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Revamped Gogol Center set to debut this week
Amidst both criticism and acclaim, Moscow's Gogol Theater is reopening this week as the Gogol Center, offering Moscow audiences a new format that combines theater with contemporary music, film and dance.
Founded in 1925 as a theater for railroad workers, the theater moved to its present location near Kursky Station in 1943. In the Soviet era, it was home to several well-known actors, including Vladimir Samoilov and Boris Chirkov.
But over the past two decades, Gogol kept a low profile in comparison with Moscow's other theaters. According to the city's Department of Culture, it ranked at the bottom in attendance, which averaged 33 percent.
However, the situation began to change last August when modern theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov was appointed artistic director, bringing a new team with him and announcing plans to turn the second-tier theater into a contemporary cultural center.
"The main difference will be that theater is to be our main, but not sole, activity," Alexei Malobrodsky, the Gogol Center's general director, told The Moscow News in an interview.
Now, the overhauled center will produce music projects as well as Gogol Plus, a series of events including discussions, lectures and master classes centered on the creative arts. In March, Malobrodsky said, the center will launch a series of film screenings, mostly focused on art house picks that haven't made it to Russia. Moreover, events will be held before, during and after shows, a move intended to draw audiences earlier and hold their interest after curtain call.
The center is also opening a host of new facilities, including a WiFi-equipped cafe, a bookstore, a reading room and a media library.
But the transition to modernity has been far from smooth. Last fall, the theater's old troupe wrote an open letter protesting the appointment of Serebrennikov, who, as they put it, "called for overthrowing the principles of the Stanislavsky system." The theater's old guard also staged a protest rally on Pushkin Square.
Serebrennikov's team responded by saying that the impending changes were irreversible and that actors and staff who didn't fit with the new format would inevitably have to go. (Afterward, culture department head Sergei Kapkov promised that any actors displeased with the new management would be found positions elsewhere).
The situation grew ugly in December, when Malobrodsky was beaten up while exiting the theater. After the Jan. 17 acid attack against Bolshoi Ballet artistic director Sergei Filin, Serebrennikov told Afisha magazine that he has also been the subject of violent threats. He revealed an anonymous text message he'd received that warned "you're next."
But despite all the controversy, the project has gone ahead as planned, and the inauguration of Gogol Center is expected to be one of the main events on Moscow's cultural map this year.
In a press release, Serebrennikov said the Gogol Center will be "an open space where both experimental works and quite traditional performances will be possible. There will be classical works in unexpected presentations and works based on the best contemporary texts. There will be feature films, new music and striking dramatic and dance performances."
Muscovites will be able to judge the results of the transformation for themselves on Feb. 2 and 3, when the Gogol Center is to open its doors to the public after several months of renovations. The main event is to be a play that was specifically written and produced for the occasion, "00:00."
"00:00" is a joint production of SounDrama, the contemporary dance company Dialogue Dance, Serebrennikov's Sedmaya Studiya and actors from the old Gogol Theater troupe. Concerts by Pianoboy and Khoronko Orchestra will accompany the performances, along with guided public tours of the revamped theater.
For the rest of the season, the center has lined up high-profile theater performances including "Mitina Lyubov" (Mitya's Love), directed by Vladislav Nastavshev, and Sedmaya Studiya's "Otmorozki" (Hoodlums), which collected a Golden Mask award last year. Other shows on the docket include the new Sedmaya Studiya piece "Metamorfozy" (Metamorphoses), directed by David Bobee together with Serebrennikov, and SounDrama's trilogy "Gogol. Vechera" (Gogol. Nights).
The theater is also planning a range of plays based on art-house films. Film director Alexei Mizgirev is to have his theatrical debut with a play based on Luchino Visconti's 1960 movie "Rocco and His Brothers," while Serebrennikov is to offer his rendition of Lars von Trier's 1998 film "The Idiots." Nastavshev is also slated to adapt Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1974 West German film "Fear Eats the Soul."
In March, Dialogue Dance will hold Diversiya, a large contemporary dance festival. Further plans include the staging of the hit Broadway musical "Spring Awakening."
The Gogol Center is also shifting its target demographic. "Based on the issues that the authors of our plays are going to touch upon and their stylistic features, we're mostly going to target young people," Malobrodsky said. He added that ticket prices will average under 1,000 rubles, with cheaper tickets available for students and pensioners.