Mikhail Bulgakov News

Standing distant from ideological rebellion, devoted to his country without any dissident plotting, Andrei Tarkovsky, however, virtually became a foreign object, forced to seek refuge abroad. He died in a Paris hospital in 1986, age just 54. An internationally acclaimed icon of the film industry, the legacy Tarkovsky left for his fans included Andrei Rublev, Stalker, Nostalgia and other brilliant works. In the Soviet Union, however, Tarkovsky was a persona non grata. Sniffing out his outsider inclinations, the authorities did everything they could to reject his works, excommunicate and annihilate him. He respected his home country, accepting it with all its drawbacks of full-fledged socialism, with its idiocies, cruelty, hypocrisy and hostility. He wanted to be 'understood by his own country,' embraced and rewarded by it. However, being far from political and social engagement, lacking an understanding of the backstage workings of the world of cinema, Tarkovsky suffered failure after failure. The documentary novel Andrei Tarkovsky: A Life on the Cross provides a unique insight into the life of the famous film director and a man whose life was by no means free of unedifying behaviour and errors of judgement. Accompanied with profound comments on history and cinema, A Life on the Cross offers an opportunity to experience Tarkovsky when he was modelling his masterpieces, seeking resolutions to his artistic dilemmas and overcoming obstacles put out by the Soviet regime. Lyudmila Boyadzhieva sets out to reveal his innate talent, and explain why the cost of such talent can sometimes be life itself. Lyudmila Boyadzhieva is an outstanding Russian documentary writer. Her novels, novellas and short stories first began appearing in print nearly two decades ago under various pen names. Her works are a synthesis of various genres, striking combinations of suspense, adventure and love stories. Boyadzhieva's work on Andrey Tarkovsky is one of the latest in her series of documentary novels examining the lives of outstanding figures from Russia and elsewhere, such as Max Reinhardt, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, Mikhail Bulgakov, Marina Tsvetaeva and Anna Akhmatova.

City Garage will present the world premiere of Moskva by Steven Leigh Morris.Moskva is a comic, macabre fantasy, based on the Russian masterpiece The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Deadline reports that actors Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe will team up once again on the hit UK series A YOUNG DOCTOR'S NOTEBOOK & OTHER STORIES. The mini-series from Big Talk Productions, will air later this year on the UK's Sky Arts network.

The Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson presents the world premiere of an original stage adaptation of The Master and Margarita (1937) by Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most beloved Russian novels of the 20th century. SummerScape's theatrical adaptation comes courtesy of visionary Hungarian director Janos Szasz in collaboration with Gideon Lester, Director of Bard's Theater Programs. It is also Szasz, whose previous stage adaptations of Bulgakov's underground classic have already 'made it big' (Moscow Times) at both the Hungarian National and Moscow Art Theatres, who directs Bard's new production: an exploration of miracles, madness, and the magic of theater itself. The Master and Margarita will be presented in ten performances between today, July 11 and 21 in Theater Two of the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, on Bard's glorious Hudson Valley campus.

Theater Wit presents a special encore presentation this summer of its critically acclaimed 2007 smash hit Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno.

The forthcoming Broadway production REAR WINDOW has found its creative team in playwright Keith Reddin(Too Much Memory, Life and Limb) and director Terry Kinney (reasons to be pretty, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest). The play will be adapted from Cornell Woolrich's original short story, the iconic and haunting tale of the wheelchair-bound witness to a possible murder in his neighboring New York City apartment.

The Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson presents the world premiere of an original stage adaptation of The Master and Margarita (1937) by Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most beloved Russian novels of the 20th century.

The Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson presents the world premiere of an original stage adaptation of The Master and Margarita (1937) by Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most beloved Russian novels of the 20th century. SummerScape's theatrical adaptation comes courtesy of visionary Hungarian director Janos Szasz in collaboration with Gideon Lester, Director of Bard's Theater Programs. It is also Szasz, whose previous stage adaptations of Bulgakov's underground classic have already "made it big" (Moscow Times) at both the Hungarian National and Moscow Art Theatres, who directs Bard's new production: an exploration of miracles, madness, and the magic of theater itself. The Master and Margarita will be presented in ten performances between July 11 and 21 in Theater Two of the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, on Bard's glorious Hudson Valley campus.

Theater Wit has announced it will present a special encore presentation this summer of its critically acclaimed 2007 smash hit Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno.

The Mental Notion Society presents 'The Russian Play: an Improvised Black Comedy.' Directed & Conceived by Sam Roos, The Russian Play is an improvised one-act play about a citizen's journey in trying to 'make it' in the cruel world of Soviet-era Russia. Roos makes his Chicago Directing debut as 'The Russian Play: an Improvised Black Comedy' makes its 4-week run, every Monday at 10:00 pm from tonight, May 27th thru June 17th, 2013, at Studio BE, 3110 N. Sheffield Ave., Chicago, IL.

Ovation, America's only arts network, has further grown its slate of arts-centric programming by completing a deal with BBC Worldwide for the highly sought after UK hit from Big Talk Productions, A Young Doctor's Notebook, starring Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe

At its New York Upfront presentation for the press today, Ovation, America's only arts network, unveiled nine new original series scheduled to premiere this summer and fall.

The Mental Notion Society presents 'The Russian Play: an Improvised Black Comedy.' Directed & Conceived by Sam Roos, The Russian Play is an improvised one-act play about a citizen's journey in trying to 'make it' in the cruel world of Soviet-era Russia. Roos makes his Chicago Directing debut as 'The Russian Play: an Improvised Black Comedy' makes its 4-week run, every Monday at 10:00 pm from May 27th thru June 17th, 2013, at Studio BE, 3110 N. Sheffield Ave., Chicago, IL.

Russia's profound and far-reaching impact on 20th-century culture will be explored at the 2013 annual Bard SummerScape festival, which once again offers an extraordinary summer of music, opera, theater, dance, film, and cabaret, keyed to the theme of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival, Stravinsky and His World. Presented in the striking Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College's bucolic Hudson River campus, the seven-week festival opens on July 6 with the first of two performances of A Rite (2013) by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and SITI Company, and closes on August 18 with a party in Bard's beloved Spiegeltent, which returns for the full seven weeks. Complementing the Bard Music Festival's exploration of “Stravinsky and His World,” some of the great Russian-born composer's most captivating compatriots provide key SummerScape highlights. These include the first fully-staged American production of Sergey Taneyev's opera Oresteia; the world premiere of an original stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's seminal novel The Master and Margarita; and a film festival titled “Between Traditions: Stravinsky's Legacy and Russian Emigré Cinema.” Together, SummerScape's offerings will continue Bard's yearlong tenth-anniversary celebrations for the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center, which commence with a month of special performances in April.

Modern romance is more complex than any scientific problem ever in Itamar Moses's smart, sexy new comedy Completeness, receiving its Midwest premiere in a Theater Wit production at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Previews begin Feb. 7, 2013. Press opening is Tuesday, Feb. 19 at 7 pm. Performances run through March 24. Regular show times are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; and Sunday at 2 pm. No show Thursday, Feb. 21. Tickets are $18-$36. For tickets and information, visit TheaterWit.org or call 773.975.8150.

The first trailer for A YOUNG DOCTOR'S NOTEBOOK - the British minseries that casts Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm as the same man - has just been released. Check it out below!

Tigers Be Still, Kim Rosenstock's savagely funny dark comedy about a young woman who stops being a total disaster and gets her life back on track, received its Midwest premiere on Chicago's theater scene at Theater Wit and runs now through June 3. See photos from the production below!

Tigers Be Still, rising star Kim Rosenstock's savagely funny dark comedy about a young woman who stops being a total disaster and gets her life back on track, is ready to take a bite out of Chicago's theater scene.

Tigers Be Still, rising star Kim Rosenstock's savagely funny dark comedy about a young woman who stops being a total disaster and gets her life back on track, is ready to take a bite out of Chicago's theater scene.

Nathalie Armin, Paul Bhattacharjee, Simon Chandler, Michael Cochrane, Tariq Jordan, Belinda Lang, Shereen Martin, Daniel Rabin, Simon Rouse, Rick Warden and David Yip comprise the cast for THE BOMB - a partial history.