Komissarzhevskaya, Vera (1864–1910)
Komissarzhevskaya, Vera (1864–1910)
Russian actress and theater manager. Name variations: Vera Fyodrovna Komissarzhevskaya; Vera Federovna Komisarjevskaya or Kommisarjevskaya, Countess Muravyova. Born Nov 8, 1864, in St. Petersburg, Russia; died Feb 23, 1910, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; dau. of Fyodor Komissarzhevskaya (opera star and teacher); sister of Theodore Komissarzhevskaya (producer and director); trained with father.
Appeared as Betsy in 1st Russian production of Tolstoy's Fruits of Enlightenment under direction of Stanislavsky (1891); was a member of the Alexandrinsky Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg (1896–1902), appearing as Rosy in Sudermann's The Battle of the Butterflies and Larisa in Ostrovsky's The Dowerless Girl, among others; was the leading Russian actress of her day, particularly esteemed by Anton Chekhov and Russian symbolist writers; opened her own theater in St. Petersburg (1904), engaging producer Vsevolod Meyerhold and mounting productions of works by Gorky, Ibsen, Maeterlinck and Blok; unable to turn profit with theater or unsuccessful tour of US (1908), was forced to close (1909); returned to touring provinces to raise money to cover debts but died of smallpox in Tashkent.