OREANDA-NEWS. August 24, 2009. The musical was a success: the kids received standing ovation, were encored for several times and presented with lots of flowers. 
 
“It is really incredible that in such a short period of time the kids have managed to produce such a professional musical. But the main thing is that they have become a real team. They have proved once again that real friendship can work miracles,” well-known pop-singer Svetlana Loboda said after the performance.

The musical has been produced in the framework of the international children’s festival NucKids 2009.

The festival set off at the Yershovo holiday house in Moscow region on July 19 2009 under the aegis of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation. 50 children of nuclear workers from Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria took part in the event. The sponsors of the festival were Atomenergoprom OJSC, TVEL OJSC and Energoatom Concern OJSC.

The objective of the festival was to strengthen friendly relations among children of Russian and foreign nuclear power engineers, to develop new traditions of cultural cooperation and children’s art and to popularize nuclear energy among the younger generation.

The Russian team represented Kursk, Volgodonsk and Leningrad NPPs, the Russian Federal Nuclear Center-All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF) and Atomflot FSUE.

The kids faced an interesting and original task: in 21 days they had to produce and stage a musical about nuclear energy. Such pressing deadline is a serious challenge even for the professionals of the show business. That’s why the participants in the project were the best kids selected through though preliminary screening. The key selection criteria were sociability, initiative, artistic skills, staginess and ability to sing and dance well.

The objective of the project was to dispel myths about nuclear energy and radiation by means of a musical produced and performed by the children of employees of Russian and foreign nuclear facilities.

Under the supervision of experienced teachers the children invented the plot, wrote the screenplay and the lyrics and choreographed the dances. The songs were recorded in a special studio by professional soundmen and arrangers, namely the professor of the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) Igor Vetrov, composer, the artistic manager of the Rovesnik state children’s club Andrey Nikulin, teacher of vocal art, professor of the GITIS Yelena Sokolova, choreographer of Avenue children’s show group Irina Dubakina. The well-known sportsmen and pop stars like Alexander Nemov, Lolita and Vlad Topalov came to encourage the kids.

The plot is simple: a young good-looking teenager Anton from the capital, who likes mathematics and computer games, comes to spend his summer holidays in a provincial city and falls in love with a local beauty. The dismissed admirers of the couple decide to teach them a lesson and spread, on behalf of Anton, an internet allegation about disastrously high radiation in the city. The police find and arrest the “information terrorist.” But his girlfriend and comrades brainstorm an action so as to show the whole world that everything is OK. Those really guilty are caught and punished.

Before the Ukrainian premiere the children were taken on a tour of Kyiv, visited the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and the Museum of Miniatures and made a trip down Dnieper River on a motor ship.