“The best actors are doctors!”: how the stage and medicine are connected

“The best actors are doctors!”: how the stage and medicine are connected

The history of the legendary student club “Hippocrates” of St. Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University began in 1978, when the dean of the Faculty of Public Professions, Mikhail Fonarev, registered the Hippocrates Club in the education trade union system. A room was allocated between the two buildings of hostel No. 3, and the student life of the future Aesculapius exploded with the sounds of Pink Floyd. The very first student performance “The Wall” became the winner of the All-Union Festival of Amateur Artistic Creativity in 1987 and was shown at many venues, they even went on tour with it.

Students gave concerts and performances, held discos and skits, KVN and festivals. Well-known bards started here – graduates of the Pediatrics Alexander Ginzburg, musician and singer Svetlana Surganova.

In the 1990s, the club, unfortunately, ceased to exist, and only in 2008 did its revival begin. In 2009, Marina Ryabova, who already had extensive experience in the field of theatrical and concert activities, became the director of the club. Instrumental, theatrical, dance and vocal studios were formed, which eventually became a kind of symbiosis. Students either moved from studio to studio, or did everything together, in fact turning into a single musical and theater group.

You can exclude, for example, sleep

We arrived at the Hippocrates at six in the evening. And life is already in full swing here: they are dismantling the decorations from the recently passed holiday, the Day of the Freshman, and begin to prepare for the New Year.

The director of the club, Marina Ryabova, gives a tour: this is the dressing room, this is the dressing room, this is a dance class.

“Here there was a concrete floor, we replaced it, but here on the wall I painted bricks myself … I have a lot of organizational experience, and I have always worked with creative people. I pulled up my friends, although at first no one wanted to go into ruin, ”says Marina.

There are three cheerful girls in the dressing room, and only during the conversation it turns out that they are already young doctors. Anastasia Altynpara is a graduate of 2022, now she works as a district pediatrician in a polyclinic in the Kalininsky district. In the club from the 1st course. She says that at first she went to the vocals, and then she didn’t even notice how the vocals moved to the theater. Her friends, pediatrician Masha Matushevskaya and intern Arina Savateeva have similar stories. But Misha Don, a sophomore, joined the club a year ago. He came from Vladivostok. He says that he dreamed of studying in St. Petersburg, and he is very glad that “Hippocrates” accepted him as in his own family. In October, the guys took second place at the IV Youth Open Song Contest “Sing in St. Petersburg!”.

I ask how such a difficult study is combined with constant classes at the club. The guys laugh: “There is never enough time, something has to be excluded – for example, sleep. But not studying. This is a matter of priorities. If you want to sing more than one line, you will find the time.”

Young people admit that studying in studios and studying at a university are complementary things. The constant stimulation of the brain while learning large texts helps in studies, and vice versa, and the experience of performing on stage in front of a large audience helps to speak at scientific events. Teachers also come to many performances of Hippocrates, and then they recognize the actors in their tests and exams.

Newcomers constantly appear in the club, in total 50-60 students are involved. There is no special selection: it is enough to be a student (resident, graduate, graduate student) of the university and really want to be creative. At first, of course, almost everyone is shy, they don’t know how to stand up, where to put their hand, put their foot. But everything is gradually learned. Nastya Altynpara laughs: “For example, I burr – it would seem, which of me is an actress?” And does she burr? I didn’t even notice!

Two newcomers – freshmen Nastya Askirko and Anton Berezin – came to the club as soon as they learned about its existence. Third-year students are rehearsing nearby – a future pediatric surgeon, a pediatric neurologist and a dentist. They come here not only after their studies, but also after work – they earn extra money as nurses. Fifth-year student Nikita Sokolov came to the club at the end of September, but already took part in the concert, he likes vocals. He says that he manages to combine medicine, the club and the leadership of the volleyball section in the student trade union committee.

“There is nothing to do in medicine without an active position. If desired, there is always time. Even if there is no time, you can work out with the older guys here, ”says Nikita.

Interestingly, it was Hippocrates who kept some students from leaving or moving to another university. Sooner or later, novice doctors face a difficult choice: stay in the profession or leave medicine. Someone in the middle of their studies understands that they “do not take it out”, others find medicine too difficult, for others, the transition from the romance of study to harsh everyday life has become a test.

“I wanted to leave during the COVID-19 pandemic. I worked in a polyclinic, and it became noticeable how they really treat

I’m in medicine, but not even patients, but the system itself. This system just smashed me to pieces, to smithereens. You study for 6 years, then you study all your life – and you are treated like a servant. But I do not provide services, I do not do eyebrows, I am a doctor, and I perceive myself differently. I wanted to leave the university, but then I would have to leave Hippocrates as well. And I stayed. I fell in love with medicine again on July 9, 2022 – at our graduation at Hippocrates, – says one of the young doctors.

Here you can be yourself

“We are accepted here as we are” is the most common answer to the question why students love the Hippocrates club so much. And the guys recently proved this by staging a very complex and very unexpected play “Our Graduation”. It was a really dramatic performance, where everyone played their own purely personal story: about love, about family, about illness, about how difficult it is to be a doctor if you cannot save the patient. The performance was so powerful and frank that the actors themselves and their director Tatyana Korneeva do not yet know whether this experience will be repeated.

“We decided to take different stories that would resonate with the guys themselves. And it so happened that there was little fun – everyone talked about some kind of pain. But it also became art therapy. Bringing your pain to the stage, living it, you relieve unnecessary stress. Maybe that’s why even the doubting guys remained in the profession, ”says Tatyana Alexandrovna.

Tatyana Korneeva is a professional director, a graduate of St. Petersburg University of Culture. And she admits that she did not work with anyone better than with doctors.

“How is it working with future doctors? Awesome! I also work with professional artists, and sometimes I even think that doctors are more talented. They are so real, smart, not stamped. I love when actors have intelligence. They have it. Physicians are still older, they have to deal with such circumstances that by the 3-4th year they are already individuals. For me, doctors are amazing creative units. There is talent in everyone. Someone comes at first completely “wooden”, and then breaks in a good way. I take everyone and I don’t kick anyone out. Come, watch and stay if you are interested,” the director admires his guys.

They could be even tougher. Talented guys who want to save human souls and bodies need very little: equip a stage in the 7th auditorium of the main building of the Pediatric, and add high-quality light to the club. Then the wall of the club, already covered with certificates and prizes for victories in all possible competitions, will be even larger, and Hippocrates will glorify the youth of our medicine throughout the country.