Background
Orochko was born in the village of Shushenskoye, Yeniseysk Governorate, where her family had been sent as political exiles. As a daughter of exiles, Orochko was forbidden to attend public schools under the Czarist regime.
Orochko was born in the village of Shushenskoye, Yeniseysk Governorate, where her family had been sent as political exiles. As a daughter of exiles, Orochko was forbidden to attend public schools under the Czarist regime.
She graduated from a private high school in Tula in 1916. From 1916 to 1919 she studied agriculture in Moscow, at the same time pursuing a career in drama.
Years later, visitors to Orochko"s apartment would be puzzled to see portraits of Lenin and Krupskaya hanging among religious icons. Vakhtangov appreciated her abilities as a tragedian and cast her in many traditionally male roles, including Horatio and Hamlet. During the Great Patriotic War, she performed for soldiers at the front lines, and was named a People"s Artist of the Russian SFSR in 1947.
Orochko is best remembered as an acting teacher and theatrical organizer.
Beginning in 1922, she taught acting at the Vakhtangov School, later renamed the Shchukin Acting School. Her students included Vladimir Etush, Boris Khmelnitsky, Aleksandr Grave, and Alla Demidova.
She was described as the "godmother" of the Taganka Theatre, because so many of its founding members had been her students. She died in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.
1922 - Turandot by Carlo Gozzi, directed by Yevgeny Vakhtangov - Adelma 1924 - Lev Gurych Sinichkin by Dmitry Lensky, directed by Ruben Simonov - Surmilova 1926 - Marion Delorme by Victor Hugo, directed by Ruben Simonov - Marion Delorme 1926 - Zoya"s Apartment by Mikhail Bulgakov, directed by Aleksei Popov - Alla Vadymivna 1930 - Intrigue and Love by Friedrich Schiller, directed by Pavel Antokolsky - Lady Milford 1932 - Hamlet by William Shakespeare, directed by Nikolay Akimov - Gertrude 1937 - Guilty Without Fault by Alexander Ostrovsky, directed Iosif Rapoport - Kruchinina 1941 - Before Sunrise by Gerhard Hauptmann, directed by Alexandra Remizova - unknown role 1944 - Rain by Alexander Ostrovsky, directed by Boris Zakhava - Madwoman 1946 - Electra, directed by Yevgeniya Gardt - Electra 1949 - Conspiracy of the Condemned by Nikolai Virta, directed by Ruben Simonov - Hanna Licht 1930 - Tempo by Nikolai Pogodin 1942 - The Immortal by Aleksei Arbuzov 1942 - Our Correspondent by Izrail Metter 1952 - The Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare.