Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Moscow Government –
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There are theatres that exist as a “job”, and there are theatres that exist as a destiny. Et Cetera From the very beginning, it was second. The title—a Latin formula for openness, almost a provocation—proved to be a program for many years. No manifesto, no rigid school—only movement, and only forward. Artistic director of the Moscow Et Cetera Theater, Alexander Kalyagin, explains how it all came about.
In February 1993, Uncle Vanya was performed at the A.S. Pushkin Theatre. The audience probably had no idea they were witnessing a birth. Alexander Kalyagin, by then already a legend of Soviet cinema and theater, took the stage not just as an actor but as a founder. Thus began the history of a theater destined to become one of Moscow's most extraordinary repertory houses.
The name as a manifesto
Alexander Kalyagin was fundamentally reluctant to name the theater after himself: "A theater under the direction of Alexander Kalyagin—that didn't suit me. And when will Alexander Kalyagin be gone? A theater must have a name. Et Cetera, which translates from Latin as 'and so on and so forth and so forth'… I think that's an excellent choice." This phrase encapsulates the entire concept. A theater without dogma, a theater without a ceiling. A space where everything is possible except, in the artistic director's favorite phrase, vulgarity and boredom.
The theater's history began without a plan. Alexander Kalyagin's class graduated and refused to leave. Some of the actors began rehearsing something and asked the director to name the playbill. Kalyagin came to watch and stayed. "That's how, without thinking or guessing, I found myself involved in building the theater," he recalls. On January 23, 1992, the "Theater Etc." partnership was founded. The first premiere, "Uncle Vanya," took place a year later, on February 2, 1993. Since then, this date is considered the theater's birthday. Alexander Sabinin, Kalyagin's teacher, was invited as director. Vasily Lanovoy, Vladimir Simonov, Alexei Kuznetsov from the Vakhtangov Theater, and Tatyana Lennikova from the Moscow Art Theater performed on stage.
The choice of the play, incidentally, was crucial for Alexander Alexandrovich: "I adore Chekhov. I regard him not as the great Anton Pavlovich, but as a living person who helped me in the most critical moments of my life. Therefore, 'Uncle Vanya' is both a gratitude to Chekhov and a declaration of love."
Nomadic Period: Three Factory Palaces of Culture and a Torn Screen
Before finding a home, Et Cetera was a wanderer. It moved to the community center at the aircraft factory in Tushino, then to the factory near the Garden Ring, then to 1905 Goda Street near the baths. Each address sounds like a unique anecdote, but behind them lie years of hard work. The theater found its first proper home in the fall of 1996. The space on Novy Arbat was a former conference hall in a high-rise building, where the only theater equipment was a tattered movie screen. It was here that artist Viktor Durgin performed the first of his miracles—transforming a non-theatrical space into a real home. "Viktor Yakovlevich managed to bring a theatrical spirit to an official space that had previously housed meetings," adds Alexander Kalyagin.
Viktor Durgin co-wrote the entire early period of Et Cetera. He designed several key productions, including "Faces" in 1998, based on Chekhov's stories. It was a duet between Kalyagin and Simonov: Chekhov's pince-nez on the backdrop—a laconic image that conveyed everything. "Anton Pavlovich's diagnoses are always unmistakable; he looks at people through his pince-nez and sees them as if through an X-ray," explained Alexander Kalyagin. The production toured half the world. After Vladimir Simonov's death, it was removed from the repertoire.
Vaccinations against boredom: a director's philosophy
Alexander Kalyagin formulates the theater's core principle through a medical metaphor, calling it "vaccinations," and explains it through his own education. At the Shchukin School, each student had different teachers, which fostered versatility in the performers. Alexander Kalyagin transferred this same logic to the theater: the more different directors a company has, the stronger it is.
"I don't intend to compete with my teachers—Oleg Efremov, Anatoly Efros, Kama Ginkas. Why should I?" he says, and there's no false modesty in this. It's a conscious choice of a different path. The result: the theater's repertoire over the past 30 years has included directors from Georgia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Germany, and Canada. "All the directors who come here are pleased with the actors," says Alexander Kalyagin.
Ubu Rex, Fires, The Producers: Portraits of Successful Risk Takers
Three productions from different years are a good illustration of what Et Cetera understands by its repertoire policy. Alfred Jarry's "Ubu Rex," directed by Bulgarian director Alexander Morfov, premiered in 2002—the play had never been staged in Russia before. A political farce, it was a phenomenal success, winning a Golden Mask for Alexander Kalyagin for his role as Pere Ubu. "We discovered Jarry's play for our country," he says.
Fires Canadian director Wajdi Mouawad's "The Man Who Lived in the Dark" is the other extreme. This tragedy about war and family secrets was released in 2007. Critics warned it was a risky bet. The play is still running, 18 years on. For the theater's 20th anniversary, Mouawad wrote to the troupe that their meeting was a defining moment in his journey.
"The Producers" is a full-scale Broadway musical on the Moscow stage, which garnered the "Hit of the Season," "Musical Heart of the Theatre," and "Golden Mask" awards in several categories. "This is the first time you don't need to go to Broadway—it's better on Myasnitskaya," the critics noted in their review.
Alexander Alexandrovich speaks frankly about the repertoire strategy: "The strategy is very simple, although very, very difficult—to seek out talented directors and select interesting literary material. We tried to include plays in the repertoire that were either completely unknown in Russia or those that had been forgotten and required a new interpretation."
Scenes from Provincial Life. Premiere of the play "Breakfast at the Marshal's" at the Moscow Et Cetera Theatre."Love is a Test." Premiere of the play "Scenes from a Marriage" at the Et Cetera Theatre
New House: From Conference Hall to Architectural Manifesto
On November 30, 2005, the theater celebrated its housewarming on Turgenevskaya Square. The building's architecture embodied Alexander Alexandrovich's own vision: a large hall seats 525, a small one 120. Conference rooms are a thing of the past.
In 2018, the second part of the building opened—an entrance from Myasnitskaya Street, a spacious foyer, a café, and a new, transformable 120-seat auditorium, dubbed the Efrosovsky. It is designed for experimentation and the search for a new theatrical language.
The Philosophy of Eclecticism: A Backstage Walk at Moscow's Et Cetera Theatre
For the theatre's 30th anniversary, Vladimir Pankov staged a production on the main stage "Mandate" Nikolai Erdman's sound drama production is a sold-out success. In recent seasons, the Efrosovsky Hall has hosted Tea Room based on the play by Lao She, directed by the young Chinese director Yichen Liu and Old World Landowners based on the work by Nikolai Gogol.
Et Cetera… lab: question about a positive hero
In 2025, the theater opened the Et Cetera… lab, a directing laboratory. The theme of the first laboratory was "The Positive Hero." Following a competition, a sketch based on the Strugatsky brothers' script, "Five Spoons of Elixir," was selected for the work. A full production is scheduled for 2026.
Alexander Alexandrovich himself plans to release a new work with the author's title "Abovsem." Other upcoming productions include Agatha Christie's unknown play "Black Coffee," Alexei Arbuzov's "Old-Fashioned Comedy," and Ksenia Dragunskaya's play "Drink, Sing, and Cry." The artistic director doesn't stop there, adding simply: "Et Cetera."
Movement without stopping
"Theatre must always be in motion, sometimes winning, sometimes making mistakes, but most importantly, never stopping," concludes Alexander Kalyagin. The Et Cetera logo features an infinity sign, which underscores this idea.
Over 30 years. Five locations. Hundreds of performances. Directors from five continents. Awards, scandals, sold-out shows, failures—everything befits a living organism, as Alexander Kalyagin likes to call the theater. The theater, which began as a tattered movie screen on Arbat Street, now stands on Turgenevskaya Square—an architectural manifesto, a repertory house, a laboratory, and a stage all rolled into one. And so on and so forth and so forth.
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