Lecture: "A Vanishing Species"

Aleksandr Shirvindt is perhaps one of the most popular people’s artists in our country. Films featuring him are part of the golden fund of cinema. His stage appearances and work on television made Aleksandr Anatolyevich a favorite with audiences. For twenty years, he led the Moscow Academic Theatre of Satire. He taught at “Shchuka,” and many of Shirvindt’s students have already become stars of film and theater themselves. And Shirvindt is not the kind of actor who can sit idle. An evening with Shirvindt is a conversation. Aleksandr Anatolyevich will share memories of his great friends and touching stories about the theater—stories unknown to the general public. And audiences will be able to ask questions and receive honest—and as always with Shirvindt—witty answers. “In the past, communication was necessary for a person. Now, in this frantic pace, none of that exists—we don’t have time, it’s only ‘let’s call, let’s call.’ And there’s no one left to call. Around us there’s only artificial intelligence. But there were educated people who knew how to communicate—the great, wonderful artists. I decided to take on this mission—to tell about them and about how we communicated,” says Aleksandr Shirvindt.

Aleksandr Shirvindt is a theater, film, and variety actor; a theater director; a teacher; a writer. From 2000 to 2021 he was the artistic director of the Moscow Theatre of Satire. Full Knight of the Order “For Services to the Fatherland.” Professor at the Higher Theatre School named after B.V. Shchukin. He has appeared in more than 120 films and played several dozen roles in theater. As an author and director, he worked with Tarapunka and Shtepsel, Andrei Mirovoy, Leonid Utesov, Vladimir Vinokur, and other artists. A true classic of Soviet television became the duet of Aleksandr Shirvindt and Mikhail Derzhavin.