Lev Dodin: biography and productions. Lev Dodin: personal life (wife, children). Biography Biography of a talented actress - the wife of Lev Dodin

Director and artistic director of the St. Petersburg Maly Drama Theater Lev Dodin studied acting, and found his calling in directing. The master's creative biography includes more than 50 productions. People's Artist of the Russian Federation managed to achieve worldwide recognition. He presented his works to theater audiences in the USA, Germany, Great Britain, Australia and two dozen other countries. In 1998, the MDT, headed by him, received the status of “Theater of Europe”, entering a closed prestigious association.

Biography of Lev Dodin

Lev Abramovich was born on May 14, 1944 in Stalinsk (since 1961 - Novokuznetsk). His parents were evacuated from Leningrad even before the blockade began. Immediately after the end of the war, the family returned to their hometown. Drama attracted the boy from early childhood. While studying at school, he began attending the Theater of Youth Creativity. Having received a certificate, the young man entered LGITMiK to study acting. Having completed his studies, the certified actor remained at the institute for another year, moving to the directing department.

In 1966, Lev Abramovich made his professional debut. He staged the television play “First Love” based on Turgenev. A year later, the graduate got a job at the Young Spectator Theater in Leningrad. He combined it with a teaching position at the same educational institution from which he graduated. During his 6 years at the Youth Theater, the maestro staged five performances and took an active part in working on five side projects.

Since 1974, the Leningrad MDK became Lev Dodin’s home theater. In it he staged almost 40 works over 40 years. In 1983, the director received the position of artistic director of the theater, and in 2002 he became its director. During this period, Lev Abramovich managed to work with the Drama and Comedy Theater and the Bolshoi Drama Theater of St. Petersburg. He presented his performances on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater.

In 1986, his “Bankrupt” was shown at the National Theater in Helsinki. In the 90s, Dodin’s theatrical works were appreciated in theaters in Florence, Salzburg and Amsterdam. For his services, the director was awarded two dozen awards. This list includes state awards, orders and the title of People's Artist of Russia.

In 2005 L.A. Dodin began writing books. He released six works, which were combined into the “Baltic Seasons” series. Some have been translated into English and other European languages.

Personal life of Lev Dodin

Lev Abramovich was married to actress Natalya Tenyakova, but never talked about the details of their relationship.

Now the director is married to actress Tatyana Shestakova. They have no children.

In 1966, Dodin made his debut with the television play “First Love” based on the story by Ivan Turgenev.
One of his earliest and most significant works was the play based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s play “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered” (1973) at the Leningrad Youth Theater, thanks to which Dodin’s name was truly heard for the first time in theatrical Leningrad (St. Petersburg).

In 1975-1979, the director worked at the Leningrad Regional Drama and Comedy Theater (now the State Drama Theater on Liteiny).
In 1974, Lev Dodin’s collaboration with the Maly Drama Theater (MDT) began with the play “The Robber” by Karel Capek.
The production of “Home” based on the novel by Fyodor Abramov at the MDT in 1980 determined the subsequent creative fate of the director.

Since 1983, Dodin has been the artistic director of the academic Maly Drama Theater, and since 2002 - director .
In September 1998, the theater received the status of Theater of Europe - the third after the Odeon Theater in Paris and the Piccolo Theater in Milan. Lev Dodin is a member of the general assembly of the Union of European Theaters. In 2012 he was elected honorary president of the Union of European Theaters.
Lev Dodin's performances were performed in many countries around the world - Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, USA, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Japan, etc. In the fall of 1999, a festival of Dodin's performances was held in Italy.

In total, Lev Dodin is the author of 70 dramatic and opera productions. His creative credits include the performances “The Golovlevs” (1984) based on the novel by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin at the Moscow Art Theater with Innokenty Smoktunovsky in the title role, “The Meek” based on the story by Fyodor Dostoevsky with Oleg Borisov in the title role on the stages of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in St. Petersburg (1981) and the Moscow Art Theater (1985), “Brothers and Sisters” (1985) based on the trilogy by Fyodor Abramov, “Demons” (1991) based on the novel by Dostoevsky and “King Lear” (2006) by William Shakespeare at the Maly Drama Theater of St. Petersburg.
Among his latest productions at MDT are “Three Sisters” (2010) by Anton Chekhov, “Portrait with Rain” (2011) by Alexander Volodin, “Cunning and Love” (2012) by Friedrich Schiller, “An Enemy of the People” (2013) by Henrik Ibsen, “ GAUDEAMUS" (2014) based on the story by S. Kaledin, "Hamlet" (2016) according to S. Grammar, R. Holinshed, W. Shakespeare, B. Pasternak, “Fear. Love. Despair" (2017) based on the plays of B. Brecht.
In December 2014 in Moscow at the Moscow Art Theater. A.P. Chekhov’s first tour of Lev Dodin’s play “The Cherry Orchard” was a triumph. For three evenings in a row, the theater auditorium was filled to capacity. The performance was shown as part of the Stanislavsky Season theater festival.

Lev Dodin staged the opera Electra by Richard Strauss at the Salzburg Musical Easter Festival (Austria, 1995) and at the Florence Musical May festival (Italy, 1996), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Dmitry Shostakovich at the Florence Musical May festival (1998 ), “The Queen of Spades” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam (1998) and the Paris National Opera (1999, 2005, 2012), at the Bolshoi Theater (2015), the opera “Mazeppa” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky at La Scala (1999) , the opera Salome by Richard Strauss at the Opéra de Bastille in Paris (2003), the opera Khovanshchina at the Vienna State Opera (2014) and others.

Since 1967, Dodin has been teaching acting and directing at LGITMiK (now the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts), and has trained more than one generation of actors and directors. Today he is a professor, head of the department of directing at the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theater Arts.
Dodin is an honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, an honorary doctor of the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions.

Lev Dodin is the author of the books “Rehearsals of an Untitled Play” (2004), “Book of Reflections” (2004), and the multi-volume publication “Journey Without End” (2009-2011). He has also published several books in foreign languages. Dodin is a permanent member of the jury of the professional literary competition “Northern Palmyra”. He is the artistic director of the Winter International Theater Festival.

The theatrical activities of Lev Dodin and his performances were noted by many state and international prizes and awards. In 1993, he was awarded the title People's Artist of the Russian Federation. He is a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1986), State Prize of the Russian Federation (1993, 2003), Prize of the President of the Russian Federation (2001), Prize of the Government of St. Petersburg in the field of culture, literature and architecture (2004). Awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV (2004) and III degrees (2009).
The director is also a laureate of the Laurence Olivier Award (1988), the French Theater and Music Critics Award (1992), the English Regional Theater Award (1992), the Italian UBU Award (1994), the Italian Abbiati Critics Award for Best Opera Performance (1998) . In 2000, Lev Dodin was awarded the highest European theater prize “Europe - Theater”.

In 1994, Dodin was awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters of officer dignity “For his enormous contribution to the cooperation of Russian and French cultures.”
Among the Russian awards for the director are “Triumph” (1992), “Golden Mask” (1997, 1999 and 2004), “The Seagull” (2003), “Golden Sofit” (1996, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016) , “Breakthrough” (2011), Andrei Mironov “Figaro” Prize (2013), Tsarskoye Selo Art Prize (2013).
In 1996 he became a laureate of the K. S. Stanislavsky Foundation award “For outstanding achievements in pedagogy”, in 2008 - “For contribution to the development of the Russian theater”.

Lev Dodin is married to People's Artist of Russia Tatyana Shestakova, actress and director of MDT. His first wife was actress Natalya Tenyakova. The director's brother is Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences David Dodin.

Lev Abramovich Dodin(born May 14, 1944, Stalinsk) - Soviet and Russian theater director, People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1993), laureate of the USSR State Prize (1986) and State Prizes of the Russian Federation (1992, 2002, 2015).

Biography

Lev Dodin was born in Stalinsk (now Novokuznetsk), where his parents were evacuated. In 1945, the family returned to Leningrad. Passionate about theater since childhood, Lev Dodin, together with classmate Sergei Solovyov, studied at the Theater of Youth Creativity (TYUT) at the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers under the direction of Matvey Dubrovin. Immediately after school, in 1961, he entered the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography on the B.V. Zone course. Olga Antonova, Viktor Kostetsky, Leonid Mozgovoy, Sergei Nadporozhsky, Natalya Tenyakova, Vladimir Tykke studied with him in the acting group here. But L. A. Dodin completed his studies a year later than his classmates in the directing department at the Zone workshop.

After graduating from the institute in 1966, Dodin made his debut as a director with the teleplay “First Love” based on the story by I. S. Turgenev. He worked at the Leningrad Youth Theater, where he staged, in particular, “Our People - We Will Be Numbered” by A. N. Ostrovsky (1973) and several performances together with Zinovy ​​Korogodsky.

In 1967, Lev Dodin began teaching acting and directing at LGITMiK, and trained more than one generation of actors and directors.

In 1975-1979 he worked at the Drama and Comedy Theater on Liteiny, staged the plays “The Minor” by D. I. Fonvizin, “Rosa Berndt” by G. Hauptmann and others.

He staged performances on the Small Stage of the Bolshoi Drama Theater - Oleg Borisov's one-man show "The Meek" based on the story by F. M. Dostoevsky (1981) and at the Moscow Art Theater - "The Golovlevs" based on the novel by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin with Innokenty Smoktunovsky (1984), "The Meek" with Oleg Borisov (1985).

In 1975, Lev Dodin’s collaboration with the Maly Drama Theater began with the production of the play “The Robber” based on the play by K. Chapek. Since 1983 he has been the artistic director of the theater, and since 2002 the director.

In 1992, Lev Dodin and the theater he led were invited to join the Union of European Theaters, and in September 1998, the Maly Drama Theater received the status of “Theater of Europe” - the third, after the Odeon Theater in Paris and the Piccolo Theater by Giorgio Strehler.

Family

• His wife is People's Artist of Russia Tatyana Shestakova.
• Brother - Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, corresponding member. RAS David Dodin.
• The niece is the deputy artistic director of the Academic Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe Dina Dodin.

He was married to actress Natalya Tenyakova.

Productions

• 1968 - “Our Circus” Composition and production by Z. Korogodsky, L. Dodin, V. M. Filshtinsky. Artist Z. Arshakuni
• 1969 - “Ours, only ours...”. Composition and production by Z. Korogodsky, Dodin, V. Filshtinsky. Artist M. Azizyan
• 1970 - “Tales of Chukovsky” (“Our Chukovsky”). Composition and production by Z. Korogodsky, Dodin, V. Filyshtinsky. Artists Z. Arshakuni, N. Polyakova, A. E. Poraj-Koshits, V. Solovyova (under the direction of N. Ivanova)
• 1971 - “Open Lesson”. Composition and production by Z. Korogodsky, Dodin, V. Filshtinsky. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
• 1971 - “What would you choose?..” A. Kurgatnikova. Artist M. Smirnov

• 1974 - “The Robber” by K. Capek. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1977 - “The Rose Tattoo” by T. Williams. Design by M. Kataev, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1978 - “Appointment” by A. Volodin. Artist M. Kitaev
• 1979 - “Live and Remember” based on the story by V. Rasputin. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1980 - “Home” based on the novel by F. Abramov. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1984 - “Bench” by A. Gelman. Directed by E. Arie. Artist D. A. Krymov (artistic director of the production)
• 1985 - “Brothers and Sisters” based on F. Abramov’s trilogy “Pryasliny”. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1986 - “Lord of the Flies” based on the novel by W. Golding. Artist D. L. Borovsky
• 1987 - “Towards the Sun” based on one-act plays by A. Volodin. Artist M. Kitaev
• 1987 - “Stars in the morning sky” A. Galin. Directed by T. Shestakova. Artist A. E. Poraj-Koshits (artistic director of the production)
• 1988 - “The Old Man” based on the novel by Yu. Trifonov. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1988 - “Returned Pages” (literary evening). Staged by Dodin. Directed by V. Galendeev. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
• 1990 - “Gaudeamus” based on the story “Stroibat” by S. Kaledin. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
• 1991 - “Demons” according to F. M. Dostoevsky. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1992 - “The Broken Jug” by G. von Kleist. Director V. Filshtinsky. Design by A. Orlov, costumes by O. Savarenskaya (artistic director of the production)
• 1994 - “Love under the Elms” by Yu. O’Neill. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1994 - “The Cherry Orchard” by A.P. Chekhov. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
• 1994 - “Claustrophobia” based on modern Russian prose. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
• 1997 - “A Play Without a Title” by A.P. Chekhov. Design by A. E. Porai-Koshits, costumes by I. Tsvetkova
• 1999 - “Chevengur” after A.P. Platonov. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
• 2000 - “Molly Sweeney” by B. Friel. Artist D. L. Borovsky
• 2001 - “The Seagull” by A.P. Chekhov. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
• 2002 - “Moscow Choir” by L. Petrushevskaya (artistic director of the production
• 2003 - “Uncle Vanya” by A.P. Chekhov. Artist D. L. Borovsky
• 2006 - “King Lear” by W. Shakespeare. Artist D. L. Borovsky
• 2007 - “Life and Fate” based on V. S. Grossman, staged by L. Dodin.
• 2007 - “Warsaw Melody” by L. Zorin (artistic director of the production) Scenography idea by D. L. Borovsky; Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits.
• 2008 - “Long Journey Into Night” by Yu. O’Neill
• 2008 - “Love’s Labour’s Lost” by W. Shakespeare
• 2009 - “Lord of the Flies” by W. Golding. Scenography and costumes D. L. Borovsky; implementation of scenography by A. E. Porai-Koshits.
• 2009 - “A Beautiful Sunday for a Broken Heart” by T. Williams. Artist Alexander Borovsky.
• 2010 - “Three Sisters” by A.P. Chekhov.
• 2011 - “Portrait with Rain” based on the film script by A. Volodin. Artist A. Borovsky
• 2012 - “Cunning and Love” by F. Schiller. Artist A. Borovsky
• 2014 - “Enemy of the People” by G. Ibsen
• 2014 - “The Cherry Orchard” by A. P. Chekhov

Lev Dodin not only directs the St. Petersburg MDT, which bears the title of Theater of Europe, but he has also been the head of the directing department at SPGATI for more than 20 years and during this time he has completed two directing courses. The result was strange. None of the directors released in 1994 even came close to the level of the teacher. And the master did not sign director’s diplomas at all for the 2007 graduates. Theater. I decided to ask Lev Dodin whether it was possible to teach directing at all and whether it was worth trying.

JZ: There are rumors that you were disappointed in the opportunity to teach directing and decided to abandon the set of directing courses altogether. How true is this?

LD: This was probably said in the hearts. But I think that it is literally impossible to teach directing; you can try to learn directing. In this case, it depends on the student, perhaps even more than on the master. Because at the heart of directing—I’m afraid to say “art”—is a personal beginning. Everything is measured by the scale of the individual. Another thing is that, as it seems to me rightly, Kama Ginkas noted in his interview with Izvestia, a literate petty person is better than an illiterate petty person. I would like to be able to convey to those who come to study directing a number of technological skills and immutable laws. Literary composition, spatial composition, musical composition, the law of counterpoint - usually directors are not taught this. I introduced these subjects in my course. Meyerhold once promised that he would write a textbook on directing, which would be very short and all based on music theory. This is correct, because real theater is always a musical work, regardless of whether there is music in it or not. You can also try to teach the laws arising from Stanislavsky’s system. Of course, “Stanislavsky’s system” in this case is a conditional definition, because his literal instructions are obviously outdated, and then, he did not always express them successfully, using the formulas of his time. So it’s quite difficult to read “An Actor’s Work on Oneself” today, as opposed to “My Life in Art.” But besides “My Life in Art” you can read Stanislavsky’s artistic notes and his diaries. This is an amazing lesson because Stanislavsky constantly analyzes his technology and complains about its imperfections. Boris Vulfovich Zon told us that when the book “My Life in Art” was published, one of the not very gifted artists exclaimed with satisfaction: “So K.S. claims that he was a bad artist!” Stanislavsky really makes a huge number of reproaches for each of his roles. But Boris Vulfovich, who found Stanislavsky on stage, claimed that he was just an amazing artist. Both the same Salieri, whom he curses, and the same Othello were brilliantly played by him. It’s just that Stanislavsky always dreamed of achieving perfection. Perhaps this quality is the main thing in what we call the “Stanislavsky system”.

JZ: Perfectionism?

LD: Constantly striving for perfection while realizing that it is unattainable. And a constant live response to what is happening in life, and to what is happening to you. Knowledge of life is not mental, not at the level of theory, but through personal experience and imagination. You can try to teach this too. But this will only make sense if the student is a person with a great personal beginning. I have often encountered brilliant young people who initially promised a lot, but then quickly burned out. Directing is a long-distance race. More than a marathon. It requires powerful life training - you need to lead a large group of artists somewhere, lead the theater as a whole, all the employees, spend a lot of money making decisions... I remember when I was young it was simply killing me what I had to say, do this or that way, and the amount that will be spent depends on this. So the first successes should not deceive. Brook started brilliantly and continued powerfully for many years, and so did Strehler. That's why they are great. But many who started next to them stopped very quickly. A person puts on his first performance at approximately 25 years old, that is, he expresses the experience of 25 years of his life, and the next performance is usually released no later than a year later - that is, the new experience is only a year old. And it all depends on the intensity with which the director is able to refresh and enrich this experience and how interested he is in receiving impressions.

JZ: What kind of impressions should he strive to get?

LD: First of all, these should be experiences that raise the level of culture. When we started the directing course, I tried to introduce all those subjects that I was not taught and the lack of which I had felt all my life. In general, I am sure that directing education is not an institute; institute is only the first step; apprenticeship has always played a huge role. Theater is a man-made craft. And, as in other crafts, experience here is passed on from generation to generation, from master to student. This was the case with the artists of the early Renaissance - when belonging to a particular workshop determined a lot in the fate of the artist. Then he became independent, but staying in the workshop, where he was already semi-independent, but continued to work next to the master, is, it seems to me, a wonderful stage, which today is practically erased from the theatrical experience.

ZhZ: Well, the very model of a theater led by a master is becoming a thing of the past.

LD: And at the same time there are a lot of theaters, and a lot of performances are staged. Young directors are in demand. And therefore the need to gain experience, intelligence and artistic impressions does not mean too much. Reviews are published for any performance, one of them will always be laudatory - and this is precisely what is important for the director, all the rest can be explained by the fact that the authors are stupid or biased. There is also enough money for fees for everyone. So you can calmly move on to the next performance. In my time, the problem was exactly the opposite: it was difficult for a young director to break through, because directing was considered an ideological profession. For the most part, I remember my young years in the theater without joy, but I am grateful to fate for giving me the opportunity to work for quite a long time as a second director at the Youth Theater, learning a lot from Zinovy ​​Yakovlevich Korogodsky. Including what not to do. That is, my, so to speak, professional and moral position was also formed there. This is a very important issue for a director, because our profession is not only about self-expression, like an artist or composer. In the theater, colors are the artists, they are the objects and subjects of the director's influence. You must be able to behave with dignity, be at least as high as they are, and at the same time be sure to lead them somewhere. It is not without reason that the director is compared to a captain who leads a ship and tells the crew that we are going on the right course, although he is not at all sure that there will be land there. It doesn’t matter that Columbus was looking for a shortcut to India, but discovered America. It is important that he sailed to some shores and kept the crew believing that they were sailing to the right place. The fact that you can discover something unexpected along the way is wonderful and joyful, but the most important thing is to try to swim and search. It seems to me that the biggest problem in today’s directing is, oddly enough, ossification within certain taste boundaries, which are not supported either by culture or vivid life experience, but represent a kind of reality in which everything is turned upside down and only therefore it has the right to exist. And it also seems to me that both critics and the older generation of directors, seeing all this, are afraid to say that the king has no clothes, they are afraid of being in the minority, of being accused of stupidity and senile grumbling. They seem to succumb to a strange belief that if everything is turned upside down, it means it’s the way it should be and it means something, but in fact it’s just a sign of complete unpreparedness and inability. The fact that such inability is becoming more and more common throughout Europe today is the crisis of the theater. The fact that today the theater of high literature is increasingly disappearing into oblivion and being replaced by visual actions speaks of some of our savagery. Because it was the archaic that was visual in its manifestations: the savage danced some kind of dance before and after the hunt, because at that time he could not yet express himself even with the help of drawings, not to mention writing. And now we often return to this archaic, if not super-savagery. At the same time, any modern theatrical, so to speak, “dance”, which in fact has no meaning, finds an explanation, because anything can be explained. And this situation, of course, greatly influences the growth of incivility in the theater.

JZ: But visual theater is not necessarily synonymous with cultureless theatre?

LD: Not necessarily. Pina Bausch, for example, had a wonderful visual theater, but it was created in an era when there was also a very powerful theater of great literature nearby, and today this theater is less and less, it is almost not in demand - by criticism, at least. He is in great demand among the audience: we travel a lot around the world and in Russia - and we see that from the world's capitals to the outskirts, the audience responds extremely keenly to the live theater of great literature. Look what happened in Paris at “Demons” - a nine-hour performance in a foreign language. The viewer craves this kind of art, because it is the only one that gives him the opportunity to collectively empathize with something and, even if for a moment, to get out of his loneliness, to hear that someone suffers no less than he does, because great literature is a description of suffering humanity.

ZhZ: So, in your opinion, images will never be able to perform such a function?

LD: I don’t think they can. Again, the value of an image depends on how deep a thought it expresses. We often see interesting images and metaphors that express a very primitive thought. You can imagine a very metaphorical “Hamlet”, but if in it Hamlet is a priori good, and Claudius is a priori bad, then the metaphors will not tell me anything new. And there is a lot of such theater - supposedly metaphorical. He imitates the works of the masters of metaphorical theater, which contains very important new meanings. For example, in Nyakrosius’s “Hamlet” there are discoveries related to the ghost of his father, there is his final cry of despair, because he understands that he has given birth to another murder and caused the death of his own son. When intellectual and sensory discovery takes place, metaphor gives a lot. But today we most often come across an imitation of metaphor when it either expresses flat thoughts or does not contain any thoughts at all. Such a director usually lets the artists do what they want - at best, he will separate them apart so that they don’t collide.

ZhZ: Not long ago, your student Dmitry Volkostrelov, who did not receive a directing diploma, staged the play “The Locked Door” based on the play by Pavel Pryazhko. So, there is a very clearly expressed idea that imitation is a diagnosis of modern society. Imitation of everything: activities, feelings, life as such.

LD: Yes, I heard that it was an interesting performance, but I haven’t seen it yet. Is this a youth show?

ZhZ: All your students work there - Volkostrelova’s classmates: Alena Starostina, Ivan Nikolaev, Pavel Chinarev, Dmitry Lugovkin and others. They continue to stick together - and obviously understand each other.

LD: Thank God. I'm glad. I think that the idea you are talking about is not without meaning. Stanislavsky makes a very sharp distinction between the concepts of “rhythm” and “tempo”. This is why the concept of “tempo rhythm” arises. Often the tempo can be very fast, but the rhythm is zero. And vice versa, the tempo can be very slow, but the rhythm - that is, the tension of spiritual life, the heartbeat - can be very high. I don’t want to seem like a false patriot from St. Petersburg, but I once worked for two years in Moscow, which I always loved very much, and still love, and suddenly I discovered that there was a frantic pace of life with a very low rhythm. Moreover, this can only be understood from the inside, because on the outside everything seems to be actively living, moving, arguing with each other. But it turned out that internally everything stood still. This is a problem in today's culture in general - when social issues replace artistic issues. For example, in England (or in France - it doesn’t matter) it is much easier to get a grant for a play where two Africans, two Japanese and two Jews are involved than for a play where all the English are involved and they are staging Shakespeare or Chekhov.

ZhZ: There are other criteria: film directors, for example, assure that it is quite easy to get money from producers if you convince them that you are going to make an arthouse film.

LD: But, you must admit, it’s quite strange to consciously say that I’m making an arthouse. I do what I do. I'm learning something. What this will lead to is unpredictable. As you know, the smell of a rose is described in a thousand ways. To find a new one, there are two options: either find out these thousand ways and find the thousand and first, or don’t know any of them and accidentally blurt out something hitherto unseen. I think the second trend is now greatly suppressing the first.

JZ: Lev Abramovich, does it follow from what you just said that directors should be trained in the theater of words - and if they can professionally perform this, relatively speaking, traditional work, then they can then calmly go look for something else, new?

LD: I would say not to the theater of words, but to the theater of great literature, of great themes. After all, it is not for nothing that literature has been created for centuries and it is not for nothing that it has presented the world with so many titans of thought. Today I have the honor to be a member of the Big Book jury. Dmitry Bykov's book about Pasternak and Pavel Basinsky's book about Leo Tolstoy win almost in a row. It seems that these are not modern figures that are very difficult to analyze from the perspective of today's life. But due to the fact that there is a powerful hero, his personality elevates the authors themselves. I would even say this: there are three hypostases of the great theater - great literature, great painting and great music. That's why we need to study. The very need to learn already indicates the presence of a personal beginning. A petty personality is usually satisfied with himself. He who is not satisfied with himself, who understands that there is a world around him that he does not know, is ready to be an apprentice, to be second. After all, in essence, discipleship occurs throughout life. Like Tsvetaeva: “The hour of apprenticeship, it is solemnly inevitable in everyone’s life.”

ZhZ: Why did your students upset you so much that you even decided to abandon the idea of ​​​​training directors?

LD: No, I didn’t decide to refuse. I’m even thinking about taking a directing course next year. Because both one and the other generation of my graduates have now discovered some shortcomings that I could not foresee.

JZ: Are these generational shortcomings?

LD: No, personal. As a result, it turned out that it was personal. Because people very quickly assimilate external things and technology, but find the internal with great difficulty. Even Tovstonogov, who knew how to teach directors, said this. In each course he had several notable figures, and today his students still determine much in modern theater. But Tovstonogov also complained to me several times that he could not go to the performances of his students, because he never expected that he would grow up like this. Maybe sometimes he was wrong - indeed, a student is important only when he refutes the teacher in something. My teacher Boris Vulfovich Zon also never went to performances with the participation of his famous students. And I understand what he was afraid of: losing the energy of delusion - he thinks that he has learned, and then he will see the devil. Once he did go, because it was a personal invitation - the artist Leonid Dyachkov made an independent performance based on “Dead Souls”. The next day, I remember, Boris Vulfovich came to the audience shocked. “It turns out that's a good thing,” he said. “I never expected it.” This healthy skepticism of a teacher is extremely necessary, I miss it.

JZ: Do you like your students?

LD: I like the actors. Yes, and directors are developing. We just have to wait. So you say, Dima Volkostrelov staged a good performance. All five years he aspired to directing - although during the course he did not really show himself as a director, but he studied diligently, this is true. And I'm glad if it grows now. I am happy about any success of my students.

ZhZ: Dima, unlike many young directors, regularly visits the library.

LD: This is exactly what, it seems to me, they have learned - to read books: about life and about art. This in itself is not so little, but I want more.

ZhZ: Did your two directing courses differ in principles or forms of training?

LD: The first course was acting and directing: we first recruited a group of directors of 9 people, and the next year we recruited artists, and this last course was acting and directing, that is, all the students were recruited at the same time and studied for five years, but some of them applied for directing. And here it’s interesting: in the course where they recruited directors first and then actors, the artists turned out to be the somewhat injured party, because a lot of effort was devoted to the directors and there was such a connecting link between me and the student actors - the directing course. As a result, the actors, it seems to me, have lost something. But in the acting and directing course, those who tried to learn directing lost a lot, because I didn’t work with them much, I thought that if they understood everything that we do with the artists when writing a play, then they will, willy-nilly, learn something . This is how I studied with Boris Vulfovich Zon: he didn’t teach me a single lesson on directing. I entered an acting course, from the first year I began to do independent tests, and somewhere at the end of the second, Boris Vulfovich transferred me to the directing department. I was, of course, happy that I had a whole acting course at my disposal: I could try anything with them and assist Boris Vulfovich in graduation performances. But Boris Vulfovich was very ironic about the director’s profession, oddly enough. After all, he himself was at one time a brilliant director, but he believed so much in the art of acting according to Stanislavsky that he considered directing to be deeply secondary. He consoled my mother, telling her about me: “Well, if he doesn’t succeed with directing, he can always do literary reading.”

ZhZ: Do I understand correctly that you didn’t give anyone a director’s diploma from the last issue?

LD: We issued a diploma to Sergei Shchipitsin after he staged three performances. But everyone has the right to receive it. Here, Lena Solomonova is showing directorial inclinations, and I would like to somehow help her advance.

JZ: Are there any works of your first graduate directors that impress you?

LD: Well, for example, I see how Igor Konyaev is growing - yes, in fact, he has already grown. He was very energetic in his pursuit of directing and was very hard-working - Igor wrote huge term papers. We were then studying “A Play Without a Title,” and the students had a task: to find materials about the life of a landowner, the life of an estate at the end of the 19th century. So Konyaev wrote an entire dissertation. He is a very meticulous person. Now he heads the Russian Theater in Riga, and I think this is fair. I am pleased with how Oleg Dmitriev is growing: he happily, it seems to me, combines his acting growth (he played many serious roles on stage) with his directorial growth. Oleg founded his own small theater, which does not prevent him from working at MDT. Oleg Dmitriev has certain tastes, artistic preferences, he is very educated - and, like Konyaev, hardworking and pedantic. It seems to me that from performance to performance this brings more and more fruit. I am very interested in the development of Yura Kordonsky, who has already become a full-time professor (and this is a very serious position) at Stanford University, in my opinion. Yuri stages performances all over the world, in Romania they simply carry him in their arms. But at the same time he remained a very soft, subtle and outwardly discreet person. Yura worked very interestingly with us on “The House of Bernarda Alba.” So you just have to be able to wait - the director's talent manifests itself gradually.