Slava Stepanyan: “Tumanyan is the Armenian Pushkin”

Slava Stepanyan, founder and artistic director of the Armenian Theater in Moscow, told Alpha News about the theater’s achievements and projects launched in 2024.

“A lot of things happened in 2024. This year was a leap year. It was bad for everyone, but the audience welcomed us warmly. This year we won a cultural grant from the Russian president, which helped us implement a wonderful project. We opened and closed the year with Hovhannes Tumanyan’s performances,” Slava Stepanyan said.

He added that 762 grant applications were submitted to the Russian president, and two teams won, one of which was the Armenian Theater in Moscow.

“We presented the presidential grant project, and they approved it. This grant was unexpected for us. Of the 762 applications, only two were accepted. We were one of them. We were glad that we had an opportunity to celebrate Tumanyan’s anniversary in a very beautiful way, to present it not only to Armenians but also to other nations. We played for children from Armenian communities in a number of Russian cities.

Everyone came up to us and asked, Who is Tumanyan, who expressed so many wonderful thoughts? We said it was the Armenian Pushkin,” Slava Stepanyan said.