Stanislavsky’s tailcoat was shown in Moscow

Also at the exhibition was presented a fragment of the curtain with the logo “Seagulls”

January 17 at the “Green Foyer” of the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov opened the exposition “Stanislavsky. Start”. It was on this day 160 years ago that the great theater reformer was born, but we will talk about him, of course, throughout 2023. The MK correspondent visited the exhibition, which became the prologue to this conversation.

“Do not touch” signs have become a familiar attribute of any museum, and yet every time visitors are invited to “touch” something: past music, art. Metaphorical thinking allows us to do this, bypassing the armored glass shutters, frames and bars.

In the historic building in Kamergersky Lane, a whole lobby was allocated for the exposition. It is assumed that the audience will get acquainted with it during the intermission or will come during the opening hours of the Moscow Art Theater Museum. Since I arrived on a day when there were no performances, it took about fifteen minutes to get into the hall, and, of course, it was empty – massive metal doors were opened personally in front of me. And when I found myself in a room filled with theatrical artifacts, I felt longing and loneliness. And in the glass case was the tailcoat of the hero of the day, put on a mannequin. As if, to paraphrase Mayakovsky, there were two people in the room: me and Stanislavsky. This created a kind of “presence effect”.

And what other items exactly “hooked”, led to the idea that the greatness of the history of Russian theatrical art is not somewhere in the pantry of centuries, but here? For example, a fragment of a curtain from 1902 with the trademark logo of the Moscow Art Theater, original posters and programs of immortal productions, including Chekhov’s The Seagull, as well as Othello and The Mikado. And also – created at the end of the 19th century, models of scenery for performances, stage design elements, antique items, notes made by Stanislavsky’s hand, drawings, sketches of costumes and props. Moreover, in chronological terms, the narrative really begins from the beginning, reflecting the activities of the Alekseevsky Circle (the home theater of the Alekseevs), then created by Stanislavsky together with like-minded people of the Moscow Society of Art and Literature, and, finally, the early years of the existence of the Moscow Art Theater, the first public theater in Russia. A few decades later, in the early USSR, they would announce that they were bringing “Art to the Masses”, calling it an unprecedented mercy for the liberated working people. Meanwhile, peasants and factory workers could come to performances at the Moscow Art Theater. But I got off topic.

It does not make sense to list all the items here – after all, this is a response written on the run, and not an exhibition catalog. But it is worth mentioning that many exhibits were shown for the first time. And they were preserved, by the way, thanks to Konstantin Sergeevich himself, who in his youth, contrary to Boris Pasternak’s behest, started an archive for himself.