Gleser, Hilda

Born June 26 (July 8), 1893, in Viliandi; died Aug. 28, 1932, in Tallinn. Estonian actress and director.

Gleser studied drama with the Finnish actress K. Rantanen. In 1916 she went to work at the Estonia Theater in Tallinn. She appeared simultaneously in the Morning Theater and the Workers’ Theater. Her best roles included Puck (in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), The Woman (in Toller’s Man of the Masses), Electra (in Hofmannstahl’s play of that title), Laura (in Vilde’s The House Spirit), and Tiina (in The Werewolf by Kitzberg). In 1924 she began to work as a director. She staged Capek’s R. U. R. (1925) at the Estonia Theater and Kitzberg’s In the Vortex of the Winds (1927), Toller’s Hoppla! (1929), and Gorky’s Lower Depths (1931) at the Workers’ Theater. She also gave dramatic readings. From 1924 to 1932, Gleser taught at the School of Theatrical Art in Tallinn.