Employees of the Voronezh Chamber Theater defended the director

Employees of the Voronezh Chamber Theater wrote an open letter with a request to reinstate the artistic director Mikhail Bychkov. On November 21, the program of the all-Russian state television and radio company “Vesti Voronezh”, citing a source in the regional government, reported that the reason for the director’s dismissal was Bychkov’s refusal to “change their attitude to state politics after the beginning of the Soviet Union (special military operation – this is how the Russian authorities call the war in Ukraine)”.

An appeal to the authorities of the region, the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the presidential administration in defense of Bychkov was published on the VKontakte network. Under it are the signatures of more than 60 employees of the theater. “We are stunned by the fact that its creator, its author, has been fired from the theater. We are left with our director, our artistic director in the middle of the theater season. It is difficult for us to convey in words the moral state of the troupe and the entire team of the theater at this moment. We do not know how to continue This decision of the founder looks like a mistake that will bring nothing but destruction to the theater,” the appeal says. It also emphasizes the theater’s uniqueness and lists the awards and prizes it has received. The letter ends with a request to return Bychkov “to the theater he created.” Employees also offer the Minister of Culture of the Voronezh Region Maria Mazur to meet with the theater team.

The Chamber Theater was created by Bychkov in 1993 and was called by critics one of the best in the Russian regions. His performances regularly became participants and laureates of the largest theater festivals.

On February 26, 2022, Bychkov signed an appeal by theater figures calling for an end to the war in Ukraine. In the same spring, he left the Presidential Council on Culture and Art.

The director’s dismissal was officially announced on November 22, but the reasons were not given. In the “Vesty Voronezh” report, citing a source in the regional authorities, it was stated that Bychkov “has not lost the desire to write openly condemning letters”, and the theater did not try to support “SVO participants and their families with discounted tickets.” The 66-year-old director himself did not comment on the dismissal.