Background
ZAKUSHNYAK, Aleksandr was born on March 1, 1879 in Odessa.
narrator and dramatic actor Variety artiste
ZAKUSHNYAK, Aleksandr was born on March 1, 1879 in Odessa.
1906 graduate Philological Faculty, Kiev University.
While still a student performed in dramatic and operetta shows and read Chekhov's humorous stories in variety programs. 1906 professional stage debut. With New Drama Association in Poltava and Tiflis.
1907-1910 at Komissarzhevskaya Theater, Saint St. Petersburg. 1908 toured abroad with Komissarzhevskaya. 1910 gave in Odessa his first 30 concerts — “Intimate Reading Evenings”.
1910-1914 gave concerts in Odessa, Kiev, Kishinev, Kherson, Riga, Yaroslavl’, Kostroma and Moscow. 1914-1918 at the front. After demobilization performed in Moscow at New Theater, 1st Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Theater, Chamber Theater and children's theaters.
1924 resumed his narration evenings. Roles: Prince Myshkin in Idiot (The Idiot), after Dostoyevsky. Raskol’nikov in Prestupleniye i nakazaniye (Crime and Punishment), after Dostoyevsky.
Pelcas in “Peleas and Melesandra”. Belidor in Maeterlinck’s “Sister Beatrice”. Figaro in “The Marriage of Figaro”.
The Fool in Shakespeare's “Tempest”. Productions: stage narrations: Mark Twain’s “The Banknote”. Anatole France’s “Revolt of the Angels” (1923-1924).
Maupassant’s “In Portuguese” (1925). Pushkin’s Yegipetskiye nochi (Egyptian Nights) (1925-1926). Gogol's “Taras BulTra” (1926-1927).
“Katyusha Maslova,” after Lev Tolstoy (1928). Blok’s Dvenadtsat’ (TheTwelve) (1929). Stories by Chekhov, Maupassant, Jack London, Babel’, Mark Twain, Sholom Aleichem, Korolenko, et cetera