History

Grodno Regional Puppet Theatre is lucky – it can celebrate its Birthdays three times a year: on February 2, on November 1, as well as on November 11.
The date of the first premiere – May 25, is as important and can be considered as the 4th Birthday. But let’s go through it all step by step.

In February 1940 theatre happened was on a tour in Grodno. Vladyslaw Jarema, his wife and their puppet theatre troupe also had been in the city after occupation.

In February 2, 1940 the first professional puppet troupe – Grodno State Puppet Theatre – opened its door with the support of Sergey Obraztsov and under the guidance of Jarema.The war had broken the usual life of the theatre….

«Tarabumba Circus» by V.Liakh became the first premiere of the newly born theatre. Later the repertoire was enriched by the performances «Three Little Sisters» (?),«Mishka –Baravik» («Bear from the Pine Forest»), «Patapych» (the name of the Bear), «Gosling» by N.Gernet. The director of all the staged plays was W.Jarema, the artist – B.Sheskin, the puppets designer – Z.Lyasnewskaya. The last first performance of the collective – «Alladin’s Magic Lamp» by N.Gernet –was created with the help of S.Obraztsov and the artist B.Tuzlukaw. The life of V.Jarema’s theatre didn’t last long – because of the war…

After the end of the war, V. Yarema returned to Poland, where he created the Krakow Puppet Theater. The puppet theater in Grodno led a semi-professional existence at the City House of Creativity until November 1, 1980, when, by decision of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee, the Grodno Regional Puppet Theater was officially established. The theater was headed by a graduate of the Leningrad Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema named after N. Cherkasov (now the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts), director Sergei Yurkevich and the oldest artist of the Belarusian puppet theater Leonid Bykov. The troupe was formed from graduates of the Belarusian State Theater and Art Institute, the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinema. N. Cherkasov and graduates
of the Grodno School of Culture.

«Ludwig and Tutta» was the first performance staged by by S. Yurkevich and ser design by L.Bykov.The audience saw the play on 25,1984.The performances «Vasilisa the Beautiful» by E. Chernyak, «Sinbad the Sailor» by Y. Fridman and V. Shulzhik, «Cinderella» by E. Schwartz have become real classics of the Grodno Puppet Theater, delighting several generations of spectators.

Performances based on the famous fairy tales «Morozko» by M. Shurinova, «Beauty and the Beast» by Leprince de Beaumont, «The Road to Bethlehem» by Sergey Kovalev immediately appealed to both children and parents. Recently, the theater has been interacting with children in different formats.The performances «Baby Santa Claus», «Buka-the Harmful Hare» and «Who Said «Meow? » were highly appreciated by young parents.

Staged in the best traditions of a puppet circus show, «The Incredible Illusion» by Oleg Zhyugzhda was successfully presented at festivals and theater tours in Warsaw, Bialystok, Kwidzin, Tczew (Poland) and at festivals in Minden (Germany), Alytus (Lithuania), Uzhgorod (Ukraine) and Kaliningrad (Russia).

The theater works enthusiastically and fruitfully for an adult audience. The repertoire of the theater includes performances based on plays by W. Shakespeare, A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, Y. Kupala, N. Gogol, S. Kovalev, R. Gary, and others, which received warm recognition not only from the Grodno audience, but also abroad , regularly collecting «harvest» of awards at various international theater festivals.

The play «The Tragedy of Macbeth» by W. Shakespeare directed by O. Zhyugzhda became a real festival leader. It successfully represented the Belarusian theatrical art at more than 11 international festivals in 6 countries and collected 14 diplomas and awards coast of the Atlantic to Sakhalin.

In 2012, the theater team with the production of The Queen of Spades won the II National Theater Award in four categories: best performance, best performance of the puppet theater, best direction and best female role. The performance, which repeated the success of The Tragedy of Macbeth, became the hallmark of the theater and collected many awards at international theater festivals, including the Grand Prix of the VIII International Festival of Puppet Theater Spectaculo Interese in Ostrava (2011), the VI International Festival of Puppet Theater «Petrushka Veliky» in Yekaterinburg (2012), the International Theater Festival «Vasara» in Druskininkai (2013), the International Theater Festival of chamber and solo performances «LUDI» in Oryol and the IV International Festival «Straw Lark» named after V.A. Volkhovsky in Chelyabinsk (2014), IV International Festival of Puppet Theaters «Visiting Harlequin» in Omsk (2015).

Only in recent years the theater has been on tour and festivals in Poland (Torun, Lomza, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Bialystok, Lublin), Russia (Ryazan, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Omsk, Tomsk, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk) , Ukraine (Uzhgorod, Lvov, Dnipro), Croatia (Zagreb), France (Limouges, Lussere), Germany (Minden), Lithuania (Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevezys, Alytus), Czech Republic (Prague, Ostrava), Hungary (Pecs), Romania (Alba Julia), Serbia (Subotica).

In the posters of these festivals, the performances of the Grodno Regional Puppet Theater coexisted with the performances of K. Ginkas, E. Nekroshus, P. Bruk, R. Viktyuk.

The creative team of the theatre was twice (2003 and 2014) has two special awards of the President of the Republic of Belarus to cultural and art workers «For contribution to the development of international cultural relation».

The theater has in its repertoire more than 35 performances. All members of the theatre work enthusiastically and effectively for an adult audience too.
Various systems of puppets, masks, moving parts of costumes and scenery, the work of actors in a dramatic way are used in our performance as expressive means of a modern theatre.

In the period 2011-2012 he theater underwent a large-scale reconstruction and technical re-equipment. The theater has a chamber hall for about 70 seats,
a theater cafe «Shakespeare» and a museum.