On May 28, the Summer Theater opens on New Holland Island. Throughout the season, the courtyard of the Bottle House will host jazz concerts, performances by academic and experimental musicians, touring independent theaters, and performances.
Events at the Summer Theater will run throughout the summer on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The program includes tours by the Vnutri theater space and the Context. Diana Vishneva festival, readings of the Unfilmed Scripts project by the Zotov Center and the dance performance Underground by the GES-2, the always sold-out performance of Square and choreographic performances by the musicAeterna Dance troupe, projects with the New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater and the Peredelkino Creative Center, a concert by Ilya Papoyan and a showcase by the GOST Zvuk label, as well as Sunday jazz and open rehearsals by students of the Mussorgsky Music College.
When designing the Summer Theater, the New Holland team and architect Luba Leontieva (Ludi Architects) were inspired by the street cabaret theaters of the mid-20th century. The overhanging roof protects from the weather, and the audience is seated on stands around the stage and at tables in the theater buffet Oggi, for which Dmitry Blinov and his team have developed a special menu.
Tickets are available offline at the New Holland Island Information center or online on the Russian version of this page. Please note that only cards issued by Russian banks are accepted.
SCHEDULE IS UPDATED REGULARLY
July 31, 8:00 PM Dance Performance: Little HeelsPremiere of a dance performance exploring the external gaze, the strength of lightness, and the courage to simply be present.
August 1, 8:00 PM Dance Performance: Dogs
Premiere of a choreographic work in which dance becomes a way to express respect for the human body, its endurance, empathy, and strength.
August 3, 4 & 5, 8:00 PM Vnutri: Petushki
Writer and director Savva Savelyev reimagines one of the defining literary works of Soviet postmodernism—Venedikt Yerofeyev's poem Moscow to the End of the Line. While Yerofeyev's protagonist travels by suburban train from Moscow to Petushki, Savelyev's version features five protagonists and moves the action to the waiting hall of Kursky Railway Station. Fragile strangers, waiting for their train, gradually transform the shared experience into a session of collective psychotherapy.
August 7, 8 & 9, 8:00 PM Zotov Centre: Unfilmed Screenplays. This Is This
Premiere reading of the second season of Unfilmed Screenplays, a project dedicated to contemporary film scripts that have yet to reach the screen. Each reading brings together a new director and creative team to create an audio version of a film using only acting, light, and sound. The season opens with the screenplay for the first episode of Alexander Gorchilin's series about Daniil Kharms, This Is This.
August 19, 8:00 PM Special Project by the New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theatre: 13 Harmonies
An evening where contemporary dance meets the music of aleatoric pioneer John Cage.
August 22, 8:00 PM Context. Diana Vishneva Dance Evening
The international contemporary dance festival Context. Diana Vishneva closes the Summer Theatre season with a special evening of dance.
August 23, 8:00 PM Special Project by the New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theatre: Black Square. "The Unknown..." by Alexey Bezhetsky
A multidisciplinary performance created in real time from spoken word, choreography, electronic music, and media art. Each audience member becomes a co-creator of the performance using a specially designed die.
August 28 Concert: IMI Residencу
The culminating event of the Institute of Musical Initiatives' residency program dedicated to original songwriting and the singer-songwriter tradition.
August
The Peredelkino House of Creativity, together with the Dovlatov Day Festival presents lectures, panel discussions, and public conversations on the Leningrad underground, communal apartments, boiler-house culture, Moscow’s philosophical and religious life, the “Second Culture” movement, and other Soviet phenomena of the 1960s and 1970s.
September 3 & 4, 9:00 PM — GES-2: Underground (Dance Performance)
A performance that brings together folk music and contemporary choreography. Eight dancers exist in a state suspended between waiting and action, neither of which leads to resolution, as if attempting to push the low concrete ceiling above their heads. The folk ensemble Toloka, together with the project’s musical dramaturg Vladimir Gorlinsky, has created a sonic landscape from authentic folk songs in which voices and instruments tell their own emotional stories—from prayers and lullabies to wedding songs and songs sung before a fight.
