Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Tabakov, good afternoon. Happy birthday!
Oleg Tabakov: Thank you. Look at Connie (Vladimir Putin's dog) - she remembers me.
Vladimir Putin: Of course Connie remembers you - she has a good memory.
You and I had agreed to meet to discuss theatre issues.
Oleg Tabakov: That's right. I'll try to be brief. May I do this in front of them (journalists)?
Vladimir Putin: You can do everything in front of them. Even if you don't, they'll find out everything anyway.
Oleg Tabakov: All right. Then I'll say this: ten years ago, Moscow Art Theatre performances were 40%-42% full, now they are 99% full. And over at the basement theatre ("Tabakerka") it's generally been 100% for six years. This makes me confident that if there was another stage at the Moscow Art Theatre for 54 years in a row, the theatre would reach a broader audience, first of all, and second it would give me an opportunity to do what's most important. After all, I'm 75 years old. I do not think that I will live as long as a turtle.
Vladimir Putin: It's better not to think about this at all.
Oleg Tabakov: All right, but my Masha is four years old, so I have no choice.
Why am I saying this? I need to help young people find their feet. And if there was a second stage, I could do that.
Vladimir Putin: I've heard that you teach a special course for young actors from around the country?
Oleg Tabakov: That's right, I have 24 students. Eighteen from Angarsk, Bratsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Leningrad [sic - St Petersburg] and six from Moscow. This is a completely non-profit establishment in the sense that they have accommodation and board - they will eat and sleep here, and they're secure in a social sense, in terms of healthcare and so on.
Vladimir Putin: How do you select them?
Oleg Tabakov: According to talent. I first travel there (to the regions) and cover a wide swath.
Vladimir Putin: You travel yourself?
Oleg Tabakov: I travel myself or I send someone; after all, I can't be everywhere at the same time.
In short, we had 120 people vying for 24 seats in the class, but in general the competition is about 60-65 candidates per place. They study the Fursenko method for three and a half years. But I'm working on changing this, because, in essence, it should be a normal trade school. Well, like the Central Music School and the Bolshoi Theatre School and the Vaganova School. Why is this done? So they'll be like Sergei Bezrukov - he graduated at 19 years old and achieved some good results.
Vladimir Putin: Well, at the Vaganova School, they start from the age of nine or seven.
Oleg Tabakov: There was a similar system in Tsarist times at the Tenishev School, where they took the figurants in at the age of 9 or 10, and they became assistant directors, prop managers and so on. But the young Alexandra Yablochkina made her debut at the age of 15, and the young Maria Yermolova at 16. It's such a blessed fate that you cannot make up for it with any family connections... It will not work. In fact, what do I want? I want to double-dip from the cream of the crop. I want to select once, and then select again.
In fact, I think the problem is that we have too little responsibility for the end product we produce at our schools. We do as we did in the Soviet Union: we don't know how much we need, so we overproduce.
Vladimir Putin: And nobody knows, and everybody overproduces, in all fields and with familiar regularity.
Oleg Tabakov: I understand. I led five studios to graduation and I took three or four people from each studio... And why? Because I had taught them for myself. It is the same in a developed communist society or in an inhuman capitalist society - if you do something for yourself, you do it so much better.
In fact, I did not mean to boast, I understand everything, but I suppose if you put together a national team, then half of the players will be mine. And only for one simple reason - I was training them for myself, since I have to perform together with them.
I warn them. I say - less than half of you will reach the finish line. Because the most important thing is to get the best, the ones who know how to drive locomotives.
This is the first and foremost issue.
Vladimir Putin: How many of these are the cream of the crop?
Oleg Tabakov: There a currently 25 of them, because I dragged a boy from Yaroslavl into it. Twenty-five. Judging by my previous studio, I we take the example of my first studio, I selected 28 and 14 graduated. We lured one from the Vakhtangov School. Fifteen graduated. There was one group where I eliminated 70% of the students.
But then this means that in the modern capitalist society...
Vladimir Putin: ...in the market economy.
Oleg Tabakov: ...in the market economy, they'll be competitive, meaning they'll earn their daily bread. Without that these days, it seems to me, things aren't any good.
I haven't taught for ten years but the despair I felt compelled me to return to it. This is my first priority, I mean that offshoot. My conscience will be clear if I try to establish it. In that I know that I did everything I could...
The second matter. Some teachers and students at the Moscow Art Theatre and this school have no accommodation. Vladimir Yakunin (President of the Russian Railways) has granted us land. There's nothing on the land but derelict buildings, but we can build a house for them on it. We could give the remaining land to the Ministry of Culture, maybe. I talked to Alexei Kudrin, and he was interested in this issue. I asked, "Is it for the Ministry of Finance as well?" "No, no," he said. "I have no claim to that plot of land."
In short, if we manage to do this, Mr Putin, it will be just...
Vladimir Putin: What kind of building do you want to build there?
Oleg Tabakov: One comprising 72 flats. It is all quite simple. This is how it will look (shows the project).
I mean I will not use all these flats, only about half of them, and the rest will be given to the ministry or, maybe, to the Moscow Culture Committee.
Vladimir Putin: Ok, we'll think about it.