The main intrigue of the “Golden Mask” was revealed at the Director’s box

Kalyagin and Smirnov spoke about the future of the theater award

On Monday evening, a meeting of the Director’s Lodge took place in the Smirnov mansion on Tverskoy Boulevard, the twenty-first since the creation of this guild association. At its business part, dedicated to the work of theaters in the new season, the first speaker was Alexander Kalyagin’s deputy, Gennady Smirnov. He spoke about the changes that have occurred in the national theater award “Golden Mask”.

Firstly, he denied the rumors that had been frightening the theater community all summer regarding the reform of ZM. According to Smirnov, no one is canceling the Expert Council, and all experts continue to travel to the regions, watching performances in order to form a long list of candidates for the national theater award for the 2022/2023 season, which will be announced soon. So in this part, everything will be as it was, but at the next stage, undoubtedly, we should expect changes,” Smirnov made it clear.

Secondly, he revealed the main intrigue of the “Golden Mask” – Alexander Kalyagin officially took over the duties of the president of “ZM”, and under him a new position was introduced – vice president for creative issues. To this position, the Union of Theater Workers invited Dmitry Trubochkin, a respected doctor of art history in the theater community, secretary of the STD.

Judging by the speech of Gennady Smirnov, now STD will no longer allow discrepancies in who de jure and de facto owns the national theater award. “It was created in the STD and remains in the Union. And not in the ZM directorate,” he emphasized.

Already today, Maria Revyakina, who heads the directorate, received a notification from us about the termination of all relations between the Union and the directorate, – said Smirnov, emphasizing that at one time STD in vain entrusted the management of the festival with management, and therefore the Golden Mask was no longer associated with STD, but with the people who sell tickets. We thank the previous management for their work, but we say goodbye to them,” Kalyagin’s deputy summed up. Earlier it became known that the ZM directorate itself would be headed by Vladimir Misharin, who is now actively forming a new team.