Film Actors Theater Studio

the world’s only permanently operating theater consisting of film actors. The company was founded in Moscow in 1940 under the auspices of the Mosfil’m theater studio, with G. L. Roshal’ as artistic director. Known under its present name since 1945, the theater opened in 1946 with a performance of Svetlov’s The Brandenburg Gate, directed by B. A. Babochkin. The theater presents stage versions of prospective films, such as The Young Guard and Bearing in Oneself. It also creates sound tracks for motion pictures.

Major works staged by the Film Actors’ Theater Studio have included Lavrenev’s For Those in the Sea! (1947), Ostrovskii’s Poverty Is No Crime (1952) and The Girl Without a Dowry (1953), Saltykov-Shchedrin’s The Death of Pazukhin (1954), The Featherhead (1954), based on a short story by Chekhov, Bulgakov’s Ivan Vasil’evich (1966), Gorky’s The Barbarians (1969), Si-monov’s The Russian People (1970), Lope de Vega’s The Foolish Lady (1970), Ostrovskii’s The Thunderstorm (1973), and Griboedov’s Woe From Wit (1975).

The theater has been directed by G. V. Aleksandrov, S. A. Gerasimov, and M. I. Romm. Plays have also been staged by A. D. Dikii, R. N. Simonov, A. L. Gripich, and E. P. Garin. As of 1976 the company included the following actors: People’s Artists of the USSR B. F. Andreev, N. A. Kriuchkov, M. A. Ladynina, E. S. Matveev, N. V. Mordiukova, I. F. Pereverzev, V. V. Sanaev, and L. N. Smirnova; People’s Artists of the RSFSR I. K. Bondarchuk-Skobtseva, M. V. Volodina, V. V. Druzhnikov, E. A. Kuz’mina, I. G. Lapikov, K. S. Luchko, I. V. Makarova, S. A. Martinson, K. N. Sorokin, A. L. Khvylia; and Honored Artists of the RSFSR O. B. Vidov, M. A. Gluzskii, L. M. Gurchenko, Z. M. Kirienko, L. A. Luzhina, G. A. Pol’skikh, T. E. Samoilova, andT. P. Semina.

Since 1964, the principal director has been Honored Art Worker L. S. Rudnik.