Employees of Yerevan Russian Drama Theater named after Stanislavsky  are outraged by failure to fulfill promises of th Minister of Culture

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.