Yevgeny Bogratonovich Vakhtangov

About museum

Yevgeny Bogratonovich Vakhtangov (13 February 1883, Vladikavkaz – 29 May 1922, Moscow) was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and teacher. He was born into the family of a tobacco manufacturer. Already during his gymnasium years he became fascinated with theatre and decided to dedicate his life to it. He performed in amateur productions: The Marriage by Nikolai Gogol, Poverty Is Not a Vice by Alexander Ostrovsky, and The Children of Vanyushin by Sergey Naydenov. In 1903 he enrolled in the Physics and Mathematics Department of the Imperial Moscow University, and a year later transferred to the Faculty of Law. On 12 January 1905 he made his debut as a director by staging at Moscow University the play "The Pedagogues" based on the eponymous work by Otto Ernst.   

In the summer of 1909 he led the Vladikavkaz art-drama circle, in which he staged Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Knut Hamsun's At the Gates of the Kingdom. After finishing theatre school he was accepted into the troupe of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) and appointed chief assistant to Konstantin Stanislavski in working with young actors. Later he became a teacher of acting using Stanislavski's system at the MAT First Studio.   

In 1914 he was invited as a teacher and director to the Student Drama Studio, created by a group of students from various Moscow educational institutions. From 1917 to 1920 the collective worked as the Moscow Dramatic Studio under the leadership of Yevgeny Vakhtangov, and in September 1920 it became part of the MAT under the name the Third Studio. On 13 November 1921 the Third Studio of the MAT held its first premiere in its own building – The Miracle of Saint Anthony, based on the play by Belgian dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck and staged by Yevgeny Vakhtangov. In 1926 the MAT Third Studio was renamed the Vakhtangov Theatre (now the State Academic Vakhtangov Theatre). Yevgeny Bogratonovich Vakhtangov died on 29 May 1922 in Moscow in his 40th year of life of stomach cancer.