On Friday, December 17, 2021, the Association of Russian-speaking Theaters of America (ART) held a conference to discuss the effects of the quarantine on the theatrical community and people involved in theater. Although the theme of the conference was presented as "Theater after quarantine – new problems and solutions", some participants suggested changing the word "problems" to the phrase "challenges of the time" and talked about how important it was not to bow to the burden of problems, but to find new solutions.

The conference was opened by Anastasia Vorontsova, President of the ART Association. She talked about the Association of Russian-Speaking Theaters (ART)’s 5th anniversary. ART was created with the goal of uniting and supporting creative workers who give their time and energy to theatrical arts in the Russian language in the United States and Canada. She also introduced the members of the Board of Directors of the Association and the curator of the “Live Classics” competition in the USA, Tatiana Shchelokova, who spoke about the projects that the Association carried out in the outgoing year 2021. The next person to speak was Oleg Golub, chairman of the jury of the “CONSTELLATION” festival. The festival was created during the pandemic, and is now transitioning from the online format to the live one. Oleg is an actor and a director of theater and cinema, screenwriter and TV presenter, movie director, and a screenwriter of short films of the project “#LIVE”. He runs his own creative workshop in Russia.

Igor Portnoy, a singer, actor, director and artistic director of the show "Broadway Stars", shared his experience of creating an online musical in a presentation titled "Online Musical From Idea to Embodiment".

Olga Predit, director of the theater Zerkalo and manager of the Summer school for children, shared her experiences with the yearly summer theater school ART hosts which will be taking place for the fifth time in Maryland, USA. The summer school gathers children from all over America and Canada for creative development under the guidance of experienced mentors from both Russia and America.

Kira Mirutenko, theater director from Finland, noted how important it was to support one’s fellow man in the new COVID-19 reality, and informed the conference about the upcoming projects of the theater and the cultural center "Art-Master" located in Finland, of which she is the founder and artistic director. Mirutenko is also the Chief organizer of cultural and educational projects for children and teenagers and youth camp called "Multicolored summer", as well as director of the international theater festivals “ArtMasterFest” and “SampoFestFinland”, and the poetry and video poetry festival "My Poet".

The next presenter was Ilya Borovitsky, a teacher of directing and acting, theater director. The head of the youth theater studio "Corridor" and the enterprise "Actors' Association" in Ashdod, Israel, shared his experience on the topic "Rehearsals of a one-man show using the Zoom platform".

Shamil Najafzade (Shamil Sean Najaf) shared his experiences of staging and filming performances and films in lockdown conditions. Shamil is a film director, artist, screenwriter, and production designer. Najafzade is an Honored Artist of Azerbaijan, and Professor in USA.

Olga Pronina - theater and film actress, director-teacher, screenwriter, head of the theater department of the T.N. Khrennikov School of Arts (Moscow, Russia) spoke to the audience about new and old forms of work in the post-academy space, the title of her speech being "The handshake of one or in the eyes of millions".

At the round table of the conference, questions were raised about seminars and master classes, the creation of a business card page containing the resumes of people who are ready to work in theaters (screenwriters, playwrights and videographers), as well as about a new direction: landscape theaters.

I want to thank everyone who supported our association in 2021. Thank you!

Important links and conference resources:

• Link to the summer camp website: https://associationrt.org/summercamp/
• Association Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/978394848961296
• Facebook group for "Art-Master" (Finland) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/523738117962651
• Facebook group of the Association of Figures of Russian Theaters abroad: https://www.facebook.com/groups/978394848961296
• Ilya Borovitski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXeU4du42u4
• The conference video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aDqWnUHm5T

Now that the whole world is in quarantine and continues to live in unprecedented conditions, we understand that communication and creative energy cannot be stopped. It is time to rethink and learn to live in a new way.
Modern opportunities are limitless, we are close, no matter what countries we live in. Perfection is not achievable, and we are always moving forward, so now is a great opportunity to learn the technique of speech and the artistic word. Now more than ever we are going through these troubles together.
In this context, the Association of Russian-speaking theaters of America (ART), with the support of the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation and the Russian Center of the International Association of Amateur Theaters (AITA), decided to conduct a series of classes for theater workers working in Russian around the world. This project was called the online THEATER PROJECT "AUTUMN SCHOOL".
During a series of master classes, managers of amateur Russian-language theaters studied the basics of directing, acting, and speech techniques. In total, the project involved more than 40 people from different parts of the world, working not only in the United States and Canada, but also in Italy, Finland, Israel, Russia, Turkey and the Baltic States.
The class on Directing was led by Mikhail Nikolayevich Chumachenko, Professor of the Department of Drama Directing at the Russian Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS). During the master class, M. N. Chumachenko analyzed and touched upon the issues of staging prose material of the fairy tale "Adventure of Pinocchio". In the second lesson, using the method of effective analysis, the relationship between the proposed circumstances and events in the play-fairy tale by A. Tolstoy was compared.
The second master class in the series of seminars was an acting class. Classes were taught by Roman Mikhailovich KALKAEV, an actor of the Moscow Theater of Music and Poetry under the direction of Elena Kamburova, a theater teacher, a member of the Union of theater workers of the Russian Federation.
The master class on speech technique and artistic word was conducted by Nina Denisovna Amelina - theater and film actress, speech teacher of the school of speech under the guidance of Elena Laskova and the Moscow school of Radio and Television.

Many participants wrote words of gratitude to the organizers and pointed out how important such events are during the quarantine period, when artists and theater workers in particular are the first to suffer.

 "I want to express my gratitude for organizing a great seminar.
And for opening my eyes and giving me inspiration! I am not alone, there are many of us and we are a great interesting community from all over the world. “, wrote one of the participants of the school.

https://youtu.be/CAzs-tLx0HI

https://youtu.be/kkFVqsklaTc