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Archangelsk Youth Theatre, Russia
Director Viktor Panov

This ancient, northern Russian city, founded five centuries ago, was always home to daring, enterprising and brave people. Many famous sea expeditions were launched from the Arkhangelsk port to explore the polar region. Even today, fisher­men go to the edge of the Arctic Ocean during fishing season. Viktor Panov, who founded the theater in 1975, has become a local attraction himself (any taxi driver can tell you all about him). He has completed his journey. He not only created his theater but was one of the first to take it to the streets. The repertoire of the Youth Theater includes plays that can be played inside as well as on the street: Don’t Love - Don’t Listen, based on the works of northern writers S. Pisakhov and B. Shergin, plays based on the stories of S. Pisakhov The Tsar’s Arrived, and Bolero, which was performed at the Olympics.

Viktor Panov has organized an international festival, including street theaters, which has been in existence since 1988. The Youth Theater has also participated in many festivals both at home and abroad. Being open is the principal of the theater, welcoming both the opportunity to tour and the chance to receive guests, including directors from Moscow and other countries. Bolero (1996) has been performed at various festivals, including Avignon (off program).

Ravel's music defines the structure of the spectacle. The creators of the play hold dear the thoughts of poet Andrei Voznesensky, who says that all successes of man are fruitless if the fate of man is under threat of death.

We can see poor and fallen humanity, the pitiful crowd beneath the boot of a grotesque tyranny.
White, anonymous silhouettes...cross-crossing, not noticing one another...Evil appears, in all its metaphysical horror. A terrifying giant lights a fire, and the king­dom is destroyed. All the while, Ravel's 'Bolero' continues imperturbably toward crescendo...
There is something deeply stunning in all of this. To hear it, one must overcome all one's self defense and fully engage in the atmosphere, try, without uttering a single word, to recognize our human species, our brotherhood, turned to dust, far from all individuality and comforting visions of existence.
Lе Provencal
June 22,23,24
Hermitage Garden