ABOUT US

Nobody knows when the first fairy tale was written, but no person in the world probably doesn’t like them. Fairy tales became an excellent textbook of life, the first step to wisdom, and most of them start with magical words "Once upon the time…." With these words, an exciting journey of Zerkalo Musical Theater has started. At Russian Kids House, a language school in Reston, VA, creative director Olga Predit opened a theater studio called "Zhyli Byli," which means "Once Upon the Time" in Russian. Zhyli-Byli’s first premiere took place in November 2010.

Theater art became essential to young actors’ lives, and 2011-2012 graduates chose to continue doing what they loved. They convinced their teacher to have their classes going and to create a theater. Children came up with a name for the theater, identified their mission and the family of Ittai Kan and Julia Karpeisky generously agreed to have rehearsals in the basement of their house. Zerkalo Musical Theater started its existence, and young artists began to encourage their audience to look at the mirror of human relations and to give an evaluation of the internal qualities of their characters.

In 2013 for the first time theater brought their play "On Trails Unknown" ("Там на неведомых дорожках") to the large stage of the III International Festival of Russian-Speaking Children's and Youth Theaters in Washington, DC.  Young actors did a fabulous job performing short stories by Alexander Pushkin, and Aaron Kan received an Award for Best Artistic Reciting for playing an educated cat. 

Since then, participation in the festival has become a great tradition, and every year young actors treat the Washington, DC audience with new shows.

The theater got awards in a few nominations - Revelation of Inner Human Values, Best Artistic Design, and Best Comedy, and the young actors got awards in the following: Best Lead Actor, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.

Over the last five years, the Zerkalo Musical Theater family got bigger, and currently, it has eight groups of actors of various ages. Olga Predit continues her partnership with International Kids House, and future actors of the theater start learning performing arts at that school.

The groups are made up of bilingual children, and shows are done in Russian and English. Young actors adapt and translate scripts from Russian into English.  Over time theater group performed in the following shows:

• Farther Frost Morozko ("Морозко")

• The Wolf and Seven Young Kids ("Волк и семеро козлят")

• The Cat’s House ("Кошкин дом")

• Little House ("Теремок")

• How The Puppy Was Looking For Happiness ("Как щенок счастье искал")

• Summer Fair ("Летняя ярмарка")

• Ivan Krylov Comedy Fable Medley ("Комедийное попурри по мотивам басен И. Крылова")

• Nutcracker ("Щелкунчик")

• Cinderella ("Золушка")

• Thumbelina ("Дюймовочка")

• The Twelve Months ("Двенадцать месяцев")

• The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors ("Королевство Кривых Зеркал")

• Star Child ("Звездный мальчик")

• Stories From Storage ("Сказки на всякий случай")

• The Little Humpbacked Horse ("Конек-горбунок")

• The Little Red Rascal ("Рыжий, честный, влюбленный")

• Hussar's Matchmaking (“Сватовство гусара”)

• Sold Laughter (“Проданный смех”)

• You Never Dreamed of It. (“Вам и не снилось”)