On March 27, the International Theater Day was celebrated in Warsaw at the Museum of Free Belarus.

At the beginning of the event, "Free divers", who were forced to leave Belarus and created a troupe in Poland, took the stage.

They remembered their native Kupalovskyi, the unique theatrical "kapusniki" who always had fun on this day.

During the event, a lot of documentary newsreels, rare photographs were shown, poems and songs performed by the main character of the party - the People's Artist of Belarus, Zoya Belakhvostyk, prima of Kupalauski.



Granddaughter of Gleb Glebava, daughter of Valyantyn Belakhvostyk, wife of Alexander Gartsueva, mother of Valantyna Gartsueva told about five generations of her theater family in her solo performance.

And about "strange twists of fate."

About the repressions in 1937 and 1948: how Balitsky and Mikhoels died

Zoya Belakhvostyk began with a story about the drug addiction of Anton Balitsky, a relative of her great-grandfather Pavlo Sorokin.

In 1931, Anton Balitski was sentenced to 10 years in the correctional camps, sent to Solavki.

At the request of Maksim Gorky's wife, Ekaterina Peshkova, he was pardoned, and later arrested again.



On October 31, 1937, Anton Balitsky was shot in Kurapaty.

Anna Sevyarynets wrote about him in her book "Belgium Hotel".

And Zoya Belakhvostyk read her poem at the event.



Zoya's grandfather Gleb Glebov met the famous director, actor, public figure Salomon Mikhoels in Moscow, they became friends.

Glebov said about him: "Solomon is a bright child."

At the beginning of 1948, Mikhoels came to Minsk.

A couple of days before his death, he came to visit Glebov.

And on January 13, Mikhoels was killed on Stalin's order in Minsk at the corner of Ulyanovska and Belaruska.

During the party

8-year-old Glena, Glebov's daughter, died on the way from the evacuation



Ms. Zoya told many other touching family stories - about the tragic fate of her grandfather Gleb Glebov's daughter, who was named Glena (after Gleb's father and Elena's mother) and who died at the age of 8.



The Kupala Theater met Vaina on tour in Odessa, from there the troupe was evacuated via Moscow to Tomsk.

Zoya's grandmother went to look for her husband with her young children, and by chance the family was reunited at the train station in Bryansk.

Grandfather, Gleb Glebov, was appointed artistic director of the theater in Tomsk.

The theater there continued to work, only the performances during the evacuation had to be played in Russian.

Since 1943, Glebov played in the front theater.

They bought a combat plane with the money earned by the artists.

By the way, it was in Tomsk in 1944 that "Kupolavtsi" staged "Pavlinka" for the first time.



When the theater was returning to Belarus after evacuation, a train accident occurred, 7 people died, including 8-year-old Glena.

After this tragedy, Zoina's grandmother, Nadezhda Sorokina, did not appear on the stage again.

40 years later, during a tour, Zoya Belakhvostyk visited Tomsk in the house where her grandfather and grandmother lived during evacuation.

"Do you eat Belarusian bread?

Aren't you going to learn Belarusian?!"

Grandfather, Gleb Glebov, was Zoya's best friend, he loved his granddaughter very much, played with her in the puppet theater, and taught her a lot.

In the theater, he was affectionately called "Glebushka", says Zoya Belakhvostyk.



"When I was 5 years old, my grandmother took me to the theater for the first time at the Pavlinka theater. But during the second act, I had to be taken out because I shouted: "Don't hit my grandfather!"

- Zoya recalls her first trip to Kupalovsky.



Belakhvostyk also recalled how she became aware of Belarusian.

The girl somehow found out that a boy from her class was allowed not to study Belarusian language and literature at the request of his parents.



"My grandfather brought me up with tenderness, my mother with love, but my dad brought me up with a look.

I came home, my father was having lunch at that time - he was eating borscht.

I happily began to say: "Dad, if you write a statement so that I don't study "squirrel", I will have so much free time and..."



I couldn't finish the sentence.

The Pope first looked at me with a so-so look, and then how to shout: "Are you eating Belarusian bread?

And you're not going to learn Belarusian?!" And he hit the table with his fist... The borscht spread all over the kitchen with blood stains," says the folk artist.

"You will become an artist only through my corpse"

During the party

As for choosing a profession, Zoya's father, actor Valyantsin Belakhvostyk, immediately decided: "You will become an artist only through my corpse," she recalls.

Zoya studied at an art school, drew, sculpted, embroidered, and the family hoped that she would become a book designer.

When Zoe had to enroll, her father went on tour.

She submitted documents to the theater institute.

And it didn't come.

It was a tragedy for her.



"I cried for several days in a row - my face became like a rotten potato.

It was learned that a new Institute of Culture was opened.

She took the documents there.

Almost the same subjects were studied there as in the theater and art institute.

In the 3rd year there was a cabbage farmer, and a teacher, an authority figure, a friend of my father convinced him that I should study theater and art.

I was transferred there.

As a result, I had to study for 6 years!"

- the People's Artist of Belarus recalls her youth.



Zoya Belakhvostyk was invited to Kupalovsky for the role of Pavlinka.

She remembers how difficult it was to get into the role, how she constantly felt constrained, stuck, dissatisfied.

They managed to break free only on tour in Kiev, where the swimmers performed on the stage of the famous National Academic Drama Theater named after Ivan Franko.

After those Kiev tours, Valyantyn Belakhvostyk admitted that his daughter is a talented artist.



"And my mother is the angel of our whole family.

Only she could give the most sober advice, only she could tell me: "Zoinka, maybe you've had enough of playing Pavlinka?"

- says Belakhvostyk.

"We joke in the family: nature and talent did not rest on children"

During the party

With warmth and gratitude, Zoya remembered her directors - Andrey Androsik, Valer Raievsky, Mykolai Pinigin, all colleagues - actors.

And she proudly noted:



"I also have a personal director - Aleksandar Hartsuev.

This is my only love for the rest of my life.

We have a wonderful daughter, a talented actress Valentina Gartsueva.

We joke in the family: nature and talent did not rest on children.

My sister is a talented journalist, Nadzeya Belakhvostyk, who has written many articles about the Kupala Theater.

I have a very talented nephew Gleb Kufterin, named after his great-grandfather, he participated as an artist in two of Kupalovsky's plays," said Zoya Belakhvostyk about her large family.

The National Theater must be preserved

Actress Zoya Belakhvostyk and former presidential candidate Aleksandar Milinkevich

The People's Artist of Belarus recalled how in the summer of 2020 they were preparing for the 100th anniversary of the Kupala Theater.

But on August 12, I had to make a video appeal against the violence and brutal actions of the security forces.

On August 17, the Ministry of Culture terminated the contract with the director of the theater Pavel Latushka, and on August 19, the actors were no longer allowed to enter the building.

Negotiations with the Ministry of Culture did not lead to anything.

And on August 26, 58 employees of the theater (36 of them are actors) resigned.



On September 14, on the 100th anniversary, the stage of the theater turned out to be empty.

And already on October 12, 2020, "Free swimmers" appeared.

They decided that the National Theater should be preserved.

Actress Zoya Belakhvostyk.

The performance "Geese-swans"

They started with the production of "Tuteyshikh".

Then there were "I", "Fear", "Peacock", "Wojcek", "Gardenia", "I speak".

The plays "Notes of an officer of the Red Army", "Grandfathers", "Geese-people-swans", "Sphagnum", "Romantic" appeared last year.

Two dozen dolls made by the hands of the prim were sold with a hammer

Pavlinka doll

At the end of the evening, there was an auction of the author's dolls of Zoya Belakhvostyk.



Puppets are the heroes of performances: there is Peacock, the Evil Man and the Stallion from "Peacock";

Keramina Arkadyevna and Lyubka the interpreter from the play "Geese-people-swans", Blind from "Grandfathers", and Othello with Desdemona, Hare, "Soul of a Bather", as well as angels.

Desdemona and Othello dolls

The auction with jokes and witty stories about each doll was conducted by Kupalauskyi artist Oleg Garbuz.

Oleg Garbuz and Valentina Gartsuyeva

Prices started from 50 zlotys and reached 300. In this way, two dozen figurines made by the skillful hands of Zoya Belakhvostyk were sold under the hammer.

There was not enough for all those willing.

Elzhbeta Smulkova, the former ambassador of Poland to Belarus bought a doll

Among the guests of the event were professor Elzhbeta Smulek, the first ambassador of Poland to Belarus, the ambassador of Poland to Belarus Artur Michalski, the ex-director of Kupalauski Paval Latushka with his daughter Yana, the philosopher Paval Barkovsky, the politician Alyaksandar Milinkevich with his wife Ina Kuley, the editor-in-chief of "Charter-97 Natalya Radina and many other fans of the work of Zoya Belakhvostyk and "Kupalovets".