Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko was co-founder with Konstantin Stanislavski of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. He also was co-founder of the Acting School at the Moscow Art Theatre and was a director, an acting pedagogue, and playwright.

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He was born Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko on December 23, 1858, in Ozurgety, near Tbilisi, Georgia, Russian Empire (now Ozurgety, Georgia). His father, Ivan Dachenko, was a military officer in the Russian Army. Young Nemirovich-Danchenko was fond of literature and theatre. He studied at Tbilisi Gymnasium, and played with amateur school productions of classic plays. From 1876- 1879 he studied at the department of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. In 1881 Nemirovich-Danchenko published his first story, then wrote several plays and had his plays staged by theatre companies in Moscow and in St, Petersburg. He emerged as a notable playwright, novelist and theatre producer, and was awarded the Griboedov Prize for his popular plays. During the 1890s he taught acting class at the Moscow Philharmonia, where his student were such talented actors as Vsevolod Meyerhold and Olga Knipper-Chekhova.



Nemirovich-Danchenko is best known as the co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre. An independent theatre company was the only way to obtain some freedom of speech amidst the tough censorship in Russia under the rule of the Tsar Nicholas II. In 1897 he joined Konstantin Stanislavski to start what would become the most successful independent private theatre company in Moscow, Russia. In 1898 Moscow Art Theatre began the first season with the staging of "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" by Aleksei Tolstoy. At the same time Nemirovich-Danchenko secured the rights to the production of "The Seagull" (1898), and other plays written by Anton Chekhov. In "The Seagull" Nina was played byOlga Knipper-Chekhova and Treplev by Vsevolod Meyerhold. "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "The Three Sisters", and "The Cherry Orchard", all by Anton Chekhov, were the most acclaimed plays, produced by Nemirovich-Danchenko. His other productions at the Moscow Art Theatre included "The Lower Depths" by writer Maxim Gorky, and "Life of a Man" by Leonid Andreyev among other Russian plays.

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Full Biography On imdb 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0625958/bio