New Year at the "Svoy Variant": an Act of Celebrating

Are you still interested in the life of the theater studio “Svoy Variant” and want to join the team next year? Then, this article is for you. We will tell you how the celebration of the New Year is held within the walls of the theater studio.

Practically all people since childhood love New Year as on New Year's Eve one can for a moment believe in a miracle, and become a little child again by unpacking gifts found under the Christmas tree. The theater studio “Svoy Variant”, observing the tradition that emerged in the early years of its existence, celebrates this holiday every year.

Everyone brings gifts and leaves them in a special place, marking it with some sign or picture. No one knows who get what, as they are “played out” in a certain way in the evening. After the gifts are marked and left, the theater studio members take out all the sweets they brought and put them on a huge table; sit at this table with their tea mugs discussing the past year.

After a while, various entertainments begin. All the participants divide into pairs, join hands and, without disengaging hands, draw New Year's cards. After a card is drawn, each pair talks about their creation - what is depicted, how they got the idea to draw exactly what everyone sees, and so on. Then we play out etudes with a Christmas theme. For example, everyone knows the phrase from a Soviet film “The Irony of Fate” - “every year, on December 31, we go to the bathhouse with friends” – this is the theme for the etude.
 

It does not do without the traditional forfeits game at all parties, only here they are not ordinary, but theatrical – each phantom is aimed at developing a certain theatrical skill – improvisation, intonation, fantasy and so on. Now it is the time for gifts – here begins a mixture of hot-cold and blind man's buffs – a participant is blindfolded, he chooses one of the symbols pasted on the board (which correspond to a certain gift that is hidden while the participant is unwound). The one whose gift was found during the game becomes the next.

In general, all the fun ends, and the time comes for summing up the year - those who have been in the theater studio for more than one year, receive letters that they wrote to themselves for the future last year, in which they expressed their wishes and goals for the next year. Then everyone writes the same letters with the results of this year and goals for the next one and put them in a certain place where they will be kept until the next New Year. After that, the light is off, everyone gets a candle, and everyone starts expressing their thoughts. 

Text by
Alexandra Horoshavina
&
Anastasia Yurko