Lydia Yavorskaya, Theater Star
Popular dramatic actress Lydia Yavorskaya is one of the most controversial figures in the theater world of the early 20th century. Her amazing efficiency and purposefulness were combined with vanity, egocentrism and ambition. Theater critic Suvorin called her a deceitful creature, woven of pretense and envy. Chekhov considered her to be an intelligent woman, but an overly loud and mannered actress. Despite this, there were rumors that they were lovers and that Yavorskaya became a prototype for the actress Arkadina from Chekhov’s Seagull.
Lidia Borisovna von Hübbenet was born on July 22 (August 3), 1871 in Kiev. Her father was a chief of police.
Little girl dreamed of becoming an actress and was happy to take part in amateur, home and charity performances. Yavorskaya’s first performance took place in February 1880.
After graduating from the Kiev gymnasium, she went to Petersburg and enrolled in the dramatic courses of V. Davydov. Lydia was not admitted to the Alexandrinsky Theater. But she did not abandon her goal and went to Paris, where she was taught by the actor of the Comedie Française Theater.
It is said that Lydia married someone called Yavorski while in Kiev, that he was a drunk and/or womanizer, and the girl quickly divorced him.
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