Theatre of Nations

The State Theater of Nations is a theater located in the Petrovsky building in central Moscow, Russia. The Theater has no resident acting company. As of 2011 the building was undergoing major reconstruction, while the Theater's activities continue. The Theater of Nations acts a dedicated space for the experiments of local and international directors. It is, in the words of its Artistic Director, "an educational center for the new generation of theater."

The Theater's ongoing activities include:

The theater building was original built for Korsh's theater, one of the first privately owned Russian theaters. It occupied the Petrovsky building in 1885. It functioned as a privately owned theater. In 1925 it became the State Comedy Theater. In 1932, the building became the Moscow Art Theater's subsidiary stage, later known as the Gorky Moscow Art Theater. In 1987, The Friendship of Nations Theater, then based on Tverskoi Boulevard, exchanged locations with the Gorky, and in 1991 changed its name to the Theater of Nations.

On December 18, 2006, Yevgeny Mironov became Artistic Director.

In 2010 the State Ministry of Culture granted the Theater of Nations a contract to develop a multistep program geared towards the advancement of theatrical culture in the Russian provinces. Every month the Theater will choose a small town to visit with activities that include professional criticism of local productions, readings of new plays, master classes and seminars. The program was set in motion in December 2010.

Among the multigenre festivals initiated by the Theater are such conspicuous projects as the Opera Parade and the Opera Panorama, Russia's National Treasure and the Mini-Avignon, the Window to the Netherlands and the Strindberg in Moscow, the Russian-Turkish festival of contemporary dramaturgy and Japanese drum shows. Smaller festivals include the Small-Town Theaters of Russia Festival and Theater Town, which exports to the capital the theater activities of an entire town – the first festival to pave the way to Moscow for many provincial theaters.

The Theater of Nations was a pioneer in contemporary dance, conducting the first two international contemporary-dance festivals locally in 1993 and 1995. The support it provided to the brightest stars of Russia's newborn contemporary-dance movement (Yevgeny Panfilov, Tatiana Baganova, Olga Bavdilovich) played a significant role in the establishment of the new genre in Russia. Dance companies hosted by the Theater include the Centre Chorégraphique National de Nantes, the José Limón Dance Foundation, Belgium's Les Ballets C de la B, Paul Frenac's Parisian troupe, the Dutch companies of Anouk van Dijk, Krisztina de Châtel, Karin Holl and Introdans, the Random Dance Company of U.K., the Japanese Sankai Juku performing Butoh, NorrDans of Sweden, France's Centre Chorégraphique National-Ballet Biarritz under the direction of Thierry Malandain, Japan's H. Art Chaos modern-dance theater and the dance company of Regis Abadia.

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