On 24 and 26 December, Project Znanie. VDNH resident actor and stage director Alisa Grebenshchikova presents New Year's Literary Series, prepared for the Exhibitions online programme. In the videos, Alisa will be performing her adaptations of the short story The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry and the fairy tale The Blue Arrow by Gianni Rodari.
On 24 December at 7:00 p.m., Alisa Grebenshchikova with actor Evgeny Kananykhin and musicians Darya Ushakova (violin) and Sergei Geokchaev (piano) will perform their adaptation of the iconic short story by the American writer O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi. This well-anthologised Christmas story for adults that's fit for children too was first published 115 years ago but has not lost any of its relevance to this day. We feel great sympathy for the plight of the characters and get wowed by the denouement, and then we wonder if only young people are capable of such selflessness.
The performance will be streamed on the VDNH VKontakte community page. The stream is available to all—the viewer does not even have to be a registered VK user.
On 26 December at 5:00 p.m., Alisa will perform an even more moving Christmas story, The Voyage of the Blue Arrow by the Italian writer Gianni Rodari, whose 100-year jubilee was marked worldwide earlier this year. This kind and poignant fairy tale makes a great family entertainment: everyone in the family can discuss the captivating plot and the actions of the characters.
'The keynote idea of the book really resonates with me: "The heart comes alive through compassion". To nurture empathy in children is at least as important as to propagate other social skills', said the stage adaptation creator and project director, actress of the Maksim Gorky Moscow Academic Art Theatre (MHAT) Alisa Grebenshchikova.
The music used as accompaniment for the story is from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Children's Album, which offers an extensive palette of tunes perfectly matching the tenor of the events narrated in the production.
The programme features actors Alexander Shiryaev and Evgeny Kananykhin, who are no strangers to the MHAT stage, as well as international prize-winning musicians Darya Ushakova and Sergei Geokchaev.
Closer to New Year's Eve, we have another online show in store for the young audience, prepared by the resident thespian team of the Knowledge. VDNH project. The shows will be streamed via the official VDNH community on Facebook. On 25 December at 7:00 p.m., the Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov Piano Quartet will perform a video play based on The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.On 27 December at 12:00 noon, we will be streaming The Winter Tale, a puppet show for children adapted from the Russian folk tale The Fox and the Wolf by Chemodanchik theatre company. On 29 December at 7:00 p.m., Konstantin Kozhevnikov's Storytelling Theatre will be playing their adaptation of The Snow Queen, a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. No advance registration is required to view the shows. But you need advance registration to get notified that the show is starting soon.
To follow the online programme of this winter's learning season and register for other events prepared in collaboration with the resident actors of Project Znanie. VDNH, visit our website.