Adolf Shapiro: creativity and personal life of the director

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Shapiro Adolf Yakovlevich is a director whose name thundered in all corners of the former USSR and Europe, thanks to bold theatrical performances that broke all stereotypes. This article is devoted to his work and biography.

Childhood

Adolf Yakovlevich Shapiro was born in 1939 in Kharkov. Nothing is known about the director's childhood to the general public, but it is unlikely that during the war years any of the Soviet children had a happy and not overshadowed by difficulties and losses. It was especially difficult for Shapiro because of the name Adolf, which caused unpleasant associations and even hatred among others.

Later, the director said more than once that he was grateful to the fate that allowed him to be born in the same house at st. Chernyshevsky, 15, where he lived then still very young, and later a well-known literary critic Lev Vladimirovich Lifshits.

In 1949, the scientist was sent "to the camps" on charges of cosmopolitanism. Adolf Shapiro, whose family did everything to save the descendants of the famous Riga timber merchant, who had left their former luxury, could not recover for a long time. What was his joy when, after rehabilitation, Lifshits took"Pull up" the neighbor's boy-loser and instilled in him a love of literature. He also advised him to enter the theater institute.

Study

In the late 50s, A. Ya. Shapiro entered the Kharkov Theater Institute. There he established himself as not the most disciplined student. In particular, he was repeatedly seen walking in full theatrical costume and make-up of V. I. Lenin in the park near the Mirror Stream, before going to the rehearsals of Pogodin's famous play. In parallel with his studies, he decided to engage in directing in practice. To this end, Shapiro created his own theater-studio, where he staged the performances "Gleb Kosmachev" by M. Shatrov and "See in Time" by L. Zorin.

First steps in Riga

In 1962, after graduating from the Kharkov Theater Institute, A. Ya. Shapiro moved to Riga. At that time, the novice director hardly suspected that he would link his fate with this city for the next 30 years.

In the capital of Latvia, Adolf Shapiro started working at the Riga Youth Theatre. With his arrival, this theater gained all-Union fame and they started talking about it not only in all corners of the USSR, but also in Yugoslavia, Italy, France, Germany, Canada and the USA.

In 1964, Adolf Yakovlevich headed the Youth Theater and staged the performances "20 Years Later" and "A Man Like Himself", based on the works of Mikhail Svetlov. These 2 performances determined his further creative path as a director capable of creating serious theatrical productions for youth and children's audiences, oriented to theirparents.

Further work at the Riga Youth Theater

Of the important theatrical productions of Shapiro during his work in Latvia, one can note “Chukokkala” (based on the work of K. I. Chukovsky), “Prince of Homburg” (G. Kleist) and “Tomorrow there was a war” (B. L. Vasiliev).

Besides, the audience remembered the performances of RTYUZ of the 1960s-1980s based on the plays by A. Arbuzov (“The City at Dawn” and “The Winner”), as well as the magnificent production of “Peer Gynt” in Latvian based on G. Ibsen. In the original language, A. Shapiro presented to the audience Rainis' Golden Horse, Gunars Priede's Snowy Mountains, Mary Zalite's Water of Life, etc.

Along with his work in the theater, Adolf Shapiro taught at the Latvian Conservatory. In this university, he completed 3 acting courses and 1 directing course.

The last most sensational work of Shapiro on the Riga stage was the play "Domocracy", based on the works of I. Brodsky.

In Russia

In 1992, the well-known and beloved composer Raimonds Pauls, who at that time held the post of head of the Ministry of Culture of Latvia, signed an order to reorganize the Theater for Young Spectators. Thus, the Riga Youth Theater, which was considered one of the best in the territory of the former Soviet Union, ceased to exist, and Adolf Shapiro himself, who suddenly lost his beloved offspring and the opportunity to create, decided to leave the country.

In the Moscow Vakhtangov Theater in 1994 he was entrusted with the production of "Pretty Liar" by J. Kilty. She was positively received by the metropolitan public. More4 years later, his play "Bumbarash", staged at the Samara Youth Theater, was nominated for the prestigious Golden Mask award. Successful was his collaboration with the Theater. Mayakovsky. There, the director staged the play "In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel" (Tennessee Williams).

Other works

In 2000, Adolf Shapiro staged an innovative production of Maxim Gorky's play "At the Bottom" on the stage of O. Tabakov's Studio Theatre. And in 2001, the Samara audience saw the premiere of the play "Mother Courage" based on the work of Bertolt Brecht. In addition, in 2004 Adolf Shapiro's production of "The Cherry Orchard" on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater with the incomparable Renata Litvinova as Ranevskaya was a great success.

In 2007, the director became the head of the art projects of the Youth Theater A. A. Bryantsev and presented the audience with the play "451 degrees Fahrenheit" by Bradbury.

Adolf Shapiro: personal life

The director has been married twice. From his first marriage, he has a daughter, Rozana, and in 2001, the director's current wife gave birth to his son, Arseny. The age difference between the brother and sister who lives permanently in Canada is 38 years.

Second marriage revitalized the director, and he believes he got a second chance to start life again.

Now you know what interesting works Adolf Shapiro (director) has presented to the audience for more than half a century of his creative activity. Even today, he continues to delight theater lovers with new productions that surprise with their novelty.reading a seemingly long-known literary material.

Although Adolf Shapiro has never lacked offers from the leading theaters in Russia, he himself believes that his only love is the Riga Youth Theater. However, the director is not going to return to the Latvian capital. Although once he attended the premiere in his favorite Youth Theater. It was a one-man performance during which the exile Mikhail Baryshnikov read the poems of the outcast poet Brodsky, and Adolf Shapiro, once excommunicated from his beloved theater, watched all this from the auditorium.