About the Theatre

Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko (1858–1943) — a famous director, educator, and one of the founders (together with K. S. Stanislavsky) of the Moscow Art Theatre. He led the MAT until the end of his life, serving as its director and artistic leader. It was Nemirovich-Danchenko who had the merit of discovering Chekhov's dramaturgy: in 1898, he, a well-known playwright at the time, managed to persuade his close friend A. P. Chekhov to submit the failed play 'The Seagull' to the Art Theatre, which had flopped on the imperial stage. The memoir book 'From the Past', included in this edition, is not only an autobiography of V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko but also an engaging account of the main work of his life, theatre. Among the characters in the book are Stanislavsky, Chekhov, Gorky, Tolstoy, Ermolova, Meyerhold, and the famous 'old-timers' of the MAT - actors of the older generation. The behind-the-scenes life, rehearsals, premieres, struggle with censorship - all of this comes to life in vivid colors under the pen of Nemirovich-Danchenko. The memoirs of V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko complement his articles, in which he reveals the secrets of the stage charm of Gogol, the complexities of staging Dostoevsky, Ostrovsky, and Tolstoy, and, of course, Chekhov.