In Veliky Novgorod (Novgorod, for short), the first stationary theatre that was affordable for all was founded in 1918, at the Department of Art at the Board of Education of Novgorod Governorate. This was the Novgorod Theatre of the October Revolution (as the 1917 Russian Revolution is known in Russia). The new social order put forward new requirements to theatre arts. The stage was supposed to bring wide circles of the working population closer to the intellectuals of art, to introduce industrial workers and peasants to the intellectual riches that they had had no access to before.
Among the first heads of the Novgorod Theatre of the October Revolution (the Theatre, for short) were V. Lagert, B. Yefimov, and A. Larionov-Yurenev. The repertoire of the Theatre included The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Paul I by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Intrigue and Love by Friedrich Schiller, The Death of Ivan the Terrible by Aleksey K. Tolstoy and Turandot by Carlo Gozzi. Of course, the events described in all these plays were far from the real life. However, it was as if they connected the remote past with the real life and invoked feelings and thoughts that were still familiar even to the people of that difficult time. The auditorium of the Theatre, overfull. As it turned out, the "new spectator" was quite perceptive and enthusiastic. Despite the fact that the repertoire mostly consisted of classical plays, the Theatre incorporated some elements of the new time.
In the season of 1927–1928, Soviet dramas were included, for the first time. For example, in the plays by Konstantin Trenyov, Lyubov Yarovaya, and by Boris Lavrenyov, The Breakup, the stage, for the first time, saw participants and heroes of the Russian Civil War who represented the will of the revolting people.
In the same season, a children's theatre was created at the Theatre. During that season, the best performances for children were The Humpbacked Horse by Pyotr Yershov, The Tinderbox by Hans Christian Andersen, and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
This way the Theatre existed, with short interruptions, until 1934 when it was re-organised into the Small Drama Theatre of Leningrad Region.
In the 1930s, Leningrad Region Directorate for Arts supervised 18 theatres of various genres. After it had been decided to create stationary city theatres, the young and talented actor Nikolay Lebedev was sent to Novgorod to supervise the work of the theatres.
In the season of 1934–1935, the most successful performances were Yegor Bulychyov by Maxim Gorky and The Miraculous Alloy by Vladimir Kirshon. In parallel with works by Nikolay Gogol, Aleksandr Ostrovsky, Jean-Baptiste Moliere, and Friedrich Schiller, contemporary plays such as The Road of Flowers by Valentin Katayev and The Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov appeared in the repertoire. The stage of the Theatre saw many famous Russian actors. The Theatre employed such actors as Nepokoychitssky, M. Modestova as well as B. Frendlich who received the title of Meritorious Actor of Russia (then a member state of the USSR) for his role of Pavka Korchagin in the performance How the Steel was Tempered.
When Nazi Germany invaded Russia in June of 1941, the Theatre was on tour in the town of Staraya Russa, Novgorod Region. The invasion and the temporary occupation of Novgorod by Nazi German troops did not interrupt the activities of the Theatre. However, the activities then took form of artistic front brigades that offered excerpts and monologues from theatrical performances to units of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts.
After Novgorod had been liberated, the Theatre resumed its activities as a stationary theatre. On 1st September 1944, the Theatre was transformed into the Theatre of Novgorod Region, first supervised by Novgorod Region Directorate for Arts, but handed over to Novgorod Directorate for Culture in June of 1953.
In the first post-war season, the Leningrad theatre director Viktor Shimanovsky became the head art manager the Theatre. The company consisted mainly of actors from the newly liberated Leningrad. Among them were such actors holding the title of Meritorious Actor of Russia as Anaida Mirzoyeva, Ye. Lyubina, V. Rubtsov as well as the actors N. Razgulyayev, M. Firsova and others. At that time, the repertoire of the Theatre mostly consisted of Soviet plays such as The Winners by Boris Chirskov, The Meeting with the Youth by Aleksey Arbuzov, A Day of Rest by Valentin Katayev, The Kremlin Chimes by Nikolay Pogodin, The Russian People by Konstantin Simonov and others. However, spectators of the Theatre could encounter ideas of patriotism and high humanism not only in the performances about the present time, but, just like before, in works of Russian and world classics. In the post-war years, the stage of the Theatre saw plays by Aleksandr Ostrovsky, Maxim Gorky, Aleksandr Pushkin, Ivan Turgenev, Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen. It was for the first time in the history of Soviet theatre when the Theatre produced a staged version of the novel by Alexander Herzen Who Is to Blame?, which was written during Herzen's Novgorod exile in 1841.
During the following years, the 1950s and 1960s, the repertoire of the Theatre was shaped by the most important, captivating concerns of the epoch, those related to the formation of the individuality. During that time, Soviet drama occupied a key place in the repertoires of all Russia's theatres. Alongside with contemporary Russian drama (for example, An Optimistic Tragedy by Vsevolod Vishnevsky and Tanya by Aleksey Arbuzov), the stage of the Theatre saw world classic drama: William Shakespeare (Richard III), Carlo Goldoni (The Mistress of the Inn), Anton Chekhov (Ivanov), Maxim Gorky (The Old Man), Jean Anouilh (Medea), Jean-Baptiste Moliere (Don Juan) and other great playwrights.
In 1977, for the first time in the history of Russian theatre, the tragedy by Yakov Knizhnin, Vadim of Novgorod, was produced, by Theatre's head director A. Koshelev.
It was typical of the theatre art of the 1970s to address contemporary topics and realistic concerns. Industrial themes became most popular ones, making the moral aspect of human relationships even more important than before. Alongside with such performances as His Name Was Not Listed by Boris Vasilyev (1974) and The Minutes of One Meeting by Aleksandr Gelman (1976), the stage of the Theatre also saw Tarelkin's Death by Aleksandr Sukhovo-Kobylin (1979), where we encounter the social climber Tarelkin, a hustler from a completely different age, but related to our times. A distinctive feature of the Theatre's repertoire has always been a variety of genres. It has included the comedy, the tragic farce, the melodrama, the tragedy, the phantasmagoria (for example, An Extraordinary Incident based on works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky) and the metamorphosis (for example, The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio). Great attention has been paid to productions for children. Among young spectators, a great success was enjoyed by such performances as Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault (1983, directed by O. Mikhaylov), Pushkin's Fairy Tales (1989, directed by Ye. Luchin), Mary Poppins by Pamela Lyndon Travers (directed by Yu. Zaytsev), and many others.
During 1986–1989, a performance called Family Weekend based on the comedy Happy Easter by Jean Poiret (1988, directed by O. Zaryankin) enjoyed the greatest popularity. This show was performed 98 times. The play Models of the Season (1987, directed by L. Popova) was performed 72 times. Other performances such as The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespear and The Tower of Nesle by Alexandre Duma (1994, directed by A. Tsodikov) and The Pit (1995, directed by V. Kondratyev) were also very successful. The contemporaries of Moliere's Scapin have long left this world, but the theatrical image of Scapin is alive even in our days. In the 1890s, the most talented actor Vladimir Krieger played a role of this adroit servant in a performance called Scapin's Deceits. One hundred years later, the role of Scapin is played by the wonderful actor Gennady Alekseyev in a performance with the same name directed by V. Vetrogonov (1996).
At present, just like many years ago, the repertoire of the Theatre includes Jean-Baptiste Molieree and Carlo Goldoni (The Brilliant Maidservant), Aleksandr Ostrovsky (Easy Money and The Handsome Man) and Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I Had a Dream, based on the novella Uncle's Dream) as well as Ferdinand Bruckner (A Ruby Necklace for Madam de Stael based on his play Heroic Comedy), Guy de Maupassant (Bel Ami), Friedrich Schiller (The Robbers) and Aleksey Pisemsky (The Russian Fun based on his play The Enlightened Time). Performances based on plays by contemporary foreign comedy playwrights Claude Magnier, Francis Veber, Noel Coward enjoy a great success; the same may be said about contemporary Russian drama: Nadezhda Ptushkina, Vladimir Gurkin and others.
It has long become an important tradition for the Theatre to go on tours, not only around Novgorod Region, but also across its borders. The Novgorod company received warm welcomes in Russia's Petrozavodsk (1970), Byelorussia's Minsk (1976), Russia's Ryazan and Estonia's Tallinn (1973). The Theatre went on tours to Ukraine's Ivanovo-Frankovsk (1985), to Byelorrusia's Mogilyov and Vitebsk (1988), to Ukraine's Cherkassy and Russia's Kostroma (1983), to Ukraine's Lvov and Byelorussia's Brest (1989). Among the tour performances are such performances as Boris Godunov by Aleksandr Pushkin, The Power of Darkness by Leo Tolstoy, Don Juan, A Profitable Job by Aleksandr Ostrovsky, Zoya's Apartment by Mikhail Bulgakov as well as performances based on plays by Viktor Merezhko, Viktor Rozov, Mikhail Shatrov and others. In 1988, the Theatre went on tour to Poland to present the performance The Suicide by Nikolay Erdman, in 1991 it went to Great Britain to show the performance Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. and in 1994 it went to Finland to present the performance The Death of Ivan the Terrible by Aleksey K. Tolstoy. In 1994, the Theatre received an invitation from the State Theatre of the Nations to come to Moscow to present its performance A Profitable Job (directed by V. Varetsky). In 1995, the Theatre went on long tour to Saint Petersburg to show performances from its current repertoire. Among those performances were The Difficult Parents (directed by Yu. Nikolayev; based on the play Les Parents Terribles by Jean Cocteau), Love is a Golden Book by Aleksey N. Tolstoy (directed by Sokolov), the fairy tales Cippolino (based on Le avventure di Cippolino by Gianni Rodari) and An Invisible Princess by Valery Zimin (directed by L. Popova).
In 1997, the Theatre was named after Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This was related not only to the fact that this great Russian writer lived in Novgorod Region, but also to the fact that the Theatre had addressed the legacy of this amazing, deeply psychological author who has been invoking a keen interest among actors and spectators alike up to the present day. While living in the town of Staraya Russa, Novgorod Region, the writer worked on Demons, The Raw Youth and The Brothers Karamazov; it was Staraya Russa that served as a real-life prototype for the town of Skotoprigonyevsk where The Brothers Karamazov was set. Dostoyevsky has never been removed from the repertoire of the Theatre: 1965 — Crime and Punishment (directed by G. Litvinov), 1990 — Demons (directed by A. Koshelev), 1997 — An Extraordinary Incident (directed by V. Vetrogonov). The Theatre opened its 75th anniversary season with the first performance of I Had a Dream based on the novella The Uncle's Dream (staged and directed by A. Govorucho). The Theatre has actively participated in the International Festival of Chamber Theatre Adaptations of Dostoyevsky's Works that takes place at the writer's mansion in Staraya Russa. By participating in various competitions and festivals, the actors improve their professional skills and get inspired for new creative pursuits.
In 1993, the Theatre won an award at the International Festival of Historical Plays in Vologda for its performance Martha the Mayoress (written by Viktor Levashov), a historical drama based on Russian chronicles and Nikolay Karamzin's historical works. The Theatre also won an award at A Window to Russia, a competition among Russia's provincial theatres, which was organised by the Kultura newspaper in 1997; the Theatre took the 2nd place at the same competition in 2000, in the Theatre of the Year category. In the summer of 1998, the Theatre went to France, to the world's most famous Festival d'Avignon.
The company of the Theatre contains a number of talented, gifted actors, and increasingly many unforgettable, striking actor's performances appear every year. In 1998, S. Gordeyev received the highest title of People's Artist; Tatyana Karatayeva (Ustinova), L. Sergeyeva, Lyubov Lushechkina and K. Gavrilenko hold the title of Meritorious Artist. The head manager I. Segedi, the production department head V. Bogomolov, the make-up department head A. Stroganova and the wardrobe department head L. Meshkova hold the title of Meritorious Worker of Culture.
The management of the Theatre pursues an ambitious human resources policy. In 1995, nine students were sent to study at Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy. Young actors are constantly joining the company of the Theatre.
Having an enormous creative potential in acting and directing as well as being well equipped technically, the Theatre undertakes serious creative challenges. The repertoire of the Theatre is based on the classical drama of Russia and other countries, which helps to more fully realise the potential of the theatre. The Theatre also pays a lot of attention to contemporary Russian drama that reflects the main trends of our time as well as the social, political, cultural and moral life of the society.
In 1999, the Theatre received the honorary title of Academic Theatre.
Having a rich past and preserving its historical traditions, today the Theatre occupies a strong position in the cultural and intellectual life of Novgorod and Novgorod Region. The staff of the Theatre is in continuous creative pursuit, and, each year achieving new artistic victories, they can confidently face the future.
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