Leonid Trushkin is a famous domestic theater director. He has the title of Honored Artist of Russia. He became widely known by founding the Anton Chekhov Theater. Among his works are productions based on the plays of Rostan, Shakespeare, Maugham, Rodari. In this article, we will talk about his biography and creative career.
Education
Leonid Trushkin was born in Leningrad in 1951. It is known that for the first time he ended up in the theater behind the scenes in his childhood, when he and his mother got to the Theater of the Young Spectator for the play "Golden Key".
In 1973, the director graduated from the Shchukin School, and then entered the Leningrad Comedy Theater. He worked in the metropolitan drama theater, and then at the Mayakovsky theater, where he became famous, playing the role of Treplev in Anton Chekhov's play "The Seagull".
His acting career did not develop long. In 1971, he played Diomedes in the production of Vakhtangov’s Anthony and Cleopatra Theater, and two years later appeared in Samson Samsonov’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.
Chekhov Theater
In 1986, Leonid Trushkin entered the directing department of GITIS in the workshop of Anatoly Efros. It was under his influence that he directed his first play, which was The Cherry Orchard. It formed the basis of the Anton Chekhov Theater, which was created by him and Evgeny Rogov in 1989.
The theater worked on the principle of private entreprise. It was attended by many held actors who provided the "box office". These were Oleg Basilashvili, Lyubov Polishchuk, Gennady Khazanov, Evgeny Evstigneev, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Alexander Shirvindt, Konstantin Raikin.
In the entreprise was "Cherry Orchard", "Hamlet", "Everything is like people have." In 1992, together with the Satyricon Theater Konstantin Raikin, a project was staged to stage the play by Edmond Rostan “Cyrano de Bergerac”.
Most of the subsequent performances are works by Western authors. For example, the plays of Canadian Bernard Slade "Honoring" and "In the same place, then ...". In the 1990s, there was a success with the “Emigrant Pose” by Hannah Slutsky, “Price” and “Dinner with a Fool” by Arthur Miller.
In 1997, an interesting find was an invitation to participate in the performance of pop singer Angelika Varum.
A family
The personal life of Leonid Trushkin was very busy. He was married three times.
His first wife was Galina Shmakova. She was an actress in the St. Petersburg Maly Drama Theater with Lev Abramovich Dodin. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, but after a short time the marriage still broke up.
The second wife of Leonid Trushkina is Elena Cherkasskaya, ballerina, soloist of the Bolshoi Theater. She died in 2001. The director devoted her memory to the play "Mixed Feelings" based on the play by the American playwright Richard Baer, in which Inna Churikova and Gennady Khazanov played. Its premiere in 2003 took place on the stage of the Variety Theater.
Critics noted that it turned out a story about people who lost their halves in old age. But, despite this, they still try to revive love by regaining their family with its classic traditions: morning kisses, evenings with grandchildren, family dinners. The director turned out a personal story, which the actors managed to subtly feel. On stage, they treated each other with amazing care, sincerely peered and listened to their partner.
In 2009, the play was staged on the stage of the St. Petersburg Lensovet Theater. This time, the main roles were played by Larisa Luppian and Mikhail Boyarsky. The production was dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Mikhail Sergeyevich.
In the third marriage, Trushkin had two daughters - Anastasia and Anna.
Work in the theater on Malaya Bronnaya
Since 2006, director Leonid Trushkin worked as the artistic director of the theater on Malaya Bronnaya. At that time, Lev Durov collaborated with this cultural institution; Andron Konchalovsky was the invited director.
The following year, his production of the play by the French writer Francoise Sagan “Happiness, Odd and Pass” enjoyed great success. It was written back in 1964. It talked about Russian aristocrats who live their lives in exile.
A year later, the director officially announced his departure. Commenting on such a decision, he explained it by the absence of reforms in the theater system, which he called absurd.
By that time, a photo of Leonid Trushkin was already known to many. A successful director began to collaborate with the Moscow State Variety Theater, whose artistic director is Gennady Khazanov. Now the hero of our article is 67 years old. He continues to stage performances.