Saratov Dramatic Theater

(full name, K. Marx Saratov Dramatic Theater). Guest artists and amateur groups performed in Saratov in the 1820’s. Dramatic performances were regularly staged after a theater was built in 1865. Such actors as A. P. Lenskii, M. G. Savina, and P. A. Strepetova began their careers on the Saratov stage. The theater was named after K. Marx in 1918.

Early stage directors of the Saratov Dramatic Theater included A. I. Kanin, E. O. Liubimov-Lanskoi, A. F. Lazarev (1930–35), I. A. Slonov (1935–39), I. L. Rostovtsev (1939–41), and A. L. Gripich (1948–51). I. A. Slonov, A. N. Strizhova, V. K. Soboleva, and S. M. Muratov have been among the leading actors of the theater at different times in its history. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, the theater staged such works as Trenev’s Liubov’ Iarovaia (1926), Lavrenev’s Break (1927), Ostrovskii’s Wolves and Sheep (1934), and Gogol’s The Inspector-General (1936).

Stage directors in more recent years have included N. A. Bondarev, V. A. Manchinskii, and N. I. Basin. Among the works staged have been Shatrov’s The Day of Calm (1967), Simonov’s The Russian People (1967), Brecht’s Threepenny Opera (1967), Mayakovsky’s The Bathhouse (1971), a stage adaptation of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot (1971), Agranenko’s There Lives a Woman in the World (1971), Bezuglov and Klarov’s The End of the Khitrov Market (1972), Panova’s Traveling Companions (1972), D’ iarfash’s Awake and Sing (1913), and Dvoretskii’s The Man From Outside (1974). In 1975 the company included People’s Artists of the RSFSR S. I. Brzhevskii, V. A. Ermakova, G. I. Sal’nikov, and Ia. I. Ianin and Honored Artist of the RSFSR D. F. Stepurina.