Background
Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin was born on November 17, 1788 in Kursk, Russian Federation to a serf family owned by Count G. S. Volkenshtein.
Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin was born on November 17, 1788 in Kursk, Russian Federation to a serf family owned by Count G. S. Volkenshtein.
Shchepkin's freedom had to be bought by his admirers in 1821. Three years later, Mikhail Semyonovich joined the Maly Theatre in Moscow. He was the first to play Famusov in the Woe from Wit (1831) and the Mayor in The Government Inspector (1836). His acting was acclaimed by Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Herzen, and Ivan Turgenev.
Mikhail Semyonovich argued that an actor ought to get into the skin of a character, identifying with their thoughts and feelings; observation of life and the actor's knowledge of their own nature provide the source for an actor's work.