Musical and Animated Tales of the Boy Onfim

Telephone: 8-800-100-17-16

In the summer of 2011, residents and guests of Veliky Novgorod will be presented with a new theatrical performance, which will be held in the architectural ensemble of the Novgorod Kremlin.

The main character of the plot of the interactive tourist program “Tales of the Boy Onfim” is a Novgorod medieval boy who wrote 12 letters found during archaeological excavations in Novgorod. The fairy tale with interactive episodes uses elements of ancient Russian games and fun, as well as unique growth dolls created according to individual sketches with a height of 2-6 meters.

The performance is designed for families with children over 6 years old. After the theatrical performance, those who wish will be able to attend master classes and make souvenirs for memory. Dates of May 7, June 11, July 9, August 13. Start at 15:00. The duration of the theatrical performance is 60 minutes, the entire program is 2-2.5 hours. The ticket price is 300 rubles.

Project certificate:

The main character of the fairy tale “Tales of the Boy Onfim” is a Novgorod medieval boy, whose history is taken by the authors as the basis of the play. In a fairy tale with interactive episodes, elements of ancient Russian games and fun are used.
While watching the fairy tale, viewers will not only plunge into the world of ancient Novgorod, see what its inhabitants were like, but also get acquainted with the characters of ancient Russian folklore, and most importantly, learn about the ancient alphabet and how important it is to be literate.
Together with the boy Onfim and his family, folklore characters act on the stage: Baba Yaga, Leshy with Kikimore, the formidable Volkolak, the Gamayun bird, the ancient god Veles - the patron of animals and others. In the mythology of the Slavs, all the gods could take the form of various animals and birds. Only having entered into a fight with the patron of animals Veles, Onfim, not distinguished by diligence, understands that it is necessary to master literacy. After all, the only way, reading the secret spell hidden in the text of the alphabet-Cyrillic alphabet, you can free sister Miroslava from the tenacious paws of the snake.
The music for this fairy tale was written by Novgorod composer Alexander Leonov. The author of poetic texts and songs is Novgorod writer Dmitry Ivanov, and the author of the script idea and director is Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, actor of the Novgorod Drama Theater, Daniil Donchenko. Costumes and decorations by Ekaterina and Svetlana Chazov. The production is attended by actors of the Novgorod Drama Theater named after F. M. Dostoevsky, as well as participants of various groups of Novgorod the Great.
Note that birch bark, bone, iron, bronze and wooden rods – wrote, found during archaeological excavations, in Novgorod the Great, are the best evidence that the inhabitants of ancient Russia, and especially Novgorod, were very educated people.
The first mention in the chronicle of the opening of schools on the Novgorod land dates back to 1030, when Yaroslav the Wise, having come to Novgorod, gathered "from elders and priestly children 300 teach books." Subsequently, the ancient “disciple notebooks” on birch bark became frequent finds of archaeologists. Academician V. L. Yanin in the book “I sent you birch bark” writes that the first such certificate was found in 1952. This is a small piece, number 74. On it insecure, unsettled handwriting scrawled the beginning of the alphabet: "Abvgdezhz ...".
The boy, who wrote down the alphabet and warehouses in the letter number 199, just exercised, because he already knew how to read and write. On the found letter, in a rectangular frame was written already familiar to archaeologists handwriting: "Bow from Onfim to Danila."
Then the boy began to draw, as all the boys draw, when he got bored of writing. He depicted a terrible beast with protruding ears, with a protruding tongue, like a spruce branch or the plumage of an arrow, with a tail twisted into a spiral. And so that the idea of our artist did not remain misunderstood by possible connoisseurs, the boy gave his drawing the name: "I am the beast" - "I am the beast." When finding subsequent letters, it was established that this boy was called Onfim and he lived in the XIII century in ancient Novgorod. In total, 12 letters were written in Onphim’s handwriting: Nos. 199-210 and 331, and in addition, he owns several birch bark drawings, not numbered as letters, since they do not contain text.