Performance in Ozersk

09.08.2018

After the atomic artists had captivated Hungary with their talent, it was time to return back home. Despite the warm weather and wonderful European sights, many of the kids were already homesick for their native land. That’s why the whole team was looking forward to the beginning of the tour. And the first point in our journey was the city of Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region.

However, before presenting the musical Lomonosov’s Scroll to the Ozersk audience, the project participants had to travel a difficult way. The NucKids 2018 team is quite large, so the flight was arranged in two groups. The journey was quite long and took the whole day. From Budapest, everyone took a flight to Moscow, and then after waiting a bit, went to Yekaterinburg, which is not far from Ozersk. The flight was fun and easy, the children talked, played, someone even sang favorite songs of the project. At the airport of Yekaterinburg our atomic artists again had to make a small stop to wait for buses that would take them to the final destination to Ozersk. But even here the kids did not fail and easily adapted to the field conditions. In short, our artists are real heroes!

After arriving in town, all children breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally Russian food and dear homeland!” – these words were heard here and there. The clean forest air, the incredible beauty of the lake and simply the feeling of home – all these feelings swept over not only the children, but also the adults. But there was not much time to admire. Almost immediately after arriving at the Ozyorsk recreation center, the project team started rehearsing the musical. After all, the audience from Ozersk, our first Russian spectators simply cannot see a bad performance.

On the day of the premiere, there was no empty space in the hall of the Mayak Cultural Center. Spectators began to surround the theater even an hour before the start of the performance. Theater administrators had to try very hard to make sure that everyone could see the musical Lomonosov’s Scroll. People were sitting in the hall, on the balcony, there were those who did not hesitate to sit on the steps in the aisle. The atmosphere was so inspiring that childern performed at the top of their skill!

“I really enjoyed our performance in Ozersk. In terms of atmosphere, it was probably the best of all! I had the feeling that it was Moscow already. It was so cool! It’s much easier and more enjoyable for us to play when there are a lot of spectators, when the audience is full. The most important thing is that there is an exchange of energy between the audience and the artist. Then the performance goes in a different way!”

Daria Kosenkova, 16 years old from Turkey

A special feature of the performance in Ozersk became the introduction of a daytime performance, which was not even initially planned. There are two reasons. First, there were so many people in town wanting to attend the play that we just couldn’t help giving the locals another opportunity to attend. Second, the noon performance was the premiere for the youngest cast of the musical Lomonosov’s Scroll. Matvey Edelstein, Elizaveta Balyura, Eva Goryunova, Pavel Ivanov and Oliver Mara first appeared on stage as the main characters. Now the guys who have always helped backstage and lurked in minor roles have a chance to act as the main stars of the play!

“For me, the daytime premiere was a lot of fun. I first went on stage as lieutenant colonel Ovechkin. I think I’ve done my part well and I hope I’ll have the opportunity to go on stage again. Because it’s an unforgettable feeling. And even though we didn’t fully know all the mise-en-scenes, and didn’t rehearse much, and that our main character forgot the text… It all doesn’t matter. The main thing is that we really enjoyed what was going on!”

Oliver Raymond Mara, 14 years old, Moscow

Also previous project participants came to the performance in Ozersk. Among the audience were Maxim Lyzlov (participant of NucKids 2016), Ksenia Kulikova (participant of NucKids 2010 and 2011), Natalia Kazantseva and many others. They could barely hold back from rushing up on stage to the newbies and dive in a wave of nostalgia. When the NucKids anthem traditionally played after every performance started, ex-members couldn’t stand it anymore and rushed into the crowd. Because there are no former participants!

So, the performances in Ozersk have been played. The Russian tour has been given a great start. Thanks to the city for the very warm welcome and great atmosphere. Hopefully, we’ll come back one day in the future. So we’re not saying goodbye!

Lev Suslov,

Specially for nuckids.ru