New-York tribune., 1922-08-28
Moscows Art
'Theater To Be
Here 8 Weeks
Players Agree TO Come Only
To New York After Ex-
tensive Negotiations Cow
ering S eve N Montlas
Soviet Gives Permission
Dramas viii Be Offered i'm
Their Native Tongue, but
TransIations Will Be Made

Russia's Moscow Art Theater. per-
haps the foremost playhouse in Eu-
rope, is to make It's frst visit to Amer
ice, pisying in New York for linn n
engagement OF eight weeks next
JANUARY.
Following seven months Of exten-
sive negotiations, F. Ray Comstoek
and Morris Gest yesterday announced
the receipt of a cablegram which as
sures this city of the appearance of
this company OF Moscovite players.
The Soviet government has given the
organization leave of absence from
Moscow for seven months from next
January. Under the conditions of the
leave it must return to its home stage
in time to celebrate the silver jubilee
of it's founding in the early autumn
of 1923.
The Moscow Art Theater players will
appear only in New York and will
be under the direction IF Morris Gest.
The repertory will consist of perhaps
ak or seven productions. All the lead
ing members OF the company are TO
make the trip.
Plays To Be in Russian
The scenery, the costumes and the
properties used in the original pro-
ductions in Moscow are being brought
over The two artistic and executive
directors of the thsater ever since its
beginning, the sole founders In fact
Constantin Stanislavsky and vladimir
Nemirovitch- Dantchenko, will be at the
head of the company when 1T comes
here. Stanislavsky is the organiza-
tion's and also Russia's leading actor.
Four of the plays which will be pre-
sented here have been agreed upon.
They are: "Tsar Fyodor 1vanovitch," :"
an historical tragedy of this days fol
lowing the death Of Ivan the Terrible,
by Count Alexei Tolstoy, cousin
of Count Lyof Tolstoys INA
Dnye" or @The Lower Depths" known
here as might Lodging" by Maxim
Gorky, and sThe Three Sisters" and
"The Cherry Orchard by Anton
Tchehoff. Nine. Olga Knipper, widow
Of Tchehof, is member of the COM
pany. All of the productions are to
be in Russian, but English translations
of the plays are being prepared and
will be ready when the ticket sale
starts
Arrive in January
The negotiations which resulted in
the Moscow Art Theater's cabled ac
ceptance OF the invitation to appear
here were made possible through the
assistance of two agencies, Nlklta
Balieff. who negotiated between Nor
ris Gest and his former associates of
the Moscow Art Theater, and the
American Relief Administration, which
facilitated the cable communications
ard cemented the friendship between
the artists Of the two countries by the
distributions in the form of food for
the starving artists in Russia of the
sum collected at the benefit of the
"Chauve- -Souris" given last spring
under the direction of Nikita Balieff
and Morris Gest. Nikolai Rumiantseff,
business manager of the Moscow Art
Theater, was in New York in June to
conduct negotiations for his organiza-
tigr in person. -, -
The Russian players will arrive
early in January. On the way to this
country they probably will stop off TO
play brief engagements in Berlin
Paris and London, according to Nikita
Balieff, founder of the "Chauve-
souris.' Balieff obtained his training
on the stage of the Moscow Art The
ater. In 1905, following the 1905 rev.
olution, the organization had it's first
major experience outside the borders
Of Russia, making a tour which took
in Warsaw, Berlin and Vienna. Me-
gotiations were under way in 1914 for
an engagement in London, but they
fell through with the declaration of
war.