Alexander Zagarov
Alexander Leonidovich von Fessing was a Yelisavetgrad-born Russian and Ukrainian, Soviet actor and theatre director, better known under his stage name Zagarov.
A Moscow Philharmonic Drama School graduate, Zagarov joined the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898 and stayed with it until 1906. His best-known roles here included Kleshch, Sorin, Publius and Pindarus. All the while he worked in the Yaroslavl theatre, was actively involved with Meyerhold's New Drama and read drama at the Philharmonic Drama School.
In 1909-1910 he headed the Korsh Theatre; then moved to Alexandrinka to act and direct. After 1917 Zagarov worked for ten years in Ukraine. From 1921 to 1927 while in exile, he directed at the Ukrainian Discourse Theatre and Uzhgorod Theater "Prosvita". He taught at the Lviv Drama School, published letters to defend the Ukrainian language in Western Ukraine. In 1924 he played the role of a Ukrainian peasant in the German film "Golden Wolf". He headed the city theatres in Kiev and Kharkiv, and co-founded the Donetsk Music and Drama Theatre. Later he worked in Penza, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Kovrov and Saratov. In 1940 Zagarov was honoured with the title Meritorious Practitioner of Arts of RSFSR. "The master of high culture, tireless experimentor and a proponent of the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko's ideas," was how the Theatre Encyclopedia described him.
