Demidov, Nikolay Vasilievich

Father is a textile manufacturer, Vasily Viktorovich Demidov (1835-1908), mother is Yevlampiya Vasilyevna (1847-1931), brothers are Vladimir and Konstantin.

He received his first professional experience as a theater actor and director at the People's Theater under the Ivano-Ascension Society of Sobriety, established by his father.

A doctor by training, a man of diverse culture, Demidov came to the Moscow Art Theater in 1911 as one of the theater's adherents and, according to Stanislavsky , became his selfless enthusiast.

Since 1920, Demidov taught classes on the "system" of Stanislavsky at the Bolshoi Theater Opera Studio, led by Stanislavsky. In 1921 he organized the 4th studio of the Moscow Art Theater (in 1925, the 4th Studio of the Moscow Art Theater was transformed into a Realistic Theater , and Demidov left it). In the years 1922-1925 he led the school of the Art Theater.

Subsequently, Demidov worked as a director and teacher at the Opera Theater. K. S. Stanislavsky, at the Musical Theater named after Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, and in the late 1920s - at the Moscow State Conservatory and in the studio at the Moscow Chamber Theater .

Stanislavsky in 1926 wrote about Demidov:

This is a man full of love for art and a dedicated enthusiast. At present, I think, this is one of the few who know the "system" theoretically and practically.

In 1934, Stanislavsky invited Demidov as an editor to work on the book “The Work of an Actor on Himself”. In the preface to the book, Stanislavsky expresses sincere gratitude to Demidov (Stanislavsky K. S., Vol. 2, C.8).

From 1942 to 1945, Demidov was the artistic director of the Karelian-Finnish National Drama Theater . In the late 1940s, he was the chief director of the Buryat-Mongolian Music and Drama Theater .

N.V. Demidov wrote several books on the practical pedagogy of acting. In the works of Demidov, a unique sketching technique was proposed, which allows developing creative abilities of young actors. Demidov’s technique did not imply any independent work for the actors, and constant monitoring and control of the teacher was required. In many ways, the method of Demidov was contrary to the method of Stanislavsky; for these and other reasons, the technique was banned for a very long time, and books were not printed.

Followers of the Demidov methodology:

• Since the 1980s, the methodology of Demidov has been developed by the St. Petersburg director Pavel Podervyansky at the Dramatic Improvisation Theater .
• Based on the Demidov methodology, a methodology for training actors by Igor Afonchikov in the Igor Afonchikov Actors Laboratory was developed. Also, the technique was applied in the training of professional dancers.
• Etudes of Demidov were used by teachers on the course of Oleg Kudryashov in GITIS.
• Master classes according to the Demidov method are conducted by director and teacher Andrei Malaev-Babel
• In RGISI (St. Petersburg), the methodology of Demidov is actively used in the workshops of V. M. Filshtinsky , L. V. Gracheva (teachers: Alisa Ivanova and Andrei Zagorodnikov)
• Since 2015, the Acting Laboratory of the School of N. V. Demidov has been working in Moscow (supervisor Yevgeny Serebrova, under the supervision of A. A. Malaev-Babel) ^[1]

Manuscripts of N. V. Demidov have not been published for a long time.

Only in 1965 through the efforts of Demidov’s students was published, in an abridged version, the book “The Art of Living on the Stage”.

Until 2004, Demidov’s manuscripts were kept by his student, O. G. Okulevich .

In 2004, the archive was completely donated to the Theater Library in St. Petersburg. From that moment, the Theater Library began publishing a series of books "The Creative Heritage" by Demidov.

Published works of N.V. Demidov

• N.V. Demidov. The art of living on stage / Foreword by B. N. Livanov and M. O. Knebel . - M .: Art, 1965. - 383 p.
• N.V. Demidov. Creative heritage. - In 3 t . - SPb. : Hyperion, 2004 .-- T. 1, Prince. 1-2. The art of the actor in his present and future. Types of actor. - 416 p. - ISBN 5-89332-108-1 .
• N.V. Demidov. Creative heritage. - In 3 t . - SPb. : Hyperion, 2004 .-- T. 2, Prince. 3: The art of living on stage. - 557 p. - ISBN 5-89332-106-5 .
• N.V. Demidov. Creative heritage. - In 3 t .. - St. Petersburg. : Hyperion, 2007.- T. 3, Prince. 4: Creative art process on stage. - 475 p. - ISBN 978-5-98187-199-3 .
• N.V. Demidov. Creative heritage. - In 3 t. / Ed. M.N. Laskina. - SPb. : Hyperion, 2009 .-- V. 4, Prince. 5: Theory and psychology of the creativity of an actor of an affective type: additions, miscellaneous, biographical materials, from correspondence .. - 653 p. - ISBN 978-5-903368-39-6 .

Stanislavsky system

• Karelia: encyclopedia: in 3 tons / hl. ed. A.F. Titov. T. 1: A - J. - Petrozavodsk: Publishing House PetroPress, 2007. S. 296-400 pp., Ill., Maps. ISBN 978-5-8430-0123-0 (t. 1)

• Article by A. L. Ushakov: Study technique by N. V. Demidov as an innovative method of educating a novice actor (inaccessible link)
• Page Z.a. Russia A.I. Romantsova, dedicated to N.V. Demidov .
• Article about N.V. Demidov .
• An article in the newspaper Evening Petersburg “Who could doubt the Stanislavsky system?”
• An article in the journal "Questions of the theater"
• V. Ts. Naydakova. ABOUT N.V. DEMIDOV ( Neopr .) . Petersburg Theater Journal No. 21 2000 (January 15, 2000). Circulation date May 25, 2019.