International festival of tv programmes about theatre opens in Novosibirsk

An international festival of television programmes about the theatre opened on Thursday in Novosibirsk, a large industrial and scientific centre in western Siberia. For five days TV companies from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Germany, Japan, the Czech Republic and Italy will be showing their works in a specially adapted hall of the local opera theatre.

Competition entries include about 500 programmes in different genres, all dealing with the theatre. Apart from showing video films, the festival will also host theoretical and practical master-classes, seminars, and creative laboratories and workshops attended by authors of theatre programmes and leading specialists from Russian and overseas TV companies.

The festival, called "Theatre + TV", is meeting for the third time. The previous two were held in another Siberian city -- Omsk.