The handwriting document “Plays and excerpts from plays by unidentified persons, staged with the participation of D.P. Chernysheva” as a source of information about amateur performances at the court of Catherine II

The article is dedicated to the unique archive source from the second half of the 18th century – handwritten fragments from plays. These plays were performed at the Catherine’s the Great court by noble amateur actors. The manuscript belonged to countess Darya Chernysheva (1739–1802), who was very close to the empress and took part in the amateur performances at the court. As a result of the study, we identified eight plays by French playwrights – one tragedy and seven comedies. A number of sources from the second half of the 18th century were analyzed to make it clear when and where these spectacles with the participation of Darya Chernysheva took place.