ArmInfo. The staff of the Yerevan Stanislavsky Russian Drama Theater addressed an open letter to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for help, hoping to implement the promises of the new Minister of Culture of the country.
In particular, employees are outraged by the policy of the ministry. In this story, the stumbling block was the fact that, despite the fact that the Ministry of Culture, after the revolution, promised to abandon the old vicious practice of nominating its staff and thus manage the industry, instead of confining to the development of a common policy in the field, culture officials again for the old, probably unable to resist the temptation to rule over the fate of creative teams and to connect administrative resources.
The fact is that after the death of the artistic director of the theater, Alexander Grigorian, the theater has been functioning for almost a year without artistic director. Employees of the theater in June 2018 notified Minister of Culture Lilit Makunts about this, who visited the theater and officially announced that its employees have every right to elect a new artistic director for themselves until October 1, 2018.
Employees of the theater offered to elect a new artistic director of the famous Russian theater director Karen Nersisyan, who is ready to return to his homeland and head the theater. The creative biography of our compatriot is very rich. Nersesyan had worked in the Moscow Theater "At Nikitsky Gate", was the artistic director of the Moscow Theater "Buff". In 2002 he created the independent theater association (Moscow), becoming its artistic director. Nersesyan was the chief administrator of the Moscow Drama Theater on Perovskaya, the chief administrator of the Ryazan State Regional Drama Theater. He is the author of more than fifty performances, including in the theaters of Moscow, Prague, Nizhny Novgorod, Yerevan, Ryazan, Barnaul, Tolyatti, Taganrog, Almaty, the theater center Y. O'Neill (USA).
However, as it turned out, the Minister of Culture Lilith Makunts was mistaken and the artistic director of the theater should not be elected, but appointed by the ministry. Employees of the theater, for whom this information became like a cold water tub, organized a collection of signatures, and asked the minister to take into account the point of view of the majority of theater staff. After collecting signatures, Makunts, having met with one of the theater's artists, said that all candidates for the role of artistic director must have the opportunity to present their candidature and will have an interview at the Ministry of Culture, and on October 7 a new artistic director of the theater will be appointed. The Minister noted that the majority opinion will be taken into account. However, later one of the ministry employees called Nersisyan and said that he might not be present for an interview. For four weeks in a row, theater staff have been trying to meet with the minister, but Makunts has not bothered to listen to them. In an open letter to the Prime Minister, in particular, it says: "According to our information, the candidature of Suren Shahverdyan is being considered for the position of the head of the theater. this position. It turns out that Gharibyan has the opportunity to meet with one or another cultural worker, and our entire team is simply ignored, "the artists say. Moreover, the staff of the theater was also outraged by the fact that Shahverdyan, during one of the television programs, had previously stated that "there should be no place for the Russian theater in free Armenia and it should be closed". "The question arises, why Shakhverdyan, who is so hateful about the Russian theater, is preparing to become his artistic director>?
In his letter to the Prime Minister, the theater team expressed its extreme disappointment with the policies of the Ministry of Culture and noted that he considers Nersisyan to be the best candidate for the position of artistic director of the theater.
In a conversation with the correspondent of ArmInfo, some members of the team noted that the policy of the Ministry of Culture directly contradicts the principles of the velvet revolution, based on the transfer of real power from the administrative officials to the public. Moreover, it is unclear obstinate their unwillingness to promote the return of talented personnel who were forced to leave their homeland earlier, without finding here a worthy use for their abilities.