August 30, 2011 marks 255 years since the birth of the oldest national theater of Russia - the Russian State Academic Drama Theatre. AS Pushkin - the legendary Alexandrinsky. This day is the date of approval of the Empress Elizabeth Senate decree establishing the "Russian to represent tragedies and comedies of the theater." From that day began the history of Russian professional theater, as well as the development of the Russian state system of theatrical business.

Alexandrinsky Theatre was named after Alexandra, the wife of Emperor Nicholas I. In 1937, to commemorate the centenary of Pushkin's death, the theater was given the honor to carry the name of the poet, so now he calls and Alexandrinsky and Pushkin.

Since 1832, the theater is located in a magnificent building, which was designed by architect Carlo Rossi magnificent. Facade of the building facing the Nevsky Prospect. Five-tiered auditorium, a huge stage, ceremonial palace foyer, majestic facade, rising to the attic of the building sculpture "Apollo's Chariot", the whole exquisite architectural ensemble - one of the most prominent incarnations of Russian classicism.

Its repertoire consists of traditional Russian and foreign classical drama performances. At this stage the game is almost all the world premieres of Russian classical drama. On Alexandrinka productions were often Pushkin and Turgenev, Belinsky and Block, Lermontov, Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Chekhov and Tchaikovsky, Gorchakov and Witte, Stolypin, and Mannerheim, and even a special royal families of Europe.

There were a great success of the play Ostrovsky. Here Chekhov happy triumph of "Ivanov" and grieved at the failure of the first staging of "The Seagull." Currently the theater's repertoire, not only dramatic works, and ballet performances with the participation of Russian stars choreography.

The troupe of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, this "theater masters" - one of the strongest in St. Petersburg. There were Karatygin B., A. Martynov, I. Gorbachev, B. Freundlich, V. Komissarzhevskaya, E. Alexander Korchagin, and many others. Alexandrinsky Theatre glorified the great theater director who worked in it - Sun. Meyerhold, L. Vivien, G. Kozintsev, G. Tovstonogov, Akimova.

Academician DS Likhachev rightly considered a national treasure Alexandrinsky Theatre Russia.