The Museum Center houses a copy of the black-and-white photograph ‘Drama club’s committee of the Krasny Boyevik workers’ club’. The original photograph was taken in 1921. It captured a meeting of the executive committee of the drama club, where they approved new performances and cast parts.
The drama club of the Tambov Gunpowder Factory made its first appearance on stage in November 1917. The actors were given a board shed and, on their own, they fixed it, built a stage, used boards to make benches for the audience, sewed a curtain from old sacks and brought furniture from their homes to use as stage props. The workers’ theater was named “Krasnoye Koltso” (Red Ring).
It took them a long time to choose the first play. The club wanted something that would reflect the revolutionary spirit and sentiments of the Russian working class. In the end, they decided on a play called “Les Mauvais bergers”, or “Jean Roule” by a French novelist Octave Mirbeau. The plot describes the struggle of the Communards of the Paris Commune and their victory in the French Revolution. The production of the play involved 80 workers. The director Leonid Ignatov recalled the tremendous success of the performance:
The drama club of the Tambov Gunpowder Factory made its first appearance on stage in November 1917. The actors were given a board shed and, on their own, they fixed it, built a stage, used boards to make benches for the audience, sewed a curtain from old sacks and brought furniture from their homes to use as stage props. The workers’ theater was named “Krasnoye Koltso” (Red Ring).
It took them a long time to choose the first play. The club wanted something that would reflect the revolutionary spirit and sentiments of the Russian working class. In the end, they decided on a play called “Les Mauvais bergers”, or “Jean Roule” by a French novelist Octave Mirbeau. The plot describes the struggle of the Communards of the Paris Commune and their victory in the French Revolution. The production of the play involved 80 workers. The director Leonid Ignatov recalled the tremendous success of the performance: