Popular Sovremennik Theater Director Volchek Dies at 86

Galina Volchek, the director of Sovremennik — one of Moscow’s most popular theaters — has died aged 86 on Thursday.

Volchek made her stage debut in 1956, when she and other rebellious young actors co-founded the Sovremennik. She headed the theater since 1972 and was named its artistic director in 1989.

Volchek’s cause of death is unknown. Media reports said she was hospitalized Monday with lung problems.

“Galina Borisovna has fully given herself to the Sovremennik,” the theater said in an online statement announcing Volchek’s death. 

“We rightfully called her ‘mother’ and now we’re fully orphaned,” it said.

Sovremennik, whose pioneering performances shaped Soviet theater, symbolized the short-lived Khrushchev-era liberal “thaw” in the early 1960s.

Volchek’s funeral service will be held this Sunday, Sovremennik said.