Scandals in the Yermolovsky Theater continued with the courts lost by the Menshikov Directorate

This obscene story began back in 2020, the first pandemic year, when Yermolovsky’s artistic director Oleg Menshikov, unexpectedly for everyone, announced the dismissal of 18 artists from the troupe at once. The theatrical community (and not it alone) was horrified: how can you do this to people in such a difficult time, frightening with its uncertainty for workers in all areas?

However, the question did not in the least embarrass either Oleg Evgenievich or his administration, and the artists were thrown out into the street, motivating the “beauty” of their decision simply: the actors are so-so, not busy enough, in a word, ballast for a theater headed by a fashionable artist.

But Oleg Evgenievich did not take into account that the “ballast” would show fighting qualities and begin to fight for his rights in a way that theaters more powerful than Yermolovsky did not dream of (for example, such as the old Sovremennik). Moreover, he will fight desperately, turning for help to professionals – lawyers, employees of the trade union of cultural workers.

The result was not long in coming: within a year, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow reinstated the majority of those fired. And who would doubt that the Labor Code will not protect illegally dismissed workers: while it is still in force. But the top of Yermolovsky, for some reason remaining confident in their rightness, decided to further test the strength of labor legislation and filed an appeal with the Moscow City Court. And he dismissed the appeal. As they say, a silent scene.

“We can say that today the theater continues to fight against those who are objectionable, trying to cancel the court decisions by filing appeals with the Moscow City Court,” actress Elena Burkhanova-Kalinina tells MK, she is just one of the dismissed. – So, on August 11 of this year, two complaints were considered by the Moscow City Court, and the higher court agreed with the Tverskoy District Court that our artists Galina Vlasova and Ellina Kachanova (Kozlova) were indeed fired illegally and are subject to immediate reinstatement with payment to them wages for forced absenteeism and compensation for non-pecuniary damage. I think that appeals in the cases of other artists will have the same fate.

– And what is happening today in your theater, a stone’s throw from Red Square? According to the poster, the performances will start playing from September 16…

“The vacation for the artists is coming to an end, today or tomorrow everyone should go to work,” continues Elena Burkhanova-Kalinina. – Rehearsals have not yet begun, and it is not clear who will be invited to the gathering of the troupe this year.

In recent years, Oleg Evgenievich invited only actors close to him, such as Petrov, Asmus, Tatarenkov, and so on. So it was last year, when they celebrated the beginning of the season in a hotel next to the theater. But even the people and the honored ones were not invited to the hotel, and then, I remember, the date, time and place of the gathering of VIPs were kept strictly secret from the team, and the list of invitees changed several times.

– Strange selectivity! There is no such thing in any theater in Moscow, and indeed in the country. – when it comes to gathering a troupe, everyone is equal, but in your country the artists seem to be divided into clean and unclean. Maybe something will change this year?

– In this, it is also not clear whether all the artists will be allowed to attend the gathering of the troupe and whether it will be at all as such. It also remains unclear whether actors reinstated by the court, who were previously illegally fired, will begin to take part in performances and rehearsals.

– Out of the thirteen colleagues of yours reinstated by the court, how many of your colleagues actually occupied the current repertoire?

– Of the thirteen, only three, but there is a nuance: Pavel Galich and Maria Bortnik were introduced to the crowd, and Anya Skvarnik was also introduced, but she was never allowed to play a single performance. All this is more like a mockery, but the guys honestly do everything.

The rest of the restored artists are mostly unemployed. They are not occupied in performances and rehearsals, they are denied holding events in support of the SVO.

The trade union is not only not given the premises that it is supposed to be under the law, but they are also not provided with places to post announcements through the trade union, and this is specific information: vouchers, fees, New Year’s tickets, etc. And we clearly understand that the refusal of the theater management to publish the activities of the trade union is directly related to its only desire – to get rid of this very trade union.

Hearings are still ongoing in the Tverskoy District Court in the case of the artist Vasilisa Piavko, who was fired at the end of last season. And we are still waiting for a series of court cases in the Moscow City Court on appeals. The contracts with the artist Vsevolod Boldin and the director Galina Dubovskaya, who, by the way, has always been the director of Menshikov’s productions and ensured their success, have not been renewed.

– And what about the Department of Culture, under whose subordination is the theater? Is the department satisfied with the situation with squabbles, courts? Someone should be wiser: after all, the theater is state-owned, not private.

– There is a response from the department to our appeal: the employer violates the law, dismisses illegally. There is a penalty for this. Well, at least some kind of penalty would be announced …

The story, which is dragging on for the second season at the Yermolovsky Theater and has already passed into a chronic stage, is in many ways instructive, not only as a local one. I’m afraid that it can become typical for any theater where the management violates (through ignorance or impunity) the rights of its employees, and they increasingly go to court. And his brother, the actor, keeps quiet, naively believing that he will never be in the place of the dismissed …