Vsevolod Meyerhold is a Soviet actor and director who broke the stereotypes of classical theater without regret. In his productions, he was not afraid of experiments, avant-garde techniques, grotesque, the use of new acting techniques. His performances did not leave anyone indifferent. Equally, Meyerhold's work evoked both sincere admiration and frenzied rejection.
Biography: childhood and years of study
Having German roots, the great director was given the name Karl Kazimir Theodor at birth, his real name is Mayergold. He was born in Penza on January 28, 1874. The head of the family owned a wine and vodka production, was strict and picky with children. Mother was fond of theater, music, art. Karl Mayergold had two sisters and five brothers.
Studying at the second male gymnasium in Penza was not easy for him, the young man stayed three times in the second year. Therefore, he graduated from this educational institution only in 1895. At the same time, Karl received a Russian passport, changing his name to Vsevolod and slightly changing his last name. From the Lutheran faith in which he was raised, he abandoned in favor of Orthodoxy. Meyerhold chose his new name not by chance, but in honor of his beloved writer and poet Vsevolod Garshin.
He decided to continue his education at the Faculty of Law of the Imperial Moscow University. However, interest in the theater soon overpowered, and in 1896 Meyerhold transferred to the second year of the music and theater school at the Moscow Philharmonic Society. He enters a class led by the great teacher and director Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko. During his studies, Vsevolod Emilievich first thinks about the director's profession.
Creative activity
After graduating from the theater school, in 1898 Meyerhold got a job at the Moscow Art Theater. One of its founders was Nemirovich-Danchenko, who wanted to continue working with his talented students on the big stage. Together with Meyerhold, his fellow students came to the new theater - future stars Olga Knipper and Ivan Moskvin.
Under the leadership of the brilliant director's duet Stanislavsky-Nemirovich-Danchenko, the young actor played interesting, diverse roles:
- Vasily Shuisky ("Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" by A. K. Tolstoy);
- Ivan the Terrible ("The Death of Ivan the Terrible" by A. K. Tolstoy);
- Treplev and Tuzenbach (The Seagull and Three Sisters by A. Chekhov);
- Prince of Aragon ("The Merchant of Venice" by W. Shakespeare).
Still dreaming about directing, in 1902 Meyerhold left the Moscow Art Theater and headed the theater troupe in Kherson. They called themselves the Fellowship of the New Drama. The "provincial" period was of great importance for the work of Vsevolod Emilievich. It was then that his formation as a director took place, in search of a new theatrical style, he developed a special symbolist system. And although the performances came out one after another, excluding long study and rehearsals, the theater was a huge success. For 3 years, about 200 performances were presented to the public, the artists toured a lot.
Having loudly declared himself for the first time, Meyerhold again attracted Stanislavsky's attention. In 1905 he invited the young director to head the Studio Theater on Povarskaya Street. However, the two geniuses very quickly realized that they could not work together. The general public never saw a single performance prepared by Meyerhold, and he himself returned to his provincial theater.
In 1906, Vsevolod Emilievich, at the personal invitation of Vera Komissarzhevskaya, became a production director for one season at the Drama Theater of St. Petersburg, created by the great actress. He releases 13 performances, but after several high-profile failures, their collaboration ends. The last work - the play "Balaganchik" by A. Blok - secretly opens the era of "theater of convention" in Russia.
1907-1917 Meyerhold works at the Alexandrinsky and Mariinsky theaters, turning towards the classics. After the October Revolution, he takes the side of the new government, joins the Communist Party. Following the trends of modern times, in 1918 he staged "Mystery-Buff" by V. Mayakovsky, the artist Kazemir Malevich was responsible for the design of the performance. At the same time he is engaged in teaching activities, paying special attention to his own system of exercises for actors "Biomechanics". Unlike Stanislavsky's method of experiencing, Meyerhold offers the exact opposite method. In his opinion, acting should go from the external to the internal content of the role.
During a tour in Crimea in 1919, the director fell into the hands of white counterintelligence, was in prison for six months and only narrowly escaped being shot. Returning home, in 1920 he proposed a program of reforming and politicizing the theater "Theatrical October". For several months he has been working in the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education.
On November 7, 1920, the Meyerhold State Theater opened in Moscow, which existed until 1938. Among the most famous productions of the director during this period are:
- "Union of Youth" by G. Ibsen (1921);
- "The Forest" by A. N. Ostrovsky (1924);
- "The Inspector General" by N. V. Gogol (1926);
- The Bedbug by V. Mayakovsky (1929);
- "Bath" by V. Mayakovsky (1930);
- "The Wedding of Krechinsky" by A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin (1933);
- "Lady with Camellias" by A. Dumas-son (1934).
On January 7, 1938, the theater was closed, accusing its founder and leader of "an antisocial atmosphere, sycophancy, clamping down on self-criticism, narcissism."
Personal life
For the first time, Meyerhold married in 1896 to his same age as Olga Munt (1874-1940). They met in Penza when they took part in amateur performances together. In this marriage, the director became the father of three daughters - Maria (1897-1929), Tatiana (1902-1986), Irina (1905-1981).
While working in the People's Commissariat for Education, he met the actress Zinaida Reich, and in 1921 she became a student at the Higher Directing Workshops in Moscow, which were directed by Meyerhold. Despite the twenty-year age difference, he left his first family and married Reich in 1922. The director took care and raised his wife's son and daughter from his marriage to Sergei Yesenin. Meyerhold's second wife was killed on July 15, 1939 in her apartment 24 days after his arrest. This crime still keeps many secrets and mysteries.
Arrest and death
Meyerhold's arrest took place on June 20, 1939 in Leningrad. He was charged with counter-revolutionary activities. After three weeks of bullying and torture, he signed the testimony imposed by the investigation. On February 1, 1940, the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced the director to be shot, and the very next day the sentence was carried out. Meyerhold's ashes were cremated and buried in a common grave.
Only 15 years later, the director was rehabilitated posthumously. Vsevolod Emilievich's granddaughter, Maria Valentey, put a lot of effort into preserving the director's creative heritage. At the grave of Zinaida Reich, she also erected a monument dedicated to the director and his muse.
