April 5, 1977
A 82-year-old man died in Moscow. Yuri Zavadsky — actor and director. Founder of his own theater and theater school.
You are not valuable in yourself, but only to the extent of the trust and love that you have earned from your people.
Born in 1894 in Moscow, into a noble family. His father was a collegiate assessor, his mother a failed actress. He attended a private gymnasium renowned for its "advanced Western pedagogy" and the "ostentatious liberalism" of its teachers. There, he developed an interest in music and painting.
Despite studying law at Moscow University, he planned to become an artist and took painting lessons. There was a painting studio in the courtyard of his parents' house. Serov, Korovin, Vrubel.
At the age of 21 he began studying at the director's theatre studio. Evgeniya Vakhtangov (later known as the 3rd Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre). At 23, he dropped out of law school to pursue an acting career.
Debut role: Anthony in the play “The Miracle of St. Anthony” by Vakhtangov.
On the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre he played Chatsky in Woe from Wit and Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro.
He played a small role in the first Soviet science fiction film, Aelita (the keeper of the energy of Mars, Horus).
In the 1920s, he was briefly arrested for attending a circle of anthroposophists (philosophers who viewed humans as beings capable of experiencing higher worlds). He was released thanks to the intercession of Stanislavsky.
At 30 he made his debut as a director with a play based on Gogol’s “Marriage” (he considered it a failure).
I wanted too much at once. I conceived of expressing Gogol on three levels: realistic, fantastical, and theatrical. This artificial dismemberment led me away from Gogol's true reality.
At the same time, he created his own theater studio. Among his students in the troupe were Vera Maretskaya, Rostislav Plyatt, Nikolai Mordvinov. The theatre had no building and was famous for its bold and original productions in its basements.
By 1927, his studio had grown into the Yuri Zavadsky State Theatre.
In the 1930s he headed the Central Theatre of the Red Army.
In 1936, together with his troupe, he was “transferred” to Rostov-on-Don — this was how the country fought against "overly flamboyant, unorthodox theaters." This saved both Zavadsky himself and the troupe. For several years, he headed the Rostov Gorky Drama Theater.
In 1940, he returned to Moscow and was appointed chief director of the Mossovet Theatre. He remained in this position for the rest of his life—almost 40 years.
For me there can be no art without connection with the people.
Among the most notable productions is "Invasion" Leonid Leonov, "Petersburg Dreams" based on the novel Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment", Lermontov's "Masquerade".
Despite all the acting flaws, the best thing I have seen in the theatre recently was Zavadsky’s Petersburg Dreams.
(Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
He became famous as an innovator: trumpeters greeted the audience of the play "The Merry Wives of Windsor", and during the fair scene, gypsies and magicians walked around the hall.
He taught at GITIS and held the title of professor. He was a Lenin Prize laureate and a two-time Stalin Prize laureate. He was awarded four Orders of Lenin.
He often used his influence and status to help disgraced colleagues. The only one with whom he had a strained relationship was Faina Ranevskaya.
Zavadsky will always explain what conclusion the actors should come to with their own minds.
(Ranevskaya)
She called Zavadsky "a cut-price Meyerhold" and teased him about his success with women.
Zavadsky was born not with a shirt on, but in a fur coat.
At 24 I met Marina Tsvetaeva — she fell unrequitedly in love with Zavadsky and dedicated a cycle of poems to him.
And the wind blew, and the staircase twisted...
Without taking my eyes off your lips,
Half-laughing, twisting her fingers into a knot,
I stood there like a little Muse,
Innocent - like the latest hour...
And the wind blew and the stairs twisted
He was married three times. His first wife was an actress. Irina Anisimova-Wulf. His second wife, an actress Vera Maretskaya, She was nicknamed "the mistress of the Mossovet Theatre"—in fact, she managed it together with Zavadsky. At the beginning of the war, he married a ballerina. Galina Ulanova — this marriage soon fell apart, although the divorce was not officially registered.
