The second national academic theater, Kolasau's, also gets a director from Moscow
The play for the theater's 100th anniversary is being staged by a Russian, not a Belarusian.
Andrei Lyubimov. Photo: aparte.ru
The anniversary production of the Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theater in Vitebsk has been entrusted to Moscow director Andrei Lyubimov. He is preparing 'The Blue Bird' by Maurice Maeterlinck. The premiere is scheduled for December 12.
Konstantin Goncharov, the artistic director of the Kolasau Theater, commented to 'SB' that the upcoming production is a play about the theater itself and the memory of generations.
“We want this work to become the main symbol of our century,” he stated.
66-year-old Andrei Lyubimov is the founder and artistic director of the Moscow drama theater 'ApARTe'.
Inviting Russian artists has already become a common practice for another national theater – Kupalauski. In March 2026, Russian Dmitry Akimov, who previously worked in the Russian provincial theaters of Cheremkhovo, Tomsk, and Matygino, was appointed its artistic director.
Even earlier, after almost the entire troupe left in 2020, Kupalauski began recruiting actors from Russia. They had to master the Belarusian language specifically for working in the theater.