Main article: Theaters in Russia
Biography
Karl Theodor Casimir Meyergold was born into a German family, lived and studied in Penza. In the 1890s he converted to Orthodoxy and became Vsevolod Meyerhold. In honor of the beloved writer Vsevolod Garshin.
After graduating from the Music and Drama School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, he joined the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater, founded by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and Konstantin Stanislavsky.
From 1902, Meyerhold left for free swimming. He worked in the theater of V.F. Komissarzhevskaya, Alexandrinsky Theater.
In 1917-1920, he taught, staged a lot, invented the so-called "biomechanics" - the actor's education system.
1917: Production of Lermontov's "Masquerade" at the Alexandrinsky Theater
Meyerhold's production of Lermontov's "Masquerade" became legendary. The premiere took place on February 25, 1917, at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
Here are some excerpts from working materials:
- "The role of Arbenin has always been awarded to the so-called" resonator hero. " I'm trying to break with tradition. I give the hero-lover. Pechorinstvo in Arbenin. Autobiographical features in Pechorin. Lermontov - Pechorin - Arbenin. Sasha Arbenin "Tales" (first conversation at the Alexandrinsky Theater, 1911)
- "Lermontov decided to write a sharp criticism of modern mores. And what was supposed to be the main thing in the play is made by the background. Lermontov cannot cope with the Griboyedovsky theater. Shakespeare theater takes the advantage. Lermontov copes with him brilliantly, and the drama of jealousy in the foreground "(conversation about Arbenin after the second reading, August 21, 1911)
- "Romanticism, as Lermontov's Masquerade is colored, it seems to us that we need to look in the area in which Lermontov fell, reading out by Byron in a Moscow boarding house. And whether Venice of the 18th century, transmitted between the lines of Byron's poetry, gave Lermontov that sphere of dreams, that sphere of magical sleep, such as the Masquerade Ovean - "Mask, candle, mirror - here is the image of Venice of the 18th century," Muratov writes. Aren't these masks, candles and mirrors, aren't these very passions at gambling tables, where the cards are covered with gold [here: like Lermontov about gold on the cards], aren't these intrigues arising from fancy dress jokes, aren't these halls, where "it's gloomy, despite the shine of candles in numerous chandeliers hanging from the ceiling," we find Lermontov in his "Masquerade"? Is this very Venetian life, "infected with magic, always hidden in maps and in gold," shines through in the images of Lermontov's "Masquerade," "standing on the border with delirium, with hallucination" (<из записей>(1911)
1921: Head of the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat of Education
In 1920, at the invitation of the People's Commissar of Education A.S. Lunacharsky, Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold moved to Moscow, where from September 1920 to February 1921 he headed the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat of Education. Meyerhold's character was unreliable and boorish, he was useless as an administrator, and soon he was removed from this position.
1922: Marriage to Zinaida Reich
While working at the People's Commissariat of Education, Meyerhold met Zinaida Reich. In the fall of 1921, she became a student at the Higher Theater Workshops, which were led by Meyerhold. She studied not at the acting department, but at the director's department, together with S. M. Eisenstein and S. I. Yutkevich.
In 1922, Z. Reich and V. Meyerhold got married, while for the sake of Reich Vsevolod Emilievich left his first family, where he had three daughters.
Reich played almost all the main roles in Meyerhold's platters. The attitude towards her as an actress was controversial, some considered her a talented actress, others a complete mediocrity, but one way or another for Meyerhold she was a muse and beloved wife until the last days of his life.
1923: Meyerhold Theatre
Since 1923, the Meyerhold troupe officially became known as the theater (Meyerhold Theater, TIM).
Vsevolod Meyerhold, releasing the play "Earth on End" for the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, solemnly dedicated the creation, first of all, to "The First Red Army Soldier of the RSFSR Lev Trotsky." In 1923, such a dedication did not surprise anyone.
For more information on the history of the theater building and Meyerhold's project for its reconstruction, see the P.I. Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.
Director, innovator, actor - Meyerhold tried different approaches: the abolition of all curtains, the "undressed" stage - moving shields - sounding design with bamboo poles - prose - historically accurate costume and scenery.
The director created an exercise system called "biomechanics." They had to develop the actors physically and prepare them to quickly complete tasks on the stage. It was assumed that thanks to biomechanics, each of the actors could constantly improve and improve the baggage of their expressive means.
 | He was accurate and categorical in his productions, choosing the most expressive elements. So, he conveyed the rhythm of the civil war through the crackle of a car and a motorcycle rushing around the auditorium. During the NEP years, he fought against philistinism, ridiculing adaptability, careerism and soullessness. He staged plays by Mayakovsky, Erdman, Selvinsky, Vishnevsky, Fayko, German, Olesha. He also staged classics, while he could arbitrarily edit the text, trying to create stage works that ridicule the bourgeois-capitalist way of life, tells Lyudmila Filippova
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The director opened many directorial moves that are still popular, played with light, mixed historical and modern theatrical techniques.
The most famous Soviet performances of the Meyerhold Theater can be called "Forest" by A. N. Ostrovsky, "Inspector General" by N. V. Gogol, "Woe to the Mind" by A. S. Griboedov.
Among Meyerhold's students were such brilliant directors and actors as S. Eisenstein, I. Ilyinsky, N. Okhlopkov, I. Pyryev, S. Yutkevich, M. Strauch, Koval-Samborsky, N. Ekk, G. Roshal and others, and later E. Garin, N. Bogolyubov, L. Sverdlin, E. Samoilov, V. Pluchek and others.
1928: Attempted closure of the theatre
In 1928, the Meyerhold Theater tried to close. This happened at a time when Meyerhold himself was abroad for treatment and after a year earlier, in 1927, Stalin was the only time in this theater on Triumfalnaya Square and watched one of the most unsuccessful performances of "Window to the Village." Stalin did not like the performance. However, then the public managed to defend the theater.
1930: Foreign Tours
In 1930, the theater was abroad on tour. There Meyerhold had a conversation with Mikhail Chekhov, who suggested that he not return to his homeland, predicting a terrible end for him, but Vsevolod Emilievich, realizing the correctness of the speaker, nevertheless returned. Zinaida Reich, an ardent supporter of the USSR, was also for the return, in addition, she had children and parents in Moscow.
1932: Moving the theater to the building of the modern Drama Theater named after Maria Ermolova
In 1932, due to the beginning of the reconstruction of the building on Triumfalnaya Square, the Meyerhold Theater moved to the premises where the Maria Ermolova Drama Theater is currently located.
In 1938, the Meyerhold Theater was closed.
1939: The murder of Zinaida Reich
On July 15, 1939, Zinaida Reich was brutally killed by unidentified persons in their apartment in Bryusovsky Lane.
In 1939, the unfinished building of the Meyerhold Theater on Triumfalnaya Square was transferred to the Moscow Philharmonic for conversion into a concert hall, named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.
At the same time, the author of the project, Vsevolod Meyerhold, was arrested, and in 1940 (six months before the opening of the hall) was killed.
Meyerhold did not sign a paper on the Trotskyist plot, which allegedly involved Ehrenburg, Leonov, Pasternak, Kataev, Eisenstein, Shostakovich and many others - and they were not touched. After torture, he signed the paper only for himself, which angered the NKVD officers.
Vsevolod Meyerhold, after all the sophisticated torture, before his death, took turns breaking all his fingers. And then they drowned in impurities - all this became known many years later, after opening the archives. For reporting, they wrote, as expected: shot, buried in a common grave...
In 1955, Meyerhold was posthumously rehabilitated.
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