Alexei Zhelyabuzhsky

In the post-revolutionary years and during the Civil War (1918-1922), the theatre troupe was led by Aleksei Zhelyabuzhsky, an actor, a stage director, and a playwright.

Prior to 1918, he worked at the Moscow Maly Theatre. He came to Kursk at the invitation of the regional government to form a troupe for the summer season.

In his first year, Zhelyabuzhsky staged «The Forest» and «Crazy Money» by Alexei Ostrovsky, «Kin» by Alexander Duma, and later the repertoire was expanded to include «Woe from Wit» by Alexander Griboedov, «Twelfth Night» by William Shakespeare, «Fruits of Enlightenment» by Leo Tolstoy, and «The Wedding of Krechinsky» by Alexander Sukhov-Kobylin.

The Theatre was called «Gospokaz» (meaning State Perfomance).