Theatre of the Young Spectator, Youth theatre in Moscow, Russia

The Theatre of the Young Spectator is a theater building in Moscow that specializes in performances for children and teenagers. The venue presents different types of productions ranging from fairy tale adaptations to more complex theatrical works throughout the year.

Founded in 1920 on the initiative of People's Commissar Anatoly Lunacharsky as the First State Theatre for Children, it opened with an adaptation of Kipling's Mowgli in a hall seating 330. In 1941 it merged with a second Moscow young-spectator troupe to form MTYuZ, and in 1950 it moved into the 19th-century building in Mamontovsky Lane rebuilt in 1911 by architect Leon Dauksha. Henrietta Yanovskaya's 1987 production of Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog brought the theatre international tours.

The theatre's name comes from its founding mission: the first production in 1920 was an adaptation of Kipling's The Jungle Book. Its repertoire shifted in 1987 when Henrietta Yanovskaya staged Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog, after which the stage mixed children's plays with Russian and foreign classics such as Ostrovsky's The Storm and Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

The theatre stands at 10 Mamontovsky Lane in the Tverskoy district, in a 19th-century building reconstructed in 1911 by architect Leon Dauksha. The main hall seats 600; a 2011 reconstruction plan called for a second hall of 230 seats. The building is entered from the street through dark-framed doors at ground level.

The building at Mamonovsky Pereulok 10 is a 19th-century structure rebuilt in 1911 to a design by architect Leon Dauksha; it had earlier housed the Young Experimental Theatre. Before MTYuZ moved in in 1950, the premises were used by the Petrushka Theatre, a shadow theatre, Natalia Sats's children's theatre and Sergei Obraztsov's puppet theatre.