Korsh Theater

Russian Dramatic Theater, the largest private theater in Russia. It was organized in Moscow by the theatrical entrepreneur F. A. Korsh soon after March 1882, when the monopoly of the imperial theaters was abolished. The first performance staged by the Korsh Theater was Gogol’s In-spector-General. The theater was celebrated for its fine troupe of actors, which included, at one time or another, P. N. Orlenev, V. N. Davydov, I. M. Moskvin, M. T. Ivanov-KozePskii, A. A. Ostuzhev, N. M. Radin, M. M. Klimov, M. M. Bliumental’-Tamarina, L. M. Leonidov, V. O. Toporkov, and A. P. Ktorov.

The theater’s chief director during 1900-09 was N. N. Sinel’-nikov. Its best productions included Griboedov’s Woe From Wit, Chekhov’s Ivanov, Lermontov’s Masquerade, Ostrovskii’s Thunder Storm, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Moliere’s Tartuffe, Naidenov’s Vaniushin’s Children, and L. Andreev’s Days of Our Life. However, the repertoire consisted primarily of typical commercial entertainments, farces, and melodramas; there was a new play every week. During the 1925-26 season, the Korsh was incorporated into the system of state theaters and called the Comedy (formerly Korsh) Theater, or the Moscow Dramatic Theater. The lack of clear-cut ideological and creative guiding principles and of a unified creative method coupled with the eclectic nature of its repertoire led to the closing of the theater in 1932.