Alexander Tairov
Encyclopedia
Alexander Tairov was one of the leading innovators of theatrical art, and one of the most enduring theatre directors in Russia
, and through the Soviet era.
, Ukraine
, Russian Empire
. His father, Yakov Korenblit, was the headmaster of a primary school in Berdichev. At the age of 10, young Tairov moved to Kiev
and settled with his aunt, a retired actress. She introduced him to theatre. He took part in amateur performances and assumed the name Tairov as a pseudonym.
at Kiev University
. That same year Tairov married his cousin, Olga. In 1905 Tairov opposed the pogroms of Jews in Kiev. He was arrested by the Tsar's police and imprisoned. His second arrest led him to a decision to move from Kiev to St. Petersburg.
and joined her theatre as an actor under directorship of Vsevolod Meyerhold
. At the same time Tairov also continued his studies at the Law school of St. Petersburg University. There he started his life-long friendship with Anatoli Lunacharsky. He collaborated with Vsevolod Meyerhold on a joint production of a play by Paul Claudel
. Both directors were creating new experimental models for theatre in Russia. Tairov felt that the work of Meyerhold's actors was dictated by the production concept and that the actors were mere puppets. Soon Tairov left to join Pavel Gaideburov's company where he was asked to direct.
. Tairov's experimental approach spread to all phases of creating a stage show including even the rehearsals and practice. He used the music of Ludwig van Beethoven
and Frédéric Chopin
as a way of helping his actors achieve a special state of mind and develop a spiritual union in their scenes.
. There he was once again attacked by the local anti-Semites and was banned by the local authorities from staying and working in the city of Riga. The conflict took two weeks to resolve. Tairov prevailed, he stayed and completed his work for the Russian Drama Theatre in Riga. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Tairov converted to Evangelical
Lutheranism
.
. There he joined a corporation of attorneys at law and could continue a comfortable career. Instead Tairov established himself as important anti-realist director. With his wife, the actress Alisa Koonen
, he founded the Kamerny (Chamber) Theatre in 1914; it became the center of experimental creativity for many Russian actors, artists, writers, and musicians. Tairov was the first director in Russia to stage The Threepenny Opera
by Bertolt Brecht
. He staged classical play of Kalidasa
- "Sakuntala
", plays of Valery Bryusov
, Eugene O'Neill
, J.B. Priestley, Oscar Wilde
, and other contemporary writers. Tairov collaborated with such artists as Alexandra Exter, Pavel Kuznetsov
, Sergei Soudeikin, Mikhail Larionov
, Natalya Goncharova, Vladimir Pohl, Inayat Khan
and others. Tairov's Acting Studio became extremely popular among aspiring actors such as Vera Karalli
, Yevgeni Lebedev, and others. He worked with composers Sergei Prokofiev
, A. Aleksandrov, Georgi Sviridov, and Dmitri Kabalevsky
.
. The Chamber Theatre's tours of Europe
in 1923, and of South America
in 1930 were critically acclaimed as "a total victory of the famous Russian innovator and a genius of staging".
. At that time Joseph Stalin
began his total control of culture and labeled the play bourgeois. That was enough to trigger organized attacks on Tairov in the Soviet media. His next production of Vsevolod Vishnevskiy
's Optimistic tragedy (1933) was criticized by Vyacheslav Molotov
as a slander of Russian history. Tairov tried to defend his theatre, he stated that theatres must be established on the level of research institutes. "Pavlov has an institute on which millions are spent. Stanislavsky must have an institute too", said Tairov. As a punishment Tairov's Chamber Theatre was sent to work in Siberia
. However, unlike many other enemies of the regime, Tairov survived the Great Purges in which millions were imprisoned or executed.
in Moscow. It was formed by the group of leading intellectuals to campaign against the Nazis during the Second World War. The Committee was headed by Solomon Mikhoels
. Along with Tairov other prominent members were Emil Gilels
, David Oistrakh
, Samuil Marshak
, Ilja Ehrenburg, and many other leading intellectuals in the Soviet Union. The main driving force of the Committee was represented by the group of Yiddish writers such as Perets Markish, Lev Kvitko, David Gofstein, Itsik Fefer, David Bergelson
, and others. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee provided over 45 million rubles to the Soviet Red Army
. After the end of the Second World War it was denounced by Joseph Stalin, and many of its members were executed by the Soviet secret service.
, Sergei Prokofiev
, Aram Khachaturyan, Boris Pasternak
, Mikhail Zoshchenko
and many others suffered from censorship and severe repressions. Tairov's Chamber Theatre was attacked for having little to do with contemporary Soviet life. Tairov tried to make additions to repertoire and invited writer Aleksandr Galich, and young director Georgi Tovstonogov, but it was too late. In May 1949, the Soviet Committee for Arts issued an official order to close the theatre. Tairov's Chamber Theatre was accused of "Aesthetism and Formalism
" and was destroyed by the decision of the Soviet government. Tairov was granted a personal pension and soon was hospitalized with brain cancer. He died on September 5, 1950, in Moscow, and was laid to rest in the Novodevichy Cemetery
in Moscow, Russia.
who created sets and costumes for Famira Kifared, Salome and Romeo and Juliet. Her designs can be seen in the 1924 film Aelita Queen of Mars for which she used celluloid and metal for the Martian costumes.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and through the Soviet era.
Childhood
Aleksandr Tairov was born Aleksandr Yakovlevich Korenblit on July 6, 1885, in RomnyRomny
Romny is a city in the northern Ukrainian Oblast of Sumy. It is located on the Romen River and is the administrative center of the Romny Raion...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. His father, Yakov Korenblit, was the headmaster of a primary school in Berdichev. At the age of 10, young Tairov moved to Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
and settled with his aunt, a retired actress. She introduced him to theatre. He took part in amateur performances and assumed the name Tairov as a pseudonym.
Experience
In 1904 he enrolled in the Law SchoolLaw school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
at Kiev University
Kiev University
Taras Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , colloquially known in Ukrainian as KNU is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and Kharkiv University. Currently, its structure...
. That same year Tairov married his cousin, Olga. In 1905 Tairov opposed the pogroms of Jews in Kiev. He was arrested by the Tsar's police and imprisoned. His second arrest led him to a decision to move from Kiev to St. Petersburg.
Theatrical Beginnings
In 1906 Tairov was invited by the famous Russian actress Vera KomissarzhevskayaVera Komissarzhevskaya
Vera Fyodorovna Komissarzhevskaya was the most celebrated Russian actress at the turn of the twentieth century.Vera Komissarzhevskaya was the daughter of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky, a leading tenor of the Mariinsky Theatre, and sister of Theodore Komisarjevsky, a famous theatrical director...
and joined her theatre as an actor under directorship of Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
. At the same time Tairov also continued his studies at the Law school of St. Petersburg University. There he started his life-long friendship with Anatoli Lunacharsky. He collaborated with Vsevolod Meyerhold on a joint production of a play by Paul Claudel
Paul Claudel
Paul Claudel was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism.-Life:...
. Both directors were creating new experimental models for theatre in Russia. Tairov felt that the work of Meyerhold's actors was dictated by the production concept and that the actors were mere puppets. Soon Tairov left to join Pavel Gaideburov's company where he was asked to direct.
Chamber Theatre
Tairov created a prototype of his Chamber Theatre as "synthetic theatre" with high goals in mind. As director he experimented with staging, acting, individual and group movements, stage and costume designs, and worked with every detail of theatrical performance in order to break away from the traditional theatre. He established ideal discipline at his chamber theatreChamber theatre
Chamber theatre is a method of adapting literary works to the stage using a maximal amount of the work's original text and often minimal and suggestive settings. In Chamber Theater, narration is included in the performed text and the narrator might be played by multiple actors . Professor Robert S...
. Tairov's experimental approach spread to all phases of creating a stage show including even the rehearsals and practice. He used the music of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
and Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
as a way of helping his actors achieve a special state of mind and develop a spiritual union in their scenes.
Riga
In 1912 Tairov was invited to direct a play in collaboration with the Russian Drama Theatre in RigaRiga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
. There he was once again attacked by the local anti-Semites and was banned by the local authorities from staying and working in the city of Riga. The conflict took two weeks to resolve. Tairov prevailed, he stayed and completed his work for the Russian Drama Theatre in Riga. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Tairov converted to Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Lutheranism
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
.
Moscow
In 1913 Tairov moved to MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. There he joined a corporation of attorneys at law and could continue a comfortable career. Instead Tairov established himself as important anti-realist director. With his wife, the actress Alisa Koonen
Alisa Koonen
Alisa Georgyevna Koonen , also known as Alice Coonen , was a Russian and Soviet actress and the wife of the director Alexander Tairov....
, he founded the Kamerny (Chamber) Theatre in 1914; it became the center of experimental creativity for many Russian actors, artists, writers, and musicians. Tairov was the first director in Russia to stage The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
by Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. He staged classical play of Kalidasa
Kalidasa
Kālidāsa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language...
- "Sakuntala
Sakùntala
La leggenda di Sakùntala is a three-act opera by Franco Alfano, who wrote his own libretto, basing his work on Kalidasa's 5th-century BC drama Abhijñānaśākuntalam .-Première, Loss, Reconstruction, Rediscovery:...
", plays of Valery Bryusov
Valery Bryusov
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was a Russian poet, prose writer, dramatist, translator, critic and historian. He was one of the principal members of the Russian Symbolist movement.-Biography:...
, Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
, J.B. Priestley, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, and other contemporary writers. Tairov collaborated with such artists as Alexandra Exter, Pavel Kuznetsov
Pavel Kuznetsov
Pavel Varfolomevich Kusnetsov was a Russian painter and graphic artist.He studied at Saratov at Bogolyubov Art School , then Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and for a year in Paris . His early paintings were exhibited by the Mir Iskusstva group, and he was closely associated...
, Sergei Soudeikin, Mikhail Larionov
Mikhail Larionov
Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov was an avant-garde Russian painter.-Life and work:...
, Natalya Goncharova, Vladimir Pohl, Inayat Khan
Inayat Khan
Inayat Khan was an exemplar of Universal Sufism and founder of the "Sufi Order in the West" in 1914 . Later, in 1923, the Sufi Order of the London period was dissolved into a new organization formed under Swiss law and called the "International Sufi Movement"...
and others. Tairov's Acting Studio became extremely popular among aspiring actors such as Vera Karalli
Vera Karalli
Vera Alexeyevna Karalli was a notable Russian ballet dancer, choreographer and silent film actress during the early years of the twentieth century.-Early life and career:...
, Yevgeni Lebedev, and others. He worked with composers Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, A. Aleksandrov, Georgi Sviridov, and Dmitri Kabalevsky
Dmitri Kabalevsky
Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky was a Russian composer.He helped to set up the Union of Soviet Composers in Moscow and remained one of its leading figures. He was a prolific composer of piano music and chamber music; many of his piano works have been performed by Vladimir Horowitz. He is probably...
.
After Revolution
After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Tairov continued development of his independent approach to theatre. His early productions of the Soviet era were Salome by Oscar Wilde and Adrienne Lecouvrer, which became a legendary play and ran more than 800 performances. The Chamber Theatre remained very popular and toured across the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The Chamber Theatre's tours of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 1923, and of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
in 1930 were critically acclaimed as "a total victory of the famous Russian innovator and a genius of staging".
Under Stalin in the 1930s
In 1929 Tairov produced Bagrovy Ostrov (The Crimson Island) by Mikhail BulgakovMikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
. At that time Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
began his total control of culture and labeled the play bourgeois. That was enough to trigger organized attacks on Tairov in the Soviet media. His next production of Vsevolod Vishnevskiy
Vsevolod Vishnevskiy
Vsevolod Vitalievich Vishnevsky was a Soviet dramatist and prose writer.He was born in 1900 in Saint Petersburg and educated at a Petersburg gymnasium. During World War I he enrolled in Baltic Fleet as sea cadet...
's Optimistic tragedy (1933) was criticized by Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
as a slander of Russian history. Tairov tried to defend his theatre, he stated that theatres must be established on the level of research institutes. "Pavlov has an institute on which millions are spent. Stanislavsky must have an institute too", said Tairov. As a punishment Tairov's Chamber Theatre was sent to work in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. However, unlike many other enemies of the regime, Tairov survived the Great Purges in which millions were imprisoned or executed.
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
In August 1941, though his theatre company had returned to Siberia, Tairov joined the Jewish Anti-Fascist CommitteeJewish Anti-Fascist Committee
The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was formed on Joseph Stalin's order in Kuibyshev in April 1942 with the official support of the Soviet authorities...
in Moscow. It was formed by the group of leading intellectuals to campaign against the Nazis during the Second World War. The Committee was headed by Solomon Mikhoels
Solomon Mikhoels
Solomon Mikhoels ; was a Soviet Jewish actor and the artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater. Mikhoels served as the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee during the Second World War...
. Along with Tairov other prominent members were Emil Gilels
Emil Gilels
Emil Grigoryevich Gilels was a Soviet pianist, widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.His last name is sometimes transliterated Hilels.-Biography:...
, David Oistrakh
David Oistrakh
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....
, Samuil Marshak
Samuil Marshak
Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak was a Russian and Soviet writer, translator and children's poet. Among his Russian translations are William Shakespeare's sonnets, poems by William Blake and Robert Burns, and Rudyard Kipling's stories. Maxim Gorky proclaimed Marshak to be "the founder of [Russia's ]...
, Ilja Ehrenburg, and many other leading intellectuals in the Soviet Union. The main driving force of the Committee was represented by the group of Yiddish writers such as Perets Markish, Lev Kvitko, David Gofstein, Itsik Fefer, David Bergelson
David Bergelson
David Bergelson was a Yiddish language writer. Ukrainian-born, he lived for a time in Berlin, Germany. He moved back to the Soviet Union when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany...
, and others. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee provided over 45 million rubles to the Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. After the end of the Second World War it was denounced by Joseph Stalin, and many of its members were executed by the Soviet secret service.
Under Stalin after World War II
In 1946 the Soviet Communist Party launched attacks on intellectuals in the Soviet Union. Such leading cultural figures as Anna AkhmatovaAnna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko , better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova , was a Russian and Soviet modernist poet, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Russian canon.Harrington p11...
, Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, Aram Khachaturyan, Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
, Mikhail Zoshchenko
Mikhail Zoshchenko
-Biography:Zoshchenko was born in 1895, in Poltava, but spent most of his life in St. Petersburg / Leningrad. His Ukrainian father was a mosaicist responsible for the exterior decoration of the Suvorov Museum in Saint Petersburg. The future writer attended the Faculty of Law at the Saint Petersburg...
and many others suffered from censorship and severe repressions. Tairov's Chamber Theatre was attacked for having little to do with contemporary Soviet life. Tairov tried to make additions to repertoire and invited writer Aleksandr Galich, and young director Georgi Tovstonogov, but it was too late. In May 1949, the Soviet Committee for Arts issued an official order to close the theatre. Tairov's Chamber Theatre was accused of "Aesthetism and Formalism
Formalism (literature)
Formalism is a school of literary criticism and literary theory having mainly to do with structural purposes of a particular text.In literary theory, formalism refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text. These features include not only grammar...
" and was destroyed by the decision of the Soviet government. Tairov was granted a personal pension and soon was hospitalized with brain cancer. He died on September 5, 1950, in Moscow, and was laid to rest in the Novodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It is next to the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. It should not be confused with the Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg....
in Moscow, Russia.
Timeline
- 1885 - Born Aleksandr Yakovlevich Korenblit, in Berdichev, Ukraine, Russian Empire.
- 1895 - Moved to Kiev, attended theatrical performances
- 1904 - Married his cousin, Olga.
- 1905 - Experienced pogrom in Kiev.
- 1906 - Moved to St. Petersburg and became an actor on invitation from Vera Komissarzhevkaya.
- 1907 - Directed plays in St. Petersburg in collaboration with Vsevolod MeyerholdVsevolod MeyerholdVsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
- 1912 - Directed a play in Riga, where he was arrested by anti-semitic police.
- 1913 - Tairov took up legal practice in MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. Konstantin Mardzhanov invited Tairov to join him in starting a theatre, but the venture folded after only a year. - 1914 - Tairov opened the Kamerny TheatreKamerny TheatreThe Kamerny Theatre was a chamber theatre in Moscow, founded in 1914 by director Alexander Tairov . Over the next 35 years, this small, intimate theater became "recognized as a major force in Russian theater"...
, or Chamber Theatre, so named because he wanted to develop a select, appreciative audience. - 1918 - Meyerhold and Tairov collaborated on a production of The Exchange in February, but the production was a failure.
- 1921 - Published aesthetic philosophy in Notes of a Director.
- 1923 - Tairov's acting school, which included classes such as improvisation, fencing, gymnastics, juggling, and theatre history, is granted official status. Also this year, the Kamerny Theatre tours to ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, and DresdenDresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. - 1925 - Kamerny Theatre tours to GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. - 1930 - Kamerny Theatre tours to Germany, PraguePraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Vienna, Italy, Paris, Buenos AiresBuenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, and MontevideoMontevideoMontevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
. Performances include Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's SalomeSalomeSalome , the Daughter of Herodias , is known from the New Testament...
, Alexander Ostrovsky's Storm, Eugene O'NeillEugene O'NeillEugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's Desire Under the ElmsDesire Under the ElmsDesire Under the Elms is a play by Eugene O'Neill, published in 1924, and is now considered an American classic. Along with Mourning Becomes Electra, it represents one of O'Neill's attempts to place plot elements and themes of Greek tragedy in a rural New England setting. It is essentially a...
, and Charles Lecocq's Girofle-Girofla. - 1930s - Suffered accusation of formalism.
- 1933 - Produced a socialist realist production of Optimistic Tragedy.
- 1935 - Awarded title of People's Artist.
- 1936 - Accused of formalism.
- 1937 - Merged with OkhlopkovNikolay OkhlopkovNikolay Pavlovich Okhlopkov was a Soviet actor and theatre director who patterned his work after Meyerhold.He was born in Irkutsk, Siberia and started his acting career there in 1918...
's Realistic Theatre. This collaboration only lasted one year. - 1939 - Ten-month tour to Eastern Russia which included performances of Madame BovaryMadame BovaryMadame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's first published novel and is considered his masterpiece. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life...
and The Bedbug. This tour may have saved Tairov from the purge. - 1941 - Kamerny Theatre was evacuated to SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
where they performed for two years. - 1945 - Received the Order of LeninOrder of LeninThe Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
. - 1949 - Kamerny Theatre closed. Tairov and his wife, actress Alisa KoonenAlisa KoonenAlisa Georgyevna Koonen , also known as Alice Coonen , was a Russian and Soviet actress and the wife of the director Alexander Tairov....
transferred to the Vakhantangov Theatre. - 1950 - Tairov dies in September.
- 1974 - Alice Koonen dies.
Aesthetic Philosophy
Tairov developed what he called "Synthetic Theatre" which incorporated ballet, opera, circus, music hall, and dramatic elements. He believed theatre was its own art and was not merely a means for transmitting literature. His productions were not subservient to their text. The acting school Tairov developed was to train a company of "master actors" who would excel in all of the elements of Synthetic Theatre and become the primary creators of performances. Tairov's productions employed Constructivist sets. One of his primary designers was Alexandra ExterAleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster was a Russian-French painter and designer.-Biography:-Childhood:...
who created sets and costumes for Famira Kifared, Salome and Romeo and Juliet. Her designs can be seen in the 1924 film Aelita Queen of Mars for which she used celluloid and metal for the Martian costumes.
Productions
- Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
- 1921- This set, designed by Exter, employed seven bridges of various heights as well as rope ladders to depict the lovers' obstacles. The set was inlaid with mirrors which were later replaced with foil.
- PhaedraPhèdrePhèdre is a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677.-Composition and premiere:...
by RacineJean RacineJean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
- 1922- This is the first of Tairov's productions in which emotion was the primary focus. Alice Koonen played Phaedra, and entered draped in a heavy purple cape of velvet. This image was contrasted with her appearance in a red cape for the confession scene. The set was modeled on the image of a listing ship with several off-kilter platforms.
- Girofle-Girofla - 1922
- This comic operetta is set around the confusion involving twins, both played by Koonen. The set was made up of folding ladders, revolving mirrors, and trap doors.
- The Man Who Was ThursdayThe Man Who Was ThursdayThe Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a novel by G. K. Chesterton, first published in 1908. The book is sometimes referred to as a metaphysical thriller.-Plot summary:...
- 1924- Tairov staged this play by Sigizmund KrzhizhanovskySigizmund KrzhizhanovskySigizmund Dominikovich Krzhizhanovsky was a Russian and Soviet short-story writer who described himself as being "known for being unknown"; the bulk of his writings were published posthumously.-Life:...
(1887-1950), based on G. K. ChestertonG. K. ChestertonGilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
's fantastic novel, at the Kamerny theatre in Moscow. Chesterton lamented this "misreading" by the Russians several times later in life, most prominently in his 1936 autobiography.
- Tairov staged this play by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
- Desire Under the Elms - 1930
- The Moscow production was followed by a mock trial for Abbie and Eben. Tairov was a witness for the defense and legal experts and psychiatrists took part as well. The trial ended at 2am with the acquittal of the defendants. O'Neill saw the production when it toured to Paris and loved it.