Kaliningrad Theater

(Kaliningrad Oblast Dramatic Theater.)

The Kaliningrad Theater was founded in 1947; its first performance, Simonov’s A Lad From Our Town, took place on November 6 of that year. The theater company was composed mainly of graduates of the A. V. Lunacharskii State Institute of Theatrical Arts, who had studied under I. M. Raevskii. In 1960 the theater moved to a new building designed by the architect P. V. Kukhtenkov. The first performance in the new building was Unbounded Horizons by Virta. The theater’s best productions have included Liubov’ larovaia by Trenev (1952), Vassa Zheleznova by Gorky and Fiery Bridge by Romashov (both 1953), Maria Stuartby Schiller (1954), The Bathhouse by Maya-kovsky (1956), The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov (1958), The Masquerade by Lermontov (1959), Even a Wise Man Stumbles by Ostrovskii and Richard III by Shakespeare (both 1964), The Seagull by Chekhov (1966) Mother Courage and Her Children by Brecht and The Barbarians by Gorky (both 1967), and An Optimistic Tragedy by Vishnevskii (1970). Performances of plays devoted to V. I. Lenin have been of considerable interest, including The Family by Popov (1955), The Kremlin Chimes by Pogodin (1960), and Snow by Chepurin (1970). Among those who have worked at the theater at various times are the actors N. M. Andrievskaia and K. N. Ivanova-Golovko and the directors Z. Ia. Korogodskii, V. K. Danilov, and V. V. Tan. In 1971 the theater company included People’s Artist of the RSFSR and Tadzhik SSR A. V. Miropol’skaia and Honored Artists of the RSFSR A. A. Potapushkina, V. P. Krasnogor, E. F. El’tsov, S. V. Klement’ev, and T. M. Kryman. The head director of the theater since 1968 has been Honored Art Worker of the Ukrainian SSR E. I. Sakharov.