Serafima Germanovna Birman (Russian: Серафима
Ð"ермановна Ð'ирман; 10 August [O.S. 29 July] 1890 â€"
11 May 1976) was a Russian and Soviet actress, theatre director and
writer. She was named People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1946.Serafima
Birman was born in Kishinyov (modern-day Chișinău, Moldova) into a
Russian Orthodox family. Her father German Mikhailovich Birman was a
Stabs-kapitan who served in the 51st reserve infantry battalion of the
Imperial Russian Army. He came from raznochintsy, but was granted
personal nobility after making a successful military career. He
resigned rather early and died in 1908. Serafima described him as a
"lonely, unsociable man... who had little success at finishing things,
like the Moldovan-Russian dictionary he was writing for years". Her
mother Elena Ivanovna Birman (née Botezat) "was a complete opposite".
She came from a wealthy Moldovan family, studied in a finishing school
and married as a teenager. At the time German met and married her, she
was already a 19-year-old widow with two daughters. Serafima also had
a younger brother, Nikolai.She grew up in Kishinyov and graduated from
a local gymnasium for girls with a gold medal. At the age of 11 she
visited a theatre and became obsessed with it. One of her stepsisters,
then a student at the Saint Petersburg medical university, was offered
to play a small part in Konstantin Stanislavski's play. She brought
Serafima a signed photo of him and suggested to enter the Moscow Art
Theatre. In 1908 she left for Moscow and entered drama courses led by
Alexander Adashev; among her fellow students was Evgeny Vakhtangov.
Konstantin Fyodorovich Kazimir [ru], a well-known Bessarabian State
Duma deputy and philanthropist, supported her and paid for the first
year of studying.In 1911 Birman graduated from the courses and became
an actress of the Moscow Art Theatre with the help of Vasily Kachalov,
one of her teachers who sent a recommendation letter straight to
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. From 1913 on she also performed at the
First Studio led by Stanislavski. She played her first big role of
Ortensia in the 1914 adaptation of The Mistress of the Inn play. In
1924 the First Studio was turned into the Moscow Art Theatre II [ru]
by its actors led by Michael Chekhov. Same year Birman debuted as a
theatre director with Love â€" A Golden Book, an adaptation of Aleksey
Tolstoy's play. After a number of internal conflicts the theatre was
finally closed in 1936.
Ð"ермановна Ð'ирман; 10 August [O.S. 29 July] 1890 â€"
11 May 1976) was a Russian and Soviet actress, theatre director and
writer. She was named People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1946.Serafima
Birman was born in Kishinyov (modern-day Chișinău, Moldova) into a
Russian Orthodox family. Her father German Mikhailovich Birman was a
Stabs-kapitan who served in the 51st reserve infantry battalion of the
Imperial Russian Army. He came from raznochintsy, but was granted
personal nobility after making a successful military career. He
resigned rather early and died in 1908. Serafima described him as a
"lonely, unsociable man... who had little success at finishing things,
like the Moldovan-Russian dictionary he was writing for years". Her
mother Elena Ivanovna Birman (née Botezat) "was a complete opposite".
She came from a wealthy Moldovan family, studied in a finishing school
and married as a teenager. At the time German met and married her, she
was already a 19-year-old widow with two daughters. Serafima also had
a younger brother, Nikolai.She grew up in Kishinyov and graduated from
a local gymnasium for girls with a gold medal. At the age of 11 she
visited a theatre and became obsessed with it. One of her stepsisters,
then a student at the Saint Petersburg medical university, was offered
to play a small part in Konstantin Stanislavski's play. She brought
Serafima a signed photo of him and suggested to enter the Moscow Art
Theatre. In 1908 she left for Moscow and entered drama courses led by
Alexander Adashev; among her fellow students was Evgeny Vakhtangov.
Konstantin Fyodorovich Kazimir [ru], a well-known Bessarabian State
Duma deputy and philanthropist, supported her and paid for the first
year of studying.In 1911 Birman graduated from the courses and became
an actress of the Moscow Art Theatre with the help of Vasily Kachalov,
one of her teachers who sent a recommendation letter straight to
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. From 1913 on she also performed at the
First Studio led by Stanislavski. She played her first big role of
Ortensia in the 1914 adaptation of The Mistress of the Inn play. In
1924 the First Studio was turned into the Moscow Art Theatre II [ru]
by its actors led by Michael Chekhov. Same year Birman debuted as a
theatre director with Love â€" A Golden Book, an adaptation of Aleksey
Tolstoy's play. After a number of internal conflicts the theatre was
finally closed in 1936.
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