Adolf Shapiro: creativity and personal life of the director

Shapiro Adolf Yakovlevich - the director, whose name thundered in all corners of the former USSR and Europe, thanks to bold theatrical productions, breaking all stereotypes. His work and biography is devoted to this article.

Childhood

Adolf Yakovlevich Shapiro was born in 1939 in Kharkov. The childhood of the director of the general public is not known, but it is unlikely that during the war years any Soviet children had happy and unburdened difficulties and losses. Especially difficult Shapiro accounted for the name Adolf, which caused unpleasant associations and even hatred among others.

Subsequently, the director has repeatedly said that he is grateful to the fate that allowed him to be born in the same house at the address. Chernyshevsky, 15, where he lived then quite a young, and subsequently famous literary critic Lev Lifshits.

In 1949, the scientist was sent to "camps" on charges of cosmopolitanism. Adolf Shapiro, whose family did everything to save the remaining luxury from the descendants of the famous Riga timber merchant, could not come to himself for a long time. What was his joy when, after the rehabilitation, Lifshitz undertook to "pull up" the neighbor's boy-dvoechnik and instilled in him a love of literature. He advised him to enter the theater institute.

Study

In the late 50-ies A. Ya. Shapiro entered the Theater Institute of Kharkov. There he established himself as not the most disciplined student. In particular, he was repeatedly seen walking in a full theatrical costume and makeup of Vladimir Lenin in the square at the Mirror Jet, before going to the rehearsals of Pogodin's famous play. In parallel with his studies, he decided to practice directing in practice. To this end, Shapiro created his own theater studio, where he staged the plays "Gleb Kosmachev" by M. Shatrova and "To see on time" L. Zorina.

First steps in Riga

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

In the capital of Latvia, Adolf Shapiro began to work at the Riga Youth Theater. With his arrival, this theater acquired all-Union fame and was talked about not only in all parts of the USSR, but also in Yugoslavia, Italy, France, Germany, Canada and the USA.

In 1964, Adolf Yakovlevich headed the Theater for Young Spectators and staged performances "20 Years Later" and "A Man Like Himself," based on the works of Mikhail Svetlov. These two productions determined his further creative career as a director, capable of creating serious theatrical productions for the youth and children's audience, oriented towards their parents.

Further work at the Riga Youth Theater

Among the important theatrical productions of Shapiro, during the period of work in Latvia, one can mention "Chukokkala" (after KI Chukovsky), "Prince of Homburg" (G. Kleist) and "Tomorrow was a war" (BL Vasiliev).

In addition, the audience remembered the performances of the RTYUZ from the 1960s to the 1980s based on the plays by A. Arbuzov ("The City at Dawn" and "The Winner"), as well as the magnificent production of Per Gynt in Latvian by G. Ibsen. In the original language A. Shapiro introduced the audience to the "Golden Horse" Rainis, "Snowy Mountains" by Gunara Priede, "The Living Water" by Mary Zalite, etc.

In addition to working in the theater, Adolf Shapiro taught at the Latvian Conservatory. In this university he issued 3 acting courses and 1 director.

The last most famous work of Shapiro on the Riga stage was the play "Domokratiya", created on the works of I. Brodsky.

In Russia

In 1992, the well-known and beloved composer Raymond Pauls, who at that time held the post of head of the Ministry of Culture of Latvia, signed an order for the reorganization of the Young Spectator Theater. Thus, the Riga Youth Theater, 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 brainchild and the opportunity to create, decided to leave the country.

At the Moscow Vakhtangov Theater in 1994, he was entrusted with the production of "The Lovely Liar" by J. Kilti. It was positively received by the metropolitan public. Four years later, his performance "Bumbarash", staged in 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 the Tokyo hotel" (Tennessee Williams).

Other jobs

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

In 2007, the director became the head of the art projects of the Theater of Young Spectators A. Bryantsev and introduced the audience to the play "451 degrees Fahrenheit" by Bradbury.

Adolf Shapiro: personal life

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

The second marriage breathed into the director new forces, and he believes that he got a second chance to start life anew.

Now you know what interesting works for more than half a century of his creative activity was presented to the audience by Adolf Shapiro (director). Today he continues to please theater fans with new productions, which surprise with the novelty of the reading of a literary material that has long been known to all.

Although Adolf Shapiro never lacked offers from the leading theaters of Russia, he himself believes that his only love is the Riga Youth Theater. However, the director does not intend to return to the Latvian capital. Although one day he attended the premiere in his beloved TYuZe. It was a solo performance during which the exile Mikhail Baryshnikov read the poetry of Brodsky's outcast poet, and behind all this he saw from the auditorium Adolf Shapiro, once excommunicated from his beloved theater.