Premiere in St. Petersburg

29.07.2015

The musical Ask Rutherford premiered on July 28th in St. Petersburg on the New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theater to a full house. The performance was staged by the participants of Nuclear Kids, the VII International Creative Project for Children hosted by ROSATOM. The actors involved in the production were the children of nuclear industry employees from Russia, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine and Belarus. On the stage there were colorful decorations, lots of lights, music, choreography and vocals.

The uniqueness of the Nuclear Kids Project is that each production is created in less than a month. The kids produced the play under the guidance of experienced mentors and teachers – production director, choreographer, teachers of vocal, acting and stage speech. There were daily rehearsals, tight schedules and total dedication. The script for each musical is written specially. This year it is dedicated to the story of the boy Igor, who will become the great Soviet scientist Igor Kurchatov in the future. In the course of the performance, Igor overcomes numerous challenges and eventually finds his way in life.

The author of the Nuclear Kids Project idea, Director of the Communications Department of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Sergey Novikov noted: “In the year of the 70th anniversary of the industry, the authors of the production decided to dedicate the plot to Kurchatov’s childhood. We imagined what young Igor could be like at the age of the project participants (11-16 years old). The main character strives for knowledge, acts and protects his friends. In the finale, the audience is reminded that the grown up Igor Kurchatov made atomic weapons not to use them, but just so that no one else on earth (after the bombing of Japanese cities by the Americans) would be tempted to use them.”

Melisa Kaboglu, one of the members of the Turkish children’s group, shared her impressions before the premiere: “We have already made friends with all the kids in the project. They came from different countries. We rehearsed every day. We woke up very early and were on stage until late in the evening. It’s very interesting. We don’t notice how time passes. In addition to rehearsals, we also had tours organized for us. These impressions are unforgettable!”

Now the project participants have left for Novovoronezh (Voronezh region), where the musical will be shown on July 31st. After that the international tour of the project will begin: on August 5th the production will be shown in Paks (Hungary). On August 8th the kids will perform in the town of České Budějovice (Czech Republic). Moscow will be the last point of the tour, where the musical will be shown on August 13th and 14th at the Et Cetera Theater.

NucKids is International Creative Project for Children of the Communications Department of the ROSATOM State Atomic Energy Corporation, which annually brings together talented children of nuclear industry employees from Russia and Rosatom’s foreign partners to stage a bright musical show. The project aims to strengthen friendly ties between children of nuclear industry employees from different countries, develop creative skills of talented children, and popularize nuclear energy among the younger generation. This year, more than 450 children aged 11 to 16 years old applied for participation in the project. As a result, the best aspiring artists came to Russia to a rehearsal camp near St. Petersburg.