Oldest Theatre Festival Unfolds in Kherson

Ukraine’s oldest theatre festival in Melpomena of Tavria, which will mark 14^th anniversary this year, will welcome its lucky guests in Kherson. The organizers of the event expect theatre troupes representing different countries – Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Russia – to play on Kulish Theatre stage.

All in all the week-long festival will feature 23 performances, some of them taking place simultaneously on different stages. Even today the tickets are in high demand, warn the organizers. Along with the theatrical show, the festival will feature a meeting of theatre directors, around 50 of them, who will engage in a lively discussion concerning latest developments in Ukrainian theatre.

Another one of Melpomena’s highlights is the fact that all the participants will arrive to Kherson and stay for the entire week, instead of coming for a single day of their performance (this is provisioned in the statute of the festival). Staying for a week allows Melpomena’s participants experience the theatre spirit, enjoy the other groups’ performances and make up their own mind on the contemporary theatre trends in Ukraine.

Melpomena of Tavria took place for the first time in 1999 and has been held annually since. Next year, for its 15^th anniversary, the festival will last for 15 days featuring theatre troupes from 15 countries.

When: May 20-27, 2012

Where: Kulish Theatre, Kherson