Video: Unknown Stanislavsky: What the legendary director talked about with Stalin, and what secrets he kept all his life
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
80 years ago, the legendary director, actor, teacher, theater reformer, founder of the Moscow Art Theater passed away Konstantin Stanislavsky … He created a unique system of acting skills, according to which actors all over the world have been studying for over 100 years. But apart from textbook facts like the catch phrase “I don’t believe!”, The general public knows very little about his life. What secrets the director hid, and what he warned Stalin himself against - further in the review.
The future director was born in Moscow in 1863, but Konstantin Stanislavsky was born much later than Konstantin Alekseev - that was his real name. And he took a sonorous pseudonym for himself only in 1885, borrowing it, according to one version, from an amateur actor who left the scene. In childhood, he did not demonstrate any outstanding abilities and talents and did not even graduate from primary education, and remained a dropout schoolboy.
His grandmother was the famous Parisian artist Marie Varley and, perhaps, his passion for the theater was transmitted to him genetically. The boy perceived the study only as an annoying need to be distracted from his favorite pastime: "".
Stanislavsky grew up in a large merchant family with 9 children. His father was a famous manufacturer and industrialist, and after the 7th grade at the gymnasium, Konstantin went to work for him at a factory that was engaged in the production of gimp - the finest gold thread. At that time, things were going badly there, there was stagnation in production, but here the situation was saved by yesterday's negligent schoolboy: unexpectedly for everyone, he turned out to be a talented manager. First, Konstantin went abroad to study technical innovations, and upon his return, he proposed to reorient production from gimmicks to electrical wire. After that, the factory's revenues skyrocketed.
He always followed technical innovations and was proud to be the same age as the era of global changes: "".
The director kept one of the family secrets throughout his life. The fact is that one of the younger brothers of Konstantin Stanislavsky was actually his son: when the young man was 20 years old, a peasant girl Avdotya Kopylova gave birth to a child from him. The illegitimate baby was adopted by Stanislavsky's father, giving him his patronymic and surname. Subsequently, Vladimir Alekseev became a professor at Moscow State University, Doctor of Science, the author of the first textbook for universities on ancient history.
All his life Konstantin Stanislavsky lived with one woman - his wife, actress Maria Lilina (real name - Perevoshchikova). They had three children, but the eldest daughter died in infancy from pneumonia. For some time, Maria Lilina was carried away by the actor V. Katchalov, who could not afford to openly show feelings for his mentor's wife. When, in her declining years, Lilina was seriously ill and underwent an amputation of her leg, she steadfastly endured these trials, considering them a payback for her hobby. Stanislavsky himself has always been an object of adoration of women, but he was an exemplary family man, and his only passion was theater.
At first, Stanislavsky's reforms in the theater were perceived with hostility by many. The director recalled: "". Theatrical experiments brought great losses, the system of acting skills proposed by Stanislavsky at first did not give visible results, and the director strongly doubted that he had chosen the right path.
But despite the failures and criticism, Stanislavsky in the theater acted as decisively as before in the factory, without hesitation destroying the established traditions: "". And soon his merits were recognized all over the world.
"" - wrote about the Stanislavsky Theater in the European press. The Moscow Art Theater was founded after a meeting with Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1897. Then they talked for 18 hours in a row, discussing the details of the development strategy of the new theater. In 1901, the word "public" disappeared from the name of the Moscow Art Theater, and it began to be called "academic" (Moscow Art Theater). Since 1912, a studio began working at the theater, preparing actors according to the Stanislavsky system.
The director met with Stalin several times, but never knew how to navigate the hierarchical system of Soviet power. In acting circles, there was such a bike. Once at a play Stanislavsky was sitting in the same box with Stalin, and he, looking through the repertoire, asked him a question: "" Stanislavsky put his finger to his lips and said in his ear, pointing up: "". To which Stalin replied: "" There was also such an anecdote: once after the performance, Stalin approached Stanislavsky with his "retinue" and said: "". After that, the accompanying people began to vigorously discuss the shortcomings of the performance. After a pause, Stalin added: "". And everyone immediately began to admire the production.
The legendary director's political naivety and simplicity were truly anecdotal. Once Stalin asked him if the "ignoramuses from the political education" were interfering with him: "" To which Stanislavsky innocently replied: ""
At the age of 70, 5 years before his death, the legendary director confessed: "".
Theatrical discussions at the beginning of the twentieth century. sometimes they took very acute forms: Alexei Tolstoy's tale of Buratino - an evil parody of Blok and the Meyerhold theater?
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