1. Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky, or Theodore Komisarjevsky, was a Russian, later British, theatrical director and designer.
17 Facts About Theodore Komisarjevsky
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Theodore Komisarjevsky began his career in Moscow, but had his greatest influence in London.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky was noted for groundbreaking productions of plays by Chekhov and Shakespeare.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky was educated at Saint Petersburg University and the Imperial Institute of Architecture.
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In 1907, Theodore Komisarjevsky directed his first production, for his half-sister's theatre in Moscow.
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In 1919, Theodore Komisarjevsky formed LAHDA, the Russian Musical Dramatic Art Society, in London with tenor Vladimir Rosing and dancer Laurent Novikoff.
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The Times commented that the staging gave an "irritating sense of amateurishness," however The Observer judged that Theodore Komisarjevsky had been "very ingenious" in adapting the operas for the small stage.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky was praised for capturing the authentic Russian atmosphere of the play as English directors had failed to do.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky assembled a company including John Gielgud, Charles Laughton, Jean Forbes-Robertson, Jeanne de Casalis and Martita Hunt.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky has, in some cases with great success, remoulded the English man or woman into a Russian.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky has relaxed the phlegm; he has taught them to say momentous things in the most off-hand manner; he has imbued them with the spirit of concealing art by being wholly natural.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky, though bald, short and "no Adonis", as one of his many conquests described him, was a persistent and successful womaniser.
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When World War II broke out, Theodore Komisarjevsky was in the United States, which remained his home for the rest of his life.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky devoted his time more to lecturing and teaching than to production.
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In 1946, Theodore Komisarjevsky made his debut with the New York City Opera, staging Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky died at his home in Darien, Connecticut, on 17 April 1954, survived by his third wife, the dancer Ernestine Stodelle.
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Theodore Komisarjevsky left a lasting legacy in London in the shape of theatre and cinema interiors he designed, including the Phoenix Theatre in Charing Cross Road, the Tooting Granada, the first cinema to be awarded Grade I-listed building status, the Woolwich Granada, and six other auditoria originally built for the same cinema chain.