Оригинал материала
SOLNTSEVA'S CHILDREN
by Yulia Utysheva, on the staff of the state TV company "Karelia"
How hard it is for Alenka to break away to the city of her childhood now that she is Elena Pavlovna Solntseva, a musician by training, well known in all Karelia as a teacher who has created a unique collective, the "Grim" Theater of rhythmical drama. There are always talented children and grownups around Elena, and right now there are especially many children, a whole group of them together with "the big child," the stage director Tatiana Moskovina. Two years ago Elena agreed to head this theater collective, firmly believing in its potential. Did she want to run around looking for sponsors, to scramble for money for trips and festival performances, to sit for hours in bureaucrats' waiting rooms just to get one signature on a piece of paper? Is that the path she dreamed of taking in her life? But each time when the theater hall lights dimmed and Lena took her seat out in the audience, having first inspected all the young actors' incredible costumes, sewn by herself, she forgot her recent desire to throw it all overboard and go back forever to her native Estonia. All her organizational skills were put to use in the theater, her ability to persuade that necessary person and to feed five thousand with five loaves. And however filled up was the schedule of one or another Moscow festival, Elena was always wily enough to find an opening for the children, so that she could then take them at least to the Pushkin Museum and show them the Rodins -- after all, in the theater of rhythmical drama, body language is the main thing. Elena does not share the fanaticism of Tatiana Moskovina who dreams of making this a professional theater. "I know that the children here will come and go, and far from all of them will act on the stage. Some might even end up as a good teacher or a salesperson. But one thing is sure, if with the help of grownups, these children come to believe in their talents, they'll have a good attitude toward anything they undertake. Confidence is like an inner core in one's life, as music was for me. A child who loves the theater will never be a bad human being. That's why I dream of a children's theater center -- our city is going to need talented, educated grownups." Her plan to take over a former kindergarten building faded. She looked at a lot of different places before settling on this two-storeyed house in the Perevalka region, not the best region but with potential. "First we'll make a big rehearsal hall ... Then workshops for scenery and costumes, etc. I want the children to work alongside grownups. Not all of them have acting talent, but the theater is home to many and here they can all feel connected to the arts." In the center, besides "Grim," there will be at least two more groups -- a theater of choreographed miniatures and a children's opera. In time, Elena says, we'll also have here a branch of the Moscow University of Culture (we are already negotiating with them about this) so that our very talented youngsters will stay here rather than leave their hometown. In front of the building, she continued, we'll make a small square with summer performances, with greenery and fountains. And people will come to us. Here too Solntseva has calculated right. The low wooden houses in the Perevalka region will be removed and in their place will come highrise apartments with not all that much space in between for walking. So the mothers will come to the square and bring their little ones to the children's theater, and there on the threshold to greet them will be Elena Solntseva.