We salute our company members who were among those decorated with state awards at the ceremony at the Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation on September 19, 2014. The Order of Friendship was presented to Stanislav Lyubshin and the medal to the Order of Merit for the Motherland of 2nd Degree was awarded to Julia Chebakova.

On September 13, 2014, Viktor Khorinyak has debuted in the production of The Transient Goose.

Due to the illness of Philipp Yankovsky the role of Dmitry Fedorovich Karamazov in the production of The Karamazovs on Thursday, September 11, will be performed by Konstantin Bogomolov.

Traditional company meeting commencing the 117th season took place at the Main Stage today. Although the company has already went on tour to Bryansk and Volgograd prior to the season opening, the first performances in Moscow will happen tonight. The opening night of The Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Roman Feodori, will be presented at the Main Stage while The Drunks, directed by Victor Ryzhakov, can be seen on the Small Stage.

Oleg Tabakov, MXAT Artistic Director, has welcomed the company and shared with them the repertory plans for the upcoming season.

Two new productions are scheduled to premiere in the fall on the Small Stage. In October Alexander Molochnikov will present 19.14, a show in the genre of cabaret, followed in November by The Village of Fools, directed by Marina Brusnikina, based on the novel by Natalia Klyucharyova. Further plans include Nonsense, a new play by Victoria Bugaeva direcred by Tufan Imamutdinov at the New Stage, Louisiana by Natalia Antonova (directed by Gleb Cherepanov) and Truth is Good, But Happiness Is Better by Alexander Ostrovsky, directed by Alexander Ogaryov. Several openings are expected at the Main Stage in the spring of 2015. Joining the repertoire will be Mephisto, based on the novel by Klaus Mann and directed by Adolf Shapiro, Dangerous Liaisons based on the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, and directed by Marcial Di Fonzie Bo, The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky, directed by Victor Ryzhakov, and Hamlet by William Shakespeare, directed by Konstantin Bogomolov. Celebrating his 80th anniversary in 2015, Artistic Director of the Moscow Art Theatre Oleg Tabakov will be seen in the title role in Konstantin Bogomolov's production of Maurice's Jubilee, a new play by Nichola McAuliffe.

Our ongoing international project, First time in Russian, will continue into the new season with the series of staged readings of new plays from Spain, Finland, Germany, and Poland.

We are extending into the new season our pilot project of on-line broadcasting live performances of the Moscow Art Theatre to the cities of Russia. On September 6 we will broadcast live performance of Master and Margarita to the city of Voronezh where the audience will be able to see it at the Spartacus Cinema. We expect to broadcast 6 to 12 live performances a month to Voronezh throughout the season.

The company meeting has welcomed its new members joining the Moscow Art this season. Andrey Burkovsky, Dmitry Vlaskin, Danila Steklov, Larisa Kokoeva, Anton Rival, Maria Pestunova, Daria Kulida, Alina Kushim, Ruslan Bratov, and Sophia Rayzman were introduced by Oleg Tabakov.

Our colleagues whose birthday anniversaries felt over the summer recess have received cheers and flowers at the meeting. The company has given rounds of applause to Larisa Terentyeva, Head of Sound, Vladimir Grafov, Lighting Technician, and Valentina Ivanova, Head of House Management.

Following the meeting all company members have gathered at Kamergersky Pereulok to inaugurate the monument to the founders of the Moscow Art Theater, Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. The monument, erected by sculptor and architect Alexey Morozov, is a two-figure composition with stele mounted on a pedestal. At the bottom of the stele is a board with a Latin inscription, «Homines, leones, aquilae et perdices, cervi cornigeri …», a translation of the beginning of Nina's monologue from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov: «People, lions, eagles and partridges, antlered deer …» Alexey Morozov has worked on the monument in Italy for two years. The statuary group was cast in bronze in the city of Pietrasanta, the world capital of bronze casting. The pedestal was created in Verona using the most modern technologies in the field of multi-axis stone processing. The inauguration of the monument brought together most prominent artists and politicians, the entire company of the Moscow Art and hundreds of theatergoers. Speaking at the ceremony were Moscow Art Artistic Director Oleg Tabakov; sculptor Alexey Morozov; Valentina Matvienko, Chairperson of the Federation Council of Russia; Leonid Pechatnikov, Vice Mayor of Moscow; Sergey Kapkov, Minister of Culture of Moscow; Igor Zolotovitsky, Dean of the Moscow Art Theatre School; and the descendants of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.

On August 27, while touring in Volgograd, Leonid Timtsunik has debuted in the role of Dergachov in the production of Last Summer in Chulimsk.

On September 6 Armen Arushanian will debut in the role of Mark the Ratslayer in the production of Master and Margarita.

On September 7 Yulia Chebakova will debut in the role of Sasha's Mother in the production of The Letter-Book.

On September 9 Daria Yurskaya will debut in the role of Lidia Ivanovna in the production of Karenin.

On September 16 Maria Sokova will debut in the role of Janet McKenzie in the production of Witness for the Prosecution.

On September 19 Alexey Varuschenko will debut in the role of Vladimir Panshin in the production of Home of the Gentry.

On October 14 Alexander Molochnikov will debut in the role of Alexey Bulanov in the production of The Forest.