Vologda Youth Theater actress Valentina Burbo celebrates her anniversary today

This bright, energetic actress is known to more than one generation of Vologda residents, because she has been playing on the stage of her native Youth Theater since its very foundation. Each of her roles, main or episodic, is filled with vivid emotions, deep feelings, and subtle intonations. Over the years of work, Valentina Eduardovna Burbo has created more than a hundred diverse images and now continues to surprise and delight viewers with her talent. Today the actress celebrates her anniversary, and the editors of cultinfo.ru heartily congratulate her and wish her bright roles, love from the audience and good health.

Valentina Burbo’s entire creative life is connected with one theater – the Vologda Theater for Young Spectators. She came to Vologda from Novosibirsk with the first, now legendary, “landing party” of young artists, of whom today she is the only one left in the Vologda region and still serves in the Youth Theater. She remembers how it all began: how the artists all lived together in an apartment on Yaroslavskaya Street, how they dreamed of their own building.

For the roles played in her native theater, Valentina Burbo was repeatedly awarded professional awards. In addition, she managed to teach, including at the journalism department of the Voronezh State Pedagogical University, and led drama studios in city schools. Her students have repeatedly won city reading and production competitions. Some subsequently chose the acting path. And those who have not connected their lives with the theater still remember school classes and performances with gratitude. At the regional Philharmonic, together with colleagues from the Youth Theater, Valentina Burbo participated in a project on fairy tales – with dramatizations of folk tales and works by Alexander Pushkin, their team toured almost all schools in Vologda.

Vologda residents know Valentina Eduardovna as an enthusiast who is in love with her profession. Each of her roles is an image worked out to the smallest detail. And every appearance on stage is a real holiday for her fans. The birthday girl herself spoke about how her acting career unfolded bit by bit.

About childhood

– I am not from a theatrical family and did not spend my childhood behind the scenes of the theater. I didn’t even go to music school, although I always loved to sing and passionately wanted to learn to play the piano. And I sang myself at home to the radio. Theater was a special childhood dream for me. Each person’s choice of profession develops differently; for me, it seems to me, such a dream arose literally from the cradle. Even when I was very little, I staged performances: I made screens and led dolls, I even composed my own plays and acted them out. Everyone said: “The artist is growing up!”

At the pioneer camp she performed in pantomime. In general, I was “carried away”, energy burst out of me uncontrollably. I took great pleasure in what I did: I sang, danced, and put on performances. I didn’t have any complexes. And at school they loved me, especially the teachers. Now I’m trying to imagine myself from the outside: a thin, blond, long-legged girl, always with a smile. That’s probably why they loved her: for her smile, for her positivity. I never thought about becoming an actress at school. I was selected for ballet, but I got sick and it didn’t work out. I went to the drama club at our luxurious Gorky Palace of Culture for a short time. I read a letter from Chekhov’s Vanka Zhukov there… Perhaps it was then that I felt the feeling of the hall as a mysterious and attractive force while on stage.

I was born and raised in Novosibirsk, where I received my acting education. I wanted to enroll after the 8th grade, but I was so short that my parents, hoping that I would grow up, persuaded me to stay at school: they say, if you want, you can enroll after the 10th grade. And I actually grew almost 15 centimeters in two years and entered drama school.

About your course

– I always remember the guys, our “obstinate” and indomitable course! 6 people out of 15 came to Vologda then together with our teacher Kira Osipova, and later Sergei Cherednichenko came to us. My classmates and I still keep in touch, although life has scattered us across different cities. Some are in Kaliningrad, some are in St. Petersburg, I’m in Vologda. Serezha Cherednichenko tragically died early. Why were we obstinate and indomitable? Probably, such fame was secured for us when we “blew up” Novosibirsk with our diploma performances “The Night Tale” by K. Khoinsky and “The Elder Son” by A. Vampilov, which the audience simply flocked to see. Sarafanov was played by Sasha Pavelyev, Vasechka by Kolya Zakharov. Now both are honored artists of the Russian Federation, one works in St. Petersburg, the second in Kaliningrad. I played Nina.

All local newspapers wrote about the performance. The idea to create a “Youth Experimental Theater” based on our release was simply in the air. But the initiative “from below” did not find support “from above”, and such a theater did not appear in Novosibirsk. But Viktor Baronov, a director from Vologda, invited us to his place. He just wanted to “blow up” Vologda, to splash new colors on the established theatrical palette of the city. We went to Vologda with the goal of creating a good theater. The first five or six years were difficult and intense: we performed our first performance “The Night Tale” based on the play by Krzysztof Choinski on the stage of the Palace of Culture, the audience greeted the production enthusiastically. And then we didn’t perform in the city – we only traveled around the region, and practically no one knew about us. There was no building, there was no spectator, there was no space for thought.

But we visited the most remote corners of the Vologda region. Once we drove 3 kilometers from Nikolai Rubtsov’s native village, Nikola, in 3 hours and 13 minutes! I specifically timed it. It was such a mess!

Not all artists were able to withstand difficult conditions; many left. The theater simply needed its own building. We have been trying to achieve it for several years. We even went with Alexander Pavelev and Lyudmila Samsonova to the Central Committee of the Komsomol. There we were cordially received by Vladimir Mukusev, the host of the “Vzglyad” program. Maybe he didn’t really understand our problems, but he tried to help somehow. We had a huge, all-consuming goal – to create our own theater, and in the end everything worked out.

In addition, directors were constantly changing in the theater: for example, Valery Baronov, Kirill Filinov, Boris Tsetlin, Gennady Nikolaev, Nikolai Koval worked for us. And a decade later, Boris Granatov came to us. He received our troupe in good creative shape and realized that something interesting could be done with us. In his first performance based on the play “The Lizard” by Alexander Volodin, almost all the actors were involved. And from that moment a new stage in the history of the theater began, which continues to this day.

About idols

– I never had idols. Of course, I see, feel, appreciate talented people. I remember my meetings with them. The best theaters in the country came to Novosibirsk on tour. I remember my admiration for Innokenty Smoktunovsky in the play “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich.” And with the Mossovet Theater we acted as extras for a whole month when they were on tour in Novosibirsk. Of course, we all admired Faina Ranevskaya, Rostislav Plyatt, Margarita Terekhova, Gennady Bortnikov. Bortnikov in the play “Through the Eyes of a Clown” simply pierced the soul. I have been to different theaters. And in Riga in the Rainis Theater, and in the legendary Panevezys Theater, in the capital’s theaters, in St. Petersburg… But I have no fanaticism, and I have never had a desire to somehow get closer to the greats, much less to be “in their retinue.”

But there was one case when I felt like a fan. And it happened in Vologda, at a touring performance at the Chamber Theater. I was deeply touched by Ksenia Boyko, a young actress from the Chelyabinsk New Art Theater. Her inner freedom, the combination of inner strength and external design impressed me so much that after the performance I went up to her and poured out a stream of my admiration. I think when you are sincerely touched, you should thank the artists for their work and talk about your impressions.

About interesting meetings

– Of course, there were many of them: in the theater, on tour, and at festivals. I really appreciated my stage partners: Alexander Pavelev, Oleg Emelyanov, Alexander Mezhov, Vyacheslav Teplov, Anatoly Mikhasik. We understood each other. At different times, we worked with very interesting artists: Mikhail Kopyev, Nikolai Simonov, Galina Yatsyuk, Irina Aguf, Stepan Zohrabyan… I had the opportunity to work with different directors and choreographers. Undoubtedly, choreographer Max Mikser was a very bright personality – a real legend of Vologda. It’s impossible to list them all! And Vologda writers came to us, for example, Vasily Belov read to us his play “The Immortal Koschey.”

When we have the Voices of History festival in Vologda, I watch all the performances. I’m interested in everything. I absorb, analyze… Although I don’t consider it obligatory, I personally like to discover new names, new faces.

About today

– Have I played enough? I formulated it for myself this way: the main thing is not to play enough, but to realize yourself in the profession. Despite the large number of roles I have played, I believe that I am far from fully realized.

It seems to me that I am at a time when I can not run somewhere, not rush, but simply contemplate. Just slowly walk down the street, listen to the birds singing, look at something that seems inconspicuous to others – for example, a branch that lies beautifully. It is very important not to run – to stop, breathe out and look around. Unfortunately, we keep running somewhere, and then we become indignant: oh, how quickly life has passed. That’s why she “passed”. Let everything happen quickly on stage, but in everyday life – let it happen more slowly.