Joseph Raikhelgauz: biography, creativity, career, personal life. Another life of Joseph Reichelgauz - And with Gaft, it means that a conflict immediately broke out

Joseph Raikhelgauz is a famous Soviet and Russian theater director. Also well known as a teacher. It has honorary title People's Artist of Russia, which he was awarded in 1999. Teaches at the institute Currently, he is the artistic director of the “School modern play".

Biography

Joseph Raikhelgauz was born in 1947. He was born in Odessa, where he spent his childhood.

He began his working career as an electric and gas welder in 1962. Worked at a car depot. Two years later, he decided to fulfill his old dream and enter the theater institute. Was accepted to the directing department in Kharkov. Surprisingly, the freshman was expelled after just two weeks, having been declared unfit for the profession.

Joseph Raikhelgauz did not despair. He started working as an artist in Odessa. In 1966, he again entered the directing department, but this time at the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography. But even here he will fail. He is again expelled for incompetence, although this time after a whole year.

Joseph still remains to work in Leningrad. Becomes a stagehand at the Bolshoi Drama Theater named after Gorky. In 1966 he entered Leningrad State University at the Faculty of Journalism. There he still manages to start doing what he loves on a regular basis. Joseph Raikhelgauz heads the student theater.

Moving to Moscow

Having never graduated from the Faculty of Journalism, Raikhelgauz Joseph Leonidovich left for Moscow in 1968, where he became a student in the directing department at GITIS. He studies in the creative workshop of the Soviet director Maria Knebel.

At the same time, he begins staging productions at the famous student theater of Moscow State University in the capital. In 1970, he gained an unusual experience when he went to lead student teams during performances before the builders of Siberian hydroelectric power stations.

In 1971, as part of his practical training, he staged the play “And He Didn’t Say a Single Word” novel of the same name Heinrich Böll in But as a result, the production was not allowed on stage. Before defending his thesis, he only managed to stage Arbuzov’s play “My Poor Marat” on the stage of the Odessa drama theater.

Work at Sovremennik

In 1973, Joseph Raikhelgauz, whose biography is in this article, graduated from GITIS and went to work at the Sovremennik Theater as a production director. His first notable work was the play “Weather for Tomorrow.” For him, the hero of our article received the prestigious Moscow Theater Spring award.

His performances “From Lopatin’s Notes” based on the works of Konstantin Simonov, “And in the Morning They Woke Up...” by Vasily Shukshin, and “Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen were also successfully staged at Sovremennik.

In 1974, director Joseph Raikhelgauz began teaching acting in the newly founded studio of Oleg Tabakov.

In 1975, Raikhelgauz left Sovremennik. Together with Anatoly Vasiliev, he begins to manage the theater on Mytnaya. And two years later he moved to the Stanislavsky Theater. True, he did not work at this cultural institution for long. Managed to stage “Self-Portrait” and begin rehearsals for the play “Adult Daughter” young man"The work was never completed. Joseph was fired due to lack of capital registration.

In 1979, Raikhelgauz returned to the Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin Theater. And a year later he began collaborating with the capital’s theater of miniatures. Now it is called "Hermitage". At the same time, he actively travels around the country as a guest director. Works on premiere productions in Minsk, Lipetsk, Khabarovsk, Omsk and many other cities.

In the mid-80s he staged the play “Scenes at the Fountain” at the Taganka Theater. After this, he returned to Sovremennik, with whom he did not part until 1989.

Own project

In 1989, Raikhelgauz decides to begin work on own project. He becomes one of the creators and initiators of the “School of Modern Play”. At the grand opening, the premiere of the play “A Man Came to a Woman” based on the play of the same name by Semyon Zlotnikov took place. The hero of our article becomes the artistic director of this theater. Over the following years he staged about 20 performances.

Interestingly, at the same time he continues to work on projects in other theaters. Even abroad, for example, in the Swiss theater "Koruzh", the American "La Mame", the Israeli "Habima", the Turkish "Kenter".

In the early 90s, his creative work was appreciated. Raikhelgauz was first awarded the title of Honored Artist, and in 1999, People's Artist of Russia.

Pedagogical activity

It is noteworthy that all this time the hero of our article did not leave teaching. He taught students at GITIS.

After the breakup Soviet Union began working at the capital's theater art and technical school. And in 2003, he was entrusted with the leadership of the directing department at GITIS.

In 2004 he became a professor.

Filmography

The films of Joseph Raikhelgauz are also known. As a director, he staged many film-performances. For example, “1945”, “Echelon”, “Painting”, “Who are you in a tailcoat?”, “An old man was leaving an old woman”, “The Seagull”.

At the same time, Raikhelgauz is well known as an actor. His debut on the big screen took place in 1991 in Sergei Snezhkin’s social dramatic thriller “The Defector,” based on the story of the same name. The picture turned out to be prescient in many ways, since it managed to predict the coming revolution in the country. Joseph played the role of Andrei Korneev's childhood friend named Leonid Rubinov.

After a long break in 2011, he returned to the screen in Georgiy Gavrilov’s detective story “The Game.” He also received roles in the comedy by Igor Kholodkov “New Again!”, the serial detective story by Igor Romashchenko and Ivan Shcheglov “Karpov”, 12 episodes crime film Anton Rosenberg and Yaroslav Mochalov "Murka".

In the last film he was remembered by many in the image of Rosenfeld. “Murka” is a fascinating picture of GPU employee Marusya Klimova, who in 1922 receives a secret assignment to infiltrate the criminal community of Odessa.

Source - Wikipedia

Raikhelgauz, Joseph Leonidovich (born June 12, 1947, Odessa) - Soviet and Russian theater director, teacher; National artist Russia (2000), professor at Russian University theatrical arts(GITIS), Creator and artistic director Moscow theater "School of Modern Play".

Joseph Raikhelgauz was born and raised in Odessa; in 1962-1964 he worked as an electric and gas welder at a motor depot. In 1964, he entered the Kharkov Theater Institute at the directing department, but a week later he was expelled with the wording: “Professional unsuitability.”
In 1965, Raikhelgauz became an artist in the supporting cast of the Odessa Youth Theater. In 1966 he came to Leningrad and entered the directing department of LGITMiK. And again, in the same year, he was expelled for incompetence. In 1965-1966 he was a stagehand at the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater named after. Gorky. In 1966, he entered the Faculty of Journalism at Leningrad State University, where he was finally able to take up directing: he became the head of the student theater of Leningrad State University.

In 1968, Joseph Raikhelgauz left the university and entered the directing department of GITIS, in the workshop of M. O. Knebel and A. A. Popov. At the same time, he worked as a director in the famous student theater of Moscow State University, and in 1970 he led student concert teams serving the builders of Siberian hydroelectric power stations. In 1971, he underwent directing practice at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, but the play “And He Didn’t Say a Single Word,” based on the story by G. Böll, was not allowed to be shown. He staged his pre-graduation performance, “My Poor Marat” based on the play by A. Arbuzov, in his native Odessa in 1972.
After graduating from GITIS in 1973, Raikhelgauz was hired as a production director at the Moscow Sovremennik Theater. The first success was the production of the play “Weather for Tomorrow”, for which Joseph Raikhelgauz was awarded the “Moscow Theater Spring” prize; Among the performances staged in the theater are “From Lopatin’s Notes” by K. Simonov, “And in the Morning They Woke Up...” by V. Shukshina, “1945” (the author of the play is I. Raikhelgauz), “Ghosts” by G. Ibsen. Since 1974 he has taught acting skills in the first studio of Oleg Tabakov.
Since 1975, Raikhelgauz, together with Anatoly Vasiliev, directed the Theater on Mytnaya; in 1977 he was accepted as a production director at the Theater. Stanislavsky, was a member of the theater’s director’s board, produced the play “Self-Portrait,” and began rehearsing “ Adult daughter young man,” but in 1978 he was relieved of his position due to lack of Moscow registration.
Since 1979 - director of the Moscow Theater. A. S. Pushkin; since 1980 he also worked at the Moscow Miniature Theater (now the Hermitage Theater). During 1980-1982 he staged performances in different cities: Lipetsk, Omsk, Minsk, Khabarovsk, etc. In 1983-1985, he was a production director at the Taganka Drama and Comedy Theater and staged the play “Scenes at the Fountain.” In 1985 he returned to Sovremennik, where he worked until 1989.

In 1988, Joseph Raikhelgauz initiated the creation of the Moscow Theater "School of Modern Play", which opened on March 27, 1989 with his play "A Man Came to a Woman" based on the play by Semyon Zlotnikov. Since 1989, he has been the artistic director of the theater, where he has staged more than 20 performances.
At the same time, Reichelgauz staged performances in other theaters, including abroad: in the theaters "Koruzh" (Switzerland), "Kenter" (Turkey), "La Mama" (USA), the national theater "Habima" (Israel); He works a lot on television, where he directed, in particular, “Echelon” by M. Roshchin and “The Picture” by V. Slavkin.
Reichelgauz is the author of the books “I Don’t Believe”, “We Are Trapped”, “Walks on the Off-Road”, “The Odessa Book”, and a member of the editorial board of the journal “Modern Drama”.
In 1993, the director was awarded the title “Honored Artist of the Russian Federation”; since 2000 - People's Artist of Russia.

Since 1976, Joseph Raikhelgauz taught acting at GITIS. Lunacharsky, since 2003 he has been heading the directing and acting workshop at the directing department at GITIS. Since 2004 - professor.

Performances
1977 - “Self-portrait” by A. Remiz (Stanislavsky Theater)
1984 - “Scenes at the Fountain” (Moscow Taganka Drama and Comedy Theater)
Theater "Contemporary"
1973 - “Weather for Tomorrow” by M. Shatrov (together with G. Volchek and V. Fokin)
1975 - “From Lopatin’s Notes” by K. Simonov
1977 - “And in the morning they woke up” by V. Shukshin
1985 - “1945”, composition by Raikhelgauz
1986 - “Amateurs”
1986 - “Two Plots for Men” by V. Slavkin after F. Dürrenmatt
"School of Modern Drama"
1989 - “A man came to a woman” by Semyon Zlotnikov
1990 - “Everything will be fine, as you wanted” by S. Zlotnikov
1992 - “Whose tailcoat are you wearing?” according to A.P. Chekhov
1994 - “The old man left the old woman” by S. Zlotnikov
1994 - “Without Mirrors” by N. Klimontovich
1996 - “About the promised oil” based on the songs of Sergei Nikitin
1997 - “...Greetings, Don Quixote!”, composition for the stage by Victor Korkiya, Alexander Lavrin, Joseph Raikhelgauz, Valery Berezin
1998 - “Anton Chekhov. Gull"
1998 - “Karlovna’s Love” by O. Mukhina
1999 - “Notes of a Russian Traveler” by E. Grishkovets
2001 - “A wonderful cure for melancholy” by S. Zlotnikov
2001 - “Boris Akunin. Gull"
2002 - “City” by E. Grishkovets
2004 - “The Seagull. A real operetta" based on the play by A. P. Chekhov
2006 - “In Your Own Words”
2007 - “Russian jam” by L. Ulitskaya
2008 - “A man came to a woman. A new version» S. Zlotnikova
2009 - “House” by E. Grishkovets
2009 - “Star sickness”
2010 - " Russian grief"based on the comedy by A. S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit"
2011 - “Bear” by Dmitry Bykov
2012 - “Overheard, Spied, Unrecorded” by E. Grishkovets, I. Raikhelgauz

Awards and prizes
2004 - Moscow City Prize in the field of literature and art for the play “City” based on the play by Evgeny Grishkovets
Moscow Theater Spring Award
1973 - “Weather for Tomorrow” (“Contemporary”)
1975 - “From Lopatin’s Notes” (“Contemporary”)
1976 - “And in the morning they woke up” (“Contemporary”)
Moscow Komsomol Prize
1975 - “From Lopatin’s Notes”

Joseph Leonidovich Raikhelgauz was born on June 12, 1947 in Odessa. In an interview with a well-known magazine, the director said that he was named after his grandfather. During the war, his mother Faina Iosifovna worked as a nurse in a hospital in Orenburg, and his father Leonid Mironovich fought in tank forces and reached Berlin. Joseph Raikhelgauz also has a sister, Olga.

In peacetime, the director's mother worked as a secretary-typist, and his father was engaged in cargo transportation. At the school where Joseph Leonidovich studied, teaching was conducted in Ukrainian. After graduating from eighth grade, he decided to continue his studies at a school for working youth, since exact sciences were difficult for him. My labor activity He began with the profession of an electric and gas welder at a motor depot, where his father got a job for young Joseph.

However, the future director continued to be attracted by creative activity. He did not miss the opportunity to participate in the crowd at the Odessa film studio. And after graduation, I decided to enter the Kharkov Theater Institute to major in Ukrainian drama director. Joseph Raikhelgauz successfully passed entrance tests, teachers noticed his talent. However, the Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR canceled the exam results due to national question. After all, among those enrolled there were three Russians, three Jews and only one Ukrainian.

Returning to his native Odessa, Joseph Raikhelgauz went to work as an actor at the Odessa Youth Theater. A year later he set out to conquer Moscow, and thanks to mutual friends, the writer Julius Daniel sheltered him. But he was soon arrested for creative activity, discrediting the Soviet system.

Then Joseph Raikhelgauz again changed his place of residence, moving to Leningrad. In 1966, he entered LGITMiK in the directing department, but due to disagreements with the teacher, Boris Vulfovich Zon, he was again expelled. He got a job as a stagehand at the famous Tovstonogov Drama Theater and at the same time studied at Leningradsky state university at the Faculty of Journalism. At Leningrad State University, Joseph Raikhelgauz began staging plays in the student theater.

Creative activity

In 1968, he again went to Moscow to enroll in GITIS on the course of Anatoly Efros, but as a result he studied with Andrei Alekseevich Popov. Raikhelgauz staged his graduation performance “My Poor Marat” at the Odessa Academic Theater in 1972.

In his fourth year, Joseph Leonidovich completed an internship at the Soviet Army Theater, where he began staging the play “And He Didn’t Say a Single Word” based on the novel by G. Bell. Galina Volchek noticed him and offered to become a full-time director at the Sovremennik Theater.

The first project at the new location was a production based on the story “Twenty Days Without War” by K. Simonov. Raikhelgauz invited Valentin Gaft to play the main role. For the play “Weather for Tomorrow” in 1973 he was awarded the Moscow Theater Spring Prize.

In 1977, following his teacher Popov, he left for the position of stage director at the Stanislavsky Theater. He staged the play “Self-Portrait”, which was not to the taste of the authorities. As a result, Raikhelgauz was fired from the theater, he lost his Moscow residence permit and could not get a job anywhere. Health problems began and the director suffered a heart attack.

He was saved by an invitation to work at the Khabarovsk Drama Theater. In the early 80s, Joseph Raikhelgauz began staging performances in different cities of the Soviet Union - Odessa, Vladimir, Minsk, Omsk, Lipetsk.

In 1983-1985 he worked at the Taganka Theater, but his play “Scenes at the Fountain” was never released due to the departure of Yuri Lyubimov. Then Raikhelgauz returned to Sovremennik again.

On March 27, 1989, he presented to the public the play “A Man Came to a Woman.” The main roles were played by Albert Filozov and Lyubov Polishchuk. This premiere marked the opening of the School of Modern Play theater, in which Joseph Raikhelgauz took over as artistic director. Over the thirty-year history of the theater, he staged about 30 performances on its stage, here are some of them:

• “Are you wearing a tailcoat?” according to A.P. Chekhov (1992);
• “An old man left an old woman” by S. Zlotnikov (1994);
• “Notes of a Russian Traveler” by E. Grishkovets (1999);
• "Boris Akunin. Seagull" (2001);
• “Russian Jam” by L. Ulitskaya (2007);
• “Bear” by D. Bykov (2011);
• “The Last Aztec” by V. Shenderovich (2014);
• “The Watchmaker” by I. Zubkov (2015).

Joseph Raikhelgauz also staged plays in the USA, Israel, and Turkey.

Based on many of his performances, the director made television films: “Echelon”, “Picture”, “1945”, “A Man Came to a Woman”, “From Lopatin’s Notes”, “Two Plots for Men”. In 1997 he released a series of programs “The Theater Shop”.

He began his teaching career in 1974 at GITIS, and since 2003 he has headed the director's workshop there. Since 2000, Raikhelgauz has been lecturing on the history and theory of directing at the Russian State University for the Humanities. At the University of Rochester (USA) in 1994 he taught the course “Chekhov’s Dramaturgy”.

Personal life

Joseph Raikhelgauz is married to actress of the Sovremennik Theater Marina Khazova. Future wife was his student. The director admits that he truly appreciated her when he was hospitalized after his scandalous dismissal from the Stanislavsky Theater. Unlike many, Marina did not turn away from him and supported him in every possible way. Raikhelgauz dedicated the book “I Don’t Believe” to his wife.

The couple have two adult daughters - Maria and Alexandra. The eldest, Maria, works as a set designer. For the first independent work received the " Golden mask" The second daughter, Alexandra, graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University and performs administrative functions at the School of Dramatic Art.

The eldest daughter gave the director a granddaughter, Sonya. In a conversation with a journalist, Raikhelgauz admitted that he would like to spend more time with her, but even in his eighties he still disappears into the theater.

Titles and awards:

• Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1993);
• People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1999);
• Gratitude from the Mayor of Moscow (1999, 2004);
• Order of Friendship (2007);
• Order of Honor (2014).

The chief director of the School of Modern Play theater, Joseph Raikhelgauz, is a talented and cheerful person. No wonder he comes from Odessa. The first service is an electric welder. Once on a TV show, when asked: “Isn’t it difficult for you to live with such a surname?” - he answered just as seriously that this was his pseudonym, and real name- Alekseev (let me remind you - this is the real name of Stanislavsky). Writes poetry and prose. I put it in the best theaters Moscow, throughout Russia and in many countries of the world. And he got his last name from his father, a front-line tank soldier, holder of two Orders of Glory, who left an autograph on the Reichstag...

The director is the actor's friend, comrade and... boss

- How does your theater manage to thrive and not survive?

We rely on the fact that we have a very mobile economic model. All subsidies from the Ministry of Culture suits people, among which there are no redundant ones. We have very high prices for tickets and sold out. Every appearance on stage for every person is paid for, and people know exactly what they are working for. In total there are 150 people in the theater. Troupe - 13. When there are 100 in the troupe, this is a disaster, since the audience sees a maximum of ten actors. We have two performances on different stages, tours here every month and, on average, invitations abroad every two months. Plus rehearsals. Two illuminators instead of five, 4 riggers instead of 12. Already at 10 am the team is on the ground, and until late at night.

- As I understand it, they work a lot in your theater. How do you rest?

We have a tradition of a mandatory two-month vacation in the summer. Then, according to the Moscow Art Theater tradition, in July we always go to the sea, to Sochi, Odessa, Yalta - actors, workshops, administration, many with children and relatives. I am sure that when there is a choice between the opportunity to earn money and encourage people, they need to be encouraged.

- Your actors play a lot “on the side”, in enterprises...

For me, today's enterprise is synonymous with vulgarity, hack-work, ephemera. Of course, I am upset when the actors of our troupe play in an enterprise, but I understand perfectly well that in three days of such performances they receive as much as we earn in a month. An enterprise performance for three actors costs at least 3 thousand dollars. So they scurry around the province, and the income of the hosts far exceeds their earnings, and this is absolutely gangster income. And no state-subsidized theater will ever be able to provide such earnings to our stars, who are no worse than those from Hollywood or Broadway. So I put up with their entrepreneurial earnings, anyway, our theater comes first for them, and they work hard here like nowhere else.

Moscow theater team

- Your theater, one might say, is “the name of the modern play.” But some people believe that there are very few of them or even none at all - meaning worthy ones.

I do not think so. There are many plays, they come to our theater every day and large quantities. Finally, there is such a phenomenon as Grishkovets, a man who was able to offer the theater and actors new technological challenges. Almost all of his plays are performed here. In the literary community they read on average two plays a day, I read on average two plays a week. Well, look, it was Eduard Topol who brought me two of his plays, Anatoly Grebnev wrote very an interesting play. Those who say there are no plays are simply lazy and incurious. Russian drama in in perfect order. We are generally a great theatrical country. I often visit America - I stage and teach, I also visit Europe - there is nothing even close to our theaters! At all festivals, the most interesting thing is the Russian theater. If we collect teams based on directing, then let's take Germany - Peter Stein, France - Mnouchkine, England - Brooke, Donnelland, and then? And today we can nominate such a Moscow directing team! Vasiliev, Fomenko, Lyubimov, Ginkas, Yanovskaya, Fokin, Artsibashev, youth... And St. Petersburg with Dodin?

- Would you like your daughters to become actresses?

My eldest daughter artist, student. And the youngest is still a schoolgirl. And I really don't want what you asked to happen. Because theater is an immoral business. The profession requires constant provocation of a variety of feelings, both good, positive, and unkind, evil. And since the “instrument” (nerves, memory, psyche) and the performer are combined, the “instrument” begins to greatly influence the author. Moreover, this is just stronger if you are a real actor, talented, professional, if you play not with text, but with nerves and passions. “Wrangling” your own feelings and passions is like inoculating yourself with smallpox or the plague...

I have been teaching for twenty-five years, and if a smart, educated boy or a romantic, naive girl comes to me, I beg them not to engage in the acting profession, I even ask them to call their parents or I try to clearly explain where they are going, because young people do not understand this.

- How then do you take young artists to the theater?

From my students. But now I’m looking for a hero and heroine, sensual, singing, plastic. So if someone is confident in themselves in this sense, I’m waiting.

— Joseph Leonidovich, you have amazing biography. From theater universities you, who dreamed of becoming a director from your youth, were expelled with the mark “Unfit for the profession.” But you didn't stop trying. It was so strong faith into yourself?

“For some reason, all my life I’ve been sure that there’s nothing I can’t do.” And this faith was unshakable even when I was expelled. It’s a funny story about how I became an artist in the first place. Dreaming of theater, I entered the directing department of Kharkov theater institute. A week later I was expelled, and my theatrical future was in jeopardy. I returned to Odessa and accidentally came across a funny advertisement: “The Youth Theater urgently needs an artist. Size 48". I wore 46, but went to the theater right away. I thought that they would ask me to read something, but the director said, “We’ll check now,” and took me straight to the costume shop. All the suits that were tried on me turned out to be too big. And yet I was accepted into the troupe, because the artist they were looking for unexpectedly entered VGIK and left for Moscow, and the season had to be completed. His name was Kolya Gubenko. As you know, Nikolai Nikolaevich Gubenko later became an outstanding director and Minister of Culture of the USSR.

I worked at the Youth Theater for a short time, a year later I went to Leningrad and entered LGITMiK. I was kicked out of there after a couple of months. Having learned about the expulsion, my mother immediately came from Odessa to Leningrad and rushed to Boris Vulfovich Zone, famous teacher and to the director, whose students were Kadochnikov, Freundlich, Tenyakova and, for a short time, me. “Why did you kick out my talented son? (Mom always believed in me!) - “In addition to your talented boy, I have twenty more students. Yours cannot study with them, so either he must be left alone on the course, or the rest.” Now I laugh at this story, but then my mother and I cried.

— Upon learning that I was expelled, my mother immediately came from Odessa to Leningrad... With my mother Faina Iosifovna

- Why couldn’t you study with everyone else? Were you so conflicted?

“I didn’t like the way this Zon taught, and I didn’t hide it. He was then about 70 - a very old man by my standards. All his stories seemed banal, he talked about Stanislavsky, but I wanted to listen about Meyerhold. I hoped to learn something new, and he retold what was written in books. Of course, I behaved wrongly, impudently...

But you know, now that I, the head of acting and directing workshops, have to expel students myself, I remember Zon. And I tell them the following: “It is possible that leaving our educational institution will turn your life around better side. In any case, everything that was bad happened to me ended up being good.”

After LGITMiK, I became a student at GITIS, from which I graduated. In our fourth year, we underwent so-called contemplative practice at the Theater of the Soviet Army. Future directors should just sit and watch others stage plays. I found it terribly boring. I invited two good artists, staged with them a sharp performance based on Heinrich Böll’s novel “And Didn’t Say a Single Word” and showed it to the main director of the theater, his teacher Andrei Alekseevich Popov. He was a noble, intelligent man, but... tremblingly afraid of power. Therefore, before deciding whether to put the play on stage, I invited a commission from the army’s political department. During intermission, they, full of anger, left the theater as a whole. But by a happy circumstance, the head of the Sovremennik troupe, Tonya Kheifets, the wife of Leonid Efimovich Kheifets, was in the hall. And she told her friend, Galina Volchek, that a young guy staged interesting performance. She invited me to a conversation.

To our shame, at that time we had a cool attitude towards Sovremennik, considering it a theater without direction: actors gathered and played for themselves. Then everyone was completely fascinated by the great Efros, Tovstonogov. In short, I, 25 years old, appeared before Volchek and Oleg Tabakov without timidity. They offered to show them the performance, which the artists and I did that same night.

- Those were happy times - we lived easily, joyfully, cheerfully. With Galina Volchek and Ivan Bortnik

Those were happy times - we lived easily, joyfully, cheerfully. They quickly set up the scenery, brought costumes and props, and performed the play in front of the artistic council, which already included the famous theater critic Vitaly Yakovlevich Wulf.

He always reminded me of this. He said, gracing: “Do you remember, Joseph, why you became a director at Sovremennik?” I was the first to say: “Galya, we need to take this boy!”

A year before the events described, Oleg Efremov left Sovremennik, and Galina Borisovna Volchek, we must give her credit as an outstanding artistic director, decided to rely on the young. And I dialed no one to the theater famous actors: Yura Bogatyrev, Stanislav Sadalsky, Elena Koreneva, Kostya Raikin, Marina Neelova, as well as two directors - Valery Fokin and me. I remember how Valery and I thought through the concept of Galina Borisovna’s anniversary. She was turning 40 years old. It seems that very little time has passed, and recently I congratulated Galina Borisovna on her 80th birthday...

— Your first performance, “From Lopatin’s Notes” based on Konstantin Simonov, created a sensation in the Moscow theater scene; the best actors of Sovremennik shone on the stage. You were not even 30 years old at that time. I wonder if you found it right away mutual language with the masters of the stage?

- “With Lopatin’s Notes” I was going to “save” the whole Soviet theater. Being young and stupid, I thought that I would teach them all to play here. In the episodes he occupied no more or less than Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov, the same Galina Borisovna Volchek, Lyubov Ivanovna Dobrzhanskaya, Andrei Vasilyevich Myagkov, Pyotr Sergeevich Velyaminov, and in leading role— . Moreover, when handing out copies of the play, he signed, like Stanislavsky: “I entrust such and such a role to such and such. Joseph Raikhelgauz." Gaft, having read the “instruction,” asked, piercing me with his gaze: “Where is your copy?” And having received it from me, he wrote to title page: “To Raikhelgauz. A note from Lopatin to you.

Don’t come close to Gaft!”

— For Gaft, being in conflict is a normal form of communication. Valentin Iosifovich - an amazing guy (2008)

And Oleg Ivanovich Dal refused to rehearse with me at all. He angrily said that my directing was complete nonsense and left. I gave his role to my peer and comrade Kostya Raikin, and he played wonderfully. The premiere took place in the winter of 1975 and caused a stir; people asked for an extra ticket from the metro. Half an hour before the first bell, I notice how Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, who had all the possible credentials as a writer, rushes into the snowstorm and takes out from an approaching car something small, twisted, wrapped in fox fur. When he unwrapped all this in the reception room, I saw a wizened old woman who immediately went to the mirror to straighten her hair. "This !" - he whispers in my ear. And I was convinced that she had died long ago... After the performance, Konstantin Mikhailovich brought her back and, wrapping her in furs, shouted in her ear: “Lilya Yuryevna, this boy is a director. It was he who staged the play!” To which she also shouted, looking at me: “Baby! I liked the performance, but I see almost nothing and hear nothing at all!”

— And with Gaft, that means there was a conflict right away?!

- Well, you see, conflict with Gaft is his normal form of communication. I consider Valentin Iosifovich my senior comrade, I love him very much. He is an outstanding artist, poet, thinker and overall an amazing guy. In the spring, being invited to the anniversary of our theater, he responded and even wrote poetic congratulations, which he read to me from the car on the phone. But for some reason I didn’t get there... He’s so unpredictable... I need to write a separate article about him. I’ll tell you how he once “comforted” me.

After Sovremennik, I worked at the Stanislavsky Theater until a bad situation developed there: I was deprived of my Moscow registration, fired and, as a result, banned from working in Moscow at all. For several years I staged plays in the provinces - in Elista, Khabarovsk, Minsk, Odessa...

— Why were you deprived of your registration?

- Oh, that's all Soviet authority and the damned Bolsheviks. So, my friends sympathized with me, tried to encourage me, to inspire me that somehow, everything would work out. And then one day I met Gaft, and he said that he knew about my ordeals, strongly sympathized, and even composed an epigram on this topic: “Having abandoned the Odessa beach for a while, Joseph came to Moscow, but there was a pause in Raikhelgauz’s career. Shouldn’t you go back to your Odessa out of interest?” Good Gaft...

“For interest” is, by the way, Odessa expression. They say there, for example, “Let’s drink tea for fun” or “Let’s take a walk for fun.”

— I was surprised to learn that Valentin Gaft’s epigrams saw the light of day thanks to your kind hand.

— When we started rehearsing “From Lopatin’s Notes,” Valentin Iosifovich’s writing of epigrams was in full swing, he began to read them in public for the first time. Sometimes he called me late at night to the Sovremennik hostel, woke up the neighbors, demanding to call me to the phone. And the neighbors were then unknown Yura Bogatyrev and Stas Sadalsky. I picked up the phone and in my sleep I heard: “Old man, it’s good that you’re not sleeping! Remember, I have an epigram for so-and-so, I want to read it, but I forgot.” But I had a good memory, and I remembered these epigrams of his perfectly. And one day I came up with the idea of ​​writing an article about Gaft, inserting his quatrains, for the newspaper “Youth of Estonia”. Thus, for the first time, two dozen of his epigrams saw the light of day.

Actually, I was very lucky: life gave me meetings with a huge number of wonderful people Russian culture. Here through the fence is the house of Albert Filozov. We have been friends for a long time, work and drink together. Lived nearby. For many years we met old man together New Year at his house in Peredelkino.

The “School of Modern Play” employs wonderful actors - all of them are either my friends or students. We met at the Theater of Miniatures, the current Hermitage Theater, when no one knew her. At first, without a dramatic education, she worked in her native Omsk, then moved to Moscow, becoming a music hall artist. Lyuba was, in a good way, crazy, diverse, uncontrollable, it was immediately clear that she was very talented. For some time I even prepared her for admission to GITIS, she became a student in Oleg Tabakov’s workshop. When the “School of Modern Play” opened in 1989, the premiere, “A Man Came to a Woman,” was performed by Albert Filozov and Lyuba. After her death, the role went to Ira Alferova, my former classmate.

Another star of our theater is Tanya Vasilyeva... I saw her play in graduation performances when I was a student. That is, Tanya and I are also connected by a lifelong acquaintance. The School of Contemporary Play gave me a unique opportunity to gather my favorite artists. I was lucky enough to work with both Mikhail Andreevich Gluzsky. I remember a wonderful incident.

Once we toured in Riga and lived in a sanatorium on the shore Baltic Sea. Early in the morning I went for a walk and met Gluzsky in funny ridiculous shorts. “Mikhail Andreevich, what “serious” shorts you have!” - I told him. “What do you think, I myself am no longer a boy. Not Romeo! And then Maria Vladimirovna appeared on the balcony with her hair down and in a long white nightgown. I joked: “Don’t be modest! Here is your Juliet! He immediately reacted, ran to the balcony, picking a twig from some flowering bush along the way, and shouted to Maria Vladimirovna: “Juliet!” And they started playing. There was no age or years lived, there was only youth and passion... They remembered the text, played not without humor, but without going into parody. It’s a pity that the only spectator who saw this miracle was me. And then a motorcycle rumbled and a handsome young man appeared with a huge bouquet of red roses: “Maria Vladimirovna, on behalf of the Minister of Culture of Latvia...” She gasped and blurted out: “Artist Gluzsky, you are withdrawing from the role!” Here is my Romeo!

— In stagnant times, artists lived well, went on tours around different countries. Perhaps your first time abroad was a shock for you?

“They didn’t let me leave the country for a very long time.” You most likely don’t remember that in order to travel abroad, even to Bulgaria, a reference, recommendation and permission from the district party committee were required? And I, fortunately, have never been either a Komsomol member or a communist. I tried to pass these stupid interviews a couple of times, but they turned me down. They asked, for example: “How do you feel about the fact that Solzhenitsyn is denigrating our Soviet reality?” And I began: “You see, in Solzhenitsyn’s work...” At this point the conversation stopped, because to call the works of Alexander Isaevich creativity was already dissent. Therefore, until I was forty, I traveled only around the country. Once we were with Sovremennik in Irkutsk. Five in the morning, a hundred artists gathered in the lobby of the hotel, where they will not be accommodated until everyone fills out a long form. At six o'clock a newsstand opened in the same hall. Artists began to flock to him and buy press. Suddenly, someone noticed a portrait of Igor Kvasha from the popular series “Soviet Cinema Actors” in the window and told Kvasha about it. “Excuse me, but do you have a portrait of Volchek?” - Igor Vladimirovich asked the kiosk woman. "No!" - “And Gafta?” - "No". - “What about Tabakova?” “And Tabakov is not there,” the lady answers dryly. Kvasha looked triumphantly at his comrades and asked last question: “Who do you have?” - “Some kind of Kvasha... Others were sold out, but everyone doesn’t buy it.”

The first time I was released to Poland. At that time I was already heading the “School of Contemporary Play” and was invited to serve on the jury of some festival. When our train stopped at night in Brest - the cars were being transferred to a narrow gauge railway - I woke up in incredible excitement in anticipation of the fact that I was about to cross the border of the Soviet Union. It seemed to me that everything should be different THERE. And I was very surprised when, already on the territory of Poland, a cat was walking at the station - a foreign one! But it looks just like ours. In general, the very thought that I was in a mysterious, alluring “abroad” turned my mind upside down. I was absolutely delighted. Six months later I flew to Israel, then somewhere else, and trips abroad became commonplace.

In general, I think those “terrible, dashing” 1990s best years your life, and the life of the country as a whole. Because every person became the author of his own destiny. It was no longer possible to rely either on the CPSU or on the Lord God, but only on oneself. Then, for the first time, the word “business” entered our vocabulary. Some wanted to make films, some wanted to pump oil and gas, some wanted to open theaters, and some just wanted to see the world, and everyone had the opportunity to fulfill their desires.

- When my little son heard your last name on TV, he asked: “I wonder how he remembered it himself?” Has such a difficult surname ever bothered you?

— When I graduated from GITIS and started working at Sovremennik, I was repeatedly offered to change it, they say, for a Russian theater this is a very wrong surname. Even Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov, being the director of Sovremennik, once said in an interview: “This season we took a very promising director to the theater - Joseph Leonidovich Leonidov.” He hoped that I would come to my senses and accept the right decision. But I'm proud of my ancestors. Why should I change their last name? At one time I collected notes in which my last name was distorted, making three or four mistakes. As soon as they didn’t call me! And “REkhIlgauz” and “REkhNgauz” and even “ReicheRGRUZ”.

— Joseph Leonidovich, you were born and raised in Odessa. There have always been many tales and jokes about this city. Does all this look like what really happened?

— Odessa — great city with 220 years of history. All stories, legends, anecdotes have a historical explanation. Pushkin from Odessa exile wrote: “The golden language of Italy sounds along the cheerful street, where a proud Slav, a Frenchman, a Spaniard, an Armenian, and a Greek, and a heavy Moldavian, and a son of the Egyptian land walk ...” and so on. Note that there are no Ukrainians or Jews there yet. In such Babylon, of course, there was a great mixture of world cultures, as a result of which a special Odessa humor and language was born. You can come to Odessa just for good jokes.

- I know that you collect them. Show off your latest trophies.

- Please. In May I am going with my friend, the head of a large Russian corporation, to Privoz. There are a huge number of sellers. There are strawberries on every counter. “The juiciest in the world...”, “The freshest...”, but simply - “The most-most.” We stop at the one designated as “the sweetest on Privoz.” My friend tries the berry and sadly says: “No, not the sweetest.” The saleswoman looks at me: “This man must have a very hard life.”

Or here's another one. I buy vegetables near my Odessa house, and next to the stall there is a woman selling sausages. "Man! (In Odessa they only address this: man or woman.) Buy wonderful fresh sausages from me.” I answer: “With pleasure, but in the morning I’ll go to Privoz and buy everything there.” And I hear in response: “What’s the point, they will deceive you even more!” I laughed and bought it.

When I was little, we had a ton of unique neighbors. I remember such a case. Early in the summer morning a cry is heard: “Sofya Moiseevna! Are you sleeping now?" Silence. “Sofya Moiseevna!” And again: “Are you sleeping?” Neighbor Uncle Savva looks out of the window and shouts: “Yes, yes, yes!!! Sofya Moiseevna is sleeping, but no one else!”

When I already lived in Moscow, but came to Odessa to relax at my parents’ dacha, Yura Bogatyrev kept me company. In the evenings, neighbors and relatives gathered, and Yura organized readings. We sat on the second floor on the veranda, the warm sea splashed below, and Yura enthusiastically read “The Master and Margarita.” His neighbor Fanya Naumovna, a typical Odessa resident, such a huge aunt, also came to listen to him. When Yura explained something to her in correct Russian, she replied: “Oh, don’t fool me with one place!”

I lived in Odessa until I was 17 years old and love this city with all my heart. In the summer I was a guest of the Odessa Film Festival. I once came to watch movies an hour early. I think: well, what to do? And I set off along the route that I remember from childhood. Here is my kindergarten, and here is the bakery, where to this day there is a divine smell of bread... You know, I am absolutely sure that everything is formed in youth, and in adulthood it is only adjusted.

My parents - simple people, but like I said, I was always proud of them. Dad fought, went through the war from the first day to the last, was a real hero, a tank driver, he wrote his name on the Reichstag, and I found that inscription when I was in Berlin. He has so many awards that they couldn’t all fit on one jacket.

After the war, dad worked as a driver, for several years in the Far North, that is, he was engaged in a real man’s job. I even feel embarrassed and ashamed that I chose such an easy profession. When I was 14, I declared that I no longer wanted to study, I would rather become a ship captain or a conductor (even though I didn’t know a single note). And then my dad brought me to the car depot and got me an apprenticeship as a gas-electric welder. In the heat, I lay on the asphalt and welded pieces of iron. Thus, my father established a coordinate system in my fragile child’s psyche. My father is no longer alive, but I still focus on her. Mom worked as a stenographer, although she dreamed of becoming a doctor. She sings very well and has excellent hearing. All my sister and I’s childhood she took us to Odessa Opera theatre. But she didn’t drive it just like that, but after preparing it by reading the libretto. Therefore, I always went there with great joy.

At the age of thirteen I met a wonderful family, wonderful Odessa artists Mikhail Borisovich and Zoya Aleksandrovna Ivnitsky, from whom I first heard unfamiliar names: Pasternak, ... I was ashamed that I didn’t know who it was, I asked to let me read their books.

Anyone who has achieved something, well done - they trained, they wanted it badly, they made mistakes and moved on. When I hear from friends the phrase: “I didn’t do it because they didn’t give it to me, they interfered with it, they forbade me,” I don’t believe it: you only have yourself to blame for what didn’t work out.

— Have your daughters connected their lives with the theater? Surely they grew up behind the scenes...

— The girls grew up in normal conditions, Houses. The eldest, Masha Tregubova, became an outstanding world-class stage designer. In her early thirties, she received every professional award possible. To work with her, I have to stand in a long line, I can’t get through to her.

— My eldest daughter, Masha, became an outstanding stage designer. To work with her, you have to stand in a long line, I can’t get through to her

I really didn't want her to become an artist. And, fortunately, this did not happen. Acting is a harmful, bad profession that is contrary to human nature. Usually, good actors unhappy in their personal lives. It is difficult for a person who constantly composes something, reinterprets it, gets used to the images, to fit into everyday life. Of course, I have always been inconvenient for those close to me. Perhaps I am not the most correct father... You could and should have done much more with children than I did. Luckily, their mother took care of them. Everything that is good in them comes from Marina (Marina Khazova is an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, an actress at the Sovremennik Theater, a former student of Joseph Raikhelgauz. - TN note).

Our youngest daughter, Sasha, is a graduate of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. I tried to persuade her to get it for a long time a good education, and she obeyed, but, I think, only because she wanted to please me and my mother. Since Sasha studied well at school and carefully prepared for the exams, she easily passed them and graduated from the university. But for two years now he has been working as an ordinary administrator at the School of Dramatic Art theater. In addition, for some reason, not so long ago I graduated from a hairdressing course.

“Perhaps I’m not the most correct father... But I’m very proud of my children, very much.” With daughter Sasha

- Why don’t you take her to your theater?

- What do you mean “you don’t take it”? She categorically refuses to come to me. Moreover, he refuses any help from me. And I could call wonderful magazines, where I have many editor friends, or radio stations, TV channels... But Sasha doesn’t want to hear about it.

I am very proud of my children, very...

- How much is yours? youngest daughter years?

- 23... Or not, 24. To remember how old my daughters are, I first have to remember how old I am.

Years are a terrible thing. My mother never says how old she is. He answers evasively: “I don’t remember exactly.” Today the biggest disappointment in life is age. The great Marlen Martynovich Khutsiev has an amazing film “Infinity” - about a man who suddenly realizes that life is finite. By the way, in one of the main female roles Marina Khazova starred in this film.

Twenty years ago, when I watched it, I didn’t get the point. Understanding came recently, when in everyday trifles I suddenly began to feel the finitude of existence. For example, I have a library where, in addition to books by Ulitskaya, Akunin, Bykov, signed by the authors, until recently there were books by some graphomaniacs... So let them forgive me, but I began to get rid of their “creations”, because I realized that I would never I’ll read it and won’t even open it. I don't want to waste precious time.

— Time has become incredibly dense. Every day is a long time! But I have a lot of plans. In the end, I have not yet passed on my last name to anyone, all the daughters were born... But life is not over, and who knows how it will turn out. With a pet - Labrador Bill

When they calmly tell me: “Why are you nervous, your theater will be rebuilt in three or four years,” I ask in shock: “Three years?!” What are you talking about?! I need it now!” (The School of Contemporary Play survived a fire in November 2013, the theater temporarily moved to Theater Club on Tishinka. — Approx. “TN.”) Time has become incredibly dense. Every day is a long time! Before, I never counted these days. I am no longer young, but it is difficult to realize this. After all, I'm in good shape. I like to work, I love my profession, but even more I like to do something not related to the theater. Build, go somewhere... I have a lot of plans. In the end, I have not yet passed on my last name to anyone, all the daughters were born... But life is not over, and who knows how it will turn out.

Family: mother - Faina Iosifovna; daughters - Maria Tregubova, artist, Alexandra Khazova, theater administrator

Education: graduated from the directing department of GITIS

Career: was a production director at the Sovremennik Theater. He worked as a director at the Moscow Theater. Pushkin, Moscow Theater of Miniatures (now the Hermitage Theater). Since 1989 - artistic director of the School of Modern Play theater. Heads the directing and acting workshop at the department of drama directing at RUTI-GITIS. He staged plays in Turkey, America, Switzerland, Israel, etc. He wrote the books “I Don’t Believe”, “The Odessa Book”, “We Got into a Climb”, “Walking on the Off-Road Road”. People's Artist of Russia