The Volnoe Delo Foundation received the Best Social Projects in the South of Russia 2019 award. The judges awarded the Young Moscow Academic Drama Theatre in Kuban top spot in the Support of Culture category.

The award ceremony was held as part of the fifth inter-regional conference, known as ‘Social Investments in the South of Russia: best management practices in the non-profit sector’, held in Rostov-on-Don. 70 projects across 10 categories were submitted to the panel of judges. All of the contestants were non-profit organisations that invest their own money in projects seeking to improve the level and quality of life in Russia.

The Young Moscow Academic Drama Theatre in Kuban won in the Support of Culture category, beating six other projects. The Volnoe Delo Foundation has been organising tours of the school of the Moscow Academic Drama Theatre in Kuban since 2006. The tours feature graduation performances produced by students of one of the most respected theatre schools in the world, master classes taught by the instructors of the Academic Drama Theatre school to young theatre audiences, and auditions for talented young people who want to enrol in the theatre school.

Over this period, nine cultural events have been held in Krasnodar and Ust-Labinsk, during which 23550 people got to see 21 theatre performances, some 1000 people have taken part in master classes, and about 800 people have auditioned for the theatre school. In all these years, two people have successfully enrolled in and graduated from the theatre school as actors, and one has graduated from the theatre directing department.
During the tours, residents of the Krasnodar territory got to meet famous instructors, actors, directors, and theatre scholars, such as Anatoly Smelyansky,

Constantine Raykin, Dmitry Brusnikin, Roman Kozak, Alla Sigalova, Marina Brusnikina, Igor Zolotovitsky, Victor Ryzhakov, Andrey Kuzichev, and many others. Young people come to Krasnodar from Sochi, Tuapse, Astrakhan, Pyatigorsk, Rostov-on-Don, Crimea, the Republic of Adygeya, North Ossetia and other cities and regions of the Southern and North Caucasus Federal Districts to attend the master classes and audition for the theatre school. Over the years, a total of 7.1 million rubles has been invested in the programme.

In 2017, participants at the award ceremony included the last class of the theatre school under the management of Evgeni Pisarev. Krasnodar and Ust-Labinsk residents got to see the following productions: Gorky. Bottom. Vysotski, directed by Boris Dyachenko, Girls, There's a Boy Here to See You, directed by instructors Dmitry Turkov and Evgenia Dmitrieva, and The Criple from Inishmaan Island, directed by instructor Andrey Kuzichev. A master class for the young actors and students of the Krasnodar University of Culture and the Arts was held by the teacher of the Moscow Academic Drama theatre school, actor of the A.S. Pushkin Moscow Theatre and of the cinema, Andrey Kuzichev (over 100 people participated). 76 people auditioned for the school, four of whom were recommended for the third round at the theatre school in Moscow.

The Volnoe Delo Foundation has been cooperating with the Moscow Academic Drama theatre school for over 10 years. During this time, in addition to the regular Young Moscow Academic Drama Theatre in Kuban events, the Foundation has also helped renovate the premises of the theatre school in Moscow, supported the organisation and holding in the fall of 2012 of the Open Lesson: Stanislavsky Continues festival to mark the 150th birthday of K. Stanislavsky, taken part in the organisation of a tour of Harvard Institute of Performing Arts students undertaking internships at the Moscow Academic Drama Theatre school in Yaroslavl, and supported Young MADT in Siberia and Young MADT in Russia events, as well as other events and activities.