“Antrepriza” – is a Houston based theater project (non-profit) formed by Anna Shchelokova. Anna joined four professionally exquisite actors from the Russian Theater presently living in Houston to her project. The participants of the group are as follows: Vasiliy Yasenev, Alex Pominov, Edita Rozenberg, Alex Iyerusalimskiy. Collectively they have per-formed in countless stage projects; in addition Vasiliy, Alex and Edita have acted in movies.
Also pictured below are three actors invited to participate in some "Antrepriza" shows: Slava Nadvoretsliy, Larisa Angerova, Sergey Tukanov, Elena Kievskaya, Svetlana Bolshakova.
From the bright age of 15 Anna has been active in the Theater. She’s had the opportunity to work with professional directors in Russia and the USA, performed in various shows as an actress and/or director and upon her arrival to Houston from Moscow started her journey to develop her own Theater project. The focus behind her project is to share talented plays, to better educate the Russian speaking audience from the former Soviet Union region (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhsan, Latvia, Litva, Estonia, Belorus, Uzbkistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbadzhan etc. etc.) with U.S. cultures through great play writes, such as: Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, Edward Albee etc. The project aim is to also familiarize U.S. audiences with the World Famous Russian Acting Schools: Konstantin Stanislavski and Michael Chekov. Currently the shows are in Russian; to attract a broader audience Anna has included subtitles in English along with adding English performances into the schedule.
Within the past few years the group created 14 shows: “Viva, Paris” (comedy), “Silvia” (musical), “Two maple trees” (folk story for kids and adults), “The Open Couple” (comedy), “French Dessert” (comedy), “Sixth sense” (poetry performance) etc. etc, all with positive feedback, even provoking some to come back several times to see the same show! The team is currently rehearsing for three new shows - audiences can’t wait to see them.
All participants of the group have corporate schedules but manage to come together during the evening hours to rehearse at Anna’s house. The budget is tight and even hard at times for the show to survive, given the small donations made after each show. The revenue generated from the productions cover a small portion of the costumes, decorations, furniture, make up, posters printing, facility rent for the show, sound and light technician payment etc. But, the intent is not to provoke a sponsor, instead they prefer to work hard and create high-quality material, with the purpose of presenting great professional performances and to share love, energy and art with audience.
The website www.antreprizahouston.com, written the majority in Russian, (now - playtosee.com) details information about the actors and productions, gives audience feedback, provides reviews from newspapers and magazines articles on their Houston productions and tours (group has also performed in Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago).
What does Antrepriza mean? It is a small group of the most talented actors, or musicians or dancers selected for tours. Easy travel is a key for these types of projects. In the most cases there is no support personal (actors do everything - ad, costumes, decorations, light, sound, music, dance, make up etc.), and decorations are portable to reach a maximum mobility of the group and decrease expenses.
Please come and see, you'll have a great time sharing “Antrepriza” passion for a Drama Theater and Art! "There are three things which you cannot get enough of: friends, chocolate and the Theater!
