Vsevolod MeyerholdVsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold (1874-1940) was a Russian actor and director. Meyerhold trained as an actor under Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, a co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, which Meyerhold himself joined in 1898. He made his first appearanc in Stanislavski's famous naturalistic production of Chekhov's The Seagull. In 1902 Meyerhold formed his own company and spent a time touring the provinces; he also worked briefly at the theatre of Vera Komisarjevskaya, a noted Russian actress, in 1906-07. By this time, he had already formulated his controversial theory of bio-mechanics and his opposition to the naturalism of Stanislavski led to conflict between the two men and Meyerhold's final departure from the Moscow Art Theatre. Meyerhold subsequently directed at theatres in St Petersburg, notably at the Aleksandrinsky, where his productions reflected his growing interest in Oriental theatrical conventions. Following the 1917 Revolution Meyerhold was amongst the first directors to offer his services to the new regime. In 1918 he became the first director to stage new Soviet drama with his production of Mayakovsky's Mystery-Bouffe (1918). Meyerhold later produced the same author's The Bed-Bug (1929) and The Bath House (1930). In the mid 1930s, however, Meyerhold became increasingly unpopular with the Soviet authorities: his formalist leanings were regarded as suspect, as was his unwillingness to embrace the new socialist realism. In about 1937 his theatre company was closed. Details of the end of Meyerhold's life are sketchy. Shortly after his arrest in late 1938 or early 1939, his wife, an actress, was found murdered at their home; nothing more was heard of Meyerhold until the late 1950s, when a Soviet encyclopedia stated that he had died in 1942. A later edition of the book, however, gave his death date as 1940. Read More Read Less