Festival "School. Studio. Workshop" gathers in its playbill performances of like-minded people. Those who understand and profess theater as a territory of continuous search, theater as a place of constant learning, theater as a collaboration of artists of one creative faith and one creative blood, theater as a zone of co-creation.

Those who have gone through one school, united for the sake of serving one goal, living according to the principle of the workshop meet every year in St. Petersburg at the festival "School. Studio. Workshop".

"SSW-23" presents performances of graduates of the directing workshop of Grigory Kozlov in RGISI of different years. Last season's premieres will be presented by Egor Chernyshov ("Okayannye dneye", Prokopyevsky Drama Theater), Roman Gabria ("Don Juan", Norilsk Polar Drama Theater), Arina Gulimova ("My Grandfather Was a Cherry Tree", Omsk Drama Theater), Serafima Kramer ("Look Back in Anger", Tyumen BDT), Maria Romanova ("Joy Against All Odds", Russian Drama Theater, Sukhum), Dmitry Khokhlov and Konstantin Soya ("How Anya Took Daddy to the RAYcenter", SKHT, St. Petersburg). The Workshop itself is participating in the festival with Alexander Goshukov's "Warsaw Melody" (Artistic Director Grigory Kozlov).

The festival's directorial laboratory in 2023 is dedicated to the work of the outstanding Russian writer Andrei Bitov. Young St. Petersburg directors will turn to Bitov's novel Pushkin's House, which is an example of Russian postmodernism and harks back to the novels of Dostoevsky and Nabokov. The students of one master, each with his own creative handwriting, but united by common artistic and moral values, will present fragments of the novel in the format of sketches, from which a single large performance will be assembled later.

The educational program of the festival includes lectures by leading theater historians, playwrights, and theatrical figures.

One of the youngest theater festivals in Russia, "School" is aimed at preserving and developing such a significant structure for the Russian theater as studio theater, theater-master studio, theater-school, a structure based on continuous creative education and professional development. In different years the festival has presented to the St. Petersburg public different types of slices of the season's picture: studios from Russia and abroad, theater schools of Russia, student works of pupils of outstanding masters. In 2022, the festival brought together the best performances of Russian directors - graduates of Grigory Kozlov's workshop at RGISI.

The goal of the festival is to establish a creative dialog between generations, to establish the principles of passing the profession "from hand to hand", to give the audience an idea of the main theatrical trends, to acquaint them with the principles and laws of perception of modern dramatic theater.

The program of the festival includes Maria Romanova's play "MARQUEZ. Dreams of Solitude" (F.Iskander Drama Theater, Sukhum, Abkhazia), Egor Chernyshov's play "The Story of One Crime" (Theater "On Spasskaya", Kirov), Anton Bezyazykov's play "Profitable Place" (Drama Theater of Kuzbass, Kemerovo), Roman Gabria's play "Karenin A." (Tyumen Bolshoi Drama Theater, St. Petersburg), Natalia Lapina's play "Days of Saulia" (City Theater, St. Petersburg), Natalia Lapina's play "Days of Saulia" (Tyumen Bolshoi Drama Theater, St. Petersburg). "(Tyumen Bolshoi Drama Theater), Natalia Lapina's play "Days of Savelius" (City Theater, St. Petersburg) and Grigory Kozlov and Maxim Fomin's play "Antigone" (Theater "Workshop", St. Petersburg). The plays of the festival playbill will be shown on the stages of the "Masterskaya" Theater, the "On Liteiny" Theater and the Kamennoostrovsky Theater (Second Stage of the Tovstonogov BDT).

As part of the festival, a director's laboratory was traditionally held on the small stage of the Workshop Theater. This year's theme was "He called for mercy for the fallen". Director Evgeny Zakirov (a graduate of Sergei Zhenovach's workshop, Moscow) showed a sketch of the play "Gondla" based on N. Gumilev's play. Philip Gurevich (graduate of O.Kudryashov's workshop, Moscow) presented a sketch of the play "Secret Life" based on T.Malik's script. The actors of the theater "Workshop" played a sketch of the play "Equus" based on the play by P.Schaeffer. Each sketch was discussed by the audience and theater critics.

Lectures and creative meetings devoted to modern cultural trends and their interrelation with cultural traditions of the past were held by theater figure Oleg Loevsky, art historian Anna Nekrylova and philosopher Lev Zaks.

Like-minded people who have gone through the same school, united in a studio, living according to the principle of a workshop – in constant work, in constant search - meet in St. Petersburg at the festival "School. Studio. Studio. Workshop."

In 2021 the festival "School. Studio. Workshop" will be held in the format of a creative laboratory. The declared theme of the festival in 2021 is "St. Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad-St. Petersburg". The combination of the Leningrad-Petersburg theater school with the works of the Northern Capital's writers, from Dostoevsky to Volodin, makes it possible to stretch a continuous thread of artistic, aesthetic and ethical connection between the times. The festival brought together directors – Grigory Kozlov's students of different years to work on sketches of performances. After each show there was a discussion of the sketch with the audience. The moderator was Oleg Loevsky.

The main task of the festival "School. Studio. Workshop" is to gather in one poster those who are interested in continuous learning, discovery and cognition of new names, forms, methods, techniques and meanings.

"School. Studio. Workshop" is a festival that traditionally brings together theaters that grew out of acting courses and theaters that retain the principle of studio. For the third year in a row, like-minded people who have gone through the same school and live according to the workshop principle meet in St. Petersburg in December.

This year, the festival is focusing on the part of the festival that is defined by the word "Workshop" in its title. The festival will conduct a large laboratory work: directors from different countries will present sketches of plays based on the works of national authors. The small stage of the "Workshop" theater will be given for a week to the creative laboratory, and St. Petersburg spectators will be able to make their own idea of the cross-section of the actual world theater.

Also in the program of the III festival "School. Studio. Workshop" – works of young directors, documentary performances and bright theatrical experiments.

For those who want to learn even more about today's theater, the festival is preparing a program of meetings with outstanding masters of theater. There will be a creative meeting with Oskaras Korshunovas and Marius Ivashkevicius, as well as lectures: "Letters to Juliet" by the world-renowned Shakespearean scholar Alexei Bartoshevich, "Theater Studies as Regional Studies" by theater critic Alyona Karas and "Contemporary Russian Dramaturgy Today" by playwright and screenwriter Mikhail Durnenkov.

The II International School. Theatre. Workshop Festival opened on 4 December with the play Last Summer in Chulimsk. The festival's main objective is to bring together a general picture of school-theatres, of theatres that practice an uninterrupted process of learning and creative growth, into a single playbill. We decided to invite those theatres with whom we share a spiritual affinity and creative faith, those that adhere to studio principles.

The first School. Studio. Workshop Festival, which successfully took place last year, was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Grigory Kozlov's acting and directing studio. This second festival is dedicated to the memory of Dmitry Vladimirovich Brusnikin, a wonderful actor and director, the head of an acting studio at the Moscow Art Theatre School and artistic director of the Praktika Theatre, who passed away last summer. Dmitry Brusnikin's students participated in last year's festival with their productions Transsib and Culmination. This year our festival will close with the Dmitry Brusnikin Workshop and Praktika Theatre's joint production The Man from Podolsk. Seryozha is Very Dumb.

The festival program also includes productions by the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre (Moscow), Julyensemble (Meyerhold Center, Moscow), At the Bridge Theatre (Perm), Parafraz (Glazov), Credo (Bulgaria), Brite Theatre (UK), Bolshoi Puppet Theatre, City Theatre, Youth Theatre on the Fontanka, Nebolshoi Drama Theatre and Subbota.

The program is not limited to performances. Just like last year, staged readings of contemporary plays will take place on the Masterskaya's Small Stage, and on 5 December in the Actor's House there will be a chat with one of the most interesting theatre directors in Russia today, the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre's artistic director Yevgeny Kamenkovich!

II School. Studio. Workshop Festival is dedicated to the memory of Dmitry Vladimirovich Brusnikin, a wonderful actor and director, the head of an acting studio at the Moscow Art Theatre School and artistic director of the Praktika Theatre.

First Festival "School. Studio. Workshop" is timed to coincide with the anniversary of Grigory Kozlov's workshop: twenty years ago the first directing course was recruited, and Kozlov became the head – or, as they say in theater schools, the master.

Since then, four generations of students have graduated, two courses now make up the Workshop theater, and this year the theater invites like-minded colleagues to visit. We want to show in one poster today's overall picture of the life of the theater-school, a theater in which there is a constant ongoing process of learning, creative development, to bring together acting courses that have become theaters, and theaters that retain the principle of studio, close to us in spirit and creative faith. We hope that the review of studio theater under the aegis of the Workshop Theater will become an annual event.

The festival opens with a creative meeting with Sergey Zhenovach, an outstanding contemporary director, teacher, and creator of Moscow's Studio of Theatrical Art theater – a rare but dear guest in St. Petersburg.

The initiator of the festival, Theatre Workshop, will take part in the program with a recent premiere, played by the current generation of Grigory Kozlov's students, the fourth year of the Russian State Institute of Stage Arts – "The Master and Margarita".

The festival program includes Pyotr Fomenko's Workshop with the play "The Cursed North", Dmitry Brusnikin's Workshop with the project "Transsib", Minusinsk Drama Theatre with the play "Lullaby for Sophia" by Alexey Pesegov (the first tour of the theater in St. Petersburg! ), Mikhail Bychkov's Voronezh Chamber Theatre with "Thunderstorm" and the Actors' Studio Theatre of Malaysia at the Performing Arts Center from Kuala Lumpur with the play "Not Tamed".

In addition to the Workshop, St. Petersburg is represented by MDT – Theater of Europe with Lev Dodin's "Fear. Love. Despair", Youth Theater on Fontanka with the play "On the Wedding Day", "Small Drama Theater" directed by Lev Erenburg with "The Brothers Karamazov", "Social Art Theater" directed by Larisa Gracheva with the play "Zlo", "City Theater" directed by Natalia Lapina with the play "Vakhtangov/Chekhov.docx", "Theater of Generations" directed by Danila Korogodsky with the play "Next. Shakespeare", Bolshoi Puppet Theater with Ruslan Kudashov's performance "Brodsky. Out of Nowhere."