How the Kazan Youth Theatre becomes a master of collaborations
A bar, a pottery workshop, a street instead of an auditorium
In early May, the Kazan Youth Theatre presented its second collaboration with the Kolokol — Creation. Circle pottery workshop (12+). And Chief Director of the youth theatre Radion Bukayev has finally become the main Kazan expert on performances outside the stage box. He began to engage in theatrical experiments not because life was good, but he should clearly share such experience with his colleagues.
“We will be wandering artists”
When the Kazan Youth Theatre presented the audio performance We. Tram in September 2023. Love about the star-crossed lovers Yegor and Alina and the wise pensioner Arkady Ivanovich, Radion Bukayev was asked a question as he exited the tram No. 5: how did he learn to make productions of this format? The director only grinned: where do they teach this?
“The first thing I heard from the management was that we were going to have renovation,” he explained the history of the beginning of work at the Youth Theatre several times at different meetings. “When it would happen — it was not yet clear. I sat and thought — what does this mean? We will be traveling artists.”
Radion Bukayev was appointed director of the theatre in November 2020. In March 2021, he released The First Half — actress Nina Kalaganova told the story. It was a performance for the upcoming 90th anniversary of the theatre. And in June 2021, Night Tram (18+) was released, in which viewers sat in the tram No. 5 in the evening to listen to the story of the motorcyclist Alexander trapped in public transport. Kalaganova's daughter, Yelena, also presented a one-woman show, Happy Charlotte (18+). Since May 2022, it has been running in the wine bar Istina next to the Youth Theatre: it is a variation on the story of Charlotte Ivanovna, the governess from The Cherry Orchard. In August 2022, Pedestrians (16+) appeared. At first, it was supposed to be a promenade with a pre-written dramaturgy, but in the end, Alexey Zilber and Pavel Gustov received a random topic and walked the streets, telling stories to 25 viewers on headphones. In May 2024, there were already Pedestrians-2 (16+), because Yelena Kalaganova and Vitaly Dmitriev were walking. This year, they should continue their travels.
Cross the road
Then, according to legend, Radion Bukayev crossed Ostrovsky Street and discovered a pottery workshop in a Stalin-era writer's building, and he offered the owners to stage the play Pottery Stories (6+), which was shown in June 2023. Its heroine, school caretaker Bella (Elena Sinitsyna/Diana Nikultseva), talks about the art of pottery, and then the master class begins.
As Deputy Director for Creative and Project Activities Leysan Faizova says, guests often asked the question: is it possible to work on a potter's wheel? Well, Kolokol itself, which has a branch in Cheboksary, tried to work with the local theatre.
As a result, the Youth Theatre got a second pottery show. Creation. Circle also starts with a story — now on behalf of the sage Shulga (Niyaz Zinnatullin/Ilfat Sadykov) with a clay bird Kryakush in his hands. He translates the names of the audience from Sumerian, tells stories about the origin of the Earth, about the Slavic sun god Khors and clay tablets. And then the master seats the audience in a circle.
Since the theatre at that time was still stationary, the audio play Before and After the Storm (16+) about the era of chief director Boris Zeitlin could be listened to in the foyer.
But the Youth Theatre, whose building was closed for reconstruction, spent the 2024-2025 season changing locations daily. This means that there should be more performances outside the buildings!
To the museum, to the tower, to knowledge
Last May, the theatre had another collaboration — with the Gorky and Chaliapin Museum. The story Easy Man (12+) is interpreted by two Ruslans: Zubairayev and Sharipov, walking in the area of Lyadskoy Garden, and then handing over the audience to the guides in the museum.
In the same May 2024, the Youth Theatre staff expanded their portfolio of audio performances. KVN players Timur Sharifullin, Mikhail Bulanov, and Alexander Kandyba wrote the text Nine Floors of Love (16+) about the unlucky artist Sergei, whom the guests listen to in the area of the Kazan Family Centre, at the end climbing up to its observation deck.
And, probably, it is impossible not to mention the most diverse experience of collaboration — this is reading works from the school curriculum in classes together with actors in costumes and with props and a teacher-organizer, psychologist and expert in conflict resolution Irina Molodtsova.
Now the Youth Theatre is preparing several more audio performances. Collaboration with Kazan Federal University was discussed last year. But for now these prospects are vague, due to the change of management.
It is known for sure that in the summer the Youth Theatre will “climb” into the Spasskaya Tower, for which playwright Margarita Kadatskaya has prepared an audio quest for children — with tasks and stories about history.
But at the same time, Bukayev, whose name is in all the projects, is also preparing a “traditional” performance — based on Chekhov’s story The Man in a Case.
It is interesting that the Youth Theatre remains the only state-owned Kazan theater that works outside its walls in non-standard ways. The Tinchurin Theatre is a record holder for trips to the districts, but the performance next to its walls is held by the Saidash Museum, telling about the life of its hero through the actors of the Karieyv Theatre.
By the way, the Tatar Youth Theatre, during the era of Luiza Yansuar’s leadership, came up with several promenades. In one of them, for example, Gabdulla Tukay and Gabdulla Kariyev rode around Kazan on scooters. But they soon disappeared from the posters. The
Kamal Theatre, having tried himself in the genre of traveling through the historical theatre building in the play Darse gijbrätter theater.../Wake Up the Hearts..., is now preparing a new promenade inside the new building based on the play by Dina Safina and, perhaps, will present an audio tour of the surrounding area. In addition, the Kamal Theatre has its own museum Eastern Club, which also requires event saturation.
Obviously, in conditions when you have a building, you don't really want to experiment, because such performances also need to be sold. But it seems that the Youth Theatre should hold a master class for colleagues on partner projects together with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan. After all, they attract a new spectator to the theatre, and it can be found in a pottery workshop, and in a museum, and just on the street.
