The city of "Golden": Omsk, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg can accept the "Mask"

The two-day All-Russian Golden Mask Award and Festival Conference kicked off in Moscow on September 29. It brought together more than 100 participants — these are the ministers of culture of the regions and the main figures of the theatrical sphere. About what awaits the main industrial award in the new season, where it will be held and whether it may have competitors — in the Izvestia article.

Where will the Golden Mask be held

On September 29, the Children's Musical Theater of the Young Actor was sold out. Representatives of federal and regional authorities, theater managers, festival organizers, and the leadership of the Union of Theatrical Figures of the Russian Federation, including its chairman, Vladimir Mashkov, came to the II All-Russian Conference to discuss the prospects for the development of the Golden Mask Award and Festival, which is undergoing its rebirth.

The statutory documents have undergone changes, but not completely — adjustments are being made now, the criteria for nominating nominees for the competition and the parameters by which the performances will be evaluated are being determined. But it is already clear that the Golden Mask has taken a big step into the regions. In 2025, the award ceremony of its laureates was held for the first time in Kazan — in the new modern building of the Galiasgar Kamala Theater. The example was a chance for theatrical Russia to host the Golden Mask. Then, immediately after the ceremony, Vladimir Mashkov announced that proposals had been received from four regions. He did not specify which ones. But, apparently, the number of applicants has increased now. The city where the best of the competition will be honored next time will be named in October at a meeting of the award's presidium.

"Holding the Golden Mask in the regions is a noble and successful idea," Alexander Titel, artistic director of MAMT, chairman of the Musical Theater jury for the 2023-2024 season, told Izvestia. — I think there will be many people who want to attend the ceremony. This will be an additional incentive for our multinational theater family. It is important that these are really powerful cultural, theatrical, and musical centers.

The region should be ready to receive guests from all over the country, and it should have finances for this. As suggested by Alexander Titel, the candidates may be the cities of the Urals — Perm, Yekaterinburg, theater centers of the Volga region, and then there is Siberia with Novosibirsk and, of course, St. Petersburg. This issue was discussed with particular interest on the sidelines of the conference. As the interlocutors told Izvestia, Omsk also has a good chance of accepting the Golden Mask.

The Mask and the children

As for the changes, the National Theatre Award has decided not to award any more awards in private nominations. There will be no winners for the best role or director now. Vladimir Mashkov explains this decision by saying that the theater is a collective matter. So, it is necessary to honor all those involved, in a word, the whole performance. Another innovation is to celebrate productions for children. By the way, it so happened that the Golden Mask conference was also held within the walls of the new building of the Children's Musical Theater of the Young Actor.

— As soon as the Golden Mask appeared, we appealed to the management of the award to pay attention to children's performances, but they waved us off, — said Alexander Fedorov, artistic director and founder of DMTYU. — And only the new management heard us. And when it became possible, it turned out that 8% of the total applications (789 applications were submitted from 83 regions of Russia for the Golden Mask competition, the 2024/25 season) were children's plays, 65 productions. This has to be done. Children are the future audience. Because theater is a living art, AI will not break through here.

As Alexander Fedorov clarified in an interview with Izvestia, age criteria will also be developed at the conference.

— For now, we are deciding whether young artists can participate in the performances, and how many children. But these should be professional groups, not clubs," said the artistic director.

Another innovation in the regulations of the Golden Mask was proposed by the expert council, which wants to add an out-of-competition nomination.

"Last year, we came across the fact that some of the performances were inclusive in their form and composition," Dmitry Rodionov, chairman of the Drama and Puppet Theater Expert Council for the 2023/24 season, told Izvestia. — Special actors came on stage — someone can't see well or can't see at all, someone has a hearing problem. And we suggested discussing and possibly celebrating such performances outside the main competition.

Among the contenders for the "Golden Mask" there were performances about their own. As they say in the organizing committee, there are many of them in regional theaters. But they will not be singled out in a separate nomination. It is not the subject matter that is being evaluated, but the quality of the production.

Vladimir Mashkov believes that the Golden Mask should consolidate the festival movement around itself. There are more than a hundred such events in Russia. The organizing Committee even suggested that festivals could nominate interesting productions for the Golden Mask, as theaters do not always dare to take such a prestigious award.

Friendship with other festivals can shift the focus and bring other theater festivals to the fore. But the chairman of the Union of Theatrical Figures is not afraid of this. He is even ready to cooperate with potential competitors.

"This is my deepest desire,— Vladimir Mashkov confessed to Izvestia. — The Federation Festival has just been held in Grozny. It's a grandiose city, I recommend it to anyone who hasn't been there. And there I saw a phrase written in gold letters by Akhmat-Hadji Kadyrov, Hero of Russia, the first president of Chechnya: "Without culture there is no nation." This is very accurate. And Moscow hosted the Teatralny Boulevard festival, which was attended by 1.5 million people! The theater lives, unites people.

The entire theater community is also writing a concept for the development of theatrical art until 2035. As the chairman of the STD shared with Izvestia, this is a large document and, probably, the most remarkable thing about it is that it is not sent from above, but is created by people involved independently, based on the proposed circumstances in which each theater and each regional branch of the Union is located.