The Faculty of Puppet Theatre trains actors capable of working both in traditional puppet systems – with stick puppets, marionettes, glove puppets and shadow puppets – as well as in object theatre. Future actors of puppet theatre learn puppetry, hand dexterity and the skills required of dramatic actors. Training takes place in the studio system, with each studio containing about 20 students. The program contains a great number of practical disciplines that stimulate scenic expressiveness of actors of puppet theatre: Stage Movement (which includes fencing), Acrobatics, Stage Speech, Dance and individual and choral Singing. But the main discipline is Acting, held daily from mid-afternoon until late in the evening. For their exams students prepare small, self-contained productions. The most important skill of the future puppeteer is the ability to “comprehend the soul of objects,” to see a character in any inanimate object and bring it to life. In addition to professional coursework, acting students receive an education in the humanities, with their program including such courses as History of World Theatre, History of Russian Theatre, Philosophy, History of Literature (Russian and International) and Art History (with lessons held in the Hermitage and Russian Museum) among many others.

Graduates of the Faculty of Puppet Theatre work in such successful and internationally touring theatres as Bolshoi Puppet Theatre, Kukolny Format, Demmeni Marionette Theatre and more.