Nadezhda Nikolayevna Bromley (russian: Надежда Николаевна Бромлей, 17 April 1884 — 25 May 1966) was a Russian and Soviet actress, theatre director, poet, short story writer and playwright. In 1932, she was honored as the Meritorious Artist of RSFSR.

Biography

Born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

to Nikolai (Carl) Eduardovich Bromley, a Russian industrialist of English origins, Nadezhda Bromley graduated from the Music and Drama School at the Russian Philharmonics and in 1908 joined the

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; russian: Московский Художественный академический театр (МХАТ), ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ)) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was f ...

, with which she stayed until 1922. In 1911 she debuted as a poet with the collection ''Pathos'' (Пафос), experimenting in the vein of early Russian futurism and was for a while close to the Centrifuge group, led by Nikolai Aseyev and

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...

.Надежда Николаевна Бромлей
Profile at the Moscow Art Theatre site In 1918, she joined the MAT First Studio where she had moderate success as an actress (the nymph queen Goplana in '' Balladyna'' by

Juliusz Słowacki Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of mode ...

, Erik's mother in August Strindberg's ''Erik XIV'', Lear's fool in ''

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...

'') and also debuted as a director, with ''

The Daughter of Iorio ''The Daughter of Iorio'' () is a 1904 play by the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. The play is written in verse and has elements of local dialect, proverbs and traditional rhymes from Abruzzo. It tells the tragic story of the love between a ...

'' by Gabriele D'Annunzio. Her own play ''The King of the Square Republic'' (Король Квадратной республики, 1925) was staged by

Boris Sushkevich Boris Mikhaylovich Sushkevich (russian: Борис Михайлович Сушкевич, 7 February 1887 — 10 July 1946) was a St. Petersburg-born Russian, Soviet actor, theatre director and reader in drama, honoured with the titles Meritoriou ...

(her second husband) in MAT 2 (which had evolved from MAT 1 in 1924). Before that Yevgeny Vakhtangov had made an attempt to produce her tragicomedy ''Archangel Michael'' but it has never premiered. Bromley's short stories came out in two collections, ''The Confession of the Unwise'' (Исповедь неразумных, 1927) and ''Gargantua's Descendant'' (Потомок Гаргантюа, 1930).Dreyden, S. / Дрейден С
Бромлей, Надежда Николаевна
at the Russian Theatre Encyclopedia // Театральная энциклопедия (под ред. С. С. Мокульского). — М.: Советская энциклопедия, 1961—1965. — Т. 1. In 1932, she was awarded the title Meritorious Artist of RSFSR and in 1933, moved to Leningrad. She joined the Academic Pushkin Theatre where she played (to much acclaim) Catherine the First in ''Peter the First'' by

Alexey Nikolayevich Tolstoy Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (russian: link= no, Алексей Николаевич Толстой; – 23 February 1945) was a Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels. Despite having ...

(which she also directed) as well as produced and directed numerous plays including her own, ''The Duel'' (1934), after the eponymous

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

. Her late 1930s and 1950s productions have been described as "colourful and flamboyant." In 1944-1956, she headed the Leningrad Novy Theatre, was a reader in drama and translated several plays into Russian. Nadezhda Bromley died on 25 May 1966 in Leningrad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bromley, Nadezhda 1884 births 1966 deaths Russian stage actresses Soviet stage actresses Soviet theatre directors Soviet dramatists and playwrights Writers from Moscow Moscow Art Theatre Soviet women writers 20th-century Russian translators Actresses from Moscow