Do you love the theater? I will ask the readership in the words of the Russian critic Vissarion Belinsky, and I will rephrase it: do you love the theater as Vyacheslav Kaganovich does? The answer is obvious. Otherwise, there would be no Russian repertory theater "Atrium" in Chicago, the initiator of the creation and one of the directors of which he was for more than 10 years. There would be no his acting work in the plays "Memorial Prayer", "Fools' Dinner", "Aydont Understand", "My Gorin", "Chagall. The Color of Love" and others. He is never satisfied. And for almost a decade now he has been the founder and director of the theater studio "By the way", i.e. the theater studio "By the way".

And what is this "By the way"? I know about Vyacheslav Kaganovich. Because any theatrical activity is carried out by him among other important things, such as, for example, the main highly qualified work of an engineer, the concerns of a husband and father of a family, broadcasting with author's programs on the radio, organizing concerts and other little things. Well, this is not enough for him! He decided, by the way, to act as a director. He decided and acted. And what a play he chose! "Eight Loving Women" by the French author Robert Thomas. The task is not an easy one - how to make eight women turn out to be loving not only in the title of the play, but also loving in life - loving art, the stage, their roles, the director, each other, finally. Otherwise, there is no play.

And so the performance took place. In spite of it or because of it, on March 30 and 31 of this year, the audience, who had missed the live human interaction offered in theatrical circumstances, had the opportunity to contemplate the fruit of this love. And the fruit, by the way, is quite nice. It matured, like a person, for 9 months, and was born at the appointed time. Now take as a basis that the theater is a people's theater and all the participants in the performance are just amateurs. For them, this is also "by the way" - by the way, families, children, grandchildren, and, by the way, their main job, which, as we know in our American life, is not at all by the way. And then there are evening rehearsals several times a week, readings, analysis of the text and all this difficult behind-the-scenes work for the sake of one thing - to create a feeling of ease in the viewer.

And finally, the premiere. Real scenery, costumes, interesting sound design, well-coordinated acting, and most importantly – desire. So that everything is real – the roles and the intrigue, and the door on the platform in the middle of the stage, the door into which the heroines performed by Irina Keselman, Natalya Buinaya, Irina Yukelevich, Nonna Zeks, Irina Spivak, Olga Umilina, Alena Simonova, Inna Konstant periodically look during the performance. Each has her own secret behind the door. What is it? Go to the performance – you will find out. And I see my own mystery there – when is the next performance? Who will be busy? And as if a hint at the answer – the director of the performance Vyacheslav Kaganovich comes out from behind the door to take bows, who, accepting the applause, as if by the way, invites to his next performances – “By the way, come!”

Personally, by the way, I really like this approach to leisure. So, thank you and we are waiting for the continuation.

Sincerely,

Irina Lander