Theatres

The beginning of theatre life of Lugansk begins in the 19th century, in 1882 for the first time the theatre appears, which founder is the merchant and patron of the art StepanBlinov. Since October 3, 1893 at the theatre of merchant StepanBlinov the tour of Ukrainian actors group begin.

In May 1894 a well-known tragedian M.T. Ivanov comes to Lugansk for the 10 days’ tour. Lugansk residents have seen "Hamlet" and King Lear by Shakespeare, «Kabale und Liebe» by Schiller.
1922 was marked by creation of the professional theatre the first in Donbass.
In 1939 the creative biography of the Lugansk Regional Russian Drama Theatre in which now work 2 national and 5 honored artists began. In the same year the Lugansk Regional Puppet Theatre was opened. For a long time it existed as a mobile theatre. A new building for it has been given to the Puppet Theatre on June 1, 1995.

Today at the theatre two groups of actors work. The leading actors are the honored actress of Ukraine Valentine Chevernozhenko, EvgeniyVinokurov, Elena Markova, Valery Sereda, MichaelGoncharov.
On February 26, 2007 the Lugansk Puppet Theatre received the academic status.
In 1944 the Lugansk Regional Academic Ukranian Musical Drama Theatre was open, in which 3 national and 7 honored artists work.

Now in the city 10 theatres work:

• the Children's theatre of variety dance "Divertisement",

• the Youth emotional theatre МEТLUG,

• Variety theatre of Alexander Belyaev,

• Unique in its way the Lugansk Cossack Horse Theatre,

• the Theatre of Provocative Fashion "Orchid" (Michael Koptev Theatre since 1993) and so on.

Theatre life is rich not only in Lugansk, but also in Lugansk region. Drama schools are in Alchevsk, Lisichansk, Severodonetsk, Rovenky, Svatovо.                        

Lately spectators of Odessa, Cherkassy, Dnepropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankovsk, Uzhgorod, Lutsk, Moscow and Donetsk got acquainted with Lugansk theatres. In May 2008 Lugansk Regional Russian Drama Theatre received awards in many nominations on the VII International Festival «Classics Today» which was organized in Dneprodzerzhinsk.

During 2008 theatres of Lugansk region showed more than 900 performances which nearby 350 thousand spectators visited. Annually the repertoire of theatres in Lugansk region includes 12 new performances of different styles and genres.