Fyodor Volkov
Encyclopedia
Kostroma
Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...
- , Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n actor and founder of the first permanent Russian theater.
The stepson of merchant Polushkin from Kostroma
Kostroma
Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...
, Fyodor Volkov received a versatile education. He established the very first public theater in Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...
in 1750, which would later bring fame to the then-unknown actors Ivan Dmitrievsky
Ivan Dmitrievsky
Ivan Afanasyevich Dmitrevsky is generally regarded as the most influential actor of Russian Neoclassicism and "Russia's first great tragedian"....
, Yakov Shumsky and others. Two years later, Fyodor Volkov and his theater were invited by Empress Elizabeth to perform at her court, but it would soon be dismissed due to its "plebeian" nature. Some of the actors were sent to the Szlachta Corps (Шляхетный корпус) to get education. In 1756, the empress issued a decree on the establishment of the first permanent public theatre in St.Petersburg under the guidance of Alexander Sumarokov
Alexander Sumarokov
Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov was a Russian poet and playwright who single-handedly created classical theatre in Russia, thus assisting Mikhail Lomonosov to inaugurate the reign of classicism in Russian literature....
. Fyodor Volkov assisted Sumarokov in managing the theater and five years later became its director after the latter's resignation. Volkov created the Russian professional public theater of national significance, tied it together with progressive dramatic art, and paved the way for a number of Russian actors.
As an actor, Fyodor Volkov mostly played tragic roles, such as the ones in Sumarokov's plays Khorev (Хорев), The Refuge of Virtue (Прибежище добродетели), Gamlet (Гамлет; Sumarokov's version of Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
), Semira (Семира), Sinav and Truvor (Синав и Трувор), Yaropolk and Demiza (Ярополк и Демиза). Having mastered the art of stage acting, Volkov often deviated from esthetic canons of classicism and chose not to follow the universally accepted rules of solemn recitation. In his plays, Sumarokov would often create characters with Volkov's wild temperament in mind. The latter, however, was a very talented comedian, as well.
The Yaroslavl Theatre has been bearing Volkov's name since 1911.