A Gift
Russian newspaper 'Angliya'
28th December 2007
2007 turned out to be a very lucky year for us. We had two new productions. In June on the big stage of the Greenwood Theatre we performed our very first show, “I Remember a Wonderful Moment”, based on the works of Alexander Pushkin. Those who were unable to see our show will be able to attend its upcoming performances in 2008, in both, Russian and English versions, as currently we are starting to work on the latter one. The opening of our second production, a musical “Magic Fairy Tale” took place on 9th of December at St. George’s Church in Bloomsbury.
The opening night of “Magic Fairy Tale” was a great surprise. We placed a very few ads in the newspapers, Angliya and London-Info, so were not expecting such a full house. The youngest audience members expressed their excitement by leaving the side of their parents and moving closer to the stage occupying the floor space right in front of the playing area. Their reaction showed us that our worries that the smallest audience members might get bored were unfounded.
We started to work on “Magic Fairy Tale” in September and created the production in only ten rehearsals, which would present a challenge even to the most professional actors. The cast included every single student of our school, starting from the age of four up to the age of twenty. The process wasn’t easy and the work load was high. Our pupils had to work especially hard during the singing lessons as the show included ten songs. It had quite a few dances in it too: hedgehogs doing summersaults; mice with the wooden spoons; light waltzing snow flakes and all kinds of woodland animals dancing away with the noble court crowd. In order to create a gift of a true fairy tale everyone worked hard, students and tutors.
I would like to specially mention work of some of the cast members. The moody Princess, played by the fourteen year old Anastasia Kvaskova, touched even the grown up audience members. Everyone witnessed how the snowdrops worked their magic and the Princess became kind. The charming King, played by Dimitry Kharlamov, was also very much appreciated by the adult spectators. The smallest audience members were scared by Baba-Yaga (Laura Ivanova) when she flew in riding in a mortar. However their fear faded as soon as Baba-Yaga fell in love with the Soldier (Peter Anderson) and they became joyful and funny.
The happy ending—as in most children’s fairy tales— was elevated even more by the arrival of Snow-white (Masha Medvedieva) and the real Father Christmas. I called him ‘real’ because after the performance even the grownups kept asking me where we found such a convincing Santa. Some proposed that he might be a professional actor from Moscow or St. Petersburg. Others were guessing that Santa was played by some well-known film actor. But, I shall reveal the truth here…The Santa actually was REAL since it couldn’t possibly be otherwise in such a real fairy tale as ours.
The New Year is on its way. What will it bring?
I would like to wish the older students of RITS who are planning to enter drama schools in the coming year, to achieve their goal of passing their exams; and to our youngest pupils—enjoyable holidays! And to all the readers and the great team of the newspaper, Angliya—Happy New Year!.
Thanks to all who spent this evening with us and shared all the worries and joys with the characters of our show. Thank you for your warm words of encouragement that are so important to our young actors. We will do our best to give you our gift of the experience of theatre more often.
Ludmila Baranova
( RITS Artistic Director)
