Georgy Tovstonogov (1915-1989) was a theater director, teacher, theatrical figure. People's Artist of USSR (1957), Hero of Socialist Labor (1983).
He was born in the family of a railway engineer. After school he entered the Tbilisi Railway Institute, but he realized soon that the theater is his vocation.
Georgy Tovstonogov started to work in the theater as an actor and assistant of a stage director at the Tbilisi Russian Youth Theatre. In this theater he staged his first performance – “The Proposal” written by Anton P. Chekhov.
After graduating from GITIS in the 1938-1946, he was the stage director of the A. S. Griboyedov Russian Drama Theatre located in Tbilisi, then worked in the Moscow Central Children's Theater.
In 1949, Georgy Tovstonogov staged a play by I. Iroshnikov “Somewhere in Siberia” in the Lenin Komsomol Theatre located in Saint Petersburg, and soon was invited as the chief director of the team, which led from 1950 to 1956.
In early 1956, Georgy Tovstonogov was invited to be the chief director of the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater. He headed this theater for 33 years, making it “the first stage of the country”.
Each of the plays put up by the director became a true cultural event not only in Leningrad but across the whole country. The most popular plays were “The Divine Comedy” of Isidor Shtock (1962), “The Barbarians” (1959) and “The Philistines” (1966) of Maksim Gorky, “Woe from Wit” of Alexander Griboyedov (1962), “Once Again About Love” of Edvard Radzinsky (1964), “Virgin Soil Upturned” of Mikhail Sholokhov (1964), “Three Sisters” of Anton Chekhov (1965), “Henry IV” of William Shakespeare (1969), and others.
The postal card with original stamp depicts a portrait of Georgy Tovstonogov and the building of Bolshoi Drama Theater named after Georgy Tovstonogov.
A special postmark (cancellation: Saint Petersburg) will be manufactured by FSUE “Marka” Publishing and Trading Centre in addition to the issue of a postal card.
Design: A. Yakovlev
Circulation: 13 thousand copies.
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