Theatre Chronicles

In the first part of the program “Theatrical Chronicle,” Alexander Zbruyev reflects on the role of theater in a person’s life: “A person under great pressure goes to the movies, goes to the theater, and if it’s good, then for that time they forget about their hypertensive crisis… They begin to empathize; they become different for a second. For that time they get healed.” He remembers his studies at the Shchukin School, his teachers, his brother Yevgeny Fedorov, and the Vakhtangov Theater, where he often visited in childhood.

In the second part of “Theatrical Chronicle,” the actor talks about Lenkom—the theater where he has served his entire life—and about his attitude to TV series and to the new generation of actors. Speaking about Mark Zakharov, Zbruyev notes: “When I watch Zakharov in rehearsals, I see how he loses for each person, as if it should have been played. If suddenly he feels something is wrong—some discomfort of the actor—he immediately jumps in. The director is a director.” Using examples from the sets of Sheintsis and Borovsky, Zbruyev discusses the role of the stage designer in theater.

In the third part, Zbruyev talks about acting art—about what an actor feels on stage, about the interaction between actor and audience (“an actor on stage must give energy, but if the energy is not returned through the auditorium, he will go out”); about his master classes in France; and about his partners on stage.