Aleksandr Sanin

Alexander Akimovich Sanin (, né Shoenberg, Шёнберг; – 8 May 1956) was a Russian actor, director and acting teacher. He was a founder member of the Moscow Art Theatre and during his career directed plays, operas, and films.

Biography Born in Berdichev, Alexander Shoenberg studied history and philology at the Moscow University. After meeting Konstantin Stanislavski, who was to become the major artistic influence in his life, he made his stage debut in 1887 with Stanislavski's Society of Art and Literature, with whom he also directed crowd scenes in the Meiningen manner. In 1898, he joined the newly founded Moscow Art Theatre company, at which point he adopted the stage name "Sanin." It was there that he gave his first critically acclaimed performance, as Lup-Kleshnin in Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich by A.K. Tolstoy. In tandem with Stanislavski, Sanin also co-directed Tsar Ioannovich, along with several other productions with the fledgling company, including The Sunken Bell by Gerhart Hauptmann (1898), The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (1898), Men Above the Law by Alexey Pisemsky (1898), The Death of Ivan the Terrible by A.K. Tolstoy (1899), Snegurochka by Alexander Ostrovsky (1900), and The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen (1901).

In 1902, he married Lika Mizinova, a woman with whom Anton Chekhov had once been romantically involved and who served as a prototype for Nina Zarechnaya in The Seagull. That same year, following a disagreement with Stanislavski over the re-organization of the company (which had also prompted the departure of Vsevolod Meyerhold), Sanin moved to the Alexandrinsky Theatre. He remained there until 1907, working as an actor, director, and acting teacher, during which time he sought to propagate Stanislavski's ideas within that company.

In January 1917, Sanin returned to Moscow Art Theatre and stayed until 1919. During this period he produced several plays and operas both for the Bolshoy (Pskovityanka by Rimsky-Korsakov, Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, 1917; Georges Bizet's Carmen, 1922) and Maly Theatres (Posadnik by A.K. Tolstoy, Elektra by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 1918, Ostrovsky's The Forest and Griboyedov's Woe from Wit, 1921). He was the director of three early Soviet films: Devyi Gory (1918), The Thieving Magpie (1920) Polikushka (1922).

He died in Italy on 8 May 1956 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.