Samvel Muzhikyan wrote:
"Happy Theater Day!
I consider myself a theater actor first and foremost! And only then can I imagine myself as a film actor, a director of a play or a TV series! Theater has been and remains the most important thing in my life. I've given up many things for the sake of theater. I must give the theater its due—it was also kind to me; I acted a lot and felt at home in the profession very early on, starting right away with big roles.
I remember my "stage" teachers with gratitude almost every day, and there have been many of them in my life. But today, I can't imagine my life without the stage—I don't want to act in the theater!
Not long ago, there was the theater of Tovstonogov, Vladimirov, and Akimov in Leningrad-St. Petersburg.
In Moscow, there is the theater of Pluchek, Efremov, Lyubimov, Goncharov, Zakharov, Efros... It was hardly possible to imagine Kopelyan acting with Pluchek or Papanov with Vladimirov!
Every theater had its own character and its own actors!
And as Tovstonogov said: every theater had to have its own morals and ethics!
But now theater is formulaic, circus-like, pretentious, brazen, boring, faceless...
Theater is represented not by the director, but by the manager! Maybe that's for the best.
But the performances at such theaters, in my opinion, are unimaginative and won't last long in the audience's memories.
The only thing that makes me happy about all this is that I lived through a time when I was a small part of a real theater, where there was both a director and actors! And the director was doing his job.
That's what March 27th is like for me, that's what THEATER DAY is like!)
And I, Victor Balabanov, commented:
Samvel, CONGRATULATIONS! You expressed yourself beautifully!!!
The thing is, a little earlier, there was more freedom and human value: there were stage artists who NEEDED TO HELP PEOPLE, GIVE THEM LIGHT AND ROAD, THE MEANING OF LIFE – THE ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE OF A ROLE, A PERFORMANCE, A THEATER! Back then, you could SPEAK OUT, but look what's happening now: theaters ARE CLOSING! The Kirill Serebrennikov and Iosif Raikhelgauz Theaters are closed – theatergoers are being sentenced to prison terms, driven out of the country! Vulgarity, empty comedy, and lack of spirituality!
I recently saw a play by STI ZHENOVACH with a portrait of Stalin, at the end of the war, where not a word is said about Stalin directing the Red Army of the USSR two weeks later, when Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, reaching the western bank of the Vistula River, while Soviet troops occupied the eastern bank of the river, dividing Europe with Hitler—there was even a joint parade of Hitler and Soviet troops in Brest! He also wanted foreign territories, where they took away livestock and sent citizens to Siberia behind bars! They brainwash us, saying that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was about non-aggression, but it was about dividing Europe! I played 10 Molotovs! Yes! Hitler treacherously attacked his ally, but this does not absolve Stalin of guilt for being a short-sighted politician! So he couldn't come to his senses for several days, expecting to be arrested! And it wasn't he, but Vyacheslav Molotov, who announced the start of the war on the radio!
The shortsightedness of politicians... how many completely unnecessary casualties it has brought and continues to bring for ordinary citizens!!! Horrible!
It takes courage, beyond Zalach, to remain sensitive to the problems and aspirations of the majority of people, or even just a person, their value, so that on the theater stage, in people's lives, this becomes and remains paramount!
Samvel Muzhikyan, how glad I am that you and I worked together on Raufzhon Kubaev's series "Working on Mistakes" (working title "Crazy Fate"), where you played the "right-hand man" of my character, the authority figure Stary! And there you also played Chapaev, and my character played Lenin! By the way, my first Lenin was in 2010, in the film "Battle of Warsaw. 1920" by maestro Jerzy Hoffman. Lenin sends the Red Army to conquer "Poland, Germany... the whole world!" But the Poles—Pilsudski—stopped Tukhachevsky—the Red Army! We love "dancing on a rake," forgetting that it hits us in the forehead!
Happy Theater Day to all of you: "All the world's a stage! And the people in it are actors!" Some of them are sincere, pouring out their souls, turning yours inside out! And some can't live without lies: they send people to kill and die! For what? To usurp and stay at the cash flow, to enrich themselves, sharing only with their buddies! And yet the whole world paid them! But! Short-sighted politicians! They need to be limited even in their theater—petty people!
I can't help but write: elections are in the fall—in any case, citizens must go and vote or write the word: "YABLOKO"—it's not just about peace and the value of every life, but about so much more for a dignified life for all! We need to know more and not listen to the propaganda of usurpers! I'll be running for parliament for the fourth time as a candidate for the Yabloko Party!!! Anyone who wanted a cushy seat left our Party long ago and settled in! The principled and consistent ones—the Kremlins—remain!!!
There aren't a single Yabloko member in the State Duma of the Russian Federation right now, but we need at least 300 to make the Constitution more humane and protect you all!!!"