Rostovtsev, Ivan Alekseevich

(real surname, Ros-tovskii). Born 1873; died June 15, 1947, in Yaroslavl. Soviet director, actor, and teacher. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1944).

Rostovtsev began his career as a prompter and actor. He became a director in 1900 and headed theaters in large provincial cities. After the October Revolution of 1917 he helped create a Soviet theater. He was artistic director of the theaters of Arkhangel’sk, Gorky, Ivanovo, Kuibyshev, Smolensk, and Saratov in 1934 and 1935. From 1942 to 1947 he was artistic director of the F. G. Volkov Theater in Yaroslavl.

A major director of Russian provincial theaters, Rostovtsev staged mainly Russian classics and Soviet plays. His frequently staged productions of Gorky’s plays were especially well known; the best were The Lower Depths, Smug Citizens, The Barbarians, Enemies, The Last Ones, The Old Man, Vassa Zheleznova and The Eccentrics. Other outstanding productions of Rostovtsev were Ostrovskii’s Talents and Admirers and Wolves and Sheep, Korneichuk’s The Front, and Sel’vinskii’s General Brusilov.