Kachalov

Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov (russian: Василий Иванович Качалов; – 30 September 1948), was one of Russia's most renowned actors. He worked closely and often with Konstantin Stanislavski. He led the so-called Kachalov Group within the Moscow Art Theatre. It was Kachalov who played Hamlet in the Symbolist production of 1911.

His father was Ivan Shverubovich, a Belarusian Orthodox priest from Vilnius. His schoolmates at Vilnius Gymnasium included Felix Dzerzhinsky and Konstantinas Galkauskas. In 1896, he left the law department of Saint Petersburg University in order to pursue an acting career. After four years of touring the Russian provinces and a brief stint at the Suvorin Theatre, Kachalov made his debut at the Moscow Art Theatre as Tsar Berendey in ''The Snow Maiden'' (spring 1900).

The snow maiden was played by Stanislavski's wife, Maria Lilina, who fell in love with Kachalov; she described their affair as "a touch of private happiness".Maria Ignatieva. ''Stanislavsky and female actors: women in Stanislavsky's life and art''. University Press of America, 2008. . Page 39. Another of his lovers was Alisa Koonen. He met his wife, actress Nina Litovtseva, when they were acting in the Kazan Drama Theatre, one of Russia's oldest.

Kachalov was greatly admired for his "magnetic" voice. He played Baron Tuzenbach after Meyerhold's departure from the theatre. In the original 1904 production of ''The Cherry Orchard'' he appeared as Trofimov. He starred in Nemirovich-Danchenko's production of '' Ivanov'' later that year. All in all, he took more than 50 roles in Stanislavski's company.

After the Russian Revolution, the Kachalov Group went touring Central Europe and did not return until the summer of 1921, under pressure from the theatre's founders.

Kachalov was named one of the first People's Artists of the USSR after the title was instituted in 1936 and received a Stalin Prize in 1943. He was also the recipient of the two Orders of Lenin. The Kazan State Theatre was given his name in 1948.

The Russian director and puppeteer, Sergey Obraztsov, described seeing Kachalov on stage:

“That matchless voice of his sounded different each time. Different too was that amazing process of creating a phrase, and every visual image evoked by the word. One had the impression that Kachalov was not merely speaking but thinking aloud, and that the words one heard were only a part of what he was seeing with his inner eye. For that reason people did not merely listen to Kachalov, they watched what he was talking about.”Obraztsov, Sergei. ''My Profession''. The Minerva Group, Inc. (2001) p. 215

Notable performances

*1900 – ''Snow Maiden'' by Alexander Ostrovsky, directed by Stanislavski
*1900 – ''When We Dead Awaken'' by Ibsen, directed by Nemirovich-Danchenko
*1900 – ''The Death of Ivan the Terrible'', Tolstoy, dir. by Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko
*1901 – '' Three Sisters'' by Anton Chekhov, directed by Stanislavski, role: Vershinin
*1901 – ''The Wild Duck'' by Ibsen. Role: Ekdal
*1901 – ''The Seagull'' by Anton Chekhov, directed by Stanislavski, role: Trigorin
*1902 – ''The Death of Ivan the Terrible'' by A. Tolstoy
*1902 – ''Three Sisters'', Anton Chekhov. Role: Tuzenbach
*1902 – ''The Lower Depths'', Gorky. Role: Baron
*1903 – ''The Pillars of Society'', Ibsen. Role Hilmar
*1903 – ''Julius Caesar, Shakespeare''. Role: Julius Caesar
*1904 – ''The Cherry Orchard'', Chekhov. Role: Trofimov
*1904 – ''Ivanov'', Chekhov. Role: Ivanov
*1905 – ''Ghosts'', Ibsen. Role: Pastor Manders
*1906 – ''Brand'', Ibsen. Role: Brand
*1907 – ''Boris Godunov'', by Pushkin
*1908 – ''Rosmersholm'', Ibsen. Role: Rosmer
*1910 – ''The Brothers Karamazov'', by Dostoevsky. Role: Ivan Karamazov
*1910 – '' A Month in the Country'', Turgenev. Role: Rakitin
*1911 – ''Hamlet'', Shakespeare, directed by Gordon Craig. Role: Hamlet
*1918 – ''Uncle Vanya'', by Anton Chekhov. Role: Astroff
*1935 – ''Enemies'', Gorky. Role: Bardin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kachalov, Vasily
1875 births
1948 deaths
19th-century male actors from the Russian Empire
20th-century Russian male actors
Male actors from Vilnius
People from Vilna Governorate
Honored Artists of the RSFSR
People's Artists of the RSFSR
People's Artists of the USSR
Stalin Prize winners
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Male actors from the Russian Empire
Russian people of Belarusian descent
Russian drama teachers
Russian male stage actors
Soviet drama teachers
Soviet male stage actors
Spoken word artists
Deaths from lung cancer in Russia
Deaths from lung cancer in the Soviet Union
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery