Salome's Modernity by Dierkes-Thrun Petra;

Author:Dierkes-Thrun, Petra;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Press

The Broadway Years: Nazimova's Stage Career

Alla Nazimova was a huge star in Ibsen's plays on Broadway in the mid-1900s, a legacy that she later tried to bring to the movies. Even though her theater career is almost forgotten today, Nazimova's stage success lasted at least three decades; she was routinely compared to such star actresses as Eleanora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt. Born Maria Ede Adelaide Leeton on June 4, 1879, in Yalta, Russia, to Jewish parents and a troubled family life, Nazimova originally trained as a violinist before she enrolled in the Academy of Acting in Moscow, where she soon established herself as one of the best students and got a chance to apprentice at Stanislavsky's esteemed Moscow Art Theater. She started her professional acting career in czarist Kostrome and St. Petersburg and married a penniless drama student, Sergej Golovin, before joining Paul Orlenev's St. Petersburg Players, who soon took her on tour to Europe, including Berlin and London. Here, in late 1904 or early 1905, the troupe was discovered by none other than avant-garde theater producer J. T. Grein, who booked their play The Chosen People to open at his Avenue Theatre on January 21, 1905. Grein admired every actor in the troupe, “but above the crowd towered the figure of Nazimova…. The moment she spoke, the audience hung on her lips … and when she delivered a speech which in its accents of denunciation equalled Zola's ‘J’ Accuse’ in the Dreyfus case, the audience rose in a frenzy.” Even during their first interview, Grein had found himself powerfully “carried away” when Nazimova acted one of her monologues for him: “Never will I forget the impression she made … She had a voice that sounded like harps in the air, and she had eyes—so lustrous, so wondrous, so expressive, full of tenderness, depth, and passion—that for a long time afterward they haunted me” (quoted in Lambert 110). Transferring their enormously popular The Chosen People from the Avenue Theatre to the Pavilion, Grein then arranged for it to be played alongside Ibsen's Ghosts and Hedda Gabler.

Their London success gave the company director hope that the troupe could be even more successful in the United States, which had a large Russian immigrant population. The St. Petersburg Players arrived in New York City later in 1905, first performing in borrowed theaters, then moving into a leased space on the Lower East Side, naming it the Orlenev Lyceum. Beset by serious financial difficulties, the troupe nevertheless quickly gained an enthusiastic following among the Russian immingrant population and attracted critics, who soon wrote glowing reviews, especially about the company's presentation of Ibsen's The Master Builder, often singling out Nazimova for special praise. This was all the more notable since hardly any of the critics understood a word of the actors’ Russian. Just as for J. T. Grein in London, the language barrier did not seem to matter—Nazimova's great acting skill transcended it. The critics’ enthusiasm resulted in such headlines as “Ibsen by Russian Actors Draws Crowds to the Bowery: New Tragedy Queen Is Found On East Side.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.