Joseph raichelgauz biography family. Joseph Reichelgauz

A very informative episode took place on the evening show of Vladimir Solovyov on February 21. Director Iosif Raikhelgauz, protesting against the obvious, decided to prove to political scientist Dmitry Kulikov on his fists that Odessa Alexei Goncharenko, affectionately called Lyoshik Skotobaza, is a worthy person and never a corpse-monger.

Goncharenko and Raichelgauz: the shame of Odessa

Despite the fact that millions of people carefully watched the video filmed by the Bandera gopota, immediately, in the wake of the massacre of the "Kulikovites", in the Odessa House of Trade Unions. Among the group of killers in balaclavas appeared a lipstick steam a niche with a camera - a "soap box", happily filming charred bodies under his own enthusiastic chatter. In this lipped ghoul, any dog ​​was able to identify the former "burp" Goncharenko, who a couple of months ago caught a fofan under a video camera in the prime of the Crimean Spring on Simferopol street.

And so, therefore, the director Raichelgauz convinces from the blue screens not to believe his eyes. In Solovyov's studio, the Donetsk political scientist Vladimir Kornilov and his Russian colleague Dmitry Kulikov tried to engage in polemics with the director. The conversation went something like this: Goncharenko is a murderer or an accomplice!

Vyvsevretiii! .. This is a fake!

It's a lie! He wasn't there!

Yes, but Goncharenko filmed the stream in the House of Trade Unions ... Vyvsevretiii! ..

He came there later!

But there is a video where he says "we burned the separatists" ...

Lies! I don't believe a single word! We have all the moves recorded!

Vyvsevretiii! You lie here every Sunday! You are propagandists!

Right now, I will give it in the face!

Throughout the entire dispute, the director Reichelgauz poured black blood, then sprayed boiling saliva into the studio, and at the very end of the verbal dive, jumping out of his panties in rage, with a twisted face, ran out from behind the counter and began to spew curses, waving his fist over his head. on the path of Solovyov, under the ironic smiles of opponents.

There are no other liberals for you, dear citizens. The time of Herzen and Chernyshevsky is gone forever.

Now only this is in use.

Why would a Russian director have such love for the corrupt creature and the neo-Nazi accomplice Skotobaza Goncharenko?

The case is old. As the Internet resource "Dumskaya.net" suggests, in September 2012, Joseph Raikhelgauz came to Odessa to personally hand over to the young "Rygianal" and deputy chairman of the Odessa Regional Council Goncharenko a certificate of honor from the Union of Theater Workers of Russia signed by Alexander Kalyagin, also known as "Aunt Charlie from Brazil ".

"Dumskaya" cites curious speeches made during the presentation of the diploma, from which bright tears of affection spontaneously come to our eyes: for this - the main thing. Because all those relationship problems that can arise must be resolved through culture. "

Even more stunning is reported by the resource “Ukrainian Truth”: Goncharenko: “Odessa was not a Ukrainian city.

Odessa was created as the center of Novorossia, in which there were Russians, Greeks, Ukrainians, Jews, Bulgarians and others. The Russian language has always been in Odessa, it has not been brought there from somewhere. "

Hey, right-sided people! Would you like to weigh your portion of the fofans of the unprincipled creature?

Indeed, "to betray in time is not to betray, but to foresee!" on Kulikovo Field, we took it, the camp was destroyed. " We recommend:

It would seem, where does Reichelgauz have to do with it?

Yes, despite the fact that his "Theater of the Modern Play" is a miserable and unprofitable institution.

And if you quarrel with Goncharenko, then the faucet of the meager stream of groins received by the theater from seasonal chees in Odessa, or other cities and towns of Ukraine, can be closed at any time.

In Ukraine, after all, they are not aware that the viewer does not go to the performances of Reichelgauz, but is guided by the fact that, “here is a director from Odessa, in Moscow he is in charge of the theater - we must go!” ...

And you can also get into the "wadded" list - and this is quite a trap for a director with a stable ahedzhaknut worldview "oh, forgive us Bandera, ISIS and everything, everything, everything!" Once upon a time, in the most democratic state of the Federal Republic of Germany, in which a crowd of yesterday's Nazis came to power, the government adopted the Berufsverbot position - a ban on the profession.

And for a little something sweet about what kind of genius this is - this very bander-loving director Iosif Raikhelgauz, whose masterpieces, without the help of Google, are unlikely to be remembered even by an amateur theatergoer.

As Wikipedia informs us with reference to the Lyceum newspaper, “Iosif Raikhelgauz was born and raised in Odessa. In 1962-1964 he worked as an electric and gas welder at a motor depot. In 1964 he entered the Kharkov Theater Institute at the directing department, but a week later he was expelled with the wording: "Professional unsuitability." In 1965, Raikhelgauz became an artist of the auxiliary staff of the Odessa Youth Theater.

In 1966 he came to Leningrad and entered the directing department of LGITMiK. And again, in the same year, he was expelled for incompetence. In 1965-1966 he was a stage worker at the Leningrad BDT im. Gorky. In 1966 he entered the Faculty of Journalism of the Leningrad State University, where he was finally able to take up directing: he became the head of the student theater of Leningrad State University. In 1968, Joseph Raikhelgauz left the university and entered the directing department of GITIS, in the workshop of M.O. Knebel and A.A. Popov.

At the same time he worked as a director at the famous student theater of Moscow State University, in 1970 he led student concert teams for servicing the builders of Siberian hydroelectric power plants. In 1971, he passed directing practice at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, but the play “And He Didn't Say a Single Word” based on the story by G. Böll was not allowed to be shown. His pre-graduation performance, "My Poor Marat" based on the play by A. Arbuzov, was staged in 1972 in his native Odessa. "

Hug and cry. The coryphaeus was twice taken out on kicks from theatrical universities, and the first time from a provincial one.

But Melpomene did not let go back to the electric and gas welders.

He left for amateur performances, hitting William, you know, ours, Shakespeare.

On the basis of amateur performances, he grew not weak calluses on his buttocks and took GITIS for starvation.

But he didn’t give up his amateur performances - it’s sacred in the north, among the harsh and well-earning people who yearned for culture, even in the form of an amateur cultural enlightenment.

Fir-trees of the lyceum are fed for a whole year, yes!

The very first performance at the TsTSA was rejected.

With his hack, he was able to get out only in his native Odessa.

Until 1993, he was widely known in narrow circles.

He became a laureate and a luminary only under Yolkin, when the honored and people's titles were handed out for the party card burned in front of witnesses.

In short, a typical representative of the society "Down with routine from the stage of the opera!"

Is it any wonder that Pinocchio from his theater is ready to work for food?

Alexander Rostovtsev

Joseph Leonidovich Raikhelgauz (born June 12, 1947, Odessa) - Soviet and Russian theater director, teacher; People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1999), professor at the Russian Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS), founder and artistic director of the Moscow theater "School of Modern Play". Member of the Public Council of the Russian Jewish Congress. Photo: Wikipedia / Dmitry Rozhkov

If he had not become a director, he would undoubtedly have said his own word in literature.

Matvey GEYSER

ShSP is a recently emerged, and today is very famous Moscow theater - "School of the modern play", which announced its birth on March 27, 1989 with the play "A man came to a woman" by the modern playwright Semyon Zlotnikov. The director of the play was Iosif Leonidovich Raikhelgauz, a director at that time already famous in Moscow theatrical circles. Today I. Raikhelgauz is a Master, recognized not only by the media (how much, alas, depends on it), not only by the mighty of this world, but, above all, by the audience. The path to this recognition was not easy and difficult - I. Raikhelgauz did not ascend Parnassus with an easy gait.

Before the School of Contemporary Play, he studied at various theatrical institutes in Kharkov, in Leningrad; and was expelled from everywhere for incompetence. He was a student at the Faculty of Journalism of Leningrad State University and already at the very finish line, before defending his diploma, he learned that Anatoly Vasilyevich Efros was recruiting for his group at GITIS. Entered. When I was in my fourth year, I staged at the Theater of the Soviet Army "And I Didn't Say a Single Word" based on Heinrich Bel. The performance was noticed. After Galina Volchek and Oleg Tabakov saw him, they invited the novice director (then Reichelgauz was 25 years old) as a full-time director at the Sovremennik theater - this cannot always be dreamed of in a good dream. But it has long been known that good coexists with evil. The play at the Theater of the Soviet Army was filmed.

Very soon the same failure befell Reichelgauz in other theaters. He staged the play "Self-portrait" based on the play by A. Remez at the Stanislavsky Theater, but this performance was also banned. The Taganka Theater did not release the prepared play "Scenes at the Fountain" based on the play by Zlotnikov ", the author, based on whose plays many performances are staged at the" School of Contemporary Play ". At the Stanislavsky Theater, where the play "Self-portrait" was recently deleted from the repertoire, soon after the first showing, the play "The Adult Daughter of a Young Man", staged by Raichelgauz based on the play by Slavkin, was banned. It seemed that so many tangible blows in a short time could, should have stopped the zeal of the novice director, or at least reason with him - after all, there were plays with a hint of “freedom” (for example, “Prize” based on the play by A. Gelman), which allowed put.

Here it is pertinent to ask the question: what is theater for Reichelgauz? It seems to me, to a large extent - the department, as noted by N.V. Gogol, with whom you can say a lot of good to the world. When I visit Reichelgauz performances, I think that he adheres to the principle of the great Voltaire:

"The theater teaches how a thick book cannot do it."

But Raichelgauz teaches the audience little by little, skillfully. He is a true teacher. If we talk about the fact that there is a theater, then the thought expressed by Joseph Reichelgauz is closest to me:

“The best thing people have come up with is theater. Theater is a different life. But not only. Perhaps this is the only place that has retained its uniqueness. What is happening here today will not happen again. And the audience feels and understands that the way it was today, there was no yesterday, and there will not be tomorrow ... Therefore, it is no coincidence that for the majority, from childhood, the theater seems to be a place where another, wonderful, fantastic life is happening "...

For Reichelgauz, theater began in childhood.

ETERNAL MUSIC OF CHILDHOOD

“I was very lucky with the city where I was born and lived the first part of my life. It is a theater city, a music city, a literature city. I'm talking about Odessa. Now it seems that in childhood everything was different there, better ...

We then lived near Privoz on the street with the ridiculous name of Chizhikov, in the old courtyard, which is a theater in itself. In the middle of the courtyard there was a huge acacia ... And around this acacia there were open galleries of balconies, just like in Shakespeare's Globe. Only, unlike Shakespeare's theater, the actions in our courtyard took place mainly in the audience seats ... "

It was an ordinary Odessa courtyard, where performances took place every day, and especially in the evenings. The inhabitants of the yard loudly, with enthusiasm discussed the events of the day that had passed in Odessa in general, and in the yard on Chizhikov-99 in particular. Of course, they talked about events of international importance, but this worried them much less than the menu for the evening. In general, the inhabitants of Odessa courtyards knew more about each other than each of them knew about themselves. That is why Reichelgauz aptly called Odessa a city-theater.

Joseph Raikhelgauz was born in post-war Odessa, in 1947. Recalling his early childhood, he says:

“We lived very hungry, in a communal apartment, in a walk-through room, in the middle of which there was a potbelly stove. My father was a tank driver, a motorcycle driver. Mom worked as a typist secretary in the Odessa power system. Mom took me to kindergarten. Later she told me that from kindergarten I often brought her a piece of bread and demanded that she eat it. "

And here I will again ask myself the question: why in this city, which has experienced many troubles, Jewish pogroms, so many high talents were born. Odessa is a city of paradoxes. Giving the world the first racketeers (Benya Krik, Freym Grach), she presented humanity with much more high talents in the field of art and science. The list of those would be very impressive: academician Filatov and artist Utesov; Babel, Olesha, Bagritsky are great writers; Oistrakh, Gilels, Nezhdanova are outstanding musicians ... Odessa raised them, and then generously gave their children to the whole world. And in fact, all the famous Odessans in their youth, in their youth left their hometown, lived and died anywhere: in Moscow and St. Petersburg, New York and Tel Aviv, in Paris and Vienna - but not in Odessa. Probably, they loved their city so much that they did not want to upset it with their funeral. Scattered all over the world, Odessans, united by a common destiny, origin and ineradicable love for their native city, constitute today, in my opinion, a certain new, unknown even to scientists, but really existing certain cosmopolitan ethnos.

In this ethnos there is and will forever remain the name of the remarkable Odessa resident Joseph Reichelgauz, the grandson of Meir Hanonovich Reichelgauz, who came to Little Russia in the 19th century from Lapland long before the revolution. He was a hardworking and honest man who never renounced the Torah and Talmud. For many years he was the chairman of the leading Jewish collective farm in the Odessa region, which bore the name of a prominent fighter for Soviet power A.F. Ivanova.

In his novella "Apples", created in 1967, Joseph Reichelgauz writes:

“My grandfather is ninety-three years old. He lives in a small village near Odessa, in a blue house with a red tile roof.

There is a huge apple orchard around the house ...

Having begged my grandfather, I stay with him to sleep right in the garden in the hay, and when it gets so dark that you can't hear either the garden or the house, when it seems that the ground is completely empty, and you are now alone on it, when everything is silent except distant barking of dogs and rustling of leaves somewhere near the face, I snuggle up to my grandfather and ask him to tell about the war ... "

It is appropriate here to talk about the father of Joseph Reichelgauz. He was a man of true courage, a full holder of the Orders of Glory, a man who went through the entire Great Patriotic War, marked with high awards. Returning from the front, he worked as a driver, auto mechanic, motorcycle racer. To improve the financial situation of the family, my father recruited to the far North, and when he returned with the money he earned, he bought an old "emka". “When the whole family was solemnly leaving the gates of our house, ... my father's“ emka ”, stumbling on those very slabs of Italian volcanic lava (as you know, Odessa was largely built by Italians - M.G.), made a ringing or rumbling, or some other sound that can only be compared with the performance of a giant jazz band. All my father's wrenches and wheel rims ... sang in different voices, and it was music - the music of my childhood ... "

I quote Joseph Reichelgauz so often, because I am sure that if he had not become a director, he would undoubtedly have said his own word in literature. I told him about this more than once, and maybe someday we will witness the appearance of the writer Joseph Reichelgauz. I want to believe…

In the meantime, let's return to his Odessa childhood. It was somewhat reminiscent of the childhood of Kataev's heroes Gavrik and Petya Bachey from the book "The Lonely Sail Is Gleaming White" ... Joseph attended school, where it was considered a special valor to escape from lessons to the beach. “The sea is always a competition and struggle: who will swim faster, who will dive deeper, who will catch more fish ... We, of course, tried to fry the caught fish or dry it and sell it to the first holiday-makers, and this also had a special competitive spirit ...” And, of course, here, in Odessa, the boy Joseph Raikhelgauz knew his first love. Of course, he was in love with his classmate. “I started writing very early, in the second grade. I kept a diary, it was not even a diary, but scattered notes about the events of my life: today a new girl came to our class. I really liked her, she has beautiful curly hair and an iron wire on her teeth. How nice it would be to sit at the same desk with her! .. ”This was Joseph's first, but not the only school love. There was also a girl with a very beautiful name, Jeanne. Joseph recalls her in his novella Tragifars in the Backlight: “I had a friend, Shurik Efremov. During one of his trips to the sea, Shurik drowned. I remember how, before my very eyes, in a few hours, Shurik's father turned from young to old ..

When at Shurik's funeral we followed the car with the coffin, they gave me a wreath to carry. On the one hand, I held him, and on the other, Jeanne. I was suffocated by the feeling of grief, loss and incomprehensibility that one of us was still yesterday, and today he is no longer, and at the same time I felt awe and joy, because I was walking next to the girl I liked. I caught then the tragic or comic compatibility of happiness and great misfortune ... "

MY FAVORITE THEATER GENRE IS TRAGYFARS

I want to warn readers right away - in my essay there will not even be an attempt to study, let alone comment on the art of theater created by Joseph Reichelgauz. The purpose of my story is different - I want to talk about that notable theatrical phenomenon, whose name is "School of the modern play." In today's Moscow, where there are not dozens of theaters, but hundreds, very few directors have been given the opportunity to create their own theater, not only unlike others, but having its own special face. Reichelgauz certainly succeeded. To create such a theater, one needed not only talent, but also courage and courage. Once in a conversation with Joseph Leonidovich, jokingly, I noticed that such an act could have been done only by the son of a full Knight of the Orders of Glory. To believe that modern drama exists is not given to everyone, but perhaps only to Joseph Reichelgauz.

I could confirm this hypothesis with the posters of most Moscow theaters. Let's be fair - before Reichelgauz, few, very few directors undertook to stage performances based on the plays of modern playwrights. However, probably, everything has its time - performances based on plays by Rozov, Shatrov, Gelman (Vampilov and Volodin are a special case) at the end of the 80s have clearly “matured”. And no one dared to stage plays based on the plays of Petrushevskaya, Slavkin, Zlotnikov. Grishkovets appeared later. Once Anatoly Vasilyevich Efros burst out the phrase: “It's not about the plays, it's about us, therefore, when I say to myself:“ That's it, there is no modern drama, it means that I'm over ... ”But, nevertheless, not a single Efros did not stage the play based on the plays of young playwrights of the late 1980s.

In addition to Chekhov's "The Seagull," Reichelgauz puts on plays only based on the plays of contemporary playwrights. However, he clearly explained this in one of his interviews: “The Art Theater at the time of its birth was also the theater of a modern play. After all, only later it turned out that Chekhov, Ibsen, Maeterlink, Gorky are classics ...

I love the modern play. It is possible, of course, to spoil the "Seagull" for the hundredth time, and it will not be lost. But to stage (and spoil or not spoil!) A play without a story is a big responsibility! "School of the modern play" - the program of our theater ".

Once I asked Joseph Leonidovich: "Is it obligatory for a director to remain an actor?" And in continuation of this: "If an actor is a play-actor, then a director is a play-actor over play-actors?"

- No, not at all. There are a lot of examples when very good directors never played on stage, or played in their youth, in their early youth. I will not give examples. I can only say that if you correlate a director with some other profession, then it is most likely a composer. This is the conductor. This is most likely not an actor, but an architect. These are the components of the director's profession, in my opinion.

Let it not seem offensive, but, in my opinion, an artist is a performer, and a director is a writer. More than once, even at rehearsals, in the classroom, I expressed the idea that an artist exists only in time. Everything that will come after him will turn into a legend, a story.

And also on the topic "director - actor". I have always believed that a talented actor will not look for the cause of his failures in the director, just as a director who loves his job will find in an actor something that he does not always or does not see in himself at all.

Raikhelgauz is reputed to be a despotic director, a kind of fierce Karabas-Barabas. Frankly, I "overheard" several of his rehearsals and did not see all this, did not even suspect. Or maybe the director needs despotism? In today's Moscow, there is no such "star" group as in the "School of Contemporary Play". I will not name a single name in support of this - I am afraid to miss someone. And yet I asked Joseph Leonidovich about the director's despotism. He answered me:

- To begin with, I'm a cynic. I'm sure the director needs it. When I work with actors, most of all I think about their capabilities, about their talent, what can be achieved from them in this or that performance. And everything else, say, beauty, age, character, if interested in me, then much less. Once, Anatoly Vasilyevich Efros gave a definition to us, his students. So about me, do you know how he responded? Reichelgauz is a naive impudent person. I think that after what has been said, the conversation about my despotism already loses its meaning.

However, it is quite clear that to create your own theater, a theater with its own repertoire, with its own face; theater, recognized not only in Russia, but throughout the world, could be a person with character.

RELEASE FATE

As a child, Joseph Reichelgauz dreamed of becoming an actor or writer. And sometimes, like all residents of Odessa, he is a sailor. Remember how Babel said exactly: "In Odessa, every young man - until he gets married, wants to be a cabin boy on an ocean ship ... And we have one problem - in Odessa we are getting married with extraordinary tenacity ..." - he got married on time, once and, it seems, forever. But there were many adventures in his life. He was not yet 16 when he accidentally got into the Odessa Youth Theater - a popular theater in the city. His first role on stage was the role of a Petliurist in the play How the Steel Was Tempered. There he also played lyric characters. Two years earlier, at the age of fourteen, he loudly announced to the family that he did not want to go to school anymore. “Then my father took me to his car depot and designed me as an electric and gas welder. In the heat, lying on the asphalt, I welded pieces of iron. This is how the father established the coordinate system and the starting point ... "

Then, after the Odessa Youth Theater, there was a theater institute in Kharkov, from where the young Raichelgauz was soon expelled for incompetence. A little later he left for Leningrad, entered the theater institute. And from here he was excluded with the same wording. Mom came to Leningrad to fulfill her father's instructions: bring Joseph to Odessa, let him return to the motor depot. On this occasion, Joseph Leonidovich recalls: “Imagine what it was like to return to Odessa and tell all relatives and friends that I was kicked out ... My mother and I were sitting in the room of the Oktyabrskaya hotel, she was thinking about what to do, and all the time wept. It was then that I composed a small literary sketch "Raindrops" ... "And here again I want to demonstrate with a small quote the great literary talent inherent in the poet Reichelgauz.

"Night. Quiet. Drops knock on the tin of the window - they knock on the room. Lights in horses opposite. Why are they, after all, people have to sleep? Somewhere far, far away, the surviving locomotive beats off its last songs. Laughing at him and not allowing himself to look, the plane sang.

Night. Quiet. Drops knock on the tin of the window - they knock on the room. Suddenly a bell rings. I pick up the phone - they made a mistake at the other end.

Night. Quiet. Drops cry on the tin windows - they ask to enter the room ... Hey, at the other end! Make a mistake again! I'll read poems to you. "

These lines were written in Leningrad, at the Oktyabrskaya Hotel in 1964. From the memoirs of Joseph Leonidovich:

“I tried to persuade my mother to leave me in Leningrad, but she already had two tickets to Odessa. Imagine how difficult it was to change something. But my mother, who took me to a music school as a child, probably understood in her heart that it was impossible, should not be taken away from Leningrad. If it were not for the decisiveness of my mother in those days, I would not be who I am today. "

In one of the conversations with me, Iosif Leonidovich said: “My motto is 'let go of fate', and then you will turn exactly where you need to. More often than not, this is what I do. After all, I ended up in the Sovremennik theater by chance, also by chance, by the will of fate. Galina Volchek and Oleg Tabakov, having watched the play I did not say a word, staged by me in the theater of the Soviet Army, resolutely invited me to their Sovremennik as a full-time director. That day I was the happiest person in the world ...

But back to our Odessa. I was in my fourth year at GITIS, when the director of the Odessa Theater named after the October Revolution, Vladimir Pakhomov, allowed me to stage Arbuzov's play "My Poor Marat" in his theater. By that time, she had already bypassed almost all the theaters of the USSR, and in Odessa it was staged for the first time and, of course, made such a splash that can only be made in Odessa. Among the “comments” I remembered one: “Some student from Moscow with the impossible last name Raichelgauz put on an eerie play“ My Poor Marat ”in our Odessa Theater named after the October Revolution. And there was this comment in the main Odessa newspaper "Znamya kommunizma". Believe it or not, it was after the staging of Poor Marat in Odessa that I first had the idea of ​​creating a theater for a modern play. "

This story of Joseph Leonidovich provoked me to the question: does the surname Raikhelgauz hinder him in his position? This is what he answered me: “If I changed my surname, I would consider it a betrayal in relation to both my father and grandfather. He sincerely considered the Talmud not only the main, but also the only book in his life. That is, the question of the theatrical pseudonym never existed for me. You are not the first person to ask me this. Once a similar question was asked to me by Dmitry Dibrov. Do you know how I answered? Reichelgauz is my omnonym. I took it a long time ago, my real name is Aleseev (as you know, this is the name of Stanislavsky). This Hochma has become widespread, but I repeat: I have not renounced my surname, my ancestors, and I will not give it up. "

This answer prompted the following question to be asked: did Joseph Leonidovich feel anti-Semitism?

“I will twist my heart if I say that I didn’t feel it. More than once in previous years, especially when I was young, I felt overt anti-Semitism. Until 1989, I was not allowed to travel abroad, although my work was going on all over the world. I hated and still hate the communists for the hypocritical regime that existed under them, for their games of friendship between peoples. Do I care about the Jewish topic? As you already understood, I do not refuse from my people, from my surname, but I am a person of Russian culture, Russian art. And I always say this out loud.

Do I Feel Anti-Semitism Today? Maybe yes. But in my work, this does not bother me. I even think that this is a good opposition, a counterpoint, which makes it possible to be in shape. "

When asked how Joseph Leonidovich relates to those who previously hid their Jewishness, renounced their own surnames, taking the names of their wives or pseudonyms, and today became "outstanding" Jews of Russia, actively participating in "public Jewish life," Joseph Leonidovich did not even consider necessary to answer - grinned, and that said it all. However, in vain I asked this question to a person who is completely immersed, is, belongs to Russian culture, Russian art; to a person who, in one of his interviews, expressed the following thought:

“In the last decade I began to understand what the world is, what my profession is, I realized the place of OUR RUSSIAN THEATER and OUR RUSSIAN CULTURE in the world ...

I can do what I think is necessary and interesting. "

Geniuses live by their own laws

Once I invited Joseph Leonidovich to meet with the students of the Marshak Pedagogical College, of which I am the director. He readily agreed. The large assembly hall was overcrowded. Of course, the most interesting episode of this meeting, which lasted almost two hours, was the reading by Reichelgauz of poems by Pushkin, Tyutchev, Bagritsky, Okudzhava.

And although Iosif Leonidovich himself does not consider himself an actor, in reality only a true, born artist can feel poetry and read poetry this way. I believe that one day the disc "Joseph Reichelgauz Reads" will be released. The maestro answered dozens of students' questions, and in each of the answers there was a thought about the closeness of the professions of a teacher and a director. The question arose about genius and villainy. Joseph Leonidovich answered unequivocally:

“Unfortunately, I don't even agree with Pushkin. In my opinion, genius and villainy are compatible. I could give you many historical examples to support this. I will say this: villainy begins when people forget the Ten Commandments. "

Someone asked if an artist can be a bad person? To which, again without thinking, Joseph Leonidovich replied: “Yes. But in this case, the phrase "bad person" requires a special explanation. A real artist withdraws into himself so deeply, delves into his work that he becomes extremely and frankly intolerant of everything and everyone that interferes with his work, and therefore may seem like a bad, unbearable person. "

Probably, the dedication inscriptions made by Joseph Reichelgauz on his book “I Don't Believe” say a lot: “It all depends on you”, “Excerpts from life”, “If you don’t believe - read it”, “Come to our theater”. And he wrote to one student: "Let go of fate!"

I talked with Joseph Reichelgauz more than once, I often visit his theater, I fell in love with the troupe. When I watch the performances of the ShSP, I listen to Joseph Leonidovich, then most often the words he said come to mind: “A genius lives according to a different law. Whether you accept it or not, he is not interested. "

I would like to end this publication with the following thought: I cannot imagine today's Moscow without this theater at the corner of Neglinka and Trubnaya; without a person, with all his being, creating that atmosphere in art, whose name is Joseph Reichelgauz.

Once, in an interview with Joseph Leonidovich, the following words escaped:

“Every artist deserves the role that he plays, and every director deserves the theater he directs. If now I could start over - and there were a lot of things in my life: when I was fired, performances were closed - I would still not change anything ... "

Such words could be uttered by a truly happy person, a person who, perhaps, without suspecting it himself, would reread Michel Montaigne himself: “You cannot judge whether anyone is happy until he died ...” Joseph Leonidovich, thank Dogu, realizes his happiness during his lifetime and generously donates his art to people ...

We express our gratitude to the daughter of Matvey Geyser Marina for the archives of the famous writer and journalist, one of the leading experts in Jewish history, provided to our editorial office.

On June 12, 1947, director Joseph Reichelgauz was born, founder and artistic director of the Moscow theater "School of the modern play"

Private bussiness

Joseph Leonidovich Raikhelgauz (71 years old) was born in Odessa in a family of immigrants from the first Soviet Jewish collective farm named after Andrei Ivanov, where his grandfather, in whose honor the boy was named Joseph, served as chairman. My father went through the entire war from the first day to the last, was a tanker and wrote his name on the Reichstag. After the war he worked as a driver. Mother Faina Iosifovna worked as a stenographer. She sang well, had an excellent ear, and all of Joseph's childhood took him and his sister to the Odessa Opera House.

From childhood, by his own admission, Joseph Reichelgauz was a bully and bully. At the age of four, he broke the glass on the honor roll at the Ivanov collective farm, not finding his grandfather among the foremost workers, at five he was expelled from kindergarten for disgraceful behavior, and at twelve he tried to sail across the Black Sea on a makeshift ship and see Turkey.

At the age of 14, Joseph announced that he no longer wants to study, but rather become "the captain of a ship or conductor." After that, his father brought him to the motor depot and made him an apprentice of a gas-electric welder.

In 1964, Iosif Raikhelgauz entered the Kharkov Theater Institute at the directing department, but a week later he was expelled with the wording: "Professional unsuitability."

Returning to Odessa, I accidentally saw an ad: “The Youth Theater urgently needs an artist. Size 48 ". “I wore the 46th, but went to the theater right there. I thought that they would ask me to read something, but the director with the words: "Now we will check", - took me straight to the wardrobe department. All the costumes they tried on me turned out to be great. Nevertheless, I was accepted into the troupe, because the artist for whom they were sewing unexpectedly entered VGIK and left for Moscow, and the season had to be played out. This artist was Kolya Gubenko, ”said Raikhelgauz. Thus, in 1965 he became an artist of the auxiliary staff of the Odessa Youth Theater.

In 1966 he came to Leningrad and entered the directing department of LGITMiK. And again he was expelled for incompetence - this time a few months later.

In 1965-1966 he was a stage worker at the Leningrad BDT im. Gorky. In 1966 he entered the Faculty of Journalism of the Leningrad State University, where he was finally able to take up directing: he became the head of the student theater of Leningrad State University.

In 1968, Joseph Reichelgauz left the university and moved to Moscow, where he entered the directing department of GITIS, in the workshop of Maria Knebel and Andrei Popov. At the same time, she also worked as a director at the famous student theater of Moscow State University and led concert student teams for servicing the builders of Siberian hydroelectric power plants.

In 1972 he staged his pre-graduation performance "My Poor Marat" based on the play by Alexei Arbuzov in his native Odessa. After that, Arbuzov invited him to his Higher Literary Courses, where L. Petrushevskaya, V. Slavkin, A. Kazantsev, A. Kuchaev and others studied at that time still unknown to anyone. “And we, directors, plunged into literature, began to read it, understand it and even created our own“ Second Arbuzov Studio ”. We were the first to stage the performances of these authors, ”Raykhelgauz recalled.

In 1971, Raikhelgauz underwent directorial, so-called "contemplative" practice at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army. “Future directors should have just sat and watched others put on their plays. It seemed terribly boring to me. I invited two good artists, staged with them a sharp performance based on the novel by Heinrich Belle "And I Didn't Say a Single Word" and showed them to the chief director of the theater, my teacher Andrei Alekseevich Popov, "said Raikhelgauz. The commission from the political department of the army banned the staging of the play, but the chief director of the Sovremennik theater, Galina Vovchek, found out about an interesting production and invited him to her theater.

“To our shame, to Sovremennik, we were cool at that time, considering it a theater without directing: the actors gathered and played for themselves. Then all en masse were carried away by the great Efros, Tovstonogov. Perhaps that is why I also took my acquaintance with this theater somehow frivolously: I, 25, appeared before Galina Volchek and Oleg Tabakov without shyness.

They offered to show them the play, which the artists and I did that night. They played a performance in front of the artistic council, which included the then famous theater critic Vitaly Wulf. He often reminded me of this: “Do you remember, Joseph, why you became a director in Sovremennik? I was the first to say: "Galya, we need to take this boy." A year before the events described, Oleg Efremov left Sovremennik, and Galina Volchek made a bet on the young. She recruited unknown actors into the troupe: Yura Bogatyrev, Stanislav Sadalsky, Elena Koreneva, Kostya Raikin, Marina Neyelova, as well as two directors - Valery Fokin and me, ”said Raikhelgauz.

As a result, in 1973 he was invited to the Sovremennik Theater as a stage director.

His first success at Sovremennik was the staging of the play Weather for Tomorrow, for which the director was awarded the Moscow Theater Spring Prize. Later he staged performances in the theater, awarded with theater prizes and highly appreciated by critics and spectators: "From Lopatin's Notes" by K. Simonov, "And in the morning they woke up ..." V. Shukshin, "1945" (the play was written by Raikhelgauz himself), " Ghosts ”G. Ibsen.

Since 1974 he taught acting in the first studio of Oleg Tabakov.

Since 1975, Raikhelgauz, together with Anatoly Vasiliev, directed the Theater on Mytnaya.

Since 1976, he began to teach the skill of an actor at the GITIS them. Lunacharsky.

In 1977 he was accepted as a production director at the Theater. Stanislavsky, was a member of the directors' board of the theater, released the play "Self-portrait" by A. Remez, but it did not last long on stage. The second play, The Adult Daughter of a Young Man, was not allowed to be released. He began to rehearse it, but in 1978 he was fired due to the lack of a Moscow residence permit. The premiere of the play was already released by Vasiliev.

Since 1979 - director of the Moscow Theater. A.S. Pushkin; from 1980 he also worked at the Moscow Theater of Miniatures (now the Hermitage Theater).

In 1980-1982, Raikhelgauz staged performances in different cities of the country: Lipetsk, Omsk, Minsk, Khabarovsk and others. In 1983-1985 he was the stage director of the Theater of Drama and Comedy on Taganka, staged the play "Scenes by the Fountain" there. In 1985 he returned to Sovremennik, where he worked until 1989.

In 1988, Iosif Raikhelgauz initiated the creation of the Moscow Theater "School of Modern Play", which opened on March 27, 1989 with his performance "A Man Came to a Woman" based on the play by Semyon Zlotnikov. He became the artistic director of the theater and holds this post to this day. He has staged more than 20 performances on this stage.

At the same time, Reichelgauz staged performances in other theaters, including abroad: in the theaters "Koruz" (Switzerland), "Kenter" (Turkey), "La Mama" (USA), the national theater "Habima" (Israel). He works a lot on television, where he staged, in particular, "Echelon" by M. Roshchin and "Picture" by V. Slavkin.

Since 2003, he has been managing the director's and acting workshop at the directing department at GITIS. Since 2004 - professor.

In November 2013, the School of Contemporary Play survived a fire, after which the theater temporarily moved to the Theater Club on Tishinka.

Joseph Reichelgauz regularly conducts master classes, theater sessions, lectures at leading educational institutions abroad: the University of Rotchester (USA), the Higher Theater School in Lausanne (Switzerland), the Conservatory of Marseille (France), the University of Tehran (Iran).

Joseph Reichelgauz

Dmitry Rozhkov / Wikimedia Commons

What is famous for

Iosif Raikhelgauz is a cult figure of the Russian theater, the founder and artistic director of the Moscow theater "School of the modern play", which he has been directing for more than twenty-five years.

His productions have been going on for decades and become classics. Well-known performances "A man came to a woman", "And what about you in a tailcoat", "An old man left an old woman", "Notes of a Russian traveler", a triptych "The Seagull" and many others.

The School of the Modern Play is the theater of world premieres. Plays by Semyon Zlotnikov, Evgeny Grishkovets, Boris Akunin, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Dmitry Bykov and other contemporary authors were staged on its stage for the first time. There has never been a play staged in another theater. And even when turning to classical drama, they always compose their own new performance.

The theater has repeatedly and successfully toured, participated in prestigious festivals in Germany, France, America, Israel, Finland, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Hungary, Bulgaria, India and other countries of the near and far abroad.

For many years Reichelgauz has been holding the "Characters" competition in its theater. The plays of the winners of the competition are staged on the stage of its theater.

Also, the theater was the first to start holding various club evenings. At one time, Raikhelgauz invited Bulat Okudzhava and arranged an anniversary for him. Since then, the theater has annually held evenings in honor of Okudzhava. He came up with the idea of ​​celebrating October 19 - lyceum day: people of various professions appear on the stage and read their own and other people's poems.

“It happens that I do not release artists on the stage. For example, TV presenters Alexander Gordon, Fyokla Tolstoy. The ballerina Lyudmila Semenyaka played here. I love when people are voluminous in themselves, representing an artistic value that they convey to the audience. It is very important for me that the artist has his own content, in addition to the dramatic and directing, ”says Raichelgauz.

For more than ten years, the director directed the workshop of theater and film artists of the All-Russian Film Academy - VGIK. For many years and at present, Iosif Raikhelgauz has been heading the directing and acting workshops at the department of directing RUTI-GITIS.

What you need to know

Joseph Reichelgauz wrote the books “I don’t believe”, “We got to the zapendu”, “Off-road walks”, “Odessa book”.

“As long as I can remember, I have always written something. And then any director, as must know the laws of fine art, music, and should be able to write. Naturally, this is not my main profession, but I write with pleasure. And I am proud that my book "We got to the zapendu" has already been republished several times. It contains 150 theatrical tales ”. - says Reichelgauz.

He is also a member of the editorial board of the journal "Contemporary Drama" and the author of many publications on the theory of directing, technology of acting, problems of theatrical pedagogy and theatrical art. Currently, two new Reichelgauz books are being prepared for publication.

Direct speech

About the theater:“Talk about the death of the theater has existed for about as long as the theater has existed. In my opinion, there is a live theater and a dead theater. And alive will always be needed.

Live theater is directly related to the life of today's person. When a person cannot understand himself, his loved ones, what is happening around, he has a need to turn to someone. Someone turns to great literature, someone to religion, someone to a psychologist, and someone goes to the theater. And here are the people who go to the theater in order to help them understand themselves and what is happening in life, they are our audience. We are waiting for them in order to learn with them about each other and the time in which we live, something else. Therefore, the theater, as one of the tools for human self-knowledge, does not lose its significance, despite any progress made. And those who want to live not at the level of plants or animals, but still at the level of man, should come to the theater, and the theater should be worthy of those who come here. "

About viewers:“When I stage a play, I look at the stage from the audience and think, first of all, about what would be interesting to me and my family. When I hear from my colleagues or producers the words that the viewer is a fool, he needs a simple entreprise, I want to say: you yourself are a fool, here you are such a viewer and you have what you yourself are. If the director of the viewer thinks more stupid than himself, does not respect him, then he simply has nothing to do in the theater. It seems to me that the viewer is me. To my right sits my mother, to my left my daughter, and I am doing a performance that should be worthy of them and me. "

Writer and TV presenter Andrey Maksimov about Joseph Reichelgauz:“He is not interested in how it is accepted and expected. He wonders how it never happens.

Put on a play without a play. Invite a famous businessman to play on the stage. To spend an evening like there’s never been. Put on a play by a playwright no one knows. To organize a studio at the theater, in which very little ones play very real performances. "

7 facts about Joseph Reichelgauz

• In 1993 he received the title of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, and in 1999 - People's Artist of the Russian Federation.
• He was awarded the Order of Friendship and the Order of Honor.
• He was a member of the Union of Right Forces party. In 2012, he signed an open letter calling for the release of the Pussy Riot members.
• He is a member of the Committee for Civil Initiatives of Alexei Kudrin.
• For more than 30 years he has been married to his former student, actress of the Sovremennik Theater Marina Khazova. In this marriage, two daughters were born - Maria and Alexandra. Maria became an outstanding world-class set designer, Alexandra graduated from the philological faculty of Moscow State University.
• Reichelgauz has an apartment in Odessa with a sea view. The city gave him this apartment, and his children made a design in the form of a ship.
• Joseph Reichelgauz is an inveterate traveler. For many years he has been racing off-road, participating in extreme expeditions on motor vehicles, snowmobiles and jet skis to hard-to-reach corners of the Earth. On account of his travels to South America, Mexico, New Zealand, Uzbekistan, winter Baikal, Southeast Asia, Mongolia, China. The result of each expedition is documentary stories and films from the cycle "Off-road walks".

Materials about Joseph Reichelgauz

Biography of Joseph Reichelgauz

Joseph Reichelgauz: "Everyone is worthy of his life."

Joseph Raikhelgauz: "Oleg Tabakov suggested that I change my surname"

Joseph Reichelgauz: "Live theater will always be needed"

Article about Joseph Reichelgauz on Wikipedia

Iosif Leonidovich Raikhelgauz (born June 12, 1947, Odessa) - Soviet and Russian theater director, teacher; People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1999), professor at the Russian Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS), founder and artistic director of the Moscow theater "School of Modern Play". Member of the Public Council of the Russian Jewish Congress.

Biography

Joseph Raikhelgauz was born and raised in Odessa. In 1962-1964 he worked as an electric and gas welder at a motor depot. In 1964 he entered the Kharkov Theater Institute at the directing department, but a week later he was expelled with the wording: "Professional unsuitability."

In 1965, Raikhelgauz became an artist of the auxiliary staff of the Odessa Youth Theater. In 1966 he came to Leningrad and entered the directing department of LGITMiK. And again, in the same year, he was expelled for incompetence. In 1965-1966 he was a stage worker at the Leningrad BDT im. Gorky. In 1966 he entered the Faculty of Journalism of the Leningrad State University, where he was finally able to take up directing: he became the head of the student theater of Leningrad State University.

In 1968, Joseph Raikhelgauz left the university and entered the directing department of GITIS, in the workshop of M.O.Knebel and A.A. Popov. At the same time he worked as a director at the famous student theater of Moscow State University, in 1970 he led student concert teams for servicing the builders of Siberian hydroelectric power plants. In 1971, he passed directing practice at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, but the play “And He Didn't Say a Single Word” based on the story by G. Böll was not allowed to be shown. His pre-graduation performance, "My Poor Marat" based on the play by A. Arbuzov, was staged in 1972 in his native Odessa.

After graduating from GITIS in 1973, Raichelgauz was hired as a production director at Sovremennik. The first success was the staging of the play "Weather for Tomorrow", for which Iosif Raikhelgauz was awarded the Moscow Theater Spring Prize; among the performances staged in the theater - "From the notes of Lopatin" by K. Simonov, "And in the morning they woke up ..." by V. Shukshin, "1945" (play by I. Raikhelgauz), "Ghosts" by G. Ibsen. Since 1974 he taught acting in the first studio of Oleg Tabakov.

Since 1975, Raikhelgauz, together with Anatoly Vasiliev, directed the Theater on Mytnaya; in 1977 he was accepted as a production director at the Theater. Stanislavsky, was a member of the directors' board of the theater, released the play "Self-portrait", began to rehearse "The Adult Daughter of a Young Man", but in 1978 he was dismissed from his post due to the lack of a Moscow residence permit.

Since 1979 - director of the Moscow Theater. A.S. Pushkin; from 1980 he also worked at the Moscow Theater of Miniatures (now the Hermitage Theater). During 1980-1982, he staged performances in different cities: Lipetsk, Omsk, Minsk, Khabarovsk, etc. In 1983-1985 he was the director of the Taganka Drama and Comedy Theater, staged the play Scenes by the Fountain. In 1985 he returned to Sovremennik, where he worked until 1989.

"School of Modern Drama"

In 1988, Iosif Raikhelgauz initiated the creation of the Moscow Theater "School of Modern Play", which opened on March 27, 1989 with his performance "A Man Came to a Woman" based on the play by Semyon Zlotnikov. Since 1989 he has been the artistic director of the theater, on the stage of which he has staged more than 20 performances.

At the same time, Reichelgauz staged performances in other theaters, including abroad: in the theaters "Koruz" (Switzerland), "Kenter" (Turkey), "La Mama" (USA), the national theater "Habima" (Israel); works a lot on television, where he staged, in particular, "Echelon" by M. Roshchin and "Picture" by V. Slavkin.

In 1993, the director was awarded the title of "Honored Artist of the Russian Federation", and in 1999 - People's Artist of Russia.

Pedagogical activities

Since 1976, Iosif Raikhelgauz taught the skill of an actor at the GITIS im. Lunacharsky, in the 90s he taught at the Moscow Artistic and Technical School (MTKhTU), since 2003 he has been heading the director's and acting workshop at the directing department at GITIS. Since 2004 - professor.

Public position

He was a member of the Union of Right Forces party. In 2012, he signed an open letter calling for the release of the Pussy Riot members.

Performances

1977 - "Self-portrait" by A. Remiz (Stanislavsky Theater)

1984 - "Scenes at the Fountain" (Moscow Theater of Drama and Comedy on Taganka)

"Contemporary"

1973 - "Weather for Tomorrow" M. Shatrov (together with G. Volchek and V. Fokin)

1975 - "From the notes of Lopatin" by Konstantin Simonov

1977 - "And in the morning they woke up" by Vasily Shukshin

1985 - "1945", composition by Reichelgauz

1986 - Amateurs

1986 - "Two Plots for Men" by Viktor Slavkin after F. Dürrenmatt

"School of Modern Drama"

1989 - "A man came to a woman" by Semyon Zlotnikov

1990 - "Everything will be fine as you wanted" by Semyon Zlotnikov

1992 - "What are you in a tailcoat?" Sergey Nikitin, Dmitry Sukharev on the "Proposal" to A.P. Chekhov

1994 - "The old man was leaving the old woman" by Semyon Zlotnikov

1994 - "Without Mirrors" by Nikolai Klimontovich

1996 - "Regarding the Promised Oil" based on songs by Sergei Nikitin

1997 - "... Greetings, Don Quixote!"

1998 - Anton Chekhov. Gull"

1998 - "Karlovna's Love" by Olga Mukhina

1999 - "Notes of a Russian Traveler" by Evgeny Grishkovets

2001 - "An excellent cure for melancholy" by Semyon Zlotnikov

2001 - Boris Akunin. Gull"

2002 - "City" by Evgeny Grishkovets

2004 - “The Seagull. A real operetta "by Vadim Zhuk, Alexander Zhurbin after A.P. Chekhov

2006 - "In My Own Words" performance-improvisation

2007 - "Russian jam" by Lyudmila Ulitskaya

2008 - “A man came to a woman. New version "Semyon Zlotnikov

Joseph Leonidovich Raikhelgauz was born on June 12, 1947 in Odessa. In an interview with a well-known magazine, the director said that he was named after his grandfather. During the war years, his mother Faina Iosifovna worked as a nurse in a hospital in Orenburg, and his father Leonid Mironovich fought in the tank forces and reached Berlin. Joseph Reichelgauz also has a sister, Olga.

In peacetime, the director's mother worked as a secretary-typist, his father was engaged in cargo transportation. At the school where Iosif Leonidovich studied, teaching was conducted in the Ukrainian language. After graduating from eight classes, he decided to continue his studies at the school for working youth, since the exact sciences were difficult for him. He began his career with the profession of an electric and gas welder at a motor depot, where his father arranged for young Joseph.

However, the future director continued to be attracted by creative activity. He did not miss the opportunity to participate in the crowd scene at the Odessa Film Studio. And after graduation, I decided to enter the Kharkov Theater Institute, specializing in "director of Ukrainian drama." Joseph Raikhelgauz successfully passed the entrance tests, the teachers noticed his talent. However, the Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR canceled the exam results due to the national question. Indeed, among the enrolled were three Russians, three Jews and only one Ukrainian.

Returning to his native Odessa, Iosif Raikhelgauz went to work as an actor in the Odessa Youth Theater. A year later, he went to conquer Moscow, thanks to mutual acquaintances, the writer Julius Daniel sheltered him. But he was soon arrested for creative activities that defamed the Soviet system.

Then Joseph Raikhelgauz again changed his place of residence, moving to Leningrad. In 1966 he entered the LGITMiK at the directing department, but due to disagreements with the teacher, Boris Vulfovich Zone, he was again expelled. He got a job as a stage worker at the famous Bolshoi Drama Theater of Tovstonogov and at the same time studied at the Leningrad State University at the Faculty of Journalism. At Leningrad State University, Joseph Raikhelgauz began to stage performances in the student theater.

Creative activity

In 1968, he again went to Moscow to enter GITIS on the course of Anatoly Efros, but as a result he studied with Andrei Alekseevich Popov. In 1972, Raichelgauz staged his graduation performance "My Poor Marat" at the Odessa Academic Theater.

In his fourth year, Iosif Leonidovich did an internship at the Theater of the Soviet Army, where he started staging the play “And He Didn't Say a Single Word” based on the novel by G. Belle. Galina Volchek noticed him and offered to become a full-time director of the Sovremennik Theater.

The first project at the new location was a production based on K. Simonov's story "Twenty Days Without War". Reichelgauz invited Valentin Gaft to play the main role. For the performance "Weather for Tomorrow" in 1973 he was awarded the Moscow Theater Spring Prize.

In 1977, following his teacher, Popov went to the post of production director at the Stanislavsky Theater. He staged the play "Self-Portrait", which was not to the liking of the authorities. As a result, Reichelgauz was fired from the theater, he lost his Moscow residence permit and could not get a job anywhere. Health problems began, the director suffered a heart attack.

He was saved by an invitation to work at the Khabarovsk Drama Theater. In the early 80s, Iosif Raikhelgauz began staging performances in different cities of the Soviet Union - Odessa, Vladimir, Minsk, Omsk, Lipetsk.

In 1983-1985 he worked at the Taganka Theater, but his play "Scenes at the Fountain" was never released due to the departure of Yuri Lyubimov. Then Raichelgauz returned to Sovremennik again.

On March 27, 1989 he presented to the public the play "A man came to a woman." The main roles were played by Albert Filozov and Lyubov Polishchuk. This premiere marked the opening of the School of Contemporary Play theater, in which Joseph Reichelgauz took over as artistic director. Over the thirty-year history of the theater, he has staged about 30 performances on its stage, here are some of them:

• "And what are you in a tailcoat?" by A.P. Chekhov (1992);
• "An old man was leaving an old woman" by S. Zlotnikov (1994);
• "Notes of a Russian Traveler" E. Grishkovets (1999);
• Boris Akunin. Seagull "(2001);
• "Russian Jam" by L. Ulitskaya (2007);
• "The Bear" by D. Bykov (2011);
• The Last Aztec by V. Shenderovich (2014);
• "Watchmaker" I. Zubkov (2015).

Joseph Reichelgauz also staged performances in the USA, Israel, Turkey.

Based on many of his performances, the director made television films: "Echelon", "Painting", "1945", "A Man Came to a Woman", "From Lopatin's Notes", "Two Plots for Men". In 1997 he released a series of programs "Theatrical Bench".

He began teaching in 1974 at GITIS, since 2003 he has been heading the director's workshop there. Since 2000, Raichelgauz has been giving lectures on the history and theory of directing at the Russian State University for the Humanities. In 1994, at the University of Rochester (USA), he taught the course "Chekhov's Dramaturgy".

Personal life

Joseph Raikhelgauz is married to the actress of the Sovremennik Theater Marina Khazova. The future wife was his student. The director admits that he really appreciated her when he was hospitalized after the scandalous dismissal from the Stanislavsky Theater. Unlike many, Marina did not turn away from him and supported him in every possible way. Reichelgauz dedicated the book “I don’t believe” to his wife.

The couple have two adult daughters - Maria and Alexandra. The eldest, Maria, works as a set designer. For her first independent work she received the Golden Mask Prize. The second daughter, Alexandra, graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, performs administrative functions at the School of Dramatic Art.

The eldest daughter gave the director a granddaughter Sonya. In an interview with a journalist, Raikhelgauz admitted that he would like to spend more time with her, but even in his eighties he still disappears in the theater.

Titles and awards:

• Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1993);
• People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1999);
• Commendation from the Mayor of Moscow (1999, 2004);
• Order of Friendship (2007);
• Order of Honor (2014).