The history of creation of the show “Krakatuk”.

According to Oleg Chesnokov, the general producer of the project, it is possible to mention the date when the idea of the show "Krakatuk" was born. At that time it was not a project of today's "theatre-circus show" on motives of a fairy tale of E.T.A.Hoffmann, but it was only the conversation of the creation of a new intermedia genre. So, on December, 19th, 1998 this idea was told by the Minister of Culture of Monaco in the conversation with Chesnokov. “He said that in Russia there are the remarkable ballet, wonderful theatre and good circus, and why don’t you create a show, understandable all over the world, which would represent some mixture of genres… He did not understand himself that it had already been the idea of a genre. And even we understood it later when we started to develop it”.

Six months later Chesnokov had come to the Russian State Circus with the proposal of the creation of an intermedia show, and this company management agreed to help. The plot of the show was chosen at once, it was "The Nutcracker", but other aspects of the show were very difficult to solve. At the beginning it seemed that it is necessary to invite «the masters of native art» and everything will shape well: some dance on the stage, while others perform tumbles. It has been found rather quickly that no good will come of the simple combination of circus and ballet. And within the first year and a half there was a search of style and production group. There were conducted special social researches, there were discovered the interrelations between genres. There was the question – what is this? Is this the ballet with the elements of circus or the circus with the elements of ballet? In respect to this there was an idea of invitation of famous western choreographers. Afterwards the creators of the show came to an idea of invitation of Tatyana Baganova, the head of the troope «Provincial dances» from Ekaterinburg. By that time she had already been the main celebrity in native "modern dance".

It was very difficult to find out the stage director: some famous stage directors got through the "Krakatuk", but their ideas were not the same as the ideas of the general producer. According to Oleg Chesnokov: “One of them said that the fur-tree should grow in the middle of the stage. As soon as I have heard of a fur-tree, I have understood at once that it was not an idea what I wanted to realize. And then there was no stage director who would not speak of “a fur-tree”, and as soon as I have heard of it our conversations have come to an end. And one day Andrey Moguchy has come to offer his ideas, and it became clear at once that I have found the stage director. He has understood everything at once”. It was 2002.

When Moguchy has come, it became clear that the theatre should become the main genre of a show – he would give the universal form which would join the interests of spectators of different age, social groups and so on. Moguchy has brought a video artist Alexander Malyshev, with whom he has been working some years, and an art director Alexander Shishkin round (immediately upon the "Krakatuk" Moguchy and Shishkin have begun to work together).

As concerns music there were some problems. Before the new stage director has come the adaptations of a musical composition of Tchaikovsky were ordered to many composers – they were from America and France. There were even the jazz variations on a theme of "The Nutcracker", but this didn't serve stage director turn. Moguchy has decided that the modern variant of a fairy tale of Hoffmann should be the electronic di variant in the spirit of «Knifes for Frau Muller». Thus, the author of "Knifes" Oleg Gitarkin (St. Petersburg) has come to the project and brought Igor Vdovin round, with whom he has been working together.

The project preparation had been lasting so long that one day Tatyana Baganova broke down and left this project, so her place was taken by choreographers-debutants – they are four most talented and ambitious dancers from the group which was trained by Tatyana Baganova for the participation in the performance. Each of them began to work at some episodes, - thus the dancing part of the "Krakatuk" had been formed.

By the end of 2003 it became clear that none theatrical atelier is capable of making the fantastic monsters and strange moving objects fabled by Shishkin. So it was necessary to find out the specific artist. Petersburg underground art is well-known by its “needlewomen”, and, nevertheless, a lot of artists from 10, Pushkin Street and from other city squats tried to work at "Krakatuk". At last the specific artist, who started out to work at monsters, was found. His name is Barmalej (Alexey Bogdanov). He became the last in the team of creators of a new intermedia show.