A New Year miracle, or a play in a week

30.01.2011

NucKids camp is often called a nuclear Artek, which is not quite right. Yes, the “chosen ones” also come to Artek, but children only rest there: sun and sea, movies and excursions, hikes and songs around the campfire. In NucKids the children rehearse 12 hours a day, both in December frost and in August haze. And, it seems, they like it very much.This time the hosts decided to cheat a little. They announced the gathering for December 19th and put forward a condition: the one who has no problems at school will go. On the one hand, there is a good reason to finish the second quarter in advance, and on the other hand – you can really relax during the legal January vacation. And, of course, the Winter Tale came in handy, because the end of December is the hottest time for Christmas celebrations. Six performances and hundreds of grateful spectators – this is the result of the work of 35 boys and girls who came to Moscow from the nuclear cities of Russia and Ukraine. The peculiarity of the project is that it is short-term. Children get used to each other, find a common language, create together, and then go home. But actually, it is a real creative experiment: to gather young artists (almost all of them are engaged in dance or vocal classes back home) and in a short period of time to organize their life together on stage, to create a real troupe. The director of the musical, Elena Saleikova (the artistic director of the Klyaksa children’s theater in Moscow) is still surprised: “When on the third day of rehearsals we did a run-through”, I said: “Friends, we can be listed in the Guinness Book of Records.” At least, in 30 years of working in the theater, I have never seen such a thing.” Of course, it is a pity that the play “dies” so quickly, because it was invested so much effort. The director even dreams of taking The Winter Tale to the Klyaksa Theater, and then travel with it to all the “atomic” cities. But even in a professional children’s theater, the artists do not sing so great: “I was shocked at how quickly they learned the text, practiced and how professionally they sang,” says Elena Saleikova. And if in summer, at the musical, the cast worked under a phonogram, in winter, to the joy of children, all was performed live. When the last spectator left the hall, Sergey Novikov, the author of the project idea, Director of the Communications Department of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, gave the kids new iPods as souvenirs and noted that every time the boys and girls cry at the end and say goodbye forever, but, nevertheless, he already sees some of them for the sixth time (the NucKids Project is held for the second year in a row and includes a summer camp, an autumn concert for the Day of the Nuclear Industry Worker and the Winter Tale). That means new meetings and performances are ahead. Masha Lysova from Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk region, was especially lucky – the hosts gave her an invitation to the summer camp NucKids 2011. She played the Brave Bunny, “whose tail does not tremble”, and was awarded the title of “The Discovery of the Winter Season”. This year the hosts want to expand the geography of the project: perhaps this summer participants from Russia, Ukraine, India and Bulgaria will be joined by participants from Vietnam and Turkey. The number of regional auditions will also increase. The positive practice of last year: thanks to the selections in the closed cities of the TVEL enterprises, many children joined the project. There are plans to organize two camps in different countries at the same time. Inviting stars to the musical is also a very tempting part of the program for children. So the producers will be looking for new formats of cooperation with celebrities. The NucKids 2011 auditions will take place from about March to May. It is allowed to participate in the project several times. The only restriction is the age: only children under 15 years old can take part. Sergey Novikov says: “I am sure that for all the children participating in NucKids 2010 it was very pleasant to hear the main song of the summer project Go and See performed by Lolita Milyavskaya on the New Year’s Little Blue Light show on the Russia TV channel. Lola sang this song on the main TV show of the country, and just like in our musical, she drew eyes on the palms of everyone’s hands (that is, she used the whole idea of the producers) – this is very cool, it shows children and their parents that the work is done at the highest possible level in Russia”.