The 24^th Golden Mask Festival, the most prestigious show and contest of Russia’s theatrical art, is taking place in Moscow from February 6 to April 15, 2018.
To make the short-list of the Golden Mask Award, experts reviewed 555 straight plays and puppet shows, as well as 277 musicals.
As a result, fourteen full-length straight plays and fifteen short-length straight plays, as well as nine operas, seven classical and modern ballets, five operettas and musicals, five puppet shows and six productions in the "Experiment" nomination will compete in the main contest.
Among the contenders for the Golden Mask Award in the Full-length Straight Play there are two productions of the Gogol Center (Moscow), both of them dedicated to the Russian poets of the Silver Age.

Among the nominees for the Best Stage Direction there are recognized masters (Yuri Butusov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Konstantin Bogomolov, Marat Gatsalov, Rimas Tuminas, Mindaugas Karbauskis, and Lev Dodin) along with aspiring directors (Philip Grigoryan, Timofey Kulyabin, and Maxim Didenko).
In opera and ballet nominations, theaters of Moscow, Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Perm traditionally compete.
A new festival project - “The Golden Mask Online” - will broadcast the participants’ stage productions on the Internet, whereas the “The Golden Mask at the Cinema” project will screen them at the cinemas of this country. Street performances will be held in the framework of the “Golden Mask in City” program. For foreign visitors, the traditional “Russian Case” project is offered.

LIST OF EVENTS in the framework of "The Golden Mask" Festival:·

•           February 25 - Opera "Billy Budd" at the Bolshoi Theater
• ·         February 25 – Play “Kuzmin. Trout Breaks the Ice” in Gogol-Center
• ·         February 26-27 – Play "Breath" at the Theater of Nations
• ·         February 26 Play "The Man from Podolsk" at the Theater.doc
• ·         February 27 – Opera "Billy Budd" at the Bolshoi Theater
• ·         February 27-28 - Play “Akhmatova. Poem without a Hero” in Gogol-Center
• ·         1 March - Play “Drums at Night” at the Pushkin Theater
• ·         March 12-13 – Play "Oedipus, the King" at the Vakhtangov Theater
• ·         13 March – Play “Galileo. Opera for the Violin and Scientist” at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater
• ·         March 14 – Play “Drums at Night” at the Pushkin Theater
• ·         March 14 – Play “Dragon" at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater
• ·         March 16 - Play "I want to Go to School" at RAMT
• ·         March 18 - Opera "Passenger" at the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater
• ·         March 18- Play "Expulsion" at the Mayakovsky Theater
• ·          March 18 - Ballets of Serge Lifar, Jiri Kylian and William Forsythe at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater
• ·         March 19 - Ballets of Serge Lifar, Jiri Kylian and William Forsythe at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater
• ·         March  22- Play “Tartuffe" at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater
• ·         March 23- Play "Tartuffe" at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater
• ·         March 25- Play "Democracy" at RAMT
• ·         March 26 – Play "Breath" at the Theater of Nations
• ·         March 27 - Play "Breath" at the Theater of Nations
• ·         March 27 – Play "The Man from Podolsk" at the Theater.doc
• ·         March 29 - Play "Ivanov" at the Theater of Nations
• ·         March 30 – Play "Ivanov" at the Theater of Nations
• ·         April 1 – Play "Expulsion" at the Vl. Mayakovsky Theater
• ·         April 12 - Opera "Faust" at the "New Opera" Theater
• ·         April 12 – Play "Dragon" at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater
• ·         April 13 – Play "The Man from Podolsk" at the Theater.doc