Olga Knipper in A Month in the Country, 1909, Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) by Truus, Bob & Jan too!
Via Flickr:
Russian postcard, no. 831. Olga Knipper in 'A Month in the Country' (Месяц в деревне, romanised: Mesiats v derevne, 1909) by Ivan Turgenev, at the Moscow Art Theatre (M.A.T.). The Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) production opened on 22 December 1909. It was directed by Konstantin Stanislavski (who alternated the role of Rakitin with Vasili Kachalov) and Ivan Moskvin. Olga Knipper played Natalya, Nikolai Massalitinov was her husband, Islayev, and Maria Samarova was his mother, Anna. Richard Boleslavsky played Belyaev, with Lydia Koreneva as Verochka. The rest of the cast included Elena Muratova as Lizaveta, Nikolai Zvantsev as Schaaf, Ilya Uralov as Bolshintsov, Vladimir Gribunin as Shpigelsky, I. V. Lazarev as Matvei, and Lyubov Dmitrevskaya as Katya. Scenic design was by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. This was the first production in which Stanislavski made use of his emerging 'system' of acting, much to the general distress of the actors, and Knipper in particular. Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova (Russian: Ольга Леонардовна Книппер-Чехова; Glazov, 21 September [O.S. 9 September] 1868 – Moscow, 22 March 1959) was a Russian and Soviet stage actress. Knipper was among the 39 original members of the Moscow Art Theatre when it was formed by Konstantin Stanislavski in 1898. She played Arkadina in 'The Seagull' (1898), played Elena in the Moscow premiere of 'Uncle Vanya' (1899), and was the first to play Masha in 'Three Sisters' (1901) and Madame Ranevskaya in 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904). She married Anton Chekhov, the author of these plays, in 1901, but her husband had already died in 1904 of tuberculosis. Olga Knipper-Chekhova worked with the Moscow Art Theatre for the remainder of her life. Her niece was the film actress Olga Chekhova or Olga Tschechowa. And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
