Владимир Немирович-Данченко: Жизнь и творчество театрального реформатора

Soviet and Russian theatre director, writer, playwright, and producer

Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich Danchenko (Владимир Иванович Немирович Данченко; 23 December 1858 [O. S. 11 December 1858], in Ozurgeti – 25 April 1943, in Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, playwright, producer and theatre administrator, who founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his colleague, Konstantin Stanislavski, in 1898.

Vladimir Ivanovich Danchenko was born into a Russian noble family of mixed Ukrainian Armenian descent, in the village of Shemokmedi near Ozurgeti (Guria, Georgia). His father, Ivan Danchenko, was an officer in the Imperial Russian Army, and his mother, Aleksandra Yagubyan (1829–1914), was Armenian from the Governorate of Tiflis. He went to high school in Tbilisi, continuing his education at Moscow State University (physical mathematical and juridical departments, 1876–1879). In 1919, he established the Musical Theatre of the Moscow Art Theatre, which was reformed into the Nemirovich Danchenko Musical Theatre in 1926. He died of a heart attack on 25 April 1943, aged 84, in Moscow. It has been said that "If Stanislavski was the soul of Art Theatre, then Nemirovich was its heart". Nemirovich Danchenko created the Moscow Art Theatre's acting and directing style, known for "actors ensemble" and its "atmosphere". Because of his directorial and production skills, the Moscow Art Theatre was considered, at the time, the best theatre in the Soviet Union. But Nemirovich didn't write down his acting "system" and we know only the "system of Stanislavski". He was one of the first recipients of the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1936. Later, he was awarded the Order of Lenin (3 May 1937) and the Stalin Prize (1942, 1943).