Mini-soccer team Chekhov's MKhAT had a resounding win over rival team Kvartet Odin on Mon., Feb. 12, bringing home the coveted TsDA-MTS Cup amid the roar of their jubilant fans. Though the match originally ended in a draw, MKhAT had a post-game penalty win, trouncing their rivals 2-1. The win, the culmination of weeks of preparation and sweat, was a thrilling finish to a grueling multi-stage tournament that, in essence, was pure drama.

Yes, you read that first paragraph correctly – the two teams in question were in fact none other than the companies of two of Moscow's most famous theaters, who took a break from performing Chekhov's "Three Sisters" and Shakespeare's "Hamlet," respectively, to engage in a game of mini-soccer at the Dinamo Palace of Sports. The game was one of several played at the final event of the Cup TsDA-MTS show tournament sponsored by the Central House of Artists and Russian company Mobile TeleSystems (MTS). The victorious thespians-turned-athletes also walked away with a prize of $2,500.

Other theater companies turning their talents from the stage to the soccer field in the tournament were the Pyotr Fomenko Studio, Lencom, Satiricon (which all winter long alternated rehearsals with soccer practice led by the theater's chief-director-turned-coach), Durova's Theater of Clownery, RAMT and the Gogol Theater. Both parts of the Tanganka Theater also participated in the competition, combining together for the purpose.

Although, of course, more accustomed to the intricacies of play interpretation and stage decor than to the rough-and-tumble world of soccer, the team members handled themselves competently. In any case, since the aim of the event was to have fun, many spectators were clearly having the time of their lives.

Though small, the audience – packed onto bleachers so tiny and so close to the field that it was next to impossible to avoid frequent collisions with the animal-costume-wearing cheerleaders – made up for its numbers with abundant enthusiasm and there was almost as much activity in the stands as on the field itself. Showing themselves to be sport fans as well as theater aficionados, they whooped it up, bashing on cymbals, pounding on drums, shouting out "Davai!" and, in general, making as much of a ruckus as possible with whatever happened to be handy.