Serafima Birman, Sofia Giatsintova, Alla Tarasova and Olga Pyzhova: ‘Second Wave’ Russian and Soviet Actresses, Stanislavsky’s System and the Moscow Art Theatre

Abstract

This chapter illuminates an under-researched area of Russian theatre history, specifically in relation to the lives of women performers. It throws light upon the development of the Stanislavsky System in the practice of four female actors and their work in the 1920s under the System in the Soviet theatre, regarded as the only appropriate training for actors in the Stalinist-era Soviet Union. It investigates the artistic and cultural contribution of the ‘second wave’ actresses of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) in four case histories: Serafima Birman, Sofia Giatsintova, Olga Pyzhova and Alla Tarasova. All four actresses worked at the MAT, founded by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1898 and famous throughout Russia, Europe and North America. They did significant work in the theatre studios throughout the revolutionary and civil war period (1910s–1920s) and went on to have distinguished careers as performers, teachers, and directors in Stalinist and post-Stalinist USSR (1920s–1970s). The development of their individual careers required great personal and artistic determination which necessitated making theatrical and political choices, enduring conflict and compromise, loss and reward.