Moscow Stanislavsky Dramatic Theater

originally a drama and opera studio founded in 1935 under the direction of K. S. Stanislavsky; it served as an experimental laboratory for the development of his method. Stanislavsky was helped in this work by his pupils M. P. Lilina, L. M. Leonidov, V. A. Orlov, M. O. Knebel’, M. N. Kedrov, and Z. S. Sokolova. In 1943 the studio became a theater of opera and drama. It received its present name in 1948.

The staging of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, the theater’s first dramatic production, was completed in 1940 by Kedrov after Stanislavsky’s death. Other important productions included Sheridan’s The Duenna (1943), Ermolinskii’s Griboedov (1950), Printsev’s On a Lucky Street (1953), Bulgakov’s Days of the Turbins (1954), Pistolenko’s The Love of Ania Berezko (1954), Brecht’s Threepenny Opera (1963), The Motherly Field (1964; based on a work by Aitmatov), Shatrov’s July Sixth (1964), Anouilh’s Antigone (1966), Vampilov’s Parting in June (1972), and Nash’s The Rainmaker (1973).

Actors who have worked at the theater include People’s Artists of the RSFSR L. O. Gritsenko and E. P. Leonov, and Honored Artists of the RSFSR A. A. Glazyrin, P. P. Glebov, B. L. Levinson, G. N. Mal’kovskii, N. I. Mikhailov, and E. Ia. Urbanskii. Directors of the theater have been M. N. Kedrov (1938–48), M. M. Ianshin (1950–63), B. A. L’vov-Anokhin (1963–69), and I. T. Bobylev (1969–72).

In 1974 the theater’s company included the Honored Artists of the RSFSR R. A. Bykova, T. A. Gurko, N. M. Zhivotova, I. G. Kozlov, B. I. Lifanov, K. V. Salant, and L. M. Satanovskii, Honored Artist of the Latvian SSR D. A. Ritenbergs, and Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR T. N. Semicheva. Since 1972, V. N. Kuzenkov has been the theater’s chief director.