Grand Prix Of The International Environmental Forum Goes To The South Coast Of The Gulf Of Finland

BALTIC NEWSLETTER OF THE GREEN WORLD, № 92

Achievements of teachers from Lebiazhie village are recognized.

Grand prix of the international juvenile environmental forum GREEN PLANET 2006 in the nomination ‘theater group’ has been awarded to the EXPERIMENT theatre from village Lebiazhie on the South coast of the Gulf of Finland.

The group of ethnographer-artist NATALIA E. ROMANOVA from the same school of Lebiazhie got a diploma for their collection of costumes in the nomination “Clothes made from environmentally clean materials".

Viktor Kharitonov is the honored artist of Russia, director of the school theatre EXPERIMENT, together with 22

school children and dog Marylyn Monroe produced a stage performance about the life of cats “Shoo!”. The performance was recorded on DVD and together with a poster of the play, which the group showed many times, was sent to Moscow for the participation in the Forum.
The Jury judging a very representative competition (22 countries of the world, 67 regions of Russia, about 20.000 participants) gave the group the highest award, and this is a brilliant result of the two-year work of the well-known director and the whole group of young actors from Lebiazhie.
“Shoo!” is a play about love for every living being, which makes involved not only young actors, the whole audience joins in and opens to the problems of animals and pets, with which we share our Habitat.
The award-giving ceremony of the Forum took place on 2 November in the Moscow Ermolova theatre. In accordance with the tradition each theater, which participated in the competition, was introduced by a young actor and the head of performing group. For this presentation Viktor Kharitonov made a mini-performance based on the “Chief Seattle’s Message”, which was published in the book of Joanna Macy “COMING BACK TO LIFE". In accordance to plot a businessman tries to persuade the chieftain to sell the land, on which his tribe lives.
– If the freshness of air and brilliance of water does not belong to us, how can you buy it? … Fragrant flowers – our sisters, deer, horse, magnificent eagle – our brothers. … Rocky ridges, juicy grass of meadows, body warmth of the man and horse – all of this belong to the same family. So when you speak about your wish to buy our land, it means that you want to get us …».
The play shows the collision of two mentalities, which explains the deep controversy causing the environmental crisis of today.

Historically Authentic Reproduction Of The Female Costume Worn By Ingermanland People, the indigenous population of the South coast of the Gulf of Finland. It also got high estimates of the “Green

Planet 2006” Jury. In the beginning of 2006 the group of Lebiazhie teachers and children supported by the GREEN WORLD received money from the Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg for buying sewing machines and fabrics. The enthusiasm and talent of teachers combined with new possibilities brought their work with children to a new level. As a result the new generation of inhabitants of the South cost of the Gulf of Finland was not only involved into the creative process, which gave them an insight into the culture of the past, they also learned to introduce the elements of the traditional culture into the present-day life.
More detailed information you can get on the GREEN WORLD site www.greenworld.org.ru, also in the Sosnovy Bor office, tel. (81369) 72991 or from Alexander Senotrusov, tel. +7 911 9756951.

Photos by Alexander Senotrusov
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