Uzbek Drama Theater

(full name, Khamza Uzbek Academic Drama Theater), a theater in Tashkent. The history of the theater dates to the founding of the K. Marx Uzbek Theater Company in Tashkent in 1919; the company was reorganized as the Model Regional Drama Company under the direction of M. Uigur in 1920. In 1925 the company moved to Samarkand and merged with the Kokand Theater, becoming known as the Central State Theater Company. In 1927 graduates of the Uzbek drama studios of Moscow and Baku joined the company. In 1929 the company was reorganized as the State Uzbek Drama Theater. The theater has been located in Tashkent since 1931. In that year it was named in honor of Khamza, and in 1933 it was designated an academic theater.

The theater has staged Khamza’s Landowner and Farmhand (1920, 1939), Schiller’s Love and Intrigue (1921), Gogol’s The Inspector-General (1925, 1935, 1952), Khurshid’s Färhad and Shirin (1926, after the work by A. Navoi), Izmailov’s Two Communists (1929) and Rustam (1934), Fatkhulin’s The Mask Is Ripped Off (1932), lashen’s Honor and Love (1936), Ivanov’s Armored ’Train 14-69 (1929), and Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1935, 1939, 1940) and Othello (1941). lashen’s Death to the Occupiers and Alimdzhan’s Mukanna were staged during the Great Patriotic War (1941-45).

The theater has developed heroic and romantic traditions closely related to Uzbek art in its profound and interestingly staged plays. Its repertoire has included Uigun and Sultanov’s Alisher Navoi (1945, 1948), Lavrenev’s For Those in the Sea! (1947), Safarov’s The Dawn of the East (1951), Kakhkhar’s Silk Siuzane (1952), Daughter of the Ganges (1956, after a work by Tagore), Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1958), Uigun’s Khuriiat (1958), Sultanov’s People With Faith (1960), Sheikhzade’s Mirza Ulug Beg (1961), My Little Poplar in the Red Kerchief (1964, after a work by Aitmatov), Azimov’s Bloody Mirage (1964), Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex (1969), Uigun’s Biruni (1973), and Hauptmann’s Before Sunset (1974).

The role of V. I. Lenin has been interpreted by the actors S. Tabibullaev, Sh. Burkhanov, and Z. Mukhamedzhanov in Pogodin’s Man With a Gun (1940) and The Kremlin Chimes (1947), Popov’s Family (1952), and lashen’s Guiding Star (1957) and Dawn of the Revolution (1973).

M. Uigur, the founder of the theater and its artistic director until 1950, made a great contribution to the company’s artistic development, as have the actors and directors Ia. Babadzhanov, A. Khidoiatov, M. Karieva, M. Mirakilov, L. Nazrullaev, M. A. Kuznetsova, A. Dzhalilov, and Sh. Kaiumov and the stage designer Kh. Ikramov. The theater has been headed by A. O. Ginzburg (1951-58, 1960-65, 1970-73) and T. Khodzhaev (1958-60, 1966-70).

As of 1976, the company included People’s Artists of the USSR Sh. Burkhanov, S. Ishanturaeva, N. Rakhimov, and A. Khodzhaev and People’s Artists of the Uzbek SSR S. Alimov, T. Azizov, Ia. Abdullaeva, G. Agzamov, I. Boltaeva, Z. Mukhamedzhanov, Kh. Latypov, Z. Sadrieva, T. Sultanova, A. Turdyev, S. Tabibullaev, Z. Khidoiatova, K. Khodzhaev, and M. lusupov. B. luldashev has been principal stage director since 1975.

The Uzbek Drama Theater has been awarded the Order of Lenin (1937).