In 1930, the Soviet Union sponsored an international competition to design a new theater in Kharkov, a city in the Ukraine. The theater was to seat 4,000 and be able to accommodate a variety of performances ranging from theater and opera to political and athletic events. Breuer and his assistant Gustav Hassenpflug designed a wedge-shaped, steel and concrete auditorium with a curved glass façade and longitudinal rows of custom-designed swivel chairs (rather than conventional rows running parallel to the stage). The space of the stage connected directly with the space of the spectators and a rectangular volume behind the stage housed the side stages and backstage machinery. The roof over the auditorium could be retracted to allow for open-air performances. Breuer was influenced by the numerous theater productions at the Bauhaus as well as Walter Gropius and Erwin Piscator's concept of Total Theater. Aleksandr and Viktor Vesnin won the competition but the theater remained unrealized.