Vertical of the “golden soffit”

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At a press conference held on July 11 and announcing the nominees for the Golden Sofit 2011, amid a scandal, the bosses finally admitted: Sofit is not a free theater award, but administrative support for certain trends.

Nikolay Burov (left) and Anton Gubankov are confident that since everything is legitimate, it’s great

What happened
Actually, this was clear a long time ago: one of the very first articles about the “highest” St. Petersburg theater award “Golden Soffit”, which arose 17 years ago, was called “Not all is gold that is Soffit.”
Since then, every year this prize has confirmed: it is not awarded, it is distributed. For example, Alexander Morfov appeared at the Komissarzhevskaya Theater - let’s support him with several “Spotlights”, Valery Fokin appeared - we’ll give him gifts. And give like that, don’t be stingy: two, four, six, eight. After all, there is no jury for the prize; everything is allowed.
St. Petersburg is a small city, the drama of rewards is almost always clear: “Well, how can you not please your loved one?” (this does not mean that something independent and talented does not slip through).
What makes it possible is a monstrously cumbersome structure (no matter how many festivals I’ve visited, I’ve never seen anything like this): an Expert Council, a nomination committee above it, an organizing committee above it - and this whole mass of people ends up inexplicably voting for something that most of them have never seen. At the recent STD reporting and election conference, opera director Yuri Alexandrov, not offended by the awards, begged: change the Regulations, I can no longer vote by phone, without seeing the performances, just for my beloved friends. But his cry, as it turned out, was not included in the decision, it was lost under the carpets, and everything remains as it was.
An absurd situation. Only state theaters participate in the competition (“Golden Masks” go to “non-state” theaters, which for years have been deprived of the prize of their hometown). If a play was performed, say, at the festival “Theatres of St. Petersburg for Children,” for some reason it does not have the right to participate in “Sofita” (this is the fate that has now befallen Andrei Moguchy’s play “Happiness,” staged in Alexandrinka).
What remains, alas, is what Anton Gubankov, Chairman of the Culture Committee publicly admitted: “This award is support for some trends.”

What didn't you expect?
The reason for this recognition was an unexpected scandal: an open letter from the chairman of the expert council, Professor Yuri Barboy, who resigned. The fact is that at the meeting of the nomination council, the proposals of the expert council on drama theaters (42 premieres were reviewed and nominees were approved by secret ballot) were largely rejected, and other names and titles of performances were entered. That is, consider that ballot stuffing has occurred. The nominees were changed on the fly, without professional discussion, and even with comments from Nikolai Burov: they say that people in the critical department “have blood on their hands up to their elbows.” The overwhelming majority of those who voted simply did not see the performances (which they honestly admitted, and at a press conference Burov confirmed: out of the 14 who voted, three or four people saw the performances. He himself, being the director of St. Isaac's Cathedral, by his own admission, no longer goes to the theater, but he has an opinion...) That is, professional experts are watching, sweating (I assure you, watching 42 premieres is hard work!), they argue, they decide, they often disagree with each other, sometimes they are dissatisfied with their own results, but secret voting is the only possible democratic procedure, and critics respect it. And then Burov and other comrades descend from the Montferrand colonnade and other colonnades and “change their minds” as they need to, guided by city word of mouth and administrative and family predilections... “This is normal work, which should be of a strong-willed nature,” Burov said without any hesitation at a press conference...
The dramaturgy of the “inscriptions” is still the same, and it is visible to the theatrical eye: they threw out Tyuz’s play “Titius the Impeccable” - they included the premiere of the Theater on Vasilievsky “Children of the Sun”. Why? Because Andrzej Buben resigned from the post of chief director, and the director of “Children of the Sun” Vladimir Tumanov is tipped for this position. This means that we need to support him, and besides, his wife is playing in the play... Why do you, reader, need to know whose wife it is? After all, how can you not please? And the artist Alexander Shishkin was thrown out because someone wanted to insert another name. Your own hand is the lord.
In fact, in Sofita, as if in a ray of light (pardon the pun), our entire reality with supposedly democratic procedures (honest experts), fictitious elections and the administrative vertical is visible.
“The expert council has been rudely expressed lack of confidence,” said Barboy, defending his professional honor and refusing to participate in this disgrace, and members of the expert council publicly disclaimed responsibility for the list of nominees - 2011.

What will happen?
But nothing will happen. No one is going to redo the Regulations on Sofit; Chairman of the Culture Committee Anton Gubankov calmly recognized the legitimacy of everything that happened and wished Sofit a long and happy life.
It is sad that the vertical power structure operates iron-clad even in a marginal theatrical area and the scandal in a noble family on July 11 will not change anything. It’s a shame that the Sofit will continue to shine in the direction its strong-willed, commanding hands turn. He will illuminate “his people.” Which will always be numbered.
Collect all the bonuses and burn them. But no, the ceremony for the next Sofit presentation will take place on November 7.

Marina DMITREVSKAYA
Photo by Mikhail SADCHIKOV