The Vakhtangov Theater presented its history and modernity in new editions

The books were presented in an art cafe. The first was the two-volume “Vakhtangovites: L.M. Shikhmatov and V.K. Lvova. Vakhtangov’s students,” based on the diaries of Vakhtangov’s first student, Leonid Shikhmatov. His granddaughter Anne Brousseur told the story of the incredible discovery of these diaries:

— I had a dream: our dacha, some kind of suitcase. The next morning I told my husband that we should go there. We arrived – and on a whim, I opened the closet, and behind the things there was a blue suitcase, which my mother and I had forgotten about a long time ago. In that suitcase were my grandfather’s diaries…

Brousser cited several quotes – they detail the distant history: “Vakhtangov’s funeral. Meyerhold enters, I bow to him. I catch Chekhov’s angry gaze: “Don’t you dare! Your teacher is still here” (there were rumors that Meyerhold would take Vakhtangov’s place). I also silently answer him: “I simply welcome his arrival.”

The structure of the two-volume work, which Ekaterina Vysokovskaya did with Brousser, connects history with modernity. That is, the events and facts described in Shikhmatov’s diaries are commented on by his students. For example, the story about Nikita Mikhalkov and Anastasia Vertinskaya without the latter’s commentary would look more than strange.

— Grandfather writes: “Mikhalkov behaves horribly. He put his hand on Vertinskaya’s knee, and instead of removing her hand, she covered it with a notebook. I don’t understand what he wants – he kicked me out of class.” Vertinskaya’s comment: “I remember this day very well. We just passed the PPD exam – Physical Action Memory. (That is, you need to imagine that you are holding some object in your hands with which the student is interacting. – M.R.). We really enjoyed playing this game, and in all classes, I, Mikhalkov, Kolya Burlyaev and someone else played it. Mikhalkov presented a dead rat in the form of an object and, having interacted with it, “put” it on my knee, and at that moment Leonid Moiseevich looked at us. What could I say? We have a game, so I covered Mikhalkov’s hand with a notebook.”

There were many legends about Leonid Shikhmatov at the theater school – most of them were absolutely true. Students constantly borrowed money from Shikhmatov and did not always pay it back. Ekaterina Vysokovskaya, the daughter of the wonderful actor Zinovy ​​Vysokovsky, remembered that the name Shikhmatov and stories about him were constantly heard in stories at home. And he himself loved to tell how one day he was playing chess behind the stage during a performance, and at that moment someone was being loudly called to the stage. Leonid Moiseevich, making his next move, calmly says: “Someone is very late for leaving. I think it’s me.”

The second book is dedicated to Rimas Tuminas: “War and Peace” by Rimas Tuminas. The birth of the performance.” This is essentially a transcript made during rehearsals for this brilliant production. The compiler of the book, Elena Dunaeva, believes that this is documentary material.

— At the rehearsal of “War and Peace” there was a camera and recorded everything. Then it was all transferred to paper and edited. Of course, this is the score of the play, but the text also has another, invisible side – if you like, a creative portrait of the director. Most of the text is spoken by them, but we also left in the actors’ remarks, which were important for the construction of the performance. All participants in the process stand behind this text…

The third book, although it is called “Theater must be loved. And in spite of it,” you can safely call it “Divided Love.” Its author is the director of the Vakhtangov Theater Kirill Krok (edited by the MK theater observer Marina Raikina). In general, theater directors rarely write books, but Kroc did. About his path in the theater – difficult and interesting. Honest, sometimes frighteningly revealing memories. About how he fell ill with theater as a schoolboy and played in the studio at the Palace of Pioneers. About how, while still working at the Modern theater, he ran around Ufa to sell tickets to performances of a theater that no one knew in the capital of Bashkiria. And how, having arrived at Vakhtangovsky, he was faced with a boycott of the previous administration, and worked alone. This is a book not only of a successful manager, but also of a person obsessed with the theater, with the soul of an artist, to whom the academic theater reciprocates.

“To be honest, I didn’t think it would turn out to be a book,” admitted Kirill Krok. — I wrote something down for myself when I had a free minute, but if it weren’t for the help of Marina Raikina, who, after reading the manuscript, told me: “Here we need to develop the theme, here we need to change the structure, but this is unnecessary, etc.” – it’s not a fact that the book would appear now.

It is worth adding that the book by the director of the Vakhtangov Theater can be considered as a textbook for novice managers – it is so accurate and has practical application.

The presentation was completed by the amazing actress Lyudmila Maksakova, whose booklet is called: “Lyudmila Maksakova”. Lyudmila Vasilievna began her speech with a quote from “Woe from Wit”: “My dear, you are out of your element.”

— I feel like I ended up in a different company, because before me it was a theoretical part, and I’m a practical person. And here there is a moment of mystification: someone will think that the author of the booklet is me, but I didn’t write anything – here are photographs of twelve years of life and work with Rimas Tuminas. For some reason, Rimas Vladimirovich decided that I was his mascot, because I was involved in all of Rimas Vladimirovich’s productions. Either I sat like a stump in his “Minetti”, then I died twice in “Onegin”. And our press secretary Elena Kuzmina said that the injustice lies in the fact that twelve years of joint work with Tuminas should be recorded, and our director Kirill Krok supported the release of this book.

I really only worked with brilliant directors, starting with Ruben Nikolaevich Simonov. When, for example, at the artistic council they told him that the same artists were playing in his performances, he turned his back to the artistic council, looked out the window for a long time, then angrily slammed his graceful hand on the table and shouted: “The public, you know, the theater goes to see the artist!” – this was his credo. Therefore, I never saw the troupe that he created in any theater…