The Central House of Actors was created in 1937 as an acting club, as a place of relaxation and informal communication between theater people. Over the years of its existence, the House of Actors has turned into a center of creative intelligentsia, performing enormously important work in professional and social support of theater workers, both young and veterans of the stage.
After the fire of the building on Tverskaya (Gorky St., 16), the House of Actors occupies a building on Arbat, 35, which, by Decree of the President of Russia, was transferred to the House of Actors for free use.
This House has become a place for live actors' communication, an attractive center for the creative intelligentsia of Moscow and Russia as a whole. In the house on Arbat, not only everything that was on Tverskaya was continued, but also a huge number of new projects were implemented. The House of Actors has numerous clubs and sections for professional interests.
On Arbat, 35, the atmosphere of a cozy home has been created, where everyone is equal: young and old, folk and ordinary actors, where everyone is united on mutual respect.
The Actor's House provides creative teams with its halls and stages free of charge for rehearsals of performances and their distribution. Here began the biography of those who now form the basis of modern theater. Under the Arbat roof, the P. Fomenko Workshop Theater, the A. Kalyagin Theater, the A. Dzhigarkhanyan Theater began, the projects of O. Menshikov, M. Kozakov, O. Aroseva, I. Muravyova, L. Gurchenko, T. Dogileva, O. Mysina.
Every month, 5-6 creative evenings of directors, actors, playwrights, critics, and theater groups take place in the Great Hall alone. Traditionally, evening presentations of books about theater figures, creative seminars, exhibitions of works by theater artists, annual exhibitions of works by theater production departments, and evenings dedicated to the memory of outstanding masters of the national stage are organized.
In a situation where touring activities have practically been curtailed, the House of Actors provides its venues for theater groups from Russia and actors from the CIS countries. Almost every month the Actor's House welcomes guests. Recently, actors from St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Orel, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Petrozavodsk, Yekaterinburg, Vologda, Zlatoust, Ulan-Ude, Kharkov, Tashkent, Odessa and other cities have shown their performances here.
In turn, the House of Actors has repeatedly organized charity trips for the “stars” of the Moscow stage to Russian cities: Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tyumen, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg, Petrozavodsk. Proceeds from the performances went to financially support the stage veterans of these cities.
On International Theater Day on March 27, the House of Actors is holding an International Theater Meeting of Outstanding Actors of the Former Soviet Union, strengthening the long-standing traditions of cultural ties, providing the opportunity for the Moscow theater community to communicate with their long-time friends: Donatas Banionis and Regimantas Adomaitis from Lithuania, Mikk Mikiver from Estonia, Vija Artmane and Lilita Ozolinya from Latvia, Kakha Kavsadze, Sofiko Chaureli, Otar Megvinetukhutsesi from Georgia, Jamal Seidakhmatova from Kyrgyzstan, Ada Rogovtseva from Ukraine, Rostislav Yankovsky from Belarus and others.
The House of Actors is a co-founder and participant in a number of international and Russian festivals and competitions: International Festival one-man performances, the International Festival of Graduation Performances of Theater Schools “Podium”, Russian festival theatrical skit performers “The Cheerful Goat”, Russian Actor’s Song Contest named after Andrei Mironov.
IN last years The House of Actors actively cooperates with Russian foreign centers of science and culture. The House of Actors annually forms creative groups and sends them to perform in front of their compatriots. Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava - these are the permanent foreign addresses of the theater living rooms of the Actor's House.
At various times, Elina Bystritskaya, Yulia Borisova, Vera Vasilyeva, Olga Aroseva, Olga Yakovleva, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Svetlana Varguzova, Margarita Terekhova, Olga Ostroumova, Vladimir Etush, Vladimir Andreev, Vasily Lanovoi, Alexander Kalyagin, Sergei Yursky, Alexander Lazarev performed before their compatriots , Yuri Vedeneev, Yuri Vasiliev, Fyodor Chekhankov, Sergei Makovetsky, and others. Creative youth are always widely represented.
Every year the House of Actors organizes a tourist trip for a group of actors (up to 40-50 people) abroad.
The actor's house takes care of the younger generation. Since 1992, at the House there has been a Center for the Development of Children's Intelligence and Creativity for children of actors, which provides a harmonious, comprehensive course of preschool training, and for schoolchildren - classes in theater studios.
Recently, a special youth program has been developed aimed at revealing the creative potential of aspiring actors. It includes a series of evenings: “Initiation as Artists” - a performance of graduates opening their first season in a professional theater, “Runway” - new names that have brightly declared themselves, “Graduate Cabbage Shows”.
Send to a friendReviews about “House of Actor”
Love's Labour's Lost.
This play has not yet been dissected into quotes, like “Hamlet” or “Romeo and Juliet”, and it has not yet been made into a film, as in the case of “Whatever, or 12th Night”, it has not been staged much at all, but what we saw , we really, really liked it!
The play "Love's Labour's Lost" staged by Andrei Shchukin's theater crafts workshop can be seen at the Central House of Actors on Arbat. The workshop team consists of graduates of the variety department of GITIS, and perhaps this is what determined the nature of the performance; the result was not just a musical comedy, but a theatrical skit on the verge of clownery.
I would also like to note that, despite the small size of the hall (only 3 rows), the music is real, live! Before the performance started, we got to see the musicians rehearsing, which was a wonderful added bonus:)
The impression of a skit is also created by a minimum of scenery and simplicity of costumes, but all this is overshadowed by the brilliant, sincere performance of all the actors!
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Performance "Love's Labour's Lost"
This comedy is not the strongest and not the most famous work W. Shakespeare, but at the same time the comedy is very easy to understand, which probably determined the choice for young actors.
According to the plot, the King of Navarre for some reason decided that the fair sex distracts him and his closest subjects from more important matters of national importance and introduces a moratorium on communication with women. And as usually happens, it is at this moment that events develop in such a way that the vow becomes impossible to fulfill.
Looking at the young team involved in the play, you understand that you don’t have to worry about the future of the theater.
The performance looks effortless, in one breath. Events unfold on stage, absolutely not straining the viewer, while not letting go of their attention.
The performance used live music and presented many comic moments that were understood by both the younger generation of spectators (there were some) and older spectators.
The set design of the performance is expectedly simple: the princess’s camp, depicted on black and white canvases. But this simplicity does not spoil the performance at all.
The walls of the theater themselves provide a good atmosphere and pleasant sensations; having been here once, you want to come back again and again.
Healthy
Performance "Now you are God again"
A deep and heartfelt performance about schoolchildren, in which everyone can see themselves. And it doesn’t matter how old you are, 15, 30 or 55. We all asked questions: “Is there a God?”, “Why do I need faith?”, “Why do people suffer?”, we all once did not receive support from loved ones or they just found themselves alone. This happens to the heroes of the play, they try to understand themselves, they open their hearts and unexpectedly find a friend.
I highly recommend this performance, it did not leave me indifferent.
Healthy
I chose the theater based on its convenient location - on Arbat, and the play "Ideal Style" - based on the famous actors playing there. Despite the fact that there are only 2 actors on stage during the action, the performance looks holistic and interesting. Only once will a male duet be diluted by a lady, but this is more of a bummer than a full-fledged one actor. The actors perform expressively, and it is especially interesting to watch them in the small theater hall, when they are almost at your fingertips.
And it seems that the speech really raises current topics of relationships, jealousy, love, etc., but... apparently, not in my typical manner. For me personally, the performance seemed too ordinary and modern or something. In some places there was swearing and vulgar jokes and phrases. Perhaps it is simply aimed more at a male audience. I enjoyed watching the performance of Maykov and Voskresensky, but the theme of the performance itself did not grab my attention.
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"Shadows" theater “De Utvalgte” (Norway)
Despite my super-busy theatrical life, I have not yet encountered Norwegian theater and, to my regret, the work of playwright Jun Fosse was completely unknown to me. But since they organized a whole festival in his name, then apparently Jun Fosse is significant for the Norwegians, just as Anton Chekhov is for us. So, the play “Shadows”. For the first ten minutes, it was perhaps difficult to get involved in the meaning of what was happening on stage: two elderly couples in almost complete darkness come, leave, sit on a bench together and alone, and above the stage on six egg-shaped screens the faces of children are projected and children's voices monotonously pronounce the text. The text, with constant repetitions and time jumps, gradually sucks the viewer into its space, into the space between life and death, where souls find themselves, a little frightened, not understanding where they are and what is happening around them. But here they meet childhood friends, lost lovers and long-dead parents. The idea of incarnating immortal souls in the form of children is very successful: souls find themselves cleansed of the layers of life, of difficult memories, and only shadows of feelings remain with them. The creators of the play have a half-crazy dream: to wait until the children, whose faces and voices are recorded on video, grow up to the age of the elderly couples present on stage, then the play will receive its ideal embodiment. Well, we just have to wait seventy years...
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Don't part with your loved ones
The play “Don’t part with your loved ones” was written by Alexander Volodin in the early 70s and, it would seem, what do today’s youth care about problems married couples those years, sharing a sofa and a color TV during a divorce. But apparently the story of Katya and Mitya, who stupidly broke up because of an imaginary betrayal, but, as it turned out, could not live without each other, still excites hearts. Director Roman Shevchenko staged the old Soviet play very dynamically, filling it with Zemfira's songs and pseudo-documentary footage. The only decorations on stage are red chairs, adding additional dynamics to the breakup stories played out on stage. As I understand it, all the roles are played by students of the Institute Theater Arts(ITI), play masterfully, soulfully, with complete dedication. The performance, shown on the Small Stage of the House of Actors, keeps the viewer in suspense from the first to the last minute, not allowing one to be distracted for a second. Unfortunately, there was no program, and therefore the names of the actors remained unknown to me, but I hope a wonderful creative future awaits them all.
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The play “Don’t Part With Your Loved Ones,” which premiered at the Central House of Actors, made a strong impression with its modern look at the heroes of Alexander Volodin’s classic play. Accompanied by Zemfira's lively songs, using a minimal amount of scenery and props that can literally be counted on one's fingers, the young actors involve the audience in their difficult and difficult life, full of stormy and emotional events. The background is a video sequence, like a family documentary. The main characters, only after going through divorce, suffering and trials of betrayal and condemnation of others, return to each other, because they understand the main thing - they love and cannot live without this love. Immediately after the divorce, Katya ends up in the hospital, where Mitya finds her with a dull gaze and broken by physical suffering. But even there she is still his same beloved, who does not want to let him go, because she is afraid of losing him forever. Director Roman Shevchenko staged the play, written in the 70s, in a dynamic, modern and emotional way. Nowadays young people are freer from other people’s opinions, but this has not made the relationship between a man and a woman any easier. They suffer just as much from separation, jealousy and misunderstanding as officially married couples. This is probably why the divorce procedure is exaggerated to the point of farce and embellished, if that can be said about an event disgusting for a young family. Both partners are defenseless against everything that separates them. And their strength lies in only one thing - they love each other. The film of the same name with good actors was somehow unnoticeable to me at that time, ordinary. And you won’t get bored at this performance. Two hours of nervous tension of the characters, confrontation with circumstances, funny and heartbreaking, beautiful and ugly. The contrast of white clothes and the black background of a scene that doesn’t really exist. Reach out your hand, take a step - and you are one of them. The acting work of the main character playing Katya made a strong impression. I really liked her bright rival, Irina, who has a beautiful voice. Parallel stories from the lives of the heroes were what is called laughter through tears. Is it possible to laugh when a policeman is forced at gunpoint to look at photographs of children? When a woman, distraught with hopelessness, handcuffed her sleeping husband so that he would not escape. Then there is a trial and the ex-spouses share the sofa and TV. And suddenly - misfortune, a hospital. This is already scary. Because we are all already there, inside this story, we have forgotten about time and reality. We are waiting for one thing - whether he will return or not, and he returns. With oranges in her string bag, a robe thrown over her shoulders, she was still physically weak, but nothing mattered. They are together and that's the main thing. The young actors on stage are incredibly sincere and touching, the love story is told with slight irony and is emotionally in tune with the music that accompanies the action. I love such throwbacks to the 70s, the atmosphere of which was surprisingly conveyed to those who know about those years from books and films, but did not live through and feel them personally. Golden youth and simple boys and girls, the music of the first vocal and instrumental ensembles and dancing at discos, miniskirts and platform shoes. All this returned for a short time, came to life and sounded on the stage of the Theater of the House of Actors.
In 1937, an acting club appeared, in which theater workers spent time relaxing and informal conversations. The Central House of Actors was founded by A.M. Eskin; since the late 80s, his daughter, Margarita, has been its director.
The institution was renamed in 1964 into the “Central House of Actors named after A. A. Yablochkina” in honor of the famous theater actress. Alexandra Yablochkina was one of those who actively promoted the idea of creating the House of Actors; for many years she led the Russian Theater Society. For most of her life, Alexandra Alexandrovna performed on the stage of the Maly Theater.
The first address of the creative association was a house on Tverskaya Street. But a year after the fire in 1990, the House of Actors of Moscow was located in house No. 35 on. Now theater groups can rehearse their performances here free of charge. Many famous actors, theaters and projects began their creative activity in these halls.
Theaters from other Russian cities come here to the Arbat Meetings festival. From Central House The actor also sends groups to Arbat to perform in cultural centers of other countries. The Central House of Actors in Moscow holds “Actors' Gatherings” - these are kind of skits for employees from different theaters. Performances take place in a very relaxed and free atmosphere.
Studios at the Central House of Actors
Back in 1992, the Center for the Development of Children's Intelligence and Creativity was opened here. Programs have now been developed for children of various ages. The following children's studios of the Central House of Actors operate:
- For preschoolers: classes take place on Saturdays or Sundays, they are aimed at developing creative and intellectual abilities, imagination, memory and other skills. The programs also prepare children for secondary school.
- For schoolchildren: theater studios of the Central House of Actors are represented by a wide variety. Children here learn acting skills, stage speech and movement, vocals, dancing, etc.
Poster
The Actor's House in Moscow has several venues where theatrical events take place: these are three halls - Big, Small and Chamber, as well as the Living Room and the Art Salon. Festivals, evenings, exhibitions, master classes, seminars, and presentations are regularly organized here. The poster for the House of Actors in Moscow is usually prepared 1-2 months in advance. Tickets can be purchased on site at the box office, or booked online one day before the event.
Panoramic view of the Central House of Actors in Moscow:
History of the building
The actor's house on Arbat is now occupied by a mansion resembling a castle. The house was built in 1913 by the architect V. Dubovsky in the neo-Gothic style. The construction customer is Anna Filatova. On the side towers, the author of the project decided to install the figures of two knights in armor, which made the house recognizable. Some believe that the knight on the wall is a prototype of Bassoon from M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita,” and the restaurant of the Actor’s House on Arbat is mistaken for the restaurant of the All-Russian Theater Society from the same work.
The building occupied almost the entire block. A women's gymnasium, a boarding house and an apartment building were located here. The interiors of the house were quite luxurious: marble staircases with oak railings, electric elevators, sewerage and running water in the bathroom of each apartment.
After the revolution of 1917, the rich apartments were occupied by prominent figures of the Soviet government, and some of the apartments were made communal. Large-scale renovation work was carried out in the 70s, as a result of which a significant part of the interior decoration was destroyed. The premises were occupied by the USSR Ministry of Culture, and a jewelry store was located on the ground floor. Since the beginning of the 90s, the “House with Knights” has been transferred to the use of the Central House of Actors.
How to get to the Actor's House on Arbat
Address: Arbat, 35, between Kaloshin and Krivoarbatsky lanes. You can get here by public transport. The nearest stop is “October Cinema”, it is located on a parallel street - . It is reached by buses No. M27, M2, 39. To get to the Central House of Actors, you need to go down Bolshoy Nikolopeskovsky Lane.
Since the building is located in the central part of the pedestrian street, you can get here by bus from different directions:
- To the beginning of Arbat street: No. m2, m27, n2, A, 15, stop “Arbat Gate”.
- Towards the end of Arbat: No. B, S12, t10, t39, t79, 64, stop “Smolenskaya Square”.
The Smolenskaya metro station of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line is located 700 meters from the Central House of Actors named after. A. A. Yablochkina, at the end of the pedestrian street. At the beginning of Arbat there is the Arbatskaya station of the Filevskaya line, from which it is about 800 meters to the Moscow House of Actors.
You can get to the House of Actors on Arbat by taxi: Yandex services offer their services in Moscow. Taxi, Uber, Gett, Maxim, Taxi Lucky.
Central House of Actor named after A. A. Yablochkina: video
Today, the Actor's House on Arbat operates for the theater community. This is where theater people meet and communicate. It has a long and not always happy history. The central house of the actor on Arbat was formed by Alexander Moiseevich Eskin in 1937. He was supported by many prominent theater figures. Initially, it was conceived as a kind of informal club for meetings and communication between people of art. For these purposes, the USSR government allocated and transferred a building on Tverskaya Street at house No. 16. There was a restaurant, a cafe, many employee offices and cozy rooms for creative evenings here (also known as a cinema hall). Even in the very restrained Stalinist era, an atmosphere of relaxedness, wit and creativity reigned here.
Freedom and Creativity Club
The atmosphere of freethinking, play and humor quickly formed into skits, in which Rostislav Plyatt, Maria Mironova and many other legendary actors took part with pleasure. In 1964, the House of Actors was named after the great actress Alexandra Yablochkina, since she was not only the “ruler of hearts” on stage, but also headed the central and Moscow departments of the theater society for a long time. From the moment the House of Actors opened until his death in 1985, Alexander Eskin was its permanent director. Besides him, the House always had public directors: Evgeny Ozerov and others. Margarita Eskina replaced her father as head of the CDA.
The fire of 1991 and the period of timelessness
The creative environment has not been spared either. In February 1991, the Actor's House was
It was set on fire and fell into complete disrepair. For almost two years the theater community had no shelter, until almost two years later the Ministry of Culture sheltered it in its building on Old Arbat. Since then, the Actor's House on Arbat has been known. As soon as the employees settled into the premises, the rooms were barely decorated and the meetings began, when claims arose about the transfer of the building to other hands: Rossvyazohrankultura decided to place its apparatus in most of the building. Boris Yeltsin's decision to transfer the building on Old Arbat to the Central Administrative District did not solve the situation. The decree was not accepted for execution by Rossvyazohrankultura.
New house on Arbat: formative times in new conditions
The actor's house on Arbat withstood all external attacks, but intense violence did not stop inside. creative life: The country was changing, the foundations were changing. Not only were new types of art needed, in addition, in difficult times it was necessary to support stage veterans and help the development of promising youth. The actor's house on Arbat was supported by many famous creative people, Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov and President Dmitry Medvedev. Rossvyazohrankultura was abolished and the claims were annulled. Since then, life in the House of Actors has been calm, and a stable opportunity has emerged to continue the traditions Soviet theater and create your own new ones. The CDA is still headed by Margarita Eskina.
Meeting place: Arbat, 35, House of Actors
Today, participants in the theater community are not faced with the question of where to meet. The place is known and dear to everyone: Arbat, 35, House of Actors. The obligatory skit parties are held here for the opening of the season and for the birthday - February 14th. The actor's house on Arbat constantly welcomes foreign colleagues and holds various concerts. There is a restaurant in the CDA, where, upon prior request, mere mortals can hold a celebration. But the main thing is that the House remains a concentration of creative people, and many interesting projects have been born within its walls that delight viewers in Moscow and Russia. Visiting theater workers always come to the CDA, because where else if not here can one meet many colleagues at once.
