The director of the Yaroslavl Drama Theatre and former general director of Studio Seven is accused of embezzling budget funds.
The Guild of Theatre Managers of Russia expressed its concern over information pressure on their colleague Yury Itin. The board of the guild notes that public allegations about the theatre administrator’s guilt appeared before he was officially charged.
Yury Itin, director of Fyodor Volkov Drama Theatre in Yaroslavl, worked in 2011-2014 as general director at Studio Seven founded by Kirill Serebrennikov. The Investigative Committee accuses the studio’s employees of embezzling funds granted by Russia’s ministry of culture for promoting contemporary art. Kirill Serebrennikov’s home and the Gogol Centre theatre he founded were raided in connection with the criminal case. Itin is under house arrest. He and Studio Seven’s chief accountant Nina Maslyayeva are charged with fraud.
“Yury Itin is one of the most well-known and respected theatre managers in Russia. He taught students at the Russian University of Theatre Arts and Moscow Art Theater School for many years, bringing up several generations of directors and managers who work across Russia today. Since 2012, he has been director of Yaroslavl-based Fyodor Volkov Theatre and has turned it into one of the leading theatre centres in Russia… The situation around Yuri Itin, media hype and ill-conceived statements unfairly discredit not only out colleague, but also the entire sphere of theatre management,” the statement by the Guild of Theatre Managers of Russia says.
Directors of Russian theatres hope the investigation will be objective and transparent. They urge investigators to look into all details of the case and call on the media and public to restrain from jumping to conclusions and declaring persons in the case guilty without a court’s ruling.
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