Alexander Tairov - Timeline

Timeline

• 1885 - Born Aleksandr Yakovlevich Korenblit, in Berdichev, Ukraine, Russian Empire.
• 1895 - Moved to Kiev, attended theatrical performances
• 1904 - Married his cousin, Olga.
• 1905 - Experienced pogrom in Kiev.
• 1906 - Moved to St. Petersburg and became an actor on invitation from Vera Komissarzhevkaya.
• 1907 - Directed plays in St. Petersburg in collaboration with Vsevolod Meyerhold
• 1912 - Directed a play in Riga, where he was arrested by anti-semitic police.
• 1913 - Tairov took up legal practice in Moscow. Konstantin Mardzhanov invited Tairov to join him in starting a theatre, but the venture folded after only a year.
• 1914 - Tairov opened the Kamerny Theatre, or Chamber Theatre, so named because he wanted to develop a select, appreciative audience.
• 1918 - Meyerhold and Tairov collaborated on a production of The Exchange in February, but the production was a failure.
• 1921 - Published aesthetic philosophy in Notes of a Director.
• 1923 - Tairov's acting school, which included classes such as improvisation, fencing, gymnastics, juggling, and theatre history, is granted official status. Also this year, the Kamerny Theatre tours to Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Dresden.
• 1925 - Kamerny Theatre tours to Germany and Vienna.
• 1930 - Kamerny Theatre tours to Germany, Prague, Vienna, Italy, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo. Performances include Oscar Wilde's Salome, Alexander Ostrovsky's Storm, Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, and Charles Lecocq's Girofle-Girofla.
• 1930s - Suffered accusation of formalism.
• 1933 - Produced a socialist realist production of Optimistic Tragedy.
• 1935 - Awarded title of People's Artist.
• 1936 - Accused of formalism.
• 1937 - Merged with Okhlopkov's Realistic Theatre. This collaboration only lasted one year.
• 1939 - Ten-month tour to Eastern Russia which included performances of Madame Bovary and The Bedbug. This tour may have saved Tairov from the purge.
• 1941 - Kamerny Theatre was evacuated to Siberia where they performed for two years.
• 1945 - Received the Order of Lenin.
• 1949 - Kamerny Theatre closed. Tairov and his wife, actress Alisa Koonen transferred to the Vakhantangov Theatre.
• 1950 - Tairov dies in September.
• 1974 - Alice Koonen dies.