The Council of Experts of the National Theater Award and the Golden Mask Festival nominated performances of the Alexandrinsky Theater “The Marriage” by N. Gogol and “The Seagull” by A. Chekhov for the 2009 Awards in the nomination of “The Best Drama Performance / the Big Form.” Valery Fokin and Krystian Lupa were named in the nomination of “The Best Director’s Work.” Among nominees were also named Alexander Borovsky for “The Best Artist’s Work” for his scenography of “The Marriage.”

On November 23, 2008, People’s Artist of Russia Victor Smirnov celebrated his creative jubilee: 25 years of his career at the Alexandrinsky Theater. Victor Smirnov came to the Pushkin Drama Theater already an experienced master, the premier of the Penza Regional Drama Theater named after A.V. Lunacharsky. In his 10 years there, he had played more than 40 roles. His first role at the Pushkin Theater was Yemelyan Pugachev in the legendary Rostislav Goryayev’s performance “The Captain’s Daughter” after A. Pushkin (1984). This work brought the well-deserved success to the actor and placed him into the leading group of the theater’s actors. Smirnov had played a whole variety of characters in the past years.

Yesterday, November 17, 2008, under the frames of the program of “Formation of the youth audience and cultural theater media” a convesazione with Distinguished Artist of Russia Tatyana Kuznetsova took place at the Economic Department of St. Petersburg State University. She performed a one-man show “Dreams of Petersburg. A Monologue,” created after Klim’s play “She Is Me, Not Me, and She.” For inexperienced public this performance could look extremely unusual. The actress was pronouncing the post-mortem monologue of Nastasya Filippovna, the fatal heroine of F. Dostoyevsky’s novel “Idiot.” There is no such text, nor could it be, in the novel. It was created by Klim (Vladimir Klimenko), a dramaturge and director, poet and theater theoretician, and a cult theater figure of the 1990s.

The first night of an Andrey Moguchy performance “Gardeners” by Maxim Isayev will take place tomorrow, October 28, 2008 on the Smaller Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater. This is a joint project of the Alexandrinsky Theater, the Formal Theater and the Russian AXE Engineering Theater. The play proceeds at a certain Internet-forum where various issues of personal land plots are discussed. Such notions as "soil acidity," "manure," "earthworms," and "cherry orchards" are equal here and are present with just a “comma” between them. But for the forum participants, the gardening topic is only an excuse to get into this dispute.

Stanislavsky Season Theater Festival has started in Moscow. New laureates of the Stanislavsky Award were announced on the day of the opening. Valery Fokin was honored with Stanislavsky Award “For Resurrection of the Alexandrinsky Theater;” Artist Alexandr Borovsky, author of the scenography and costumes for the Alexandrinsky performances of Valery Fokin (“The Inspector General,” “The Double,” “The Living Corpse” and “The Marriage”) and actress Marina Ignatova, who played roles in the performances “The Living Corpse” and “The Seagull” were also named as the award laureates.

Opening of the “Gogol’s Themes” exhibit will take place in the 4^th Circle of the Alexandrinsky Theater on October 27, 2008 at 6 p.m. The exhibit will show works of students and graduates of the Graphics Department of the St. Petersburg Repin State Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture: more than 50 illustrations of N. Gogol’s writings made in the techniques of eau forte, aquarelle, linoleum engraving, and lithography made at various times – from the 1960s and up to the 2000s.

Today, October 22, 2008, a press-conference took place at the Interfax News Agency (#30 Nevsky Ave.) where the 18th International Baltiysky Dom Festival results were announced: the Leonid Popov Press Award was given to the Valery Fokin performance "The Marriage."

Victor SEMENOVSKY will celebrate his 65^th birthday on October 19, 2008. Practically the entire creative career of the actor was connected with the Pushkin Drama Theater. Semenovsky came here in 1969, two years after graduation from the Leningrad theater institute. In the years of his work at the theater the actor played more than 70 roles. Presently, he is engaged in the “Double” after Fedor Dostoyevsky (the role of Bureaucrat, 2005) and “The Ivans” after the novel “How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” and other stories by N. Gogol (the role of the Other Ivan Ivanovich, 2007).

Yesterday, October 13, 2008, a conversazione with Distinguished Artist of Russia Igor Volkov took place at the auditorium of the Russian Museum (Mikhailovsky Castle). He performed a one-man-show “A Jolly Cemetery” after A. Chekhov’s writings.

The Fifth Anniversary Theater Cobweb Festival will take place in St. Petersburg on October 14-25, 2008. It will start on October 14 at 5:30 p.m. with a Theater Cobweb Internet television bridge between the Alexandrinsky Theater (St. Petersburg) and Peter Fomenko’s Master Shop (Moscow). It will provide with an opportunity to see in real time a Peter Fomenko Master Shop’s performance «A Fortuneless Girl” by A. Ostrovsky. Translation will be carried out in the format of high precision (HDTV). The Festival will conclude on October 25 with demonstration of Valery Fokin’s performance “The Marriage” by N. Gogol. The full festival program you can see in the direct translations on the web site http://www.cultu.ru/.