In the evening, the capital of Kyrgyzstan is especially beautiful. Bright rays of streetlights break through the dense green veil formed by the branches of trees, flowerbeds glow with colorful reflections, and the black southern sky fades at the edges from the electric glow. However, perhaps the most beautiful place in the city of Bishkek is Oak Park. Almost century-old oaks, planted by the founders of the city, grow here freely and broadly. In the shade of the oaks stands a large building. This is the Russian State Drama Theater named after Chingiz Torikulovich Aitmatov (formerly named after Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya).
A wide avenue adorned with garlands of lights connects the Russian theater with another, the largest entertainment establishment in the republic — the Kyrgyz State Opera and Ballet Theater. And if you step aside a little and pass the Government House, you will reach the Kyrgyz State Drama Theater.
The mention of these theaters here is not accidental. It is not only about their territorial proximity. The emergence and development of the Russian Drama Theater in the former city of Frunze is a process inseparable from the entire history of theatrical art in Kyrgyzstan. All theatrical collectives of the republican center grew parallel to and together with each other. And now they develop in close communication. Mutual enrichment and constant assistance — this is what is particularly characteristic of all theaters in Kyrgyzstan.
For the modern resident of the capital of Kyrgyzstan, it is difficult to even imagine what pre-revolutionary Pishpek looked like. Only adobe houses remain from that time. Their number decreases every year.
Through the muddy streets of the provincial town, vans with visiting artists, magicians, and traveling circus performers sometimes moved.
People flocked in crowds to such spectacles. The banter of the fairground, simple tricks with colored ribbons and cards — after all, it was captivating against the backdrop of hopeless provincial boredom.
In the district town of Pishpek, there was its own miniature "society": small officials, teachers, telegraphists sometimes organized amateur performances, staging old vaudevilles or scenes from Ukrainian operettas. These performances represented all the "art" of Pishpek at that time.
There was no professional dramatic art in pre-revolutionary Kyrgyzstan. Elements of drama, or rather, dramatized action, existed in embryonic forms.
The emergence of Kyrgyz dramaturgy and theater as an independent form of art dates back to the early years of Soviet power. Initially, there were performances by amateur groups that staged plays written by Kyrgyz writers with their own efforts. The birth of the first professional, or rather semi-professional troupe occurred in 1926.
As for the Russian theater, its creation was preceded by the organization of numerous dramatic collectives, which disbanded as quickly as they arose.
In 1934-1935, the first large theatrical collective, "Kyrnac Theater," was organized in Frunze. On its stage, alongside Kyrgyz performances, Russian plays were also staged. And here is what this theater showed the audience: "The Unclean Force," "False Shame," "Eve," "The Story of Five Tails." Who remembers these plays now? They have long been forgotten, as have the performers of such productions.
In 1933, a group of young actors was sent to Kyrgyzstan from the Moscow GITIS. Boris Grigorievich Feldman was appointed as the chief director, and Vladimir Yakovlevich Vasilyev as the assistant director. The group was led by a graduate of the directing faculty, V. I. Pakhomov.
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of this fact for the development of Kyrgyz culture. The establishment of the national theater could not have occurred without the most active assistance and influence of the Russian theatrical school.
Here is what the People's Artist of the Kyrgyz SSR A. Kuttubaev wrote on the fifteenth anniversary of the theater: "The Russian theater played a significant role in the development of Kyrgyz dramatic art, which had been completely absent until that time." In his article, A. Kuttubaev further spoke of the camaraderie between Russian and Kyrgyz artists, of the creative mutual assistance that became a law from the day the theater named after N. K. Krupskaya was founded.
To start the work of the new collective, three already prepared productions were brought from Moscow: "The Storm," "The Death of Hope," and "The Profitable Place." All these plays were staged as part of studio work in Moscow, and the troupe could immediately present a new good repertoire.
From the first reviews preserved on the yellowed pages of newspapers, one can judge what impression the new theater made on the residents of Frunze. Almost no actors from that time remain now, directors and leaders have changed several times, a new generation of artists has grown up, but one can confidently speak of the traditions of the theater that were born then — 25 years ago. The art of life truth, the striving for genuine, in the good sense of the word, theatricality in contrast to the prevailing banality on the provincial stage — this is what caught the eyes of the audience and critics in the first performances and remains the most important principle of the theater even now.
It would be an unnecessary exaggeration to attribute all the successes of the Kyrgyz Drama Theater to the fraternal mutual assistance with Russian actors. National personnel were being trained in Moscow, and more and more certified actors appeared in the Kyrgyz troupe. The time came when the Kyrgyz Drama Theater could fully compete with Russian drama, and its leading masters gained all-Union fame. But all this came later; in the early days, it was precisely the Russian troupe that helped their Kyrgyz comrades take decisive steps.
Interesting details about the early days are recalled by V. F. Kazakov, one of those who arrived from Moscow in 1935. The theater was very poorly adapted for work. The heating was initially non-functional, and there was terrible cold in the auditorium and even in the actors' dressing rooms. There was no one to write the decorations. And so several young actors, including Kazakov, armed with brushes, boldly painted canvases, creating the necessary scenery for the performances.
The first work of the theater, completed already in Frunze, was "The Capital" by Yanovsky. This now-forgotten work was among the most relevant plays of those days. The play reproduced the history of the struggle for the metro: the first projects, the debate around them, the heroic labor of workers.
Thus, the theater's repertoire from the very first steps contained a striving for a combat, urgent theme, combined with a broad use of all the best that world dramaturgy had created. The theater workers themselves wrote about this: "Our goal is to show the main processes occurring in our country: the struggle of the oppressed for liberation from the yoke of autocracy, the triumph of socialist construction, the education of new people, the creation of a new, Soviet morality."
That such a formulation was not an empty declaration can be easily verified by examining the posters from 1935-1937. "Platon Krechet," "Glory," "The Distant," "The Fiery Bridge," "The Death of the Squadron," "Love Yarovaya," "The Man with a Gun" — all these works of Soviet playwrights, which are the golden fund of our theatrical art, in which the most important events and phenomena of modernity were most vividly reflected, formed the basis of the repertoire of the Russian theater.
Of course, it cannot be claimed that everything was well in the creative activity of the collective from the very first years. Formalist trends, particularly strong in some Moscow and provincial theaters in the 1920s and 1930s, also affected the work of the Frunze theater. In the design of the play "The Capital," for example (artist Tamany), the playing area in all scenes had the shape of the letter "M" (a conditional designation of the Moscow metro). Such a purely formalistic invention constrained the actors' performance and did not help reveal the central idea of the play. In 1937, a significant group of creative workers came to the theater, who are still associated with it: A. F. Kuleshov, O. D. Dussan, V. S. Officers, E. V. Zhenin, T. P. Artamonova.
The strengthened creative collective on the eve of the Great Patriotic War took on such complex productions as "Talents and Admirers," "Uncle Vanya." This period also marks the first attempt by the theater to show the play by Kyrgyz playwright K. Eshmambetov "Sarynjy," which was destined to play an important role in the history of the theater.
The war years were years of intense, combat work for the theater. The repertoire was restructured — predominantly patriotic plays were staged, uplifting the audience to feats and glorious deeds in the name of the beloved Motherland.
Plays were staged: "Duel," "In the Steppes of Ukraine," "Partisans in the Steppes of Ukraine," "Manas and Almamбет," "The Invasion," "Professor Mamlock," "Field Marshal Kutuzov."
Of course, the theater did not limit its entire repertoire solely to purely military, patriotic themes. Productive work continued on the classical repertoire.
