Vsevolod Meyerhold is a Soviet actor and director who, without regret, broke the stereotypes of classical theater. In his productions, he was not afraid of experiments, vanguard techniques, grotesque, the use of new acting techniques. His performances did not leave anyone indifferent. Meyerhold’s work was equally admired by both sincere admiration and rabid rejection.
Biography: childhood and years of study
Having German roots, the great director was given the name Karl Casimir Theodor at birth, his real name is Mayergold. He was born in Penza on January 28, 1874. The head of the family owned wine and vodka production, was strict and picky with his children. Mother was fond of theater, music, art. Karl Meyergold had two sisters and five brothers.
Studying at the second male gymnasium in Penza was not easy for him, the young man stayed three times in his second year. Therefore, he graduated from this educational institution only in 1895. Then Karl received a Russian passport, changing his name to Vsevolod and changing his name a little. From the Lutheran faith in which he was raised, he refused in favor of Orthodoxy. It was no coincidence that Meyerhold chose his new name in honor of his beloved writer and poet Vsevolod Garshin.
He decided to continue his education at the law faculty of Imperial Moscow University. However, interest in the theater soon overpowered, and in 1896 Meyerhold transferred to the second year of music and theater school at the Moscow Philharmonic Society. He falls into the class, which was led by the great teacher and director Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko. During the years of study, Vsevolod Emilievich first thinks about the director's profession.
Creative activity
Having become a graduate of the theater school, in 1898 Meyerhold got a job at the Moscow Art Theater. One of its founders was Nemirovich-Danchenko, who wanted to continue cooperation with his talented students on the big stage. Together with Meyerhold, his fellow students came to the new theater - future stars Olga Knipper and Ivan Moskvin.
Under the leadership of the genius directorial duet Stanislavsky-Nemirovich-Danchenko, the young actor played interesting, diverse roles:
- Vasily Shuisky (“Tsar Fedor Ioannovich” A.K. Tolstoy);
- John the Terrible ("The Death of John the Terrible" by A. K. Tolstoy);
- Treplev and Tuzenbach (The Seagull and Three Sisters by A.P. Chekhov);
- Prince of Aragon ("The Merchant of Venice" by W. Shakespeare).
Still dreaming of directing, in 1902 Meyerholdpokinul the Moscow Art Theater and headed the theater troupe in Kherson. They called themselves the New Drama Partnership. The "provincial" period was of great importance for the work of Vsevolod Emilievich. It was then that he began to emerge as a director, in search of a new theatrical style, he developed a special symbolist system. And although the productions went one after another, excluding a long study and rehearsals, the theater was a huge success. Over 3 years, the public presented about 200 performances, artists toured a lot.
For the first time loudly declaring himself, Meyerhold again attracted the attention of Stanislavsky. In 1905 he invited a young director to head the Theater Studio on Povarskaya Street. However, two geniuses quickly realized that they could not work together. The public did not see a single performance prepared by Meyerhold, and he returned to his provincial theater.
In 1906, at the personal invitation of Vera Komissarzhevskaya for one season, Vsevolod Emilievich became the stage director at the Drama Theater of St. Petersburg, created by the great actress. He releases 13 performances, but after several high-profile failures, their cooperation ends. The last work - the play "The Balaganchik" by A. Blok - secretly opens in Russia the era of the "theater of conventionality."
1907-1917 Meyerhold works in the Alexandrinsky and Mariinsky theaters, turns to the classics. After the October Revolution, he takes the side of the new government, joins the Communist Party. Following the trends of the new era, in 1918 he staged The Mystery Buff by V. Mayakovsky, and the artist Kazemir Malevich was responsible for the design of the performance. At the same time he is engaged in pedagogical activities, paying special attention to his own system of exercises for the actors of "Biomechanics". Unlike the method of experience developed by Stanislavsky, Meyerhold offers the exact opposite method. In his opinion, acting should go from the external to the internal content of the role.
During a tour in the Crimea in 1919, the director fell into the hands of a white counterintelligence, was in prison for six months and only by a miracle escaped execution. Returning home, in 1920 he proposed a program for reforming and politicizing the Theater October Theater. For several months he has been working in the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education.
On November 7, 1920, the Meyerhold State Theater opened in Moscow, which lasted until 1938. Among the director’s most famous productions during this period are:
- The Youth Union by G. Ibsen (1921);
- The Forest by A. N. Ostrovsky (1924);
- "The Examiner" N.V. Gogol (1926);
- The Bedbug by V. Mayakovsky (1929);
- The Bathhouse of Mayakovsky (1930);
- “Krechinsky's Wedding” by A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin (1933);
- “The Lady with Camellias” by A. Dumas the Son (1934).
The theater was closed on January 7, 1938, accusing its creator and leader of an “antisocial atmosphere, toadness, clampdown on self-criticism, narcissism”.
Personal life
For the first time Meyerhold married in 1896 his peer Olga Mount (1874-1940). They met in Penza, when together they participated in amateur performances. In this marriage, the director became the father of three daughters - Mary (1897-1929), Tatyana (1902-1986), Irina (1905-1981).
While working at the People's Commissariat for Education, he met actress Zinaida Reich, and in 1921 she became a student at the Higher Director's Studios in Moscow, led by Meyerhold. Despite the twenty-year age difference, he left his first family and married Reich in 1922. The director took care of and raised his wife and daughter from marriage with Sergei Yesenin. Meyerhold’s second wife was killed July 15, 1939 in her apartment 24 days after his arrest. This crime still holds many secrets and mysteries.
