Georgy Aleksandrovich Tovstonogov - Soviet theater director, People's Artist of the USSR, Dagestan and Georgia, as well as a laureate of many awards, including Lenin and Stalin.
A family
Georgy Tovstonogov was born in 1915 in Georgia, in the city of Tiflis. This city will be the real first impetus for the future director. His father had nothing to do with theater or acting, but he had a profitable job at that time and held a rather high position. Alexander Tovstonogov worked as a railway engineer and was a respected employee of the Georgian Ministry of Railways.
But mother, unlike her father, was a creative person all her life. Tamara Papitashvili was a real singer, which was officially confirmed by her diploma from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. George had a younger sister Natela, who both in childhood and in adulthood, being the wife of actor Evgeny Lebedev, loved and respected her brother very much and always cared for him first, and then as an aunt for his sons.
Marriage unions
As an adult, Georgy Tovstonogov, whose personal life was not particularly abundant, dreamed of creating the same family as he had, but for this it was necessary to find a worthy life partner. Moreover, from the very beginning, it was decided by the man that the wife, like himself, must have been a creative person. As a result, his first wife was a pupil of his own theater, Salom Kancheli. The marriage took place in 1943, but the happiness of the family did not last long, in 1945 the couple filed for divorce. And yet, the alliance with Kancheli played a huge role in the director's life: the marriage gave him two sons - Nikolai and Alexander.
In 1958, Tovstonogov Georgy Alexandrovich decided to marry again. And again, his choice fell on the actress. Together with Inna Kondratieva, the man lived for 4 years and again failed to save his family - the marriage was dissolved in 1962.
Like any theatrical figure, Tovstonogov’s biography is full of vivid stories and moments from his life: both personal and creative. And it would be strange if the biography of the great director ended without having a continuation in his children and grandchildren.
In the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Alexander Georgievich Tovstonogov and his son Tovstonogov, Georgy Jr., went. Both linked their lives to the stage and became famous theater directors.
Director’s childhood and youth
As already mentioned, George Tovstonogov was born in Tiflis. Before his peers, he goes to school, and at the age of 15 graduates from it. Even then, the very young guy of the future director is uncontrollably drawn to the theater, in which his uncle then worked. But the family, and in particular the father, pushes his son to a completely different life path. Not wanting to argue with relatives, Tovstonogov enters the Tbilisi Railway Institute, where his father, the head of one of the faculties, happily puts him on.
But how can you do something that takes all your strength and does not bring any pleasure? Not having lasted even a year, Tovstonogov left the institute, and already in 1931 he got a job as an actor and assistant director in Tbilisi Youth Theater. The leader represented by N.Ya. Marshak immediately noted the meritorious abilities of the young actor, and therefore in 1933 Georgy Tovstonogov was entrusted with staging his very first performance entitled “The Proposal” (based on the work of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov).
Studying at GITIS
After the success of his performance, the director lights up hope for further luck. In 1933, he entered GITIS, however, his age for entering the institute was limited, which makes the future great actor fake his own documents, assigning himself 2 years. The famous directors and teachers of the theater A.M. taught at GITIS Lobanov and A.D. Popov. Having entered the educational institution of his dreams, Tovstonogov does not leave his first theater, which put it on its feet - Youth Theater, thanks to this, new performances are shown again and again in the theater.
In 1937, something happened that Tovstonogov could only dream of in the most terrible nightmares - because of the repression of his father, Georgy Tovstonogov was declared the son of an enemy of the people, and therefore the guy was expelled from the 4th year of GITIS. After a number of meaningless attempts to return to the acting system, a real miracle happened. And they were accidentally abandoned words of I. Stalin, the leader of the people of that era: "The son is not responsible for his father." As a result, the director is restored, and he brilliantly finishes GITIS.
The beginning of directing
In 1938-1946 Tovstonogov works at the Tbilisi Drama Theater named after A.S. Griboedova. In those same years, he was noticed by the People's Artist of the USSR A. Khorav, who allows Georgy Alexandrovich to take on the teaching of one of the acting groups. From that moment on, Tovstonogov began to recognize a professional director.
Moscow theaters
In 1946, the director leaves his native Georgia and rushes to conquer the scenes of Russian theaters. Tovstonogov arrives in Moscow, where he takes charge of several theaters at once. The zeal and constant improvement of his methods and programs for working with actors led to the fact that from 1946 to 1949 Tovstonogov Georgy Aleksandrovich, whose personal life now personified various scenes, equally successfully directed two theaters at once - Central Children's and Touring Realistic.
Leningrad theaters
Since 1949, the director has settled in the cultural capital of Russia - Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. This year he becomes one of the directors, in 1950 - the main director of the Lenin Komsomol Leningrad Theater. In this theater, Tovstonogov finally finds a home: works on plays and performances, helps actors in reincarnation, improves his skills - all this gave George Alexandrovich incredible pleasure.
For his best works, Tovstonogov is awarded the Stalin and Lenin Prizes, now each of his performances is in demand not only in one city, but throughout the country.
At the beginning of 1956, Georgy Tovstonogov, a director with a capital letter, was invited to head the Bolshoi Drama Theater (hereinafter Bolshoi Theater) named after M. Gorky. From 1949 to 1956, at least four directors were replaced in this theater. This meant one thing: the theater ceased to function without a leading person.
Bolshoi Drama Theater (BDT) them. Tovstonogov
For 6 years of working as director of the Leningrad Komsomol Theater, Georgy Tovstonogov, whose personal life was now in constant rehearsals, has won recognition not only from the public, but also from employees of other theaters in Russia, so that his leadership in one of the country's most famous theaters only strengthened respect for him people.
Not immediately agreeing, the director still headed the theater on February 13, 1956. It was clear that radical means were needed to regain the status of BDT, and Tovstonogov used them. According to his instructions, more than half of the entire acting troupe was dismissed and several new actors were invited. The life of the theater was seething again, as in the old days.
Four new plays were staged in the first theater season, each of which was warmly received by the public. Gradually, the director was able to once again pour in the cast, in the theater and in his audience that part of the dedication that has always been inherent in the theater. But the director did not stop there.
The director of the Tovstonogov Theater took almost 33 years - and every year he increasingly raised his status in the eyes of now not only Russia, but the whole world. As a result, the theater, which became his family, took on his name: BDT named after Tovstonogov.
Worthy successor
To continue directing the work of the Tovstonogov clan, only two undertook: the director’s son and his grandson. And, of course, the idea came to any viewer to compare their handwriting. If the son chose a slightly dissimilar style for himself, then the grandson, full of the namesake of Georgy Alexandrovich, without knowing it, unusually similar directed the productions. Unfortunately, the directorial potential of the grandson of the great Tovstonogov never revealed. In 2012, as a young man, George Tovstonogov the younger died.
last years of life
Until his death, Georgy Tovstonogov headed the theater, lived and breathed performances and performances.
May 23, 1989 in BDT was supposed to be the premiere of a new performance. The chief director set a date and, sitting in his own car, drove home ... However, he never reached his relatives. On one of the streets, the car stopped. Georgy Tovstonogov, the man who spent his whole life on stage and behind the scenes in excitement for others, a man whose creative, yet unspent potential, pulled out the great theater, now lost from the abyss of oblivion, died on the spot. And only a long memory of him as an amazing person lives now and will always live.