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 10 & 11, 9:00 PM — B.R. (Theatrical Performance)
A stage tribute to the poet Boris Ryzhy, often called “the last classic of the 20th century.” Ryzhy grew up in a working-class district of Sverdlovsk, where the rooftops of five-story apartment buildings were a favorite gathering place for local youth—a space of freedom, escape from reality, and closeness to the sky. For two evenings, the Summer Theater will become a place where the poet’s verses are brought to life anew, with each performer offering their own interpretation through dance, spoken word, and music.
July 12, 8:00 PM — Jazz Sunday: Riad Mammadov Trio
The program features original compositions by Riad Mammadov, including The Morning After, Trust the Thing We Don’t Know, and Severance from the album East of Eden, released by the French label Evidence Classics.
July 18, 6:30 PM — GOST Zvuk Label Showcase
One of Russia’s leading independent electronic music labels, GOST Zvuk has been shaping the sound of the local scene since 2014. Over more than a decade, it has fostered a vibrant community of musicians, visual artists, and listeners united by an interest in the intersections of sound, technology, and contemporary art.
July 24, 8:00 PM — Percussion Today Project: Canto Ostinato
An ensemble of two marimbas, two vibraphones, and piano performs Dutch minimalist Simeon ten Holt’s iconic Canto Ostinato. One of the most important works of 20th-century contemporary classical music, it can be performed on virtually any instruments and lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours.
July 25, 8:00 PM — Alexey Goribol: The Music of Mikael Tariverdiev
Honored Artist of Russia, pianist Alexey Goribol, together with soprano Yulia Korpacheva, performs vocal works and film music by the great Soviet composer Mikael Tariverdiev.
July 26, 8:00 PM — Jazzy Moves × True Flavas
A music and dance performance created by the combined team of Jazzy Moves, featuring street and contemporary dancers, and True Flavas, renowned musicians from St. Petersburg’s hip-hop scene.
July 31, 8:00 PM — Festival Dance Without Being in Love with Yourself or Love: Heels
The premiere of a dance performance exploring the external gaze, the strength of lightness, and the courage of simply being present.
August 1, 8:00 PM — Festival Dance Without Being in Love with Yourself or Love: Dogs
The premiere of a choreographic performance in which dance becomes a way of expressing respect for the human body—its endurance, empathy, and strength.
August
Writer and director Savva Savelyev reimagines the defining literary work of Soviet postmodernism—Venedikt Yerofeyev’s poem Moscow to Petushki. While Yerofeyev’s protagonist travels by commuter train from Moscow to Petushki, this adaptation features five protagonists instead, and the setting shifts to the waiting hall of Kursky Railway Station. Strangers wait for their train, gradually transforming their shared wait into a session of collective psychotherapy.
August
The premiere staged reading of the second season of Unfilmed Screenplays, a project dedicated to contemporary screenplays that have yet to reach the screen. Each reading brings together a new director and creative team to create an audio interpretation of a film using only acting, lighting, and sound. The season opens with the first episode of Alexander Gorchilin’s screenplay about Daniil Kharms, titled This Is This.
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.
