The Brothers and Sisters performance of the Maly Drama Theater (St. Petersburg) were shown ahead of the festival on March 19 and 20, festival president, actor Georgy Taratorkin said at press conference.
A special program of the festival includes educational seminars, discussions, master-classes and roundtables on the key problems of the theatrical art.
The festival club will be opened in the Theater Center on Strastnoi Boulevard from March 24 to April 1. It will host ethnic music concerts and traditional meetings of the festival's participants.
The Golden Mask awarding ceremony will take place in the Mossovet Theater on April 11.
The list of nominees has been already announced. The winners will be selected by two juries, the drama theater jury and the musical theater jury.
Some laureates have already been made public. The awards For Honor and Dignity have been conferred on People's Artists of Russia Nikolai Pastukhov and Georgy Khugayev (posthumously).
Governor of the Chelyabinsk region Pyotr Sumin won the Golden Mask award for Supporting Theater Art in Russia.
The Window Washer staged by acclaimed director and choreographer Pina Bausch (the German dance theater Wuppertal) was named the best foreign play shown in Russia in 2004.
The Golden Mask professional award was established in 1994 by the Russian Theater Union.
The festival is organized by the Russian Theater Union, the federal agency for culture and cinematography, the Moscow government and the Golden Mask Association.
