Maly Theatre (Moscow)
Encyclopedia
Maly Theatre is a drama
theater in Moscow
, Russia
. Established in 1806 and operating on its present site on the Theatre Square
since 1824, the theatre traces its history to the Moscow University drama company, established in 1756. In the 19th century, Maly was "universally recognized in Russia as the leading dramatic theatre of the century," and was the home stage for Mikhail Shchepkin
and Maria Yermolova
. 40 of Alexander Ostrovsky's 54 plays premiered at Maly, and the theatre was known as The House of Ostrovsky. The Maly Theatre in Moscow and Alexandrinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg
"to a great extent determined the development of Russian theatre during the 19th and 20th century".
Maly Theatre positions itself as a traditional drama theatre that produces classical heritage plays. The current (2009–2010 season) program of Maly includes plays by Russian authors from Denis Fonvizin
to Mikhail Bulgakov
, and a single play by Molière
. The second stage of Maly, located in Zamoskvorechye District, also performs plays by W. Somerset Maugham
, Luigi Pirandello
and Eugene Scribe
. Maly had a long tradition of producing William Shakespeare
but, as of 2009, performs only one Shakespearian play, Love's Labour's Lost
on its second stage.
Maly Theatre employs a staff of over seven hundred, including over one hundred drama actors. It is the only drama theatre in Russia that has retained a symphony orchestra and a professional choir
. The theatre also operates Shchepkin Theatre School, Moscow's oldest drama school, established in 1809 as the Imperial Theatre School.
building. The centennial of Maly was celebrated in 1924, and the 175th anniversary in 1999. However, the official bicentennial was moved to 2006, based on the establishment of the Imperial Moscow Theatre in 1806. Some of the shows produced by the Imperial Moscow Theatre premiered as early as 1804, and its company continued the tradition of Michael Maddox
's company, which was established in 1780. The theatre web site, as of August 2009, marks the season of 2009–2010 as its "254th season", referring to the Free Theatre, a Moscow University company established in 1756.
In 1756 empress Elisabeth of Russia decreed the establishment of a "Russian language theatre for comedies and tragedies". The ukaz was largely targeting Saint Petersburg
— then devoid of any public entertainment — and specifically instructed that actors be recruited from Fyodor Volkov
's company, which had already relocated from Yaroslavl
to the capital. When Volkov and his company moved to Saint Petersburg, playwright Alexander Sumarokov
became the first theatre manager.
Also in 1756, Moscow University students formed the Free Theatre . By 1757, the amateur company was recruiting professional female singers and teachers of singing. Rector Ivan Shuvalov
planned to build the University's own theatre hall, but later made an agreement with Italian impressario Giovanni Battista Locatelli
, who managed the Opera House at the Red Gates. Locatelli opera
, established in the beginning of 1759, was suffering financially, and the impoverished impressario willfully shared his stage with Shuvalov's company. The first show, The New Arrival by Marc-Antoine Legrand, premiered at the Opera House on May 25, 1759. Plays by Molière
, Kheraskov
, Rousseau
were a success with Moscow audiences, but the death of Elisabeth in 1762, the subsequent twelve-month official mourning, and Shuvalov's retirement killed the theatre, and the company dispersed.
Between 1763 and 1766, various Russians and foreigners attempted to set up a permanent theatre in Moscow and failed. In 1776, Catherine II of Russia
awarded the theatre license to prince Pyotr Urusov. Urusov teamed with English impressario Michael Maddox
and erected a large wooden theatre on Petrovka Street
, west of Neglinnaya River
(the site of present-day Bolshoi Theatre
). This hall, named Petrovsky Theatre, burnt down in February 1780. Urusov stepped out of the business and Maddox became the sole venturer. In five months, Maddox built and outfitted a three-storey stone theatre on the same site; the premiere, Wanderers by A. O. Ablesimov, ran on December 30, 1780. Maddox assembled a small but professional company and left the choice of plays and style to the actors. In 1783, the theatre produced 30 new plays and held 70 performances. Moscow governor Vasily Dolgorukov
became the most influential supporter of the new theatre, but could not improve its finances. By 1790, Maddox was bankrupt. the theatre was nationalized de facto by the new governor, Alexander Prozorovsky
. Petrovsky Theatre, managed by the Imperial Board of Theatres, operated until another fire destroyed it on October 22, 1805.
established the Imperial Moscow Theatre in place of the former Petrovsky. The new theatre consolidated actors from state and private companies into the unified state company, buying out serf
actors from their private owners (among them Stepan Mochalov and his five year old son Pavel Mochalov
). Alexander himself joined the trading, pressing reluctant slave owners to cut down their prices. The new company officially premiered April 11, 1808 at the Pashkov House
with a double act of Servant of Two Masters
by Carlo Goldoni
and Poverty and Chivalry by August von Kotzebue
. For the next two or three decades, foreign plays dominated the program. Kotzebue, particularly, was favored for his ability to "enchant" the audience.
Carlo Rossi
designed the new building, built in wood on Arbat Square
. The new Arbatsky Theatre opened April 10, 1808, with Bayan
by Sergey Glinka
. In 1812, when Napoleon's forces approached Moscow, governor Fyodor Rostopchin
delayed evacuation of the company until the last moment: actors fled in disarray when Moscow was already ablaze
. Some died on the road, some joined Saint Petersburg companies, and others returned to Moscow in 1813. Arbatsky Theatre had burned down, and the company performed in Apraksin House on Znamenka Street and, since 1818, in Pashkov House.
In 1820, the state began redevelopment of Theatre Square. Joseph Bove
designed a grand opera theatre (the future Bolshoy) on the site of former Petrovsky with four identical buildings around it. One of these, the Vargin House, was built with a small theatre hall which the Imperial Theatre leased for its drama company. The owner of the buildings, caught in the politics of war minister Alexander Chernyshyov
, soon went broke and ended up in jail. and by 1830, the state had bought out the property.
January 5, 1823, Alexander I created a new Moscow Board of Theatres that reported to Moscow's governor, making Moscow theatre independent from the Saint Petersburg board. Governor Dmitry Golitsyn became an influential fundraiser for the theatre and arranged emancipation
of serf actors. In the same year, future stars Mikhail Shchepkin
and Pavel Mochalov
joined the company, immediately receiving top billings. Later, in the 1830s, cast hiring was influenced by Shchepkin, who hired and mentored future stars Prov Sadovsky
and Ivan Samarin
.
The smaller stage in Vargin House (Maly) opened October 14, 1824 with Alexey Verstovsky
's Lily of Narbonne. The larger Bolshoy
opened on January 6, 1825. The name Maly (small) emerged in the same year, and referred specifically to the building and not the company. Bolshoy and Maly theatres were run as a single company (Imperial Moscow Theatre), sharing an orchestra, choir, ballet, and even props. Standard weekly programs for Maly in 1825 included three German, two French, and one "German or French" daily slots, with just one Friday night open to Russian plays. Thursdays and Fridays at Bolshoy were reserved for "light comedy" or musical genre
s. Thus, popular drama was regularly performed at the Bolshoy stage, alone or bundled with opera and ballet. For example, the January 31, 1828 night at Bolshoy stage for the benefit of Mikhail Shchepkin featured The Robbers by Friedrich Schiller
, a single-act French opera, and a "vaudeville ballet by Alexander Shakhovskoy in rhyme and free verse
with machines, flooding of the entire theatre, diverse dancing and music compiled from folk songs".
In the second quarter of the century native Russian plays gradually increased their share. Maly performances included works by Vasily Zhukovsky
, Alexander Griboyedov (Woe from Wit
1831 featuring both Shchepkin and Pavel Mochalov). Alexander Pushkin (Ruslan and Ludmila 1825, The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
1827, The Gypsies
1832) and lesser known, now forgotten authors. In three decades, from the 1820s to the 1840s, the theater shed the over-dramatization of vaudeville and romanticism
and replaced it with "something approaching a realistic style [that] we would recognize today." The former Vargin House was expanded to its present size by Konstantin Thon
between 1838 and 1840. The new stage allowed use of elaborate box sets
that became standard practice at Maly, while Bolshoy conservatively relied on primitive wing-and-border cloth sets.
In 1849 former court clerk and university dropout Alexander Ostrovsky wrote It's a Family Affair, a play that was banned by state censorship. Ostrovsky continued writing, and in 1853 Maly produced two of his plays: The Morning of a Young Man and Don't Sit in a Sledge You Don't Own. For the next thirty years, Maly produced one or two new plays by Ostrovsky each year. Ostrovsky's modern drama became a trademark for the theatre; previously known as House of Shchepkin, Maly became House of Ostrovsky. Plays by Ostrovsky appeared difficult to old-school actors like Schepkin, but helped in establishing a new generation of Maly actors. Prov Sadovsky
, promoted by Shchepkin, became the "primary interpreter of Ostrovsky". Ostrovsky lived in poverty due to hostility of the Imperial Theatre Board, and ironically, he was appointed director of Moscow Theatre Board shortly before his death, becoming the head of Maly. Public activities by Ostrovsky contributed to the establishment of national playwright's union (1865) and abolition of state monopoly on theatre (1882). As a manager, Ostrovsky formed lasting relationships with the cast, campaigned for professional stage training, and even conducted statistical surveys of the audience.
Other Russian authors who wrote for Maly were Ivan Turgenev
(A Provincial Lady, 1851 and A Month in the Country, 1872), Aleksey Pisemsky
(two plays that premiered in 1866 and 1875), and Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin (three plays written between 1855 and 1869 where produced in 1890s). In 1878 young Anton Chekhov
wrote his first large-scale drama Platonov
specifically for Maria Yermolova, but she rejected the play and it was not published until 1923. The Miserly Knight by Alexander Pushkin premiered in Maly posthumously in January 1853, three months later than in Saint Petersburg's Alexandrinsky Theatre. Numerically, quality Russian drama remained scarce: between 1862 and 1881 Maly and Alexandrinsky theatres together produced a total of 607 foreign plays, 500 Russian vaudevilles and only 120 "serious" original Russian plays (including 49 by Ostrovsky).
The last quarter of the 19th century, coincident with Ostrovsky's brief tenure at Maly, brought forward the new generation of lead actors that "could be described as a constellation of great personalities". Maria Yermolova
, daughter of the theatre prompter
, joined the company at the age of 17 in 1870. She was confined to vaudeville
until six years later, when she obtained the role of Laurencia in Fuente Ovejuna
. The fiery show incited political demonstrations and was shut down by authorities, while Yermolova instantly became the lead actress of Maly. Yermolova played The Maid of Orleans
, her greatest success, for 18 years (1884-1902); In 1894, the show moved onto Bolshoy stage to maximize revenue. Actor and playwright Prince Sumbatov, known under stage name
Alexander Yuzhin
, was also active for six decades (1877–1926) as lead actor and playwright. According to Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
, "demonically hard working" Yuzhin "filled every step with energy, persistence, and determination", and expressed the same qualities in his own plays. Instead of relying on professional directors, the star cast of Yuzhin, Yermolova, Mikhail Sadovsky
, Alexander Lensky, and others collectively directed their own shows.
and Russian Civil War
brought forward experimental theatre of Vsevolod Meyerhold
, Alexander Tairov
, and other independent directors. Maly, on the contrary, consistently preserved the realistic tradition established in the 19th century. Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, married to Maly actress Natalya Rozenel, actively sponsored the theatre and wrote drama plays for it while the public and left-wing art circles neglected Maly in favor of new theatres.
The theatre that was once governed by its lead actors gradually became a director's theatre. In the 1920s, Maly was unconditionally ruled by directors Nikolay Volkonsky, Ivan Platon, Lev Prozorovsky, and CEO Vladimir Vladimirov
, who replaced ailing Yuzhin in 1926. Vladimirov's haphazard, authoritative management style alienated lead actors like Alexander Ostuzhev
and contemporary playwrights. In the second half of the 1930s, Maly absorbed first-rate actors from now defunct experimental companies (Igor Ilyinsky
, Mikhail Tsaryov, Mikhail Zharov
) but it was hired visiting directors who re-established Maly as the leading drama theatre in Moscow.
Sergey Radlov produced Othello
(December 1935) starring deaf Alexander Ostuzhev
, and the play became a breakthrough for the theatre and the actor. Director Aleksey Dikiy, according to the theatre's web site, became one of the most controversial characters in Soviet theatre and cinema. A star of Moscow Art Theatre
since 1910, he leaned to experiment and left for an independent director's career in 1927. After directing Tarelkin's Death at Maly in 1936, Dikiy vanished into GULAG
, but returned to Maly in September 1944 and directed five more plays there. His stage partner Boris Babochkin
, another vagrant director and the star of Chapaev
, directed and played at Maly for the last two decades of his life.
During Khrushchev Thaw
, Maly had its spark of novelty, starting with the 1956 production of The Power of Darkness
directed by Boris Ravenskikh and starring Igor Ilyinsky
, who was personally torn between allegiance to communist ideology and Leo Tolstoy
's ideas. By 1968, state control over theatres tightened. Maly, being a "court theatre", was especially pressed for obedience. It even became an "exile" for once independent directors Boris Lvov-Anokhin and Leonid Kheyfets, a place deemed "safe enough" to produce a stage version of Brezhnev's trilogy
. Nevertheless, the theatre at this time experienced some of its true successes, like Ilyinsky playing Leo Tolstoy in the 1978 premiere of Return to his circuits by Ion Druţă
.
As of 2009, Maly employs over a hundred professional stage actors. The cast includes three People's Artists of the USSR
- Yury Solomin
, Victor Korshunov, Elina Bystritskaya
, and 33 People's Artists of Russia
.
The current (2009–2010 season) program of Maly includes plays almost exclusively by Russian authors (Mikhail Bulgakov
, Anton Chekhov
, Denis Fonvizin
, Nikolay Gogol, Alexander Griboyedov, Pyotr Karatygin, Alexander Ostrovsky, Alexander Pushkin, A. K. Tolstoy
) and a single play by Molière
. The theatre announced, as of August 2009, upcoming premieres of Cabal of Hypocrites by Bulgakov and Smart Things by Samuil Marshak
.
, is the last remaining of four identical buildings erected in the 1820s by Joseph Bove
for private customers. In the 19th century, the other three buildings were demolished and rebuilt, and Theatre Square
lost its original highly symmetrical appearance. The Maly building itself has little in common with the original Vargin House of 1824. Vargin House, squeezed between Petrovka and the wide, recently created Neglinny Lane
, was narrower than the present-day building; its Petrovka facade
housed an open shopping arcade.
Between 1838 and 1840, the theatre acquired neighboring land lots and was completely rebuilt by Konstantin Thon
. Thon expanded the building to the northwest and northeast, taking over the land of Neglinny Lane. The arcade disappeared, and all the interiors were gutted and redesigned from scratch. Thon retained Bove's stern neoclassical
styling and left most wall surfaces unadorned. In 1945 this "omission" was rectified, and the facade acquired their present shape with a continuous molding
separating first and ground floors and small cornice
s above first floor windows. The main hall retains its 1840 layout and plafond
artwork was recreated after World War II. Hall capacity, originally set at exactly 1,000 seats, has been reduced to 953 seats.
located in a neighboring block on Neglinnaya Street. The school, established in 1809, has always been run as a division of Maly. Maly's current CEO Victor Korshunov and art director Yury Solomin are also deans of Schepkin School. Maly Theatre and Shchepkin School are two of eleven Russian institutions eligible for the presidential theatre support grants established in 2005. Both are also included in the State Code of Particularly Valuable Objects of Cultural Heritage, a list of top priority cultural sites and institutions that, by law, are state property and may not be privatized.
The branch, or the second stage, of Maly Theatre is located at the south end of Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Zamoskvorechye District. Its eclectic
building was built in the 1900s as a cinema, and rebuilt in 1914 into a theatre hall for the Struysky company. In the interwar period
the building housed an independent Zamoskvorechye Theatre.
Former Struysky Theatre became a branch of Maly after World War II and has since been expanded. The last major renovation was completed in 1995. As of 2009 it has 760 seats (the main stage has 935 seats).
The second stage provides an experimental venue for an otherwise conservative company, and ventures into musical theatre
genres, starting with Alexander Kolker's Krechinsky's Wedding musical (1997). It performs a larger share of plays by foreign authors, currently (2009–2010 season) William Shakespeare
, W. Somerset Maugham
, Luigi Pirandello
and Eugene Scribe
.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
theater in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Established in 1806 and operating on its present site on the Theatre Square
Theatre Square
Theatre Square , known as Sverdlov Square between 1919 and 1991, is a city square in Tverskoy District of Moscow, Russia. It's located at the junction of Kuznetsky Bridge Street, Petrovka Street and Theatre Drive .The square is named after the three theatres situated there —...
since 1824, the theatre traces its history to the Moscow University drama company, established in 1756. In the 19th century, Maly was "universally recognized in Russia as the leading dramatic theatre of the century," and was the home stage for Mikhail Shchepkin
Mikhail Shchepkin
Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin was the most famous Russian actor of the 19th century.As his father was a serf, Shchepkin's freedom had to be bought by his admirers in 1821. Three years later, he joined the Maly Theatre in Moscow, which he would dominate for the next 40 years—it became known as the...
and Maria Yermolova
Maria Yermolova
Maria Nikolayevna Yermolova was said to be the greatest actress in the history of the Maly Theatre in Moscow and the first person to be proclaimed the "People's Artist of the Republic" ....
. 40 of Alexander Ostrovsky's 54 plays premiered at Maly, and the theatre was known as The House of Ostrovsky. The Maly Theatre in Moscow and Alexandrinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
"to a great extent determined the development of Russian theatre during the 19th and 20th century".
Maly Theatre positions itself as a traditional drama theatre that produces classical heritage plays. The current (2009–2010 season) program of Maly includes plays by Russian authors from Denis Fonvizin
Denis Fonvizin
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was a playwright of the Russian Enlightenment, whose plays are still staged today. His main works are two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry.-Life:...
to Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
, and a single play by Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
. The second stage of Maly, located in Zamoskvorechye District, also performs plays by W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
, Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
and Eugene Scribe
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe , was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" . This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years.-Biography:...
. Maly had a long tradition of producing William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
but, as of 2009, performs only one Shakespearian play, Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s, and first published in 1598.-Title:...
on its second stage.
Maly Theatre employs a staff of over seven hundred, including over one hundred drama actors. It is the only drama theatre in Russia that has retained a symphony orchestra and a professional choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
. The theatre also operates Shchepkin Theatre School, Moscow's oldest drama school, established in 1809 as the Imperial Theatre School.
History
The exact year of Maly's establishment is debated. In the 19th and 20th century, it was agreed that it was established in 1824, the year when the theatre moved into its Theatre SquareTheatre Square
Theatre Square , known as Sverdlov Square between 1919 and 1991, is a city square in Tverskoy District of Moscow, Russia. It's located at the junction of Kuznetsky Bridge Street, Petrovka Street and Theatre Drive .The square is named after the three theatres situated there —...
building. The centennial of Maly was celebrated in 1924, and the 175th anniversary in 1999. However, the official bicentennial was moved to 2006, based on the establishment of the Imperial Moscow Theatre in 1806. Some of the shows produced by the Imperial Moscow Theatre premiered as early as 1804, and its company continued the tradition of Michael Maddox
Michael Maddox
Michael Maddox was an English entrepreneur and theatre manager active in Imperial Russia...
's company, which was established in 1780. The theatre web site, as of August 2009, marks the season of 2009–2010 as its "254th season", referring to the Free Theatre, a Moscow University company established in 1756.
Predecessors
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
— then devoid of any public entertainment — and specifically instructed that actors be recruited from Fyodor Volkov
Fyodor Volkov
Fyodor Grigorievich Volkov was a Russian actor and founder of the first permanent Russian theater.The stepson of merchant Polushkin from Kostroma, Fyodor Volkov received a versatile education. He established the very first public theater in Yaroslavl in 1750, which would later bring fame to the...
's company, which had already relocated from Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...
to the capital. When Volkov and his company moved to Saint Petersburg, playwright Alexander Sumarokov
Alexander Sumarokov
Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov was a Russian poet and playwright who single-handedly created classical theatre in Russia, thus assisting Mikhail Lomonosov to inaugurate the reign of classicism in Russian literature....
became the first theatre manager.
Also in 1756, Moscow University students formed the Free Theatre . By 1757, the amateur company was recruiting professional female singers and teachers of singing. Rector Ivan Shuvalov
Ivan Shuvalov
Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov was called the Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment and the first Russian Minister of Education...
planned to build the University's own theatre hall, but later made an agreement with Italian impressario Giovanni Battista Locatelli
Giovanni Battista Locatelli
Giovanni Battista Locatelli was an Italian opera director, impresario and owner of a private opera company.In 1757 he and his troupe were invited to St. Petersburg. They put on an opera every week for the court, and two to three times a week they were allowed to give open public performances. The...
, who managed the Opera House at the Red Gates. Locatelli opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, established in the beginning of 1759, was suffering financially, and the impoverished impressario willfully shared his stage with Shuvalov's company. The first show, The New Arrival by Marc-Antoine Legrand, premiered at the Opera House on May 25, 1759. Plays by Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
, Kheraskov
Mikhail Kheraskov
Mikhail Matveyevich Kheraskov was regarded as the most important Russian poet by Catherine the Great and her contemporaries.Kheraskov's father was a Romanian boyar who settled in the Ukraine...
, Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
were a success with Moscow audiences, but the death of Elisabeth in 1762, the subsequent twelve-month official mourning, and Shuvalov's retirement killed the theatre, and the company dispersed.
Between 1763 and 1766, various Russians and foreigners attempted to set up a permanent theatre in Moscow and failed. In 1776, Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
awarded the theatre license to prince Pyotr Urusov. Urusov teamed with English impressario Michael Maddox
Michael Maddox
Michael Maddox was an English entrepreneur and theatre manager active in Imperial Russia...
and erected a large wooden theatre on Petrovka Street
Petrovka Street
Petrovka Street is a street in Moscow, Russia, that runs north from Kuznetsky Most and Theatral Square up past Strastnoy Boulevard and Petrovsky Boulevard....
, west of Neglinnaya River
Neglinnaya River
The Neglinnaya River , also known as Neglimna, Neglinna, Neglinka , is a 7.5-km long underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributary of the Moskva River. It flows in the tunnels under Samotechnaya Street, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinnaya Street and Alexander Garden and Zaryadye...
(the site of present-day Bolshoi Theatre
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
). This hall, named Petrovsky Theatre, burnt down in February 1780. Urusov stepped out of the business and Maddox became the sole venturer. In five months, Maddox built and outfitted a three-storey stone theatre on the same site; the premiere, Wanderers by A. O. Ablesimov, ran on December 30, 1780. Maddox assembled a small but professional company and left the choice of plays and style to the actors. In 1783, the theatre produced 30 new plays and held 70 performances. Moscow governor Vasily Dolgorukov
Vasily Dolgorukov
Vasily Dolgorukov:* Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov* Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgorukov* Vasily Alexandrovich Dolgorukov , Marshal of the Imperial Court under Tsar Nicholas II...
became the most influential supporter of the new theatre, but could not improve its finances. By 1790, Maddox was bankrupt. the theatre was nationalized de facto by the new governor, Alexander Prozorovsky
Alexander Prozorovsky
Prince Alexander Alexandrovich Prozorovsky was the only Field Marshal from the Prozorovsky family.He gained distinction in the Seven Years' War and the conquest of Crimea. Prozorovsky's career was furthered by his maternal Galitzine relatives, who helped him to get appointed to the office of...
. Petrovsky Theatre, managed by the Imperial Board of Theatres, operated until another fire destroyed it on October 22, 1805.
First decades
In 1806, the government of Alexander IAlexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
established the Imperial Moscow Theatre in place of the former Petrovsky. The new theatre consolidated actors from state and private companies into the unified state company, buying out serf
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
actors from their private owners (among them Stepan Mochalov and his five year old son Pavel Mochalov
Pavel Mochalov
Pavel Stepanovich Mochalov was the greatest tragedian of Russian Romanticism, much admired by Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Lermontov and other contemporaries....
). Alexander himself joined the trading, pressing reluctant slave owners to cut down their prices. The new company officially premiered April 11, 1808 at the Pashkov House
Pashkov House
The Pashkov House is the famous Neoclassical mansion that stands on a hill opposite the western wall of the Moscow Kremlin, near the crossing of the Mokhovaya and Vozdvizhenka streets. Its design has been attributed to Vasily Bazhenov. It used to be home to the Rumyantsev Museum in the 19th century...
with a double act of Servant of Two Masters
Servant of Two Masters
Servant of Two Masters is a comedy by the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1743. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Truffaldinos in history...
by Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty...
and Poverty and Chivalry by August von Kotzebue
August von Kotzebue
August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue was a German dramatist.One of Kotzebue's books was burned during the Wartburg festival in 1817. He was murdered in 1819 by Karl Ludwig Sand, a militant member of the Burschenschaften...
. For the next two or three decades, foreign plays dominated the program. Kotzebue, particularly, was favored for his ability to "enchant" the audience.
Carlo Rossi
Carlo Rossi (architect)
Carlo di Giovanni Rossi, was an Italian architect, who worked the major portion of his life in Russia. He was the author of many classical buildings and architectural ensembles in Saint Petersburg and its environments...
designed the new building, built in wood on Arbat Square
Arbat Square
Arbatskaya Square of Arbat Square is one of the oldest squares of Moscow, located on the junction of Gogolevsky Boulevard, Znamenka Street and Arbat Gates Square ....
. The new Arbatsky Theatre opened April 10, 1808, with Bayan
Boyan (bard)
Boyan is the name of a bard who was mentioned in the Rus' epic The Lay of Igor's Campaign as being active at the court of Yaroslav the Wise. He is apostrophized as Volos's grandson in the opening lines of The Lay...
by Sergey Glinka
Sergey Glinka
Sergei Nikolayevich Glinka was a minor Russian author of the Romantic period.-Biography:Glinka was the elder brother of Fedor Nikolaevich Glinka. He was born at Smolensk in 1774. In 1796 he entered the Russian army, but after three years service retired with the rank of major...
. In 1812, when Napoleon's forces approached Moscow, governor Fyodor Rostopchin
Fyodor Rostopchin
Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin was a Russian statesman, who served as governor of Moscow during French invasion of Russia.Rostopchin was born in Orel, son of Vasily Fyodorovich Rostopchin, Lord of Livna and ... Krakova...
delayed evacuation of the company until the last moment: actors fled in disarray when Moscow was already ablaze
Fire of Moscow (1812)
The 1812 Fire of Moscow broke out on September 14, 1812 in Moscow on the day when Russian troops and most residents abandoned the city and Napoleon's vanguard troops entered the city following the Battle of Borodino...
. Some died on the road, some joined Saint Petersburg companies, and others returned to Moscow in 1813. Arbatsky Theatre had burned down, and the company performed in Apraksin House on Znamenka Street and, since 1818, in Pashkov House.
In 1820, the state began redevelopment of Theatre Square. Joseph Bove
Joseph Bové
Joseph Bové was a Russian neoclassical architect with Italian roots who supervised reconstruction of Moscow after the Fire of 1812.-Biography:...
designed a grand opera theatre (the future Bolshoy) on the site of former Petrovsky with four identical buildings around it. One of these, the Vargin House, was built with a small theatre hall which the Imperial Theatre leased for its drama company. The owner of the buildings, caught in the politics of war minister Alexander Chernyshyov
Alexander Chernyshyov
Alexander Ivanovich Chernyshyov , General of Cavalry , was a Russian military leader, diplomat and statesman, whose career began in Napoleonic Wars. After Battle of Austerlitz, he performed successful diplomatic mission to France and Sweden and served with distinction in battles of 1812 and 1813...
, soon went broke and ended up in jail. and by 1830, the state had bought out the property.
January 5, 1823, Alexander I created a new Moscow Board of Theatres that reported to Moscow's governor, making Moscow theatre independent from the Saint Petersburg board. Governor Dmitry Golitsyn became an influential fundraiser for the theatre and arranged emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
of serf actors. In the same year, future stars Mikhail Shchepkin
Mikhail Shchepkin
Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin was the most famous Russian actor of the 19th century.As his father was a serf, Shchepkin's freedom had to be bought by his admirers in 1821. Three years later, he joined the Maly Theatre in Moscow, which he would dominate for the next 40 years—it became known as the...
and Pavel Mochalov
Pavel Mochalov
Pavel Stepanovich Mochalov was the greatest tragedian of Russian Romanticism, much admired by Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Lermontov and other contemporaries....
joined the company, immediately receiving top billings. Later, in the 1830s, cast hiring was influenced by Shchepkin, who hired and mentored future stars Prov Sadovsky
Prov Sadovsky
Prov Sadovsky was the stage name of Prov Mikhailovich Yermilov , a Russian actor who founded the famous Sadovsky theatrical family, which was regarded as the foremost interpreters of the plays by Aleksandr Ostrovsky in the Malyi Theatre until the mid-20th century...
and Ivan Samarin
Ivan Samarin
Ivan Alexeyevich Samarin is an Russian racing driver, holder of the honour of "Master of sports of Russia".-Early career:Samarin competed in karting from 1998 to 2003. He began his formula racing career in the 2004 Formula RUS season, finishing fourth overall in the championship standings...
.
The smaller stage in Vargin House (Maly) opened October 14, 1824 with Alexey Verstovsky
Alexey Verstovsky
Alexey Nikolayevich Verstovsky was a Russian composer, musical bureaucrat and rival of Mikhail Glinka.-Biography:...
's Lily of Narbonne. The larger Bolshoy
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
opened on January 6, 1825. The name Maly (small) emerged in the same year, and referred specifically to the building and not the company. Bolshoy and Maly theatres were run as a single company (Imperial Moscow Theatre), sharing an orchestra, choir, ballet, and even props. Standard weekly programs for Maly in 1825 included three German, two French, and one "German or French" daily slots, with just one Friday night open to Russian plays. Thursdays and Fridays at Bolshoy were reserved for "light comedy" or musical genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
s. Thus, popular drama was regularly performed at the Bolshoy stage, alone or bundled with opera and ballet. For example, the January 31, 1828 night at Bolshoy stage for the benefit of Mikhail Shchepkin featured The Robbers by Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
, a single-act French opera, and a "vaudeville ballet by Alexander Shakhovskoy in rhyme and free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
with machines, flooding of the entire theatre, diverse dancing and music compiled from folk songs".
In the second quarter of the century native Russian plays gradually increased their share. Maly performances included works by Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century...
, Alexander Griboyedov (Woe from Wit
Woe from Wit
Woe from Wit is Alexander Griboyedov's comedy in verse, satirizing the society of post-Napoleonic Moscow, or, as a high official in the play styled it, "a pasquinade on Moscow."The play, written in 1823 in the countryside and in Tiflis, was not passed by the censorship for the stage, and...
1831 featuring both Shchepkin and Pavel Mochalov). Alexander Pushkin (Ruslan and Ludmila 1825, The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
For Boris Asafyev's ballet of the same name, see The Fountain of Bakhchisarai The Fountain of Bakhchisaray is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, written 1821-1823....
1827, The Gypsies
The Gypsies (poem)
The Gypsies is a narrative poem by Aleksandr Pushkin, originally written in Russian in 1824 and first published in 1827. The last of Pushkin's four 'Southern Poems' written during his exile in the south of the Russian Empire, The Gypsies is also considered to be the most mature of these Southern...
1832) and lesser known, now forgotten authors. In three decades, from the 1820s to the 1840s, the theater shed the over-dramatization of vaudeville and romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
and replaced it with "something approaching a realistic style [that] we would recognize today." The former Vargin House was expanded to its present size by Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Andreyevich Thon, also spelled Ton was an official architect of Imperial Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. His major works include the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow....
between 1838 and 1840. The new stage allowed use of elaborate box sets
Box set (theatre)
In theatre, a box set is a set with a proscenium arch stage and three walls. The proscenium opening is the fourth wall. Box sets create the illusion of an interior room on the stage, and are contrasted with earlier forms of set in which sliding flats with gaps between them create an illusion of...
that became standard practice at Maly, while Bolshoy conservatively relied on primitive wing-and-border cloth sets.
House of Ostrovsky
Prov Sadovsky
Prov Sadovsky was the stage name of Prov Mikhailovich Yermilov , a Russian actor who founded the famous Sadovsky theatrical family, which was regarded as the foremost interpreters of the plays by Aleksandr Ostrovsky in the Malyi Theatre until the mid-20th century...
, promoted by Shchepkin, became the "primary interpreter of Ostrovsky". Ostrovsky lived in poverty due to hostility of the Imperial Theatre Board, and ironically, he was appointed director of Moscow Theatre Board shortly before his death, becoming the head of Maly. Public activities by Ostrovsky contributed to the establishment of national playwright's union (1865) and abolition of state monopoly on theatre (1882). As a manager, Ostrovsky formed lasting relationships with the cast, campaigned for professional stage training, and even conducted statistical surveys of the audience.
Other Russian authors who wrote for Maly were Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
(A Provincial Lady, 1851 and A Month in the Country, 1872), Aleksey Pisemsky
Aleksey Pisemsky
Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky was a Russian novelist and dramatist who was regarded as an equal of Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoevsky during his lifetime, but whose reputation suffered a spectacular decline in the 20th century. A realistic playwright, along with Aleksandr Ostrovsky he was...
(two plays that premiered in 1866 and 1875), and Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin (three plays written between 1855 and 1869 where produced in 1890s). In 1878 young Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
wrote his first large-scale drama Platonov
Platonov (play)
Platonov is the name in English given to an early, untitled play written in Russian by Anton Chekhov in 1878. It was the first large-scale drama by Chekhov written specifically for Maria Yermolova, rising star of Maly Theatre...
specifically for Maria Yermolova, but she rejected the play and it was not published until 1923. The Miserly Knight by Alexander Pushkin premiered in Maly posthumously in January 1853, three months later than in Saint Petersburg's Alexandrinsky Theatre. Numerically, quality Russian drama remained scarce: between 1862 and 1881 Maly and Alexandrinsky theatres together produced a total of 607 foreign plays, 500 Russian vaudevilles and only 120 "serious" original Russian plays (including 49 by Ostrovsky).
The last quarter of the 19th century, coincident with Ostrovsky's brief tenure at Maly, brought forward the new generation of lead actors that "could be described as a constellation of great personalities". Maria Yermolova
Maria Yermolova
Maria Nikolayevna Yermolova was said to be the greatest actress in the history of the Maly Theatre in Moscow and the first person to be proclaimed the "People's Artist of the Republic" ....
, daughter of the theatre prompter
Prompter
The prompter in an opera house gives the singers the opening words of each phrase a few seconds early. Prompts are mouthed silently or hurled lyrically in a half-voice, audible only on stage...
, joined the company at the age of 17 in 1870. She was confined to vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
until six years later, when she obtained the role of Laurencia in Fuente Ovejuna
Fuente Ovejuna
Fuenteovejuna is a play by the Spanish playwright, Lope de Vega. First published in Madrid in 1619 as part of Docena Parte de las Comedias de Lope de Vega Carpio , the play is believed to have been written between 1612 and 1614...
. The fiery show incited political demonstrations and was shut down by authorities, while Yermolova instantly became the lead actress of Maly. Yermolova played The Maid of Orleans
The Maid of Orleans (play)
The Maid of Orleans is a tragedy by Friedrich Schiller, written in 1801 in Leipzig. During his lifetime, it was one of Schiller's most frequently-performed pieces.-Plot:...
, her greatest success, for 18 years (1884-1902); In 1894, the show moved onto Bolshoy stage to maximize revenue. Actor and playwright Prince Sumbatov, known under stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Alexander Yuzhin
Alexander Yuzhin
Alexander Ivanovich Yuzhin was a stage name of the Georgian Prince Sumbatov , who dominated the Malyi Theatre of Moscow at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was best known for the Romantical parts in the dramas by Schiller and Victor Hugo but also penned a number of plays himself...
, was also active for six decades (1877–1926) as lead actor and playwright. According to Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko was a Georgian-born Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, playwright, producer and theatre organizer, who founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his colleague, Konstantin Stanislavsky, in 1898.-Biography:Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko was born...
, "demonically hard working" Yuzhin "filled every step with energy, persistence, and determination", and expressed the same qualities in his own plays. Instead of relying on professional directors, the star cast of Yuzhin, Yermolova, Mikhail Sadovsky
Mikhail Sadovsky
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sadovsky was a Soviet physicist, academician , and Hero of Socialist Labor ....
, Alexander Lensky, and others collectively directed their own shows.
Revolution, reforms and stagnation
The period of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
brought forward experimental theatre of Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
, Alexander Tairov
Alexander Tairov
Alexander Tairov was one of the leading innovators of theatrical art, and one of the most enduring theatre directors in Russia, and through the Soviet era.-Childhood:...
, and other independent directors. Maly, on the contrary, consistently preserved the realistic tradition established in the 19th century. Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, married to Maly actress Natalya Rozenel, actively sponsored the theatre and wrote drama plays for it while the public and left-wing art circles neglected Maly in favor of new theatres.
The theatre that was once governed by its lead actors gradually became a director's theatre. In the 1920s, Maly was unconditionally ruled by directors Nikolay Volkonsky, Ivan Platon, Lev Prozorovsky, and CEO Vladimir Vladimirov
Vladimir Vladimirov
Vladimir Vladimirov is a Bulgarian football winger who currently plays for Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo.-References:...
, who replaced ailing Yuzhin in 1926. Vladimirov's haphazard, authoritative management style alienated lead actors like Alexander Ostuzhev
Alexander Ostuzhev
Alexander Alexeyevich Pozharov ,better known by the stage name Alexander Ostuzhev was a Russian and Soviet drama actor.Ostuzhev became the lead actor of the Maly Theatre company in Moscow in 1898....
and contemporary playwrights. In the second half of the 1930s, Maly absorbed first-rate actors from now defunct experimental companies (Igor Ilyinsky
Igor Ilyinsky
Igor Vladimirovich Ilyinsky was a famous Russian actor and notable silent film comedian.-Early years:Igor Ilyinsky was born on 24 July 1901 in Moscow.At the age of 16 he entered the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre Studio and in half a year already debuted on the professional stage in Kommisarzhevskaya...
, Mikhail Tsaryov, Mikhail Zharov
Mikhail Zharov
Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov was a Russian actor.He studied under the prominent director Theodore Komisarjevsky and debuted in Yakov Protazanov's Aelita...
) but it was hired visiting directors who re-established Maly as the leading drama theatre in Moscow.
Sergey Radlov produced Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
(December 1935) starring deaf Alexander Ostuzhev
Alexander Ostuzhev
Alexander Alexeyevich Pozharov ,better known by the stage name Alexander Ostuzhev was a Russian and Soviet drama actor.Ostuzhev became the lead actor of the Maly Theatre company in Moscow in 1898....
, and the play became a breakthrough for the theatre and the actor. Director Aleksey Dikiy, according to the theatre's web site, became one of the most controversial characters in Soviet theatre and cinema. A star of Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
since 1910, he leaned to experiment and left for an independent director's career in 1927. After directing Tarelkin's Death at Maly in 1936, Dikiy vanished into GULAG
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
, but returned to Maly in September 1944 and directed five more plays there. His stage partner Boris Babochkin
Boris Babochkin
Boris Andreyevich Babochkin was a well-known Soviet film and theatre actor and director. Boris Babochkin was one of the first internationally recognized stars of the Soviet-Russian cinema...
, another vagrant director and the star of Chapaev
Chapaev (film)
Chapaev is a 1934 Soviet film. It was directed by the Vasilyev brothers on Lenfilm. It is a story about Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev , a legendary Red Army commander who became a hero of the Russian Civil War...
, directed and played at Maly for the last two decades of his life.
During Khrushchev Thaw
Khrushchev Thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...
, Maly had its spark of novelty, starting with the 1956 production of The Power of Darkness
The Power of Darkness
The Power of Darkness is a five-act drama by Leo Tolstoy. Written in 1886, the play was banned in Russia until 1902.The central character is a peasant, Nikita, who seduces and abandons a young girl Marinka; then the lovely Anisija murders her own husband to marry Nikita. He impregnates his new...
directed by Boris Ravenskikh and starring Igor Ilyinsky
Igor Ilyinsky
Igor Vladimirovich Ilyinsky was a famous Russian actor and notable silent film comedian.-Early years:Igor Ilyinsky was born on 24 July 1901 in Moscow.At the age of 16 he entered the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre Studio and in half a year already debuted on the professional stage in Kommisarzhevskaya...
, who was personally torn between allegiance to communist ideology and Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's ideas. By 1968, state control over theatres tightened. Maly, being a "court theatre", was especially pressed for obedience. It even became an "exile" for once independent directors Boris Lvov-Anokhin and Leonid Kheyfets, a place deemed "safe enough" to produce a stage version of Brezhnev's trilogy
Brezhnev's trilogy
The Brezhnev's trilogy was a series of three memoirs published under name of Leonid Brezhnev:* The Small Land * Rebirth * Virgin Lands...
. Nevertheless, the theatre at this time experienced some of its true successes, like Ilyinsky playing Leo Tolstoy in the 1978 premiere of Return to his circuits by Ion Druţă
Ion Druţă
Ion Druţă, generally spelled "Ion Drutse" in English, is a writer from Moldova.Druţă has been the honorary president of the Moldovan Writers' Union since 1987.-Works:* Povara bunătăţii noastre* Frunze de dor...
.
Current company
People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
- Yury Solomin
Yury Solomin
Yury Mefodievich Solomin is a Soviet/Russian actor who has directed the Maly Theatre in Moscow since 1988.Solomin studied at the Malyi theatre school and joined its troupe in 1957...
, Victor Korshunov, Elina Bystritskaya
Elina Bystritskaya
Elina Avraamovna Bystritskaya is a Soviet and Russian actress best known for her role of Axinia in Sergei Gerasimov's epic screening of Mikhail Sholokhov's novel And Quiet Flows the Don ....
, and 33 People's Artists of Russia
People's Artist of Russia
People's Artist of Russia, also sometimes translated as National Artist of Russia, is an honorary title granted to citizens of Russia.It succeeded both the all-Soviet union award People's Artist of the USSR , and more directly the local republic award, People's Artist of the RSFSR , after the...
.
The current (2009–2010 season) program of Maly includes plays almost exclusively by Russian authors (Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
, Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
, Denis Fonvizin
Denis Fonvizin
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was a playwright of the Russian Enlightenment, whose plays are still staged today. His main works are two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry.-Life:...
, Nikolay Gogol, Alexander Griboyedov, Pyotr Karatygin, Alexander Ostrovsky, Alexander Pushkin, A. K. Tolstoy
Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, often referred to as A. K. Tolstoy , was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist...
) and a single play by Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
. The theatre announced, as of August 2009, upcoming premieres of Cabal of Hypocrites by Bulgakov and Smart Things by Samuil Marshak
Samuil Marshak
Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak was a Russian and Soviet writer, translator and children's poet. Among his Russian translations are William Shakespeare's sonnets, poems by William Blake and Robert Burns, and Rudyard Kipling's stories. Maxim Gorky proclaimed Marshak to be "the founder of [Russia's ]...
.
Main building
Maly Theatre, facing Petrovka StreetPetrovka Street
Petrovka Street is a street in Moscow, Russia, that runs north from Kuznetsky Most and Theatral Square up past Strastnoy Boulevard and Petrovsky Boulevard....
, is the last remaining of four identical buildings erected in the 1820s by Joseph Bove
Joseph Bové
Joseph Bové was a Russian neoclassical architect with Italian roots who supervised reconstruction of Moscow after the Fire of 1812.-Biography:...
for private customers. In the 19th century, the other three buildings were demolished and rebuilt, and Theatre Square
Theatre Square
Theatre Square , known as Sverdlov Square between 1919 and 1991, is a city square in Tverskoy District of Moscow, Russia. It's located at the junction of Kuznetsky Bridge Street, Petrovka Street and Theatre Drive .The square is named after the three theatres situated there —...
lost its original highly symmetrical appearance. The Maly building itself has little in common with the original Vargin House of 1824. Vargin House, squeezed between Petrovka and the wide, recently created Neglinny Lane
Neglinnaya Street
Neglinnaya Street is a street inside the Garden Ring of Moscow, Russia. It runs from the Bolshoi Theatre to the Trubnaya Square. The street was paved over the underground Neglinnaya River in 1819. Throughout the 20th century the river regularly flooded the street and the adjacent quarter...
, was narrower than the present-day building; its Petrovka facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
housed an open shopping arcade.
Between 1838 and 1840, the theatre acquired neighboring land lots and was completely rebuilt by Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Andreyevich Thon, also spelled Ton was an official architect of Imperial Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. His major works include the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow....
. Thon expanded the building to the northwest and northeast, taking over the land of Neglinny Lane. The arcade disappeared, and all the interiors were gutted and redesigned from scratch. Thon retained Bove's stern neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
styling and left most wall surfaces unadorned. In 1945 this "omission" was rectified, and the facade acquired their present shape with a continuous molding
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
separating first and ground floors and small cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
s above first floor windows. The main hall retains its 1840 layout and plafond
Plafond
Plafond , in a broad sense, is any ceiling of any premise.Plafond can be product of monumental and decorative painting and sculpture; subject or ornamental – also is designated by the term "Plafond"...
artwork was recreated after World War II. Hall capacity, originally set at exactly 1,000 seats, has been reduced to 953 seats.
Schepkin School
The theatre recruits new actors primarily from its own Shchepkin Theatre School, an undergraduate level drama schoolDrama school
A drama school or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university; or a free-standing institution ; which specialises in the pre-professional training in drama and theatre arts, such as acting, design and technical theatre, arts administration, and...
located in a neighboring block on Neglinnaya Street. The school, established in 1809, has always been run as a division of Maly. Maly's current CEO Victor Korshunov and art director Yury Solomin are also deans of Schepkin School. Maly Theatre and Shchepkin School are two of eleven Russian institutions eligible for the presidential theatre support grants established in 2005. Both are also included in the State Code of Particularly Valuable Objects of Cultural Heritage, a list of top priority cultural sites and institutions that, by law, are state property and may not be privatized.
Second stage
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
building was built in the 1900s as a cinema, and rebuilt in 1914 into a theatre hall for the Struysky company. In the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
the building housed an independent Zamoskvorechye Theatre.
Former Struysky Theatre became a branch of Maly after World War II and has since been expanded. The last major renovation was completed in 1995. As of 2009 it has 760 seats (the main stage has 935 seats).
The second stage provides an experimental venue for an otherwise conservative company, and ventures into musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
genres, starting with Alexander Kolker's Krechinsky's Wedding musical (1997). It performs a larger share of plays by foreign authors, currently (2009–2010 season) William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
, Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
and Eugene Scribe
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe , was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" . This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years.-Biography:...
.