Stage Russia and Pushkin House are proud to present an online screening of Gorky’s Children of the Sun, directed at the Red Torch Theatre in Novosibirsk by award-winner Timofey Kulyabin. The recording of the play will be available to watch from Tuesday 3rd — Sunday 8th August, and you’ll also be able to watch a recording of our live conversation over Zoom from Siberia by the three lead actors Pavel Polyakov, Konstantin Telegin and Andrey Chernykh, in conversation with Professor Michael Earley.
Written during the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905, Maxim Gorky's darkly comic Children of the Sun depicts the new middle-class, foolish perhaps but likeable, as they flounder, philosophize, and yearn for meaning, all while being totally blind to their impending annihilation. Multi-award-winning director Timofey Kulyabin's (Three Sisters, Onegin) modernized production, set in 1999 at Stanford University, focuses on the interplay between the characters, the relationships formed and broken, sparring over culture and the cosmos, barely sensing that their own privileged world is in jeopardy. Directed for the screen by Kulyabin and filmed from his Red Torch Theatre in Novosibirsk, Russia.
1h58m, in Russian with English subtitles
Pavel Polyakov
Pavel Polyakov was born in Tomsk into an acting family. He graduated from the Novosibirsk Theater School. From 2002 to 2009 Pavel worked as an actor at the Novosibirsk City Drama Theater directed by S. Afanasyev. Since 2009 he has been a member of the troupe of actors at the Red Torch Theatre. In these last dozen years, he has performed in nearly 20 productions. Pavel, along with his other cast members, won a Laureate of the National Theater Award Golden Mask in 2017 for his work in Timofey Kulyabin's production of "Three Sisters" for "Best Ensemble".
Konstantin Telegin
Komnstantin Telegin graduated from the Altai State Institute of Culture and Arts in 1999. He worked at the Altai Regional Drama Theater named after V.M. Shukshin, playing a number of significant roles - Hamlet, Mack the Knife ("Threepenny Opera" by Brecht), Aston (“The Watcher” by Pinter). Since 2002 he has been an actor at the Red Torch Theater. He was nominated for the Russian National Theater Award Golden Mask in 2009 for the role of Macbeth in Timofey Kulyabin's production of "Macbeth", and shared a Golden Mask Award in 2017 as part of the creative team of Kulyabin's sign language production of "Three Sisters".
Andrey Chernykh
Andrey Chernykh graduated from the Novosibirsk Theater School in 1994 and ever since then has been an actor at the Red Torch Theater. He has won a Paradise Award for the best debut in 1994 in the play "Six Characters in Search of the Author", a second Paradise prize for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 2004 in the play "The Forest" based on the play by Alexander Ostrovsky, and two Golden Mask Awards; a shared Best Ensemble prize for his work in Timofey Kulyabin's "Three Sisters" and for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Kulyabin's production of Maxim Gorky's "Children of the Sun".
Michael Earley is Academic Adviser for Stage Russia. He is writing a new book about the relationship between Russian theatre directors and revolutionary innovators Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold. Currently, Michael is Visiting Professor of Theatre at Harlaxton College, UK. He was previously Dean of Performing Arts and Professor of Drama and Theatre at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, and Professor of Drama, Principal and Chief Executive Officer of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in Sidcup. An American by birth, Michael had an extensive career in the United States where he was Assistant Professor and Director of the undergraduate Theatre Studies Program at Yale University and on the faculty of the Drama Department at the Juilliard School and also at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. As Chief Producer of Plays for BBC Radio Drama he directed over 50 productions for broadcast over Radio 3 and Radio 4.
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