Quick Facts
TaurusBiography
Nikolay Pavlovich Okhlopkov (Russian: Никола́й Па́влович Охло́пков; 15 May 1900 – 8 January 1967), was a Soviet actor and theatre director who patterned his work after Meyerhold.
Okhlopkov was born in Irkutsk, Siberia and started his acting career there in 1918. Since 1930, he directed the Realistic Theatre in Moscow, although his directing style was hardly realistic: he was the first to place spectators on the stage around the actors, in order to restore intimacy between the audience and the company. In 1938, his theatre was closed and he moved to the Vakhtangov Theatre. In 1943 he established the Mayakovsky Theatre, which continues his traditions to this day. Okhlopkov was awarded the Stalin Prize and four USSR State Prizes. He also directed a production of Hamlet at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1954, the first time this play was staged there since World War II.
Selected filmography
- The Bay of Death (1926)
- Lenin in October (1937)
- Alexander Nevsky (1938)
- Lenin in 1918 (1939)
- Lights over Russia (1947)
- Tale of a True Man (1948)
- Far from Moscow (1951)
