Born on the territory of modern Georgia
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko was born on December 23, 1858 (December 11, old style) in the town of Ozurgety near Poti, in the family of Ivan Nemirovich-Danchenko, a lieutenant colonel of the Imperial Army who served in the Caucasus. Chernigov province and his wife Alexandra Yagubyan, who is a big fan of the theater. . The origin of the Nemirovich-Danchenko family goes back to military comrade Danila Nemirovich, a Polish nobleman who supported Bogdan Khmelnitsky and received nobility from him.
The future founder of the Moscow Art Theater studied at the Tbilisi gymnasium, which he graduated with a silver medal in 1876. Then his path led to Moscow University – first to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, then to the Faculty of Law. He could not graduate from the educational institution and left in 1879.
He played in amateur theater in his youth
Nemirovich-Danchenko was interested in theater since childhood, under the influence of his mother, and in his youth he began to realize himself in various theatrical directions. For example, he started acting in amateur theater in 1877 and was very successful. But Nemirovich-Danchenko still abandoned his career as an actor: he quickly realized that with his appearance he could not play a heroic role, and characteristic roles did not appeal to him.
In the same 1877, he began publishing as a theater critic and continued to do so for 10 years – Nemirovich-Danchenko developed his view of the theater in different publications under different pseudonyms.
His first play was staged at the Maly Theater
Already at a young age Vladimir Ivanovich tried himself as a playwright – his first play “The Rose Hip”, written in 1881, was staged at the Maly Theater. Later, he would write various stories and novels, as well as the plays “Last Will”, “New Job”, “Gold”, “The Price of Life”, “In Dreams”.
He was the brother of a famous journalist, writer and traveler.
The name of Vasily Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko is more familiar today to local historians of the Kola Peninsula and the Urals – but at the end of the 19th century he was famous as a journalist and writer who brought articles and local folklore from each of his trips.
Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote a book about his trip to the Kola Peninsula “Cold Country”, which became a valuable source of information about the life of the indigenous people, the Sami. Then the journalist went to the Urals, and then to Spain. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Nemirovich-Danchenko was a war correspondent.
The writer emigrated and settled in Prague in 1921. He was president of the congress of Russian writers and journalists in Czechoslovakia and an honorary member of the Czech-Russian Union society.
He was the teacher of Vsevolod Meyerhold and Olga Knipper
In 1891 he became a teacher at the Nemirovich-Danchenko Philharmonic School of Music and Drama. While teaching acting technique, he relied on the psychology of the image and the student’s own character, encouraging his students to find a living character in their heroes.
Many of Nemirovich-Danchenko’s students (Ivan Moskvin, Olga Knipper, Vsevolod Meyerhold) later formed the basis of the Moscow Art Theater troupe.
He persuaded Chekhov to make a second production of The Seagull after the failure of the first film.
The first play of the New Moscow Art Theater was considered by its co-founder Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko to be Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull”. But two years ago St. Seeing its failure at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the author was very worried about the public reaction and refused to give “The Seagull” to the Moscow Art Theater. He twice rejected Nemirovich-Danchenko, but after much persuasion, he finally accepted.
Chekhov was not present at the premiere of the Moscow Art Theater – he remained in Yalta. Immediately afterwards, the classic received enthusiastic telegrams from Konstantin Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. And then the latter wrote in a letter: “To paint you a picture of the first performance, I will say that after the 3rd act we experienced some kind of drunken mood backstage. Someone successfully said that this is exactly Easter Sunday. “Everyone kissed, jumped on each other’s necks, everyone was carried away by the spirit of the greatest triumph of righteousness and honest work.”
The first to stage “The Brothers Karamazov”
The play “The Brothers Karamazov”, staged by Nemirovich-Danchenko on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater in 1910, was the first staging of a prose work in the history of theatre. As the director himself said, he managed to embody “the first Russian tragedy”, and the Moscow Art Theater troupe showed itself for the first time as a “community of tragic actors”.
He worked in Hollywood for a year and a half
At the end of 1925, the Moscow Art Theater led by Nemirovich-Danchenko went on a tour abroad: first to Berlin, then to the USA (many actors, by the way, did not return).
Meanwhile, the Music Studio founded by Nemirovich-Danchenko in Moscow lost its premises. The director decided to accept the Hollywood studio’s offer of cooperation and went to Los Angeles with his wife.
However, the cooperation did not yield results. Although the director met celebrities, wrote scripts and prepared for shooting, none of his works came to fruition. He returned to Moscow in 1928. “Only in Russia can you create, relax in Europe and make money in America,” he later recalled.
Tikhon Khrennikov’s career began
The famous Soviet composer Tikhon Khrennikov was one of those whose career began thanks to Nemirovich-Danchenko’s attention. In 1936, the very young Khrennikov, the author of the music for the play Much Ado About Nothing, was invited to a meeting with Nemirovich-Danchenko at the Metropol restaurant.
The director invited him to write an opera – after discussions, they came to the conclusion that it should be about the Civil War. This is how the opera “Towards the Storm” was born.
Nemirovich-Danchenko even invited Stalin to the show – he agreed, without giving the date of appearance. He arrived at the theater on November 9, 1939 and invited Nemirovich-Danchenko and Khrennikov to join him. However, the latter was not in Moscow at that moment.
Caused an argument between Stanislavsky and Meyerhold
Although Nemirovich-Danchenko was Vsevolod Meyerhold’s teacher, he did not hesitate to criticize his teacher. At one time, this became the reason for a sharp cooling towards the Moscow Art Theater actor on the part of Stanislavsky.
“Someone silenced me at the premiere of Nemirovich-Danchenko’s play “In Dreams”. At that time, I wrote a letter to the AP. Chekhov spoke critically about this play. They found out about this in the theater (I don’t know how) and connected my letter with my hiss and told Stanislavsky that I organized this protest,” Vsevolod Meyerhold recalled.
Theatrical gossip led to Stanislavsky stopping talking to Meyerhold and not wanting to see him. “Then everything became clear and he started being nicer than ever to me, as if it was my fault. “Then I already understood what Stanislavsky’s attitude meant to me,” the future experimental director admitted.