Korchagina-Alexandrovskaya E.P., (1874-1951), actress

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
KORCHAGINA-ALEXANDROVSKAYA (nee Korchagina, married name Alexandrovskaya, until 1895 her stage name was Olgina) Ekaterina Pavlovna (1874-1951, Leningrad), actress, People's Artist of the USSR (1936). The daughter of provincial actors, she performed in the theatre since the age of nine, starting her professional stage career in 1887. She became famous as a character actress. In 1904-07 in St. Petersburg she was an actress at the Komissarzhevskaya's Theatre, in 1907-08 at N.D. Krasov's Petersburg Theatre, in 1908-15 at the Literary Artistic Theatre Society, and in 1915-45 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. An unsurpassable performer of comic old women, she mastered this character in genre-plays ranging from slapstick to melodrama. Played nearly in all plays by A.N. Ostrovsky, some characters remaining in her repertoire for decades: Domna Panteleevna in Talents and Admirers, Ulita in The Forest, Feklusha in The Storm, and many others. Brilliantly created ethnic Russian characters for plays by N.V. Gogol, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, L.N. Tolstoy, A.N. Tolstoy, and M. Gorky. Performed in many productions of plays by Soviet authors. Her interpretation of the role of the old Bolshevik Spasova in Fear by A.N. Afinogenov (1931) was acclaimed by Soviet critics. The lyrical elements of Korchagina-Alexandrovskaya's talent are connected with the theme of motherhood, which ran throughout her stage career. In 1923, she began acting in films: Ulita in Iudushka Golovlev, and Feklusha in The Storm (1934). Her literary works were published in the collection E.P. Korchagina-Alexandrovskaya: Pages of Life, Articles and Speeches, Memoirs (Moscow, 1955). She received the Stalin Prize in 1943. In 1915-51, she lived at 6/55 Fontanka Embankment (memorial plaque installed). Buried at the Necropolis of the Masters of Arts.

References: Дурылин С. Н. Екатерина Павловна Корчагина-Александровская. М.; Л., 1944.

A. A. Kirillov. Afinogenov Alexander Nikolaevich
Gogol Nikolay Vasilievich
Gorky Maxim (Alexey Maximovich Peshkov)
Korchagina-Alexandrovskaya Ekaterina Pavlovna
Krasov Nikolay Dmitrievich
Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich
Saltykov-Shchedrin (real name Saltykov) Mikhail Evgrafovich
Sukhovo-Kobylin Alexander Vasilievich
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich, Count
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 55/6
Дурылин С. Н. Екатерина Павловна Корчагина-Александровская. М.; Л., 1944 Komissarzhevskaya Theatre
Literary and Artistic Society Theatre
Literary and Artistic Society Theatre
Alexandrinsky Theatre
Necropolis of Artists