The Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theater opens its 87th season

October 5, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theater opens its 87th season today, the theater informed a BELTA correspondent. Following a good and beloved tradition, the season will be opened by the long-running play "Nesterka," which was first staged based on the play by Vitaly Volsky in 1941 and has been constantly in the theater's repertoire ever since. While honoring the past, the theater has no intention of standing still. This is evidenced by the October playbill, where five out of eight announced performances are marked as "premiere." The artistic director and director of the Kolas Theater, Valery Anisenko, will present his production "Songs of the Wolf" by Vyacheslav Panin. For the first time, the Kolas Theater troupe will perform "The Visit of the Lady" based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play "The Visit of the Old Lady," which will be a benefit performance for People's Artist of Belarus Svetlana Okruzhna. Among the premieres is also a drama based on Vladimir Korotkevich's novel "Leonids Will Not Return to Earth." Valery Anisenko explained the noticeably updated playbill: "I am convinced that it is necessary to show the present day. To engage with the audience on contemporary issues, with our own view of the world." The theater was founded in Vitebsk on November 21, 1926, based on the Belarusian drama studio, which existed from 1921 to 1926 at the Moscow Art Theater named after M. Gorky. In 1944, for achievements in the development of national culture, the theater was named after Yakub Kolas. In 1977, the troupe of the Yakub Kolas Theater was awarded the title of academic. The Vitebsk Theater is the only regional theater with national status. -0-