Published on: 2026-09-29
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
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The fourth season of the festival of school and youth theaters “Live Stage” has concluded in Moscow. Thirty productions reached the final, watched by over seven thousand spectators. Twenty-seven groups became winners and received awards on the main stage of the “Sovremennik” theater. This was reported by the press service of the city Department of Education and Science.
“The ‘Living Stage’ competition is not just a contest, but a full-fledged growth point for young talents. Within the framework of the project, the participants get the opportunity to work with professional actors and directors, hone practical skills, and present their productions on a big stage. This format helps schoolchildren not only improve their craft but also try on the profession and understand how close the theatrical environment is to them,” the department’s press service said.
The life of theatre and competitive screenings
The festival included two directions — “Benign Thalia” and “School Melpomene.” In the first category, the participants shared their experience of staging plays, photographs, video materials, and posters, as well as talked about the life of their theaters.
Participants of the “School Melpomene” direction presented competition performances. First, the expert jury evaluated video applications, after which the best teams performed on the big stage for the audience. In the nomination “Theatrical Olympus,” first place was shared by the teams from school No. 1409 “Scarlet Sails” and the Center for Extracurricular Activities “Sinegoria.” The winners of the “Historical Memory” nomination were the students from the Moscow State Educational Institution “Novokosino School” named after Hero of the Soviet Union Admiral A.P. Mikhaylovsky. The award in the “Musical Performance” nomination was received by the “Altair” team from school No. 480 named after V.V. Talalikhin. In the “Dramatic Performance” nomination, the best were recognized as the theater “Raz-Dva-Tri” from school No. 91 and the drama studio “The Whole World is a Theater” from school No. 2010 named after Hero of the Soviet Union M.P. Sudakov.
“I think, not just for me, the school theater means much more than just going on stage and playing some roles. It is bonding with the team. We all study at the same school, perform in the same troupe. The team spirit accompanies us from the beginning of rehearsal to the end of the very performance, when we stand on stage and hear those long-awaited applause,” shared a member of the “Scarlet Sails” group.
The winners of the “School Melpomene” received grants for the development of school theaters — depending on the nomination and the place taken, their amount ranges from 350 thousand to two million rubles. The festival winners were awarded diplomas and commemorative prizes.
Varvara Kostyukova, a student of the theater studio “On the Third Floor,” was very delighted when she learned that this year her group would participate in the “Living Stage.” This gave her a chance to share her story with everyone. According to Varvara, from the stage it was visible how differently the audience perceived the performance: some immediately grasped its meaning, while others needed the idea to be conveyed more deeply and precisely.
Professional support
This year, more than 900 creative teams participated in the competition. They presented original performances: fairy tales for children, classic comedies, fantasies based on the verse novel “Eugene Onegin,” war tragedies, and contemporary coming-of-age dramas.
The competitive performances were evaluated by a professional jury and mentors of the Moscow School Theaters Commonwealth. Among them were theater and film actress Irina Brazgovka, theater and film actor and director Mikhail Lukin, artistic director of the Novgorod Academic Drama Theater named after F.M. Dostoevsky Alexander Muriev, actress and director Ksenia Nesvyachena, actor and director Yuri Lyakhov, musical actress Anastasia Penushkina, actress Polina Shashuro, and other experts.
Festival participants receive unique professional support. Throughout the year, well-known actors and directors help the kids work on their roles, conduct master classes, and prepare the young performers for the big stage.
The partners of the “Live Stage” festival are the leading theaters of the capital. Among them are the Moscow Musical Theater “Helikon-Opera”, the Moscow Theater of Oleg Tabakov, and the Russian Academic Youth Theater.
The Commonwealth of School Theaters was established in 2023. Today, it unites all theater groups of schools and colleges in Moscow.
More about Moscow education — on the official channel in the messenger “Max”.
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Supplementary education programs develop creative and critical thinking in schoolchildren and cultivate skills that will be useful in their future profession. Activities carried out within supplementary education contribute to the “All the Best for Children” project of the national project “Youth and Children”. More details about Russia’s national projects and the capital’s contribution can be found at special page.
To find out how the capital has changed in recent years, what initiatives aimed at making city residents’ lives even more comfortable are currently being implemented, and what awaits Moscow and its inhabitants in the near future, one can refer to the large-scale special project on the portal mos.ru, dedicated to the development of key areas in Moscow. These include transport, industry, healthcare, education, sports, and construction.
On the project page “Education” tells how educational institutions are transformed during reconstruction under the program “My school” and how the update affects the quality of education. Re-equipping colleges enables students to acquire practical skills during their studies and to obtain professions in demand on the labor market.
Quickly get the main news on the official channels of the city of Moscow in messengers “Max” and “Telegram”.
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