Kalyagin replied to everyone – MK

No sooner had an open letter from the leaders of the Youth Theater – Ginkas and Yanovskaya to the chairman of the STD Kalyagin appeared on the Internet on Friday morning, as by the evening of the same day San Sanych replied. Moreover, “everyone, everyone, everyone”, and not just old comrades in theatrical business.

Of course, all the noise is connected with the forthcoming reform of the Golden Mask national theater award. Her project is now being developed at STD and is expected to be completed at the end of October. But too many interests and stakeholders have converged on ZM. Some of the reforms are losing influence, while others hope to gain it. In general, we are witnessing a great game. Therefore, one should not be surprised by public correspondence, official statements, manifestos.

Here Ginkas and Yanovskaya, in their letter in the public space, essentially accused Kalyagin of destroying the Golden Mask, which was born under Ulyanov. The reduction in nominations and the control by the Ministry of Culture over the expert council – that’s what they accused the chairman of the STD. They finished their message in the spirit of lamentations: “San Sanych, dear, wake up! There is time to change your mind! We have many years, do not take sin on the soul. Do not enter the history of the theater as a destroyer of the wonderful circulatory system of our theatrical body, the center of which, the heart of which, is the Golden Mask. Moreover, in the form in which it has existed for decades and gives life-giving force to the huge organism of the Russian theater.

To which Kalyagin, in a calmer tone and not without irony, immediately answered everyone – “who revels in rumors! Who is engaged in deliberate provocations and false statements! And who panics in our difficult time, and for whom the new edition of the Regulations of the Golden Mask Prize and festival is perceived as a global catastrophe, as the destruction of the usual existence. And even to those who just walked by and asked: “Why are they making noise here?”

And then Kalyagin writes: “But today there are a lot of complaints about the work of the festival, and there are, by the way, theaters that categorically refuse to participate in it. That is why we are looking for ways to make the Golden Mask Prize and the Golden Mask festival better. This is a kind of dispensary. Each of us knows what it is. In order to be healthy, you need to undergo a medical examination at least once a year or once every five years. And, relatively speaking, not only people need medical examination, but, for example, our houses, and we repair pipes if they start to rot. This is a mandatory procedure for any business. And now we are engaged in it, this is a difficult process, and I gladly invite those who are able to participate in it constructively. On September 7, a meeting of the Working Group will take place, it includes respected people, I will name a few names: Vladimir Urin, Evgeny Pisarev, Alexander Fokin, Farid Bikchantaev, Andrey Vorobyov and others.

And my separate big greetings to Kama Ginkas and Henrietta Yanovskaya, I know them well and appreciate them very much. Dear Kama, dear Henrietta Naumovna! You write me an open letter, and I answer you openly. Although, in my opinion, this is a strange way of communication between friends. I can repeat after you: “Someone is the devil and already your enemy for sure” advised you to choose this form of conversation with me. Anyway. Now to the point.

First. We are working on the Regulations on the Prize and the Golden Mask festival. And this work is not behind the scenes at all, everyone who is ready and able to help is called. Please come, we are ready to listen to everyone. I will be glad if you come to our meeting on September 7th.

Second. The name of Mikhail Alexandrovich Ulyanov is no less sacred to me than to you. “Professionals to professionals” – this is Ulyanov’s phrase, said when the “Golden Mask” was the Moscow Prize. There were only seven nominations, and all the winners were so universally recognized that there were no disputes among the “professionals”.

And Third. The reconstruction of the Golden Mask award began with the arrival of Eduard Boyakov, and this happened already when I was there. Boyakov worked for several years. When Boyakov left in 2004, the Executive Directorate was headed by Maria Revyakina. And then no one called the change of one manager to another the “August coup”, as Mikhail Bychkov did today. The comparison is, frankly, awesome.

Fourth. It would be possible to analyze all your theses further, but reading them, I realized that you are not familiar with all the changes in the Regulations. For example, you are persuading me not to remove the Lighting Designer nomination, but no one was going to remove it.

Everyone knows that panic, alarmism does not lead to good. There is a good word – ethics. Ethics of professional communication.

Alexander Kalyagin

09/01/2023

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