audience to be surrounded by dolls, a “running” sound). And the magnificent metal clock that adorns the facade has become the hallmark of the theater. Every hour, doors in drawer houses around the dial are opened alternately and twelve animals - fairy-tale characters - are greeted with the music “In the garden, in the garden” of spectators and passers-by gathered in front of the theater. Together, animals appear only twice - at noon and at midnight.
The theater, today bearing the title of State Academic and the name of its creator, is known for plays on the themes of Russian folk and foreign tales: "By the Pike Command", "Frost", "Pinocchio", "Mowgli", "Aladdin's Magic Lamp" for children, performances " Don Juan "," Little Tragedies "," Queen of Spades "for adults. In 1946, as a result of the experiment, Obraztsov’s most famous masterpiece appeared, listed in the Guinness Book of Records, the satirical review Unusual Concert, which makes extensive use of the parody capabilities of dolls.
Your way out, entertainer!
He announces the next number and slowly leaves for the screen. Sorry, backstage. He is a Entertainer, on the stage for the umpteenth time an Extraordinary Concert is taking place. And all as always, with one difference - this time the concert takes place within the walls of the famous Dubai shopping center BurJuman. And on the street - summer is in full swing, and the owners in the city are children. And the main event of the summer is the festival "Dubai Summer Surprises".
Artists of the Puppet Theater. Sergei Obraztsov performs in Dubai for the second time, and I must say, “Unusual concert” in their virtuoso performance is enjoyed by children and adults from around the world. Here I want to pause and thank East & West Entertainment, which again organized the tour of the theater troupe in Dubai to the children's festival.
It is interesting to watch the audience. They applaud, laugh and wonder. So weird. Puppet characters beloved from childhood - Shura Murin and Mura Shurina, dancing incendiary tango, soloists of a gypsy choir, Lion trainer, Fakir and his assistant Shakherezada Stepanovna with their unchanged answer to all the questions “I'm ready!”, And the opera Diva mezzo-soprano seems so "their", native, Russian, which seems to foreigners never understand them. But they understand. How do they do it? Maybe thanks to the indefatigable chatter of the Entertainer, who manages to report everything in the world, both in English and Arabic, and now and then shout "Bravo-bravo!" And of course, viewers hardly believe that only eight puppeteer artists “revive” the dolls. But then comes the moment of truth and opens
Biggest Secret
Artists go to the audience with their dolls and ... Tango "encore"! Only now not for, but in front of the screen! It turns out that a pair of dolls "dance" sparkling tango, they need the help of six (!) Puppeteers. And because you have become part of this big secret of the puppet backstage, it becomes surprisingly joyful. At the same time, the feeling does not leave that the dolls are still alive, and the kind hands of the actors only help them to reveal their talent.
The Entertainer himself appears in front of the screen ... in the hands of Roman Bogomolny, Honored Artist of Russia, who has served in the Puppet Theater Sergei Obraztsov for 38 years. He once played the Entertainer in a pair with Zinoviy Gerdt.
Following him, the remaining characters of the performance and puppeteers come out: Honored Artist of Russia Nina Shmelkova, Kirill Sergeyev, Roman Kvashnin, Anatoly Veshchikov, Alexandra Gorbunova, Nikolai Sutarmin. Behind the scenes are sound engineer Eduard Shepshelevich and assemblers Alexander Semushkin and Sergey Emelyanov, as if less noticeable, but, believe me, no less significant participants in the theatrical action. All the actors have been serving at the GAZTK for a very long time. Here I will pause again and thank the artists on behalf of all the spectators. Thanks you. For all. And for the childhood that returned for half an hour, and for the joy of communicating with you and your puppet heroes, and for the holiday brought to hot Dubai from such a native and such distant Moscow ... These are adults playing dolls. Perhaps they are in no hurry to part with childhood, as Sergei Obraztsov once did ...
A curtain
Now that the brilliant puppeteer is no longer with us, his creative heritage, which is a national treasure, is carefully preserved and explored by the Obraztsov Foundation, the founders of which were members of the Obraztsov family, as well as cultural, scientific and business representatives. And on June 1, 2006, in Moscow, at Sadovaya-Samotechnaya 3, the world's first monument was unveiled to the actor, director, writer, screenwriter, in general - puppeteer Sergei Obraztsov, as a gift for the 105th anniversary ... Bravo-bravo!
Text: Elena Olkhovskaya
Photo: Irina Ivanova
The article used materials from the official site of the GAZTK
