| Activity | Member of the Moscow Art Theatre under Stanislavsky with whom he worked closely. In 1914 helped found the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1928 he left Russia to act, direct and teach in Latvia, Berlin, and Paris. He was acting in New York in 1935, when Beatrice Straight met him and after studying with him urged Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst to bring him to Dartington. Chekhov first visited Dartington with his wife in 1935, and began preparations to establish his Chekhov Theatre Studio there. It opened the following year with twenty two students, including some Americans. He became close to Dorothy Elmhirst and she regularly joined his classes, flourishing under his teaching methods. During the war she taught his methods to Hans Oppenheim's opera students. In 1938 Chekhov and most of his students returned to America, to premises in Ridgefield, Connecticut found by Beatrice Straight. Re-established there, the company performed two plays on Broadway, 'The Possessed' and 'Twelfth Night', and developed the Chekhov Theatre Players which toured the Eastern States for three seasons. Briefly the Theatre Studio moved to New York before the war caused them to disband in 1942. Chekhov went to Hollywood where he had a successful career in films, coaching and teaching. He died in California in 1955. |