Luzhskii, Vasilii Vasilevich

(pseudonym of Vasilii Vasil–evich Kaluzhskii). Born Dec. 31, 1869, in the city of Shuia, in present-day Ivanovo Oblast; died July 2, 1931, in Moscow. Russian actor, director, and drama teacher. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1931).

Luzhskii was one of the founders of the Moscow Art Theater and one of its leading actors. He took drama courses at the Society of Art and Literature, which was headed by K. S. Stanislavsky. Possessing keen powers of observation and a rare precision in character shading, he created on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater a number of characters whose individuality had become worn-out and faded—men who had not succeeded in realizing their dreams (Sorin, Andrei Prozorov, and Lebedev in Chekhov’s Sea Gull, Three Sisters, and Ivanov, respectively). He also played the roles of a number of characters who were prosperous nonentities (for example, Professor Serebriakov in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya). His best roles also included Fedor Pavlovich Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov, a play based on Dostoevsky’s novel. Luzhskii made important contributions to the direction of performances at the Moscow Art Theater, especially in the staging of mass scenes (for example, in The Brothers Karamazov and in Andreev’s Anathema). He taught at the A. I. Adashev School and at the Moscow Art Theater studios.