Actors leaving the Tabakov Theater. Famous artists are leaving Oleg Tabakov's theater. Childhood and adolescence

It was created by People's Artist of Russia Oleg Tabakov. His repertoire includes both classics and modern plays. Today this theater is among the best not only in Moscow, but also in Russia.

Story

The Tabakerka Theater, a photo of the building of which is presented in this article, began its existence in 1978. Its creators are actor and director O.P. Tabakov and artist D. Borovsky. It was they who found a basement for the theater in a residential building on Chaplygina Street. Pupils and teachers of Oleg Pavlovich’s workshop at GITIS cleaned out debris with their own hands and painted the future shelter. The hall was very small, there were only 10 rows. Initially it was theatre studio, which was led by Oleg Tabakov. Then she changed her name. It grew into the Tabakerka Theater.

The troupe was formed back in 1974. It was then that Oleg Pavlovich chose teenagers to study in his studio. The children studied according to the program theater university, they were taught several subjects: stage movement, acting, sketches, speech, etc.

O. Tabakov invited the most talented students to his first course at GITIS. It was these graduates who made up the first Tabakerka troupe. Among them were: Elena Mayorova, Sergei Gazarov, Larisa Kuznetsova, and others.

The first performance of "Snuff Boxes" was based on the play "And in the spring I will return to you...". The young team immediately became popular. The audience loved him. But Soviet authority remained indifferent to him. The theater refused all requests. As a result of this, the artists wandered around other people's stages. As a result, Oleg Pavlovich was forced to place his actors in various theaters in the capital. After which he recruited a second year of students at GITIS. The second troupe was formed from them.

The Tabakerka Theater returned to its basement. Rehearsals have begun with a new cast. In 1987, Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov achieved state status for his theater. The Tabakerki troupe has been replenished for many years mainly by Oleg Pavlovich’s graduates. So, at one time such personalities as Vladimir Mashkov, Sergei Bezrukov, Evgeny Mironov, Yana Sexte, Olga Krasko and others came here. The first three burst into cultural life countries brightly, rapidly and forever.

Repertoire

The Tabakerka Theater offers its audience the following repertoire:

  • "Storm. Variations";
  • "Devil";
  • "Every day is not Sunday";
  • "School of Wives";
  • "Nameless Star";
  • "Actor";
  • "Sister Nadezhda";
  • "Emma";
  • "Biloxi Blues";
  • "Wife";
  • "Two Angels, Four Men";
  • "Madonna with a Flower";
  • "Marriage 2.0";
  • "Fear and Poverty in the Third Empire";
  • "The Marriage of Belugin";
  • "Cricket on the Stove";
  • "Wolves and Sheep";
  • "Marriage";
  • "The Story of Happy Moscow";
  • "The Year I Wasn't Born";
  • "Gull";
  • "Epiphanian Gateways";
  • "Adventure";
  • "Waiting for the Barbarians";
  • "Doll for the Bride";
  • "Viy";
  • "Fathers and Sons";
  • “Your life for your friends”;
  • "Three sisters";
  • "Jeppe-from-the-mountain."

Troupe

The troupe has wonderful artists. They are familiar from their numerous roles in films and TV series. wide audience actors of the "Tabakerka" theater. List of artists and trainees of the troupe:

  • E. Germanova;
  • M. Zudina;
  • O. Krasko;
  • A. Chipovskaya;
  • I. Eidlen;
  • O. Blok-Mirimskaya;
  • A. Smolyakov;
  • E. Kashporov;
  • R. Khairullina;
  • A. Lapteva;
  • E. Miller;
  • N. Elenev;
  • J. Sexte;
  • M. Khomyakov;
  • O. Lenskaya;
  • A. Usoltsev;
  • V. Brichenko;
  • I. Shibanov;
  • S. Belyaev;
  • M. Sachkov;
  • A. Limin;
  • D. Paramonov;
  • A. Fomin;
  • M. Schultz;
  • N. Kachalova;
  • P. Tabakov.

And there are many more bright names.

Guest artists

The Tabakerka Theater actively collaborates with many famous artists.

The following guest actors participate in the productions:

  • Sergey Bezrukov;
  • Kristina Babushkina;
  • Avangard Leontiev;
  • Maxim Matveev;
  • Alexander Semchev;
  • Valery Khlevinsky;
  • Vladimir Krasnov;
  • Daria Moroz;
  • Raisa Ryazanova;
  • Rostislav Baklanov;
  • Juliana Grebe;
  • Danila Steklov;
  • Olga Barnett;
  • Ivan Melnikov;
  • Natalya Tenyakova;
  • Irina Pegova;
  • Alexey Knyazev;
  • Boris Plotnikov.

And many others.

Theater director

The Tabakerka Theater was founded by its permanent artistic director, rector of the Moscow Art Theater School named after Anton Chekhov, People's famous actor O. P. Tabakov.

Oleg Pavlovich was born in 1935, on August 17 in the city of Saratov. His parents were doctors. Oleg Pavlovich studied at the Palace of Pioneers in high school. This is what influenced his choice of profession. In 1935, O. Tabakov became a student at the Moscow Art Theater School. He was one of the best on the course. The artist played his very first film role while still a student. The first theater in which Oleg Pavlovich served as an actor was Sovremennik. At that time, its leader was Oleg Efremov. After the latter was transferred to the Moscow Art Theater, O. Tabakov headed Sovremennik.

In 1973, Oleg Pavlovich decided to become a teacher and teach young people. As a result, O. Tabakov organized his own studio.

In 2001 he received the position artistic director at the Moscow Art Theater named after A.P. Chekhov.

Today Oleg Pavlovich runs two theaters, acts in films, plays in plays, teaches and is involved in social activities.

In 1973, Oleg Tabakov made an unexpected decision - to teach young people the craft of acting. Having assembled a team of like-minded volunteers (which included V. Fokin, A. Droznin, K. Raikin, A. Leontiev, I. Raikhelgauz, V. Poglazov, S. Sazontiev), Tabakov organized an unprecedented action: having announced enrollment in the drama club, he auditioned three half a thousand high school applicants, and selected only 49 people. In this “drama club”, located in the Palace of Pioneers. Krupskaya, the children studied according to the university program: they were taught the history of world art, the history of Russian theater, stage movement and plastic arts. In 1976, Oleg Tabakov, on the basis of GITIS, recruited a course of twenty-six students, the basis of which were those whom he brought from his “drama club”: N. Lebedeva, I. Nefedov, L. Kuznetsova, M. Ovchinnikova, V. Nikitin, A . Yakubov, O. Topilina and K. Panchenko. Among those who came to study with Tabakov “by gravity” was Elena Mayorova. Tabakov gave his maximum to his first year; the training program was very different from that existing at the Institute of Theater Arts.
In 1977, with the help of the head of the Baumansky RSU, Yu. L. Goltsman, Tabakov managed to obtain a former coal warehouse at Chaplygina, 1a. With their own hands, the master and his course cleaned and repaired the abandoned premises, which over time turned into the famous “Tabakerka” basement.
In 1978, the premiere of the “basement” took place - the play “In the spring I will return to you” based on the play by A. Kazantsev. Then there were “Two Arrows”, “Farewell Mowgli!”, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Passion of Barbara”. Tabakov's students learned their craft by participating in performances every day. Soon the “basement” became famous not only in Moscow. Since 1979, the best journalists and critics of that time began to write about the studio - A. Adzhubey, E. Surkov, A. Svobodin, I. Solovyova. After the studio's most successful tours in Hungary, it became obvious that new theater. However, the theater was not given official status. The ban of V.V. Grishin, the first secretary of the MGK party, destroyed a new, extremely viable and talented generation of actors, created and trained by Oleg Tabakov.
From 1980 to 1982, Tabakov’s graduates, forced to disperse to different theaters, continued to gather in the Tabakerka at night, rehearse and even premiere premieres. In those years, “Notes of a Madman,” “Jacques the Fatalist,” and “An Incident at the Zoo” were published.
In 1982, Tabakov recruited a new acting course, which in a few years would become the basis of the troupe of the new theater.
In 1986, first deputy. Minister of Culture signed an order on creation of three Moscow theater-studios, one of which was the theater-studio under the direction of Oleg Tabakov, and on March 1, 1987, the reconstruction of the basement on the street was completed. Chaplynina, 1a. Tabakov stages plays in the basement, plays himself and trains the actors. Describing his brainchild, Tabakov calls “Tabakerka” “normal, Russian, traditional, realistic psychological theater.”

May 21, 2018

Oleg Tabakov died not long ago. His successor at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater was Sergei Zhenovach, who took over the post of director. According to some reports, he is going to reduce the staff of actors by three times.

Konstantin Khabensky and Mikhail Porechenkov / photo: Komsomolskaya Pravda publication Roman Ignatiev

He passed away in mid-March. The master spent the last few months of his life in the hospital. the site has already reported that there are several candidates to replace the actor in the position of artistic director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater. IN creative circles they named Vladimir Mashkov, Evgeny Mironov, Igor Zolotovitsky, Konstantin Bogomolov and Evgeny Pisarev, but in the end Sergey Zhenovach became Tabakov’s successor.

Recently it became known that the 61-year-old director intends to reduce the theater staff by three times. Olga Henkina has already left the walls of the theater. She was for many years right hand Tabakova and helped him direct the troupe. Soon information appeared that after the first stage of rehearsals, the rehearsals of the play were closed without viewing young actor and director Alexander Molochnikov’s “The Seagull”. At the Moscow Art Theater he staged “Rebels”, and the premiere of “The Seagull” was about to take place, but, judging by the actor’s recent post, he had to leave. “Our premieres will no longer happen at the Moscow Art Theater, month-long rehearsals new production“The Seagull” was stopped by the current management without reviewing the stage of work, and what is most surprising is that I did not become the new artistic director! But! This is only a temporary virus, a reason to reboot! We, of course, will continue the bacchanalia in other places, we will definitely make “The Seagull,” and I really hope that we will be able to work more than once!” Molochnikov wrote on his page on

Rodion Chemonin, National News Agency, 03.03.2007

The Moscow theater under the direction of Oleg Tabakov, affectionately nicknamed “Tabakerka” by the people, celebrates its anniversary on Thursday. The theater turns 20 years old.

It would seem, what is 20 years? But over these two decades, how many actors has the theater raised, respected all over the world, known to every person throughout the entire territory of one sixth of the land, loved by millions of spectators beyond geographical categories!

In theaters it is customary to list actors alphabetically, supposedly so that no one will be offended; in “Tabakerka,” no matter how you list them, you still won’t be able to rank them either by popularity, or by length of service, or by age. There is only one cherry on the cake, and this is Tabakov, but it is not clear how to divide further: there will be no larger or smaller pieces. Just listen: Vladimir Mashkov, Marina Zudina, Evgeny Mironov, Sergey Bezrukov, Evdokia Germanova, Alexander Mokhov, Andrey Smolyakov, Natalya Zhuravleva, Mikhail Khomyakov, Sergey Belyaev, Alexey Zolotnitsky, Olga Blok-Mirimskaya, Marianna Schultz, Vitaly Egorov, Anastasia Zavorotnyuk, Olga Krasko, Yaroslav Boyko, Denis Nikiforov, Igor Petrov, Sergei Ugryumov and several dozen more names, the mere utterance of which will leave any person in awe. Someone comes, someone leaves, choosing other paths, which means the theater lives on. Young people are advancing: here and there you can see Daria Kalmykova, Lina Mirimskaya appears on the big screen more and more often, Yana Sexte receives the Triumph Award, fans of Ivan Zhidkov are already occupying the service entrance, critics predict a great future for the completely new members of the troupe. It is impossible to list all the actors. This cake is of a completely different nature; this is not a pastry shop or a bakery. Oleg Tabakov and his chocolate factory.

It all started with his course. A simple circle that he organized as the director of Sovremennik in 1973, when Valery Fokin, Andrei Droznin, Konstantin Raikin, Avangard Leontiev, Joseph Raikhelgauz, Vladimir Poglazov, Sergei Sazontiev came together: all those who now influence the theatrical the atmosphere of not only the capital, but also the world. In 1977, they were given a coal warehouse on Chaplygina Street, 1a, which they dismantled on their own and turned it into a tiny basement studio. The first performance was “In the spring I will return to you” based on the play by Alexander Kazantsev. But officials did not allow the basement to exist for long and closed it. And only in 1986 an order was signed to create a theater studio.

Andrei Smolyakov recalls the period when he, forced to wander without work after being banned from playing in the basement, suddenly learned about that 1986 order:

The opening of the “snuffbox” was a holiday for the actors. At that time, hope for the opening of this theater was almost lost, and everything, as it seemed to us, had sunk into oblivion. And then, suddenly, they allowed it. It was joy, happiness.

Then they, the students and now real actors, rebuilt a small hall with 110 seats on their own, and the theater officially began operating.

Of course, this does not mean at all that exactly on March 1, 1987, the doors of the basement on Chaplygina opened to the general public. The formation of the theater was not easy and sometimes rested on the enthusiasm of the actors, who were mostly brought up at the Studio School at the Moscow Art Theater. A.P. Chekhov on the course of Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov. But from the very first performance the audience kept coming and coming. The glory of the theater grew every second. From some point on, it became impossible for a simple viewer to get into the basement. “Sailor’s Silence”, “Biloxi Blues”, “The Inspector General”, “Mechanical Piano”, “Overstocked Barrels”, “ Finest hour local time”, “Passion of Bumbarash” the lucky ones watched them several times, scenes from these productions were memorized, the lines became passwords for initiates.

There were also difficult times. In the mid-90s, Oleg Tabakov realized that he couldn’t feed everyone, and came up with the idea of ​​staging performances for several people, which became another “Tabakerka” know-how. Now performances can be staged in theaters with thousands of people, and in the basement, and in small poor theaters in regional centers of the Moscow region, and on the main stages of America, Europe, Japan? The problems due to which the theater is losing many leading actors still exist: what can you do, “Tabakova’s children” are growing up and want more. But the core remains the same. And the basement on Chaplygin is still the same. More beautiful and equipped, but the same.

Best performances the troupes were awarded prestigious theater awards. More than half of the actors no longer fit into the programs due to the indications of their awards and regalia. And what does the program and regalia have to do with it, if at the celebration of the 15th anniversary five years ago neither the hall nor the foyer could accommodate all the guests. The highest government officials literally stood on their desks. Therefore, this year everyone will be accepted by another Tabakov theater Moscow Art Theater named after. A.P. Chekhov. There are a lot of unsubstantiated rumors about the jealousy of one towards the other, but all this is fiction. Both the basement on Chaplygina and the Khudozhestvenny in Kamergersky are friends, they go to visit each other, stage plays, mixing the troupes of both theaters. This means that today there will be skits, and the joy of meeting, and congratulations, and everything will be in the Tabakov style.

“Our business is “Tobacco”,” Sergei Nikitin, a great friend of the basement, once sang. And it seems, especially on days like these, that these words can be applied to many, many people, not necessarily associated with the stage, living in different parts of the world. Congratulations, “Tabakerka”!

Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov - Soviet and Russian actor, director and teacher, voice actor, one of the founders of the Sovremennik Theater, director of the Tabakerka Theater and the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov, rector of the Moscow Art Theater School (1986 – 2000). Most of the films with his participation have become classics of Russian cinema: “The Living and the Dead”, “War and Peace”, “Shine, Shine, My Star”, “Seventeen Moments of Spring”, “12 Chairs”, “Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano”, “D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers”, “A Few Days in the Life of Oblomov”, “The Man from the Boulevard des Capuchins”... This list can be continued for a very long time, but he has many equally outstanding theatrical works under his belt.

Childhood and adolescence

Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov was born on August 18, 1935 in the family of doctors Pavel Kondratievich Tabakov and Maria Andreevna Berezovskaya. Your childhood future actor and the artistic director spent communal apartment and already from childhood I knew what value a ruble earned by adults has, how honesty, kindness and hard work of loved ones coexist with the hypocrisy, hypocrisy and opportunism of society.


However, all of Oleg Tabakov’s early childhood memories are painted in light shades. He associates these years with freedom, sun, space and happiness. He was surrounded only loving people: Mom and Dad, grandmothers Olya and Anya, Uncle Tolya and Aunt Shura. Little Oleg read a lot and was already interested in theater - he enjoyed visiting the Saratov Youth Theater, watched many productions several times and knew them by heart.

Everything changed when the war broke out. My father went to the front, worked on an ambulance train, Oleg and his mother were evacuated to the Urals, and during the war years Maria Andreevna worked in a military hospital near the Elton railway station. The head of the family returned home, but soon after that he and his wife separated. This was a huge blow for the boy and literally caused physical pain.


Left without male guardianship, the boy almost fell into bad company by getting involved with street punks. Someone told Oleg’s mother about this, and the woman took her son by the hand and brought him to the “Young Guard” drama club at the Palace of Pioneers. He was lucky to get to the teacher Natalya Iosifovna Sukhostav, whom Tabakov later called his godmother in the acting profession. Although he spoke very quietly and unintelligibly at the studio audition, the woman accepted him into the group, and within a few months he shone on stage in key roles. He studied in the drama club from 1950 to 1953.


After graduating from Saratov school No. 18, Tabakov decided to go to Moscow to enroll in drama school. His relatives tried to dissuade him, sincerely wishing him well - few believed that a young man from the provinces with three years of local drama club would overcome the cruel entrance tests. But, apparently, Saratov drama school was always strong: Oleg was accepted into the Moscow Art Theater School and GITIS. He gave preference to the first, as he considered this university “the pinnacle of theater pedagogy.”

First roles

In educational performances, Tabakov played mainly positive roles. Having once played Khlestakov from The Government Inspector, he received a comment from one of the teachers: “It turns out that there was a wonderful comedian dormant in you.” He received a diploma from the Studio School in 1957, after which he was accepted into the Stanislavsky Theater.


Back in 1956, he and a group of like-minded graduates of the Moscow Art Theater School (among them were Oleg Efremov, Igor Kvasha, Galina Volchek, Evgeny Evstigneev, etc.), founded the Sovremennik Theater (then it was called the “Studio of Young Actors”). As a test of the pen, they chose the play “Forever Alive”: the artistic director was Oleg Efremov (he also played the role of Borozdin), Tabakov (Lyolik, as his friends called him) played the student Misha.

They rehearsed for 4 months, the premiere took place on April 8, 1957. Critics noted that they did not see anything new in the production - it was just “classic good Moscow Art Theater.” The group of young actors took these words as praise, because it was the revival of the aesthetic ideals of the theater, free from the touch of “Sovietism,” that was their main goal.


At first, Sovremennik lived under the wing of the Moscow Art Theater, but after the third performance, Nobody (in which Tabakov played 3 roles at once), the theater management accused the artists of trampling on traditions and kicked them out of the premises. Only 4 years later the theater knocked out its own building, located on Mayakovsky Street. Tabakov was a regular artist at Sovremennik until 1983, and was involved in more than 30 productions.


While still a student, Tabakov began acting in films. At first these were roles in the crowd, but in 1956 he got the main role in the film “Tight Knot”. In the story, his hero Sasha Komlev’s father dies, and the guy is adopted by the chairman of the collective farm, who was shown in the films as a notorious bureaucrat. The censors did not like this, the actor who played the role of the chairman was replaced, and the film received a different name - “Sasha Enters Life.” Viewers still saw the original, but only 30 years later.


At the turn of the 50s and 60s, all of Moscow knew about the talented actors of the Sovremennik Theater. And truly national glory Tabakov acquired it after the release of two films in a row in 1960: the drama “People on the Bridge” and the action-packed film “Probation.”


Tabakov’s first heroes were called “Rozov’s boys.” A schoolboy named Oleg Savin, played by Tabakov in the film “Noisy Day” based on the play “In Search of Joy” by Viktor Rozov, is the embodiment of best features in the people of Khrushchev's time: directness of judgment, purity of thoughts, ability to defend their position. This applies to Oleg Savin and Viktor Bulygin from the film “People on the Bridge”, and to Sasha Egorov from “ Probation period”, and to Seryozha from “Clear Sky”, and to many subsequent roles of Tabakov

He departed from this role in the film “Young and Green” (1963). Many doubted that Tabakov, with his youthful appearance, would be able to convincingly play the foreman and deputy Babushkin. But he masterfully succeeded, and then he was cast in the role of Lieutenant Krutikov from “The Living and the Dead” - the first negative role in Tabakov’s filmography.


All-Union glory

According to the recollections of Sovremennik actors, in those years they were so in demand that sometimes Mosfilm employees would wait for them right at the exit from the theater, put them in a car and take them to film set. The crazy work schedule affected Tabakov’s health – at the age of 29 he had a heart attack. The doctors' prognosis was disappointing - he was advised to quit performing forever. But a couple of months passed, and he was already rehearsing the play every evening." An ordinary story", which in 1967 received the state prize Soviet Union, and Tabakov himself was awarded the Badge of Honor for his cumulative merits.


In 1966, viewers saw Tabakov in the role of Nikolai Rostov in War and Peace by Sergei Bondarchuk, in the company of Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Lyudmila Savelyeva.


In 1968, Oleg Tabakov was invited to the Prague theater "Chinogerny Club" to play Khlestakov in the production of "The Inspector General". In total, 30 performances were shown to Czech audiences, each of which received standing ovations,

In 1970, after Oleg Efremov left for the Moscow Art Theater, Oleg Tabakov headed Sovremennik, while continuing to appear on stage with other actors. He proved himself to be a fairly tough and uncompromising leader: without hesitation he punished truants and slobs, and once Oleg Dal was fired - he showed up to a performance drunk and was unable to go out to the audience. According to Oleg Pavlovich, the theater is a big family where all children should grow up in justice.

Oleg Pavlovich became one of the first to take part in television plays: his first experience was working in the productions “Pencil Drawing” and “Continuation of the Legend.” He also records two solo performances on TV (“Vasily Terkin” and “The Little Humpbacked Horse”). After that, he brilliantly played the main roles in the television plays “Shagreen Skin”, “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and His Aunt”, “Aesop” and “Stovemen”, and took part in the creation of a television version of the Sovremennik production “Twelfth Night”.


In 1973, he got the role of the SS General Schellenberg in “17 Moments of Spring” with Vyacheslav Tikhonov in leading role, after which he began to be recognized outside the Soviet Union.


In 1976, he again showed his comedic talent in Mark Zakharov's 12 Chairs. In the epic about the adventures of the heroes Andrei Mironov and Anatoly Papanov, he played the shy caretaker-thief Alkhen.

“12 Chairs”: Tabakov as the “blue thief”

In 1978, Tabakov began voicing the cat Matroskin from the cartoon “Three from Prostokvashino.” Sharik was voiced by Lev Durov, and Uncle Fedor was voiced by Maria Vinogradova. Today it is difficult to imagine what will happen if the heroes beloved from childhood speak in different voices. This is one of the most famous works Tabakov as a dubbing actor, but far from the only one. Apparently, he is best at playing the voices of cat heroes - he dubbed the voice of the main character in the film "Garfield" and its sequel.


A year later, the audience appreciated his performance of King Louis XIII in the musical “D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers,” which truly brought together star cast: Mikhail Boyarsky, Veniamin Smekhov, Igor Starygin, Irina Alferova, Alisa Freindlikh, Margarita Terekhova. Tabakov's vocal parts were performed by Vladimir Chuikin.

Songs of Louis XIII not included in The Three Musketeers

Four years later, Nikita Mikhalkov presented the result of their collaboration - the drama “An Unfinished Piece for a Mechanical Piano” based on Chekhov’s stories. In the same year he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1980, another film by Mikhalkov with Tabakov in the title role, “A Few Days in the Life of Oblomov,” was released, which received audience success outside the country and collected awards international festivals and was shown for 10 days at the Embassy Cinema in New York with an inevitable sell-out.


In 1983, long-term collaboration with Sovremennik ended with a transfer to the Moscow Art Theater. The first role Oleg Pavlovich played on this stage was Salieri from Amadeus.


In 1988, Tabakov was awarded the title People's Artist. By the early 90s, he was one of the richest actors in the Union (although the 1992 monetary reform had a disastrous effect on his fortune). After the collapse of the USSR, Oleg Pavlovich continued to act in films (“Shirley-Myrli” with Vera Alentova, “The President’s Granddaughter” with Nadezhda Mikhalkova, “The Orphan of Kazan” with Elena Shevchenko, etc.), regularly appeared on stage, but most Teaching acting to the younger generation took up his time.

Pedagogical activity

In 1974, Tabakov, convinced that it was necessary to “constantly acquire and collect his professional skills,” had the idea to create his own studio. There were more than four thousand people willing to study with Tabakov himself, but only 18 people passed the selection. Five of them entered GITIS, a course that Tabakov undertook to teach.


The program on Tabakov’s course was very different from what was taught to students in other theater schools. The students read the “forbidden book” and arranged meetings with cult figures in the art of that time, such as Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava.

Oleg Tabakov and his “tobacco chickens”

In 1977, this course became the basis for the future Tabakerka Theater. Among the young people were many well-known artists today: Igor Nefedov, Andrei Smolyakov, Elena Mayorova.


In 1986, Tabakov became the rector of the Moscow Art Theater School. He held this position until 2000, after which he headed the department of acting skills. In 1992, on his initiative, the Stanislavsky Summer Acting School was founded in Boston.

In 2000 he became artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov. First thing new artistic director set a course for a complete renewal of the repertoire, for which he invited directors with a fresh look (Kirill Serebrennikov, Konstantin Bogomolov, Sergei Zhenovach) and actors (Konstantin Khabensky, Yuri Chursin, Irina Pegova, Maxim Matveev, etc.).


In 2009, the artist announced the creation of an acting college at Tabakerka. Every year, the institution accepted 24 people, whose accommodation and all their needs were financed from the Moscow budget. At the same time, according to Tabakov, the college teachers themselves looked for young talented actors, traveling to remote corners of Russia.

The theater needs nuggets from the outback, and start learning acting you need childhood.

In August 2015, Oleg Tabakov celebrated his eightieth birthday. He celebrated his anniversary as director and artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater. A.P. Chekhov, as well as a member of the Council for Culture and Art under the President of Russia.

Oleg Tabakov and Marina Zudina in “Evening Urgant”

Personal life of Oleg Tabakov

Oleg Tabakov's first wife was actress Lyudmila Krylova (born 1938), who gave birth to her wife two children: The couple acted in films and played in the theater together. In the photo: young Tabakov and Krylova with their son Anton

It seemed that their marriage would withstand any hardships and vicissitudes of the acting profession, but in 1981, 16-year-old Marina Zudina entered Tabakov’s course at GITIS. Over the years of study, their relationship went far beyond the “student-teacher” framework (despite the 30-year age difference), but for a long time they managed to hide this fact. In 1995, after a 10-year romance, Oleg Tabakov and Marina Zudina got married. Oleg Tabakov commented on his departure from the family: “No matter how banal it sounds, love has come…”


Almost 20 years later, he said in an interview that the relationship between him and Lyudmila deteriorated because she repeatedly got rid of his beloved dogs while he was on tour.

Posner. Oleg Tabakov. Fragment (2011)

The children from his first marriage did not forgive their father for breaking up with Krylova. Anton and Alexandra left the acting profession. The son went into the restaurant business and raised four children: Nikita, Anna, Antonina and Maria. The daughter, who broke off relations with Tabakov, was a radio and television presenter for some time, then married German film director Jan Liefers, with whom she gave birth to a daughter, Polina, in 1988. After the divorce, Alexandra and her daughter (who bears her father’s surname) returned to Moscow.

Death of Oleg Tabakov

In November 2017, the actor was admitted to intensive care, which came as a shock to all fans of his work. Diametrically opposite media reports also added fuel to the fire: some claimed that Tabakov had been diagnosed with sepsis, while others wrote that he was conducting a routine examination. Anton Tabakov reported that his father was admitted to intensive care due to pneumonia (this version was later confirmed). Soon the artist underwent a tracheostomy. On December 25, doctors reported that Tabakov’s condition had worsened. He had to be put into an artificial coma. When he woke up, the actor stopped recognizing his wife and son.


In January 2018, information appeared that the artist was feeling better, but later news began to appear in the press about Tabakov’s disappointing condition, allegedly his brain began to fail, although his relatives denied this information. However, it turned out that the actor’s body was so weakened that it could only function in a state of artificial coma. Finally, on March 12, the family decided to disconnect Tabakov from life support. The 82-year-old actor passed away on hospital bed, surrounded by loved ones. The farewell to the actor took place on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, and the funeral took place at the Novodevichy cemetery.