One famous Russian theater director, Slava Polunin, said: “You should only work with people who you would want to hug”. This fully applies to our team. We are an incredibly diverse collection of characters representing the whole of Austin’s Russian-speaking community, intimately bound by the shared fascination with theater. Programmers, scientists, teachers, managers, business people - everyone is eager to drive, ride, run to a rehearsal after work, no matter how tired or hungry, sometimes twice a week. This is a miracle! (Jokes aside, we do actually hug each other all the time, to greet or say goodbye).

          The Austin Russian Theater was formed several years ago on the basis of the Austin International School. Our origin is similar to many Russian language theaters in America: it began with a group of parents making performances for their children, so the kids would keep their mother language and cultural heritage. With experience came the desire to try more serious productions, as well as to reach a broader audience interested in Russian theater and culture. Luckily, in 2017, we were joined by a professional theater director from Moscow, Irina Yakushenok. At the same time, a script-writing group emerged from within the troupe that creates original scripts, so every single one of our plays is essentially a Worldwide Premiere. 

Fueled by the enthusiasm of the troupe and with Irina’s guidance, between 2017 and 2020 we have released three New Year’s plays and two Maslenitsa (Slavic Mardi Gras) plays for children. One of our short Maslenitsa plays, “The Dragon’s Proposal”, can be viewed in full at here. Our first full-length play for grown-ups, “The Meeting Continues, or Fantasies According to Ilf and Petrov” was released in May 2019. It follows the famous satirical writers duo, Ilia Ilf and Eugene Petrov, in 1920’s Russia as they create hilarious characters that are now instantly recognized by any Russan-born person.

           We have reached a very important milestone on January 11, 2020: we went on our first tour, taking our New Year’s play to Dallas. For us, this is a big achievement - we have proven to ourselves that we are indeed a theater, a coherent and movable creative unit. This experience inspires us a lot and opens up new opportunities for communication.

          We have extensive plans, there are many ideas, especially after we have acquired the official non-profit status in June 2019. Our next big production is coming in May 2020. It will be another play for grown-ups, the title of which we will keep a secret for now. As always, though, this will be an original play and a worldwide premiere, and it will be very funny.