Briantsev, Aleksandr

Born Apr. 2 (14), 1883, in St. Petersburg; died Sept. 30, 1969, in Leningrad. Soviet director. People’s Artist of the USSR (1956). Member of the CPSU from 1943. One of the major figures of the Soviet children’s theater.

Briantsev graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1908. In 1905 he participated in founding the Traveling Theater, which was directed by P. P. Gaideburov. His work with Gaideburov became a school of theater for Briantsev. (His first production for children was staged in this theater in 1918.) In 1921 he was chairman of the commission for setting up a children’s theater in Petrograd. The work of this commission led to the opening of the Theater for the Young in 1922, which Briantsev directed until the end of his life. In this theater he staged 48 productions and set forth the main lines of development of the Soviet children’s theater. Briantsev wrote books and articles on the theory and practice of the children’s theater. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1950 for staging Kataev’s The Son of the Regiment, Vagner’s Seamen’s Friendship, and Mikhalkov’s The Red Necktie. He was awarded four orders and various medals.