October 28: Remembering entrepreneur Fyodor Korsh
Entrepreneur, playwright, and founder of the Russian Drama Theater, Fyodor Korsh, died in Golitsyn, near Moscow. He introduced audiences to Chekhov's plays.
In the Moscow region Golitsyno 71-year-old died Fyodor KorshEntrepreneur and playwright who introduced Chekhov to audiences. Founder of the first private theater in Russia, the Russian Drama Theater (Korsh Theater).
If, in the twilight of my life, I were asked whether I regretted having chosen theatrical activity, I would answer: if I were to begin life again, I would not wish for anything better than to relive what I have lived through, for until recently this was almost the only free field that provided satisfaction to forces that found no outlet
Fyodor Korsh: From Lawyer to Entrepreneur
Born in 1852 in the Tiflis province, into a noble family. His father was a military doctor.
At 22, he graduated from the law faculty of the Imperial Moscow University with a PhD in law. He worked as an assistant attorney. By 30, he had risen to the rank of chairman of one of the district courts of the Moscow Judicial Chamber.
He had been passionate about theater since childhood. A fortunate marriage to a moneylender's daughter brought him a sizable dowry. In 1882, after the monopoly of the Imperial State Theaters was abolished, he left his legal practice and took over the unprofitable Pushkin Theater ("Theatre Near the Pushkin Monument"). He soon used it to create the first legal private public Russian Drama Theater in Russia (known as the Korsh Theater).
Korsh Theatre: the building and first performances
For the first three years he rented premises in Gazetny Lane, and later, with the help of a patron and industrialist Alexandra Bakhrushina, He built his building near Petrovka, in a pseudo-Russian style and resembling a fairy-tale house.
It was erected in record time, within 110 days; the hall could seat 1300 people.
The Korsh Theatre quickly became one of the most popular public theaters in Moscow. They staged primarily comedies and farces. Their first production was Gogol's "The Government Inspector."
To expand its audience, the Korsh Theatre organized "matinees"—the same evening performances were shown at a lower price, so that students and young people could see them.
Korsh and his assistants attended fashionable premieres in foreign theaters, took down shorthand, and then translated the text of the play—sometimes a European play would end up on the Russian stage before its publication in its homeland.
Fyodor Korsh and Chekhov on the same stage
Russian classics were also staged. It was with Korsh that Chekhov's collaboration with the theater began—here audiences first saw his plays "Ivanov," "The Wedding," and "The Bear."
A businessman with innovative ideas in the theater
The owner was considered less an entrepreneur than a theatrical manufacturer, a "businessman." For example, Korsh was one of the first to equip his theater with electric lighting.
Even the Bolshoi and Maly Theaters still used gas. True, the new lighting was far from perfect. The bulbs gave off a yellowish light and burned unreliably. Nevertheless, the new lighting made a huge impression.
(leading actress of the theater Alexandra Glama-Meshcherskaya)
The sets and sound were also innovative. In one performance, the audience was treated to a cross-section of a car speeding along in a train. Wheels spun beneath the car, and telegraph poles flew past the windows. As the train approached a station, the panorama slowed down.
Korsh wasn't an artist in the true sense of the word. He was a businessman who passionately loved his work. His businesslike approach sometimes went beyond the pale. He wasn't known for his generosity in matters of salary, although he loved the actor and the actors loved him. "My dear" (his usual expression, this is what he always said to the actor and this is what he was nicknamed) respected and valued his work and would not allow anyone to harm him.
(theatrical figure Vladimir Nelidov)
The end of the theatre and the fate of its building
In 1917, four days before the October Revolution, Korsh managed to sell his theater to an actor Moritz Schlugleit, and he himself left for the Caucasus. He spent his last days in Golitsyn, near Moscow.
The theater outlived its founder, but not by much. In 1919, it was nationalized and underwent several name changes—"3rd Theater of the RSFSR. Comedy" and "Comedy (formerly Korsh)." In 1925, after Shlugleit's arrest and exile from Moscow, it joined the Mossovet theater system. It was known as the Moscow Drama Theater—officials monitored the "ideological purity" of its repertoire.
In 1933, it ceased to exist independently, becoming a branch of the Moscow Art Theatre. Its building is now occupied by the Theatre of Nations.
