One famous Russian theater director, Slava Polunin, said: “You should only work with people who you would want to hug”. This fully applies to our team. We are an incredibly diverse collection of characters representing the whole of Austin’s Russian-speaking community, intimately bound by the shared fascination with theater. Programmers, scientists, teachers, managers, business people - everyone is eager to drive, ride, run to a rehearsal after work, no matter how tired or hungry, sometimes twice a week. This is a miracle! (Jokes aside, we do actually hug each other all the time, to greet or say goodbye).
The Austin Russian Theater was founded several years ago. Our origin is similar to many Russian language theaters in America: it began with a group of parents making performances for their children, so the kids would keep their mother language and cultural heritage. With experience came the desire to try more serious productions, as well as to reach a broader audience interested in Russian theater and culture. Luckily, in 2017, we were joined by a professional theater director. At the same time, a script-writing group emerged from within the troupe that creates original scripts, so every single one of our plays is essentially a Worldwide Premiere.
Fueled by the enthusiasm of the theater crew and with professional guidance, between 2017 and 2022 we have released three New Year’s plays and two Maslenitsa (Slavic Mardi Gras) plays for children. Our first full-length play for grown-ups, “The Meeting Continues, or Fantasies According to Ilf and Petrov” was released in May 2019. It follows the famous satirical writers duo, Ilia Ilf and Eugene Petrov, in 1920’s Russia as they create hilarious characters that are now instantly recognized by any Russan-born person.
Out next big project is "The Complaint Book or Mischief by Anton Chekhov's short stories". Based on characters and stories created by one of the greatest writers in the world the play takes the audience into the world of love which overcoming sadness and despair, teaches about kindness, shares how to achieve happinness, and brings a lot of laughs along the way.
Austin Russian Theater is now known beyond greater Austin area. We have reached a very important milestone on January 11, 2020: we went on our first tour, taking our New Year’s play to Dallas. For us, this is a big achievement - we have proven to ourselves that we are indeed a theater, a coherent and movable creative unit. This experience inspires us a lot and opens up new opportunities for communication. Theater tours keep coming. In addition to New Year's children plays we already brought "The Complaint Book" in front of a Dallas audience and received huge applause and many compliments.
We have extensive plans, there are many ideas, especially after we have acquired the official non-profit status in June 2019. New Year's plays, tours around Texas and beyond, new big production will be coming!