Obraztsov State Central Puppet Theatre celebrates its 80th anniversary
The puppet theater directed by Sergei Obraztsov, an outstanding Russian arts worker, actor, director, and writer, was founded on September 16, 1931. Despite the absence of money and its own stage, the company of 12 people carried on their creative experiments. The theater’s performances impressed the audience with their bright artistry and inventive power. Some years later, the theater became so popular that in 1937, the government decided to give it accommodation in the center of Moscow on Mayakovsky Square. By that time, the theater both enlarged its company and founded its own museum, a unique treasury of puppets. During the Great Patriotic War, the company visited soldiers and showed them “The Front-line Program” consisting of mock political sketches. In 1970, the State Central Puppet Theatre moved into a new building on Garden Ring. The magnificent metal clock on the facade became the theater’s “visiting card.” Over decades, the State Academic Central Puppet Theatre (today Obraztsov Theatre) became a large world puppet theater with Russia’s largest and unique library containing books about puppets, and world’s largest museum of theater puppets of all known systems, from the ancient world to our days. Having gained the audience’s love and specialists’ admission, many of the performances are shown even today.
