At the meeting with the famous theatrical family, the books The Face of the Harlequin. The Story of the Artist Evgeny Knyazev by Sergey Korobkov and The Chalk Circle of Alexander Dunaev by Elena Dunaeva, published by Navona, were presented.

Today Yevgeny Knyazev is a famous theatre and film star, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, laureate of the State Prize, and Rector of a famous theatre school. One day, the graduate of the Polytechnic Institute of Tula decided that his life’s purpose was not to work as a mining engineer, but rather to serve the art of Melpomene. How he was able to fulfill his dream, to get into the famous Vakhtangov Theatre where he has been on stage for almost 30 years, his views on the profession and culture—this is the story of the new book by theatre expert Sergei Korobkov. Among the stars of this story are directors Yevgeny Simonov, Pyotr Fomenko, and Rimas Tuminas; actors Yulia Borisova, Lyudmila Maksakova ....

The author of the second book, The Chalk Circle of Alexander Dunaev, was the wife of Yevgeny Knyazev, art critic Elena Dunaeva. This is a tribute to the memory of her father, Director Alexander Dunaev, the centenary of whose birth was celebrated last year. In the 1960s and 70s, he was the Chief Director of the Central Academic Theatre of the Russian Army, the Gogol Centre, Theatre on Malaya Bronnaya, and M. Zhvanetsky’s Moscow Theatre of Miniatures. By coincidence, his birthday on 27 March became World Theatre Day. The biography is like an exciting theatrical novel, supplemented by the memoirs of contemporaries about the ‘Builder and Servant of the Theatre’ Alexander Dunaev.