Modest Ivanovich Pisarev (russian: Модест Иванович Писарев, 14 February 1844 — 13 October 1905) was a Kashira-born Russian

stage actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lite ...

, reader in drama and theatre critic. A

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

graduate, Pisarev earned the reputation of a true intellectual of Russian theatre stage, who always "preferred to play thinkers, not lovers." He started to act professionally in 1867 in

Simbirsk Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), w ...

, later he moved to

Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the Kazakhstan-Russia bor ...

, then worked for some time in Moscow, in

Anna Brenko Anna Alekseyevna Chelishcheva (russian: А́нна Алексе́евна Чели́щева, 7 April 1848, Vladimir, Russian Empire – 15 November 1934, Moscow, USSR) – better known by her stage name of Anna Brenko ( А́нна Бренко́) ...

's Pushkin Theatre troupe and

Korsh Theatre The Russian Drama Korsh Theatre (russian: Русский драматический театр Корша), commonly known as the Korsh Theatre, was a theatre which functioned in Moscow, Imperial Russia from 1882 until 1917. It was named after i ...

(which he was a co-founder of), before joining the Saint Petersburg's

Alexandrinka The Alexandrinsky Theatre (russian: Александринский театр) or National Drama Theatre of Russia is a theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Alexandrinsky Theatre was built for the Imperial troupe of Petersburg (Imperial trou ...

in 1885. Pisarev, who debuted as a 15-year-old as Tishka in Ostrovsky's '' Family Affair'' (in which the author himself played the leading role), excelled in the great dramatist's repertoire (Rusakov in ''

Stay in Your Own Sled ''Stay in Your Own Sled'' (russian: Не в свои сани не садись, an idiom meaning "Don't bite off more than you can chew,") is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, written in 1852 and first published in the No.5 (March, book 1), 1853, iss ...

'', Neschastlivtsev in '' The Forest''). Profoundly influenced by both Ostrovsky's work and his artistic mindset, Pisarev authored numerous in-depth critical reviews of his plays, notably of '' The Storm'', in 1860. He also compiled and edited the first edition of the Complete Ostrovsky (Saint Petersburg, 1904-1905) and was instrumental in its publishing.Модест Иванович Писарев
Biography at the Krugosvet online encyclopediaModest Pisarev
in the Soviet Theatre Encyclopedia The actress

Polina Strepetova Polina (Pelageya) Antipyevna Strepetova (russian: Поли́на (Пелаге́я) Анти́пьевна Стре́петова, born 17 October 1850, died 17 October 1903) was a Russian stage actress, renowned for her tragic parts, who provided ...

was his wife.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pisarev, Modest 19th-century male actors from the Russian Empire Russian critics People from Kashira 1844 births 1905 deaths Russian male stage actors