Sergei Makovetsky and Vladimir Tolstoy picked up shovels and set to work.
Photo: Anastasia PLESHAKOV
Artists from Moscow, the head of the Republic of North Ossetia came to the holiday Sergey Menyailoadvisor to the President of the Russian Federation on cultural issues Vladimir Tolstoydirector of the fund for cultural initiatives Roman Karmanov… Not to mention the huge number of guests who witnessed the objections of spiritual bonds in the region, which is especially important. Not everything is the most cultural – Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Theater director Kirill Krok inspires Vakhtangov residents to plant lilacs
Photo: Anastasia PLESHAKOV
The road to this day has been a long one. 40 years ago, in 1983, Moscow Academic Vakhtangov Theater came on tour to Vladikavkaz (then it was Ordzhonikidze). The artists, knowing that this is the hometown of the founding father of their theater, asked to see the house where he was born and raised Evgeny Bogrationovich. In the two-story mansion where the Vakhtangov family once lived, there was a densely populated communal apartment: 13 apartments with amenities on the street. The house was falling apart and was being prepared for demolition. And after learning about this, after the play “Princess Turandot”, People’s Artist of the USSR Yulia Borisova turned to the audience, among whom were the leaders of the city, with a request not to demolish the house. “I conjure you to do everything possible so that the house of Evgeny Vakhtangov does not die,” she asked with her usual emotionality. Julia Konstantinovna.
Irina Kupchenko and Viktor Dobronravov believe that there is nothing better than gardening.
Photo: Anastasia PLESHAKOV
Her words were heard. The house was not demolished and even a memorial plaque was hung on the facade. But no money was given for restoration, and the house continued to collapse.
And a few years ago, the director of the theater took up the idea – to restore Vakhtangov’s house Kirill Krok. And not just to restore, but to make a museum and a cultural center where an art cafe will operate and creative meetings will be held.
Julia Rutberg near her lilac “Cecilia Mansurova”
Photo: Anastasia PLESHAKOV
First, the communal apartments were settled. Then two facade walls were strengthened, the other walls were rebuilt. Following the model of miraculously preserved historical windows and the front door (it is over a hundred years old, and a horseshoe was found under it during restoration – for good luck), the rest of the windows and doors were made in the workshops. They found an old red brick (before the revolution, it was made at the factory of Baron Steingel) and even old tiles … It took 2.5 years to implement the large-scale project.
April 30, 120 years after Evgeny Vakhtangov left his father’s house and went on a journey that led him to Moscow, where he created his own theater from the acting studio, his soul returned to this house again.
“As if I were visiting my own grandfather,” the actress succinctly expressed her impression Maria Aronova after walking through the rooms of the Vakhtangov mansion. It is warm, cozy and very beautiful. – Evgeny Bogrationovich is back at home, and we are visiting him.
Vakhtangov recreated the atmosphere of an old mansion of the 19th century and brought some interior items from the theater. project mastermind Yulia Konstantinovna Borisova I couldn’t come, but I handed over a table from my dressing room.
– This anniversary year is the 140th anniversary of the birth of Yevgeny Vakhtangov. 110 years – his studio, from which our theater was born – it was important for us to return Vakhtangov’s house to Vladikavkaz. And if you look more broadly, then in Moscow and all of Russia, ”the director of the theater Kirill Krok said at the opening.
And then, in a businesslike way, he handed out gloves and shovels to the people’s and honored artists and: “To work, comrades! We will plant lilacs around the founding father’s house. Yevgeny Bogrationovich loved her very much.
The artists broke up in pairs and even figured out for three how best to do it. Sergei Makovetsky paired up with Vladimir Tolstoy. Maria Aronova commanded in the voice of a brigadier Andrey Ilyin: “The pit must be trampled down, tamped down, and the cracks must be hammered in.” All this happened under a torrential almost tropical downpour. The formidable Terek is about to burst its banks. But this did not frighten desperate gardeners. Irina Kupchenko and Viktor Dobronravov. Julia Rutberg named her lilac Cecilia Mansurova and planted her together with her grandson Grisha. While on the corner of the memorial house the Vakhtangov prima Lyudmila Maksakovastanding under an umbrella, inspiredly read Pushkin:
“Not for worldly excitement,
Not for self-interest, not for battles,
We are born to inspire
For sweet sounds and prayers “…
The holiday was a success, Vakhtangov would have been happy. As he said: “There is no holiday, there is no theater.”
And even on the face of the serious head of the Republic of North Ossetia, Sergei Menyailo, a smile shone:
– Thanks to the perseverance of Kirill Krok, all the most difficult issues were resolved, – said Sergey Menyailo. – As a result, a new modern cultural center appeared in our republic. Not just a house-museum, but a living thing where artists will perform. We have not yet fully realized the significance of this event.
Well, Kirill Krok added on his own behalf:
– I am proud of our artists. More than 200 million of the theater’s own funds were spent on restoration. This is money from the sale of tickets in Moscow, from our tours of Russian cities, this is money that a huge theater team and, first of all, of course, artists, earned with their sweat and work. We played performances and sent part of the funds for the restoration of the house of Yevgeny Bogrationovich.
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