The Melikhov Spring Festival, which will be held for the 23rd time at the writer's estate near Moscow from 19 to 28 May 2023, has announced the programme. The 2023 playbill includes theatres from Moscow, St Petersburg, Ryazan, Vorkuta, Nizhny Novgorod, Sevastopol, Vladimir, Perm, Vologda and other cities. This year's festival will have a new stage and a new artistic director - Konstantin Khabensky, artistic director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre.

A total of 20 theatres will take part in the annual Melikhovo Spring International Theatre Festival. The festival is organised by A.P. Chekhov's Melikhovo Museum-Reserve with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Moscow Region.

Traditionally, theatres and creative teams are invited to participate in the festival with performances based on Chekhov's works or about Chekhov himself. Applications were accepted from September to December 2022. A total of 75 applications were submitted, from which the Festival's Expert Council formed the final programme. In addition to productions by professional theatres, the festival's playbill includes several productions from theatre universities.

It is noteworthy that a new open stage with an enlarged indoor auditorium awaits the audience of Melikhov Spring 2023, which will be located in the heart of Chekhov's estate on the Kryzhovnik glade and will host half of all festival events. There will also be performances in Melikhov's Theatre House and on the stage of the Serpukhov Musical Drama Theatre.

The year 2023 is a year of cooperation and cross-dates for the Melikhovo Museum-Reserve and the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre. The museum and the theatre have a lot in common and, first of all, the figure of the great writer and his work. It is not by chance that this year's opening of the Melikhov Spring will be special.

For the first time in Melikhov, the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre will present its Landscape Theatre project, which is designed to go beyond the usual stage space. The project was inspired by Konstantin Khabensky, Artistic Director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre and, from 2023, Artistic Director of the Melikhov Spring Festival. "Landscape theatre" are short outdoor performances created by the theatre specifically for a certain location. This time such a production is being prepared directly for the Melikhovo estate. The Moscow Art Theatre will also give the final salvo of the festival - it will show its play "My Life" based on the work of the same name by A.P. Chekhov.

Konstantin Khabensky, artistic director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre and the Melikhov Spring International Theatre Festival:

"Chekhov is an iconic figure for the Moscow Art Theatre and, at the same time, a permanent link between our theatre and the Melikhovo Museum-Reserve". Chekhov's "The Seagull" was written in Melikhovo, and on the stage of the Art Theatre it soared to unattainable heights, subsequently overturning the canons and traditions of the entire world dramatic theatre. This invisible connection has lasted for many years, and now it will become even stronger. It is a great joy and a great responsibility to be both the head of a theatre named after Chekhov and to take artistic direction of the oldest festival in the country dedicated to the work of the great writer. A festival that shows what Chekhov is like today.

As part of the main programme of the twenty-third Melikhov Spring, which includes productions based on Chekhov's works or about Chekhov himself, performances will be presented by the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre, the Vladimir Academic Regional Drama Theatre, the Ryazan State Drama Theatre, the Vorkuta Drama Theatre named after B.A. Mordvinov, the Sevastopol and Nizhny Novgorod Young Spectator Theatres, and the Russian State Institute of Stage Arts from St. Petersburg.Mordvinov, Sevastopol and Nizhny Novgorod Young Spectator Theatres, TSEKH THEATRE and the Russian State Institute of Stage Arts from St. Petersburg, Workshop Theatre from Moscow, as well as theatres from the Moscow region - Istrinsky Drama Theatre, Chekhov Studio Theatre of the Melikhovo Museum-Reserve, FEST Theatre from Mytishchi and Moscow Regional Puppet Theatre.

In addition, each year the festival includes a special programme dedicated to another author. At this year's festival, the special programme will include Chekhov +  Ostrovsky, whose 200th anniversary is celebrated this year. The festival will feature productions based on Ostrovsky's works by the Moscow School of Dramatic Art, Perm's U Most Theatre, St Petersburg's Subbota Theatre, Vologda Drama Theatre and Serpukhov Musical Drama Theatre.

Anastasia Zhuravleva, General Director of A.P. Chekhov's Melikhovo Museum-Reserve:

"The Melikhov Festival is 23 years old. It began with theatre meetings and has grown into a large theatre show where one can see very different Chekhov - traditional and avant-garde, chamber and monumental, lyrical, tragic, comic, but always contemporary. We are convinced of this every year when theatres from dozens of cities come to show their author's reading of Chekhov and his immortal works, many of which were born in Melikhov, where Chekhov lived a period of incredible creative flourishing".

A special event of the festival will be the screening on 23 May of the play "The Bear. Chekhov. Proposal" based on the works of A.P. Chekhov in sign language. It will be presented by hearing-impaired students of the final year of the theatre department of the Russian State Specialised Academy of Arts from Moscow.

On 24 May the traditional evening in memory of Oleg Efremov will take place, in which students of the Konstantin Raikin High School of Stage Arts will take part. And on May 27, guests of the Melikhov estate will be treated to a concert programme performed by the famous pianist Alexei Goribol, dedicated to the anniversaries of two composers - Isaac Schwartz and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

For information: Anton Pavlovich lived in the village of Melikhovo near Moscow for seven years and created more than 40 of his works. The programme of the Melikhovo Spring Festival, which originated in the writer's estate at the end of the 20th century, includes not only classical productions, but also chamber plays, large-scale dramatisations and avant-garde versions. Every year the festival is visited by several thousand spectators.