XVIII международный театральный фестиваль «Мелиховская Весна» 2017

This year the Museum-Reserve of A. P. Chekhov "Melikhovo" will host the "Melikhovskaya Vesna" International Theater Festival from 20 to 27 for the 18-th time.

The program traditionally includes staged versions of the works by Anton Chekhov and about Anton Chekhov. These performances will be brought to the estate of the writer by theatres from different countries.

The playbill of the festival is rather rich in the participants. In addition to performances of theatres from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Veliky Novgorod and Lipetsk, the international part of the festival of this year is represented by performances from Germany, Bulgaria, France and Greece. The Donetsk National Academic Musical and Drama Theatre will also join this festival.

The concept of the festival "Melikhovskaya Vesna" remains unchanged – it proposes to show the diversity of theatrical interpretations of the works by the great writer. Apart from classical performances, this year festival playbill welcomes you to enjoy chamber performances and large-scale stagingas well as avant-garde drama versions.

According to the festival organizers, such approach will show the audience the modern theatre in all its diversity. The distinctive feature of our festival is that its program always has The Seagull.  This world famous play was written by Chekhov here in Melikhovo. And it was this play to launch our festival in 1982.

Throughout the 2017 festival there will be a number of special events. They are: a prerelease show of the film JOKER based on the stories by Antosha Chekhonte, traditional tea party in Melikhovo on the day of memory of Oleg Nikolayevich Yefremov on May 24, photo exhibition dedicated to the festival performances of previous years.

The poster for the upcoming "Melikhovskaya Vesna" was once again added with the program "Visiting Chekhov." In fact, performances of this program are not staged versions of Chekhov's works, but in these productions, or the fate and fortunes of their authors you can trace interesting connections with the creative activities of Anton Chekhov.

The 2017 special program has the name «Tolstoy visiting Chekhov" with the Malaya Bronnaya Drama Theatre drama theater presenting the play Princess Marya, and L. N. Tolstoy Lipetsk State Academic Drama Theatre giving the performance The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

It should be noted that the Lipetsk theatre as the founding father of the festival takes part in "Melikhovskaya Vesna" on a regular basis. In 1982, on the initiative of the Director of the Museum "Melikhovo" Yuri K. Avdeev and Chief Director of Lipetsk Drama Theatre of V. M. Pakhomov, the actors of this theatre were the first time in the history of the Museum to step on the veranda of the Melikhovo manor to  perform The Seagull.