page_title: Moscow State Jewish Theatre
section_title: Founding and early years
hierarchical_section_title: Moscow State Jewish Theatre / Founding and early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo taken in Paris, 1921
context_page_description: The Moscow State Jewish Theatre, also known by its acronym GOSET, was a Yiddish theatre company established in 1919 and shut down in 1948 by the Soviet authorities. During its time in operation, it served as a prominent expression of Jewish culture in Russia under Joseph Stalin. Under its founding artistic director, Alexander Granowsky, productions were heavily influenced by the avant-garde trends of Europe and many reflected an expressionistic style. Summertime tours to rural shtetls were extremely popular. At the end of a 1928 tour in Germany, Granowsky defected to the west, and Solomon Mikhoels became artistic director in his place. During Mikhoels' tenure the theatre branched out beyond classic Yiddish theatre productions to include works by Soviet Yiddish writers and William Shakespeare. The theatre continued to operate during World War II in Moscow and, after the evacuation of the city in 1943, in Tashkent. Mikhoels was murdered by the MVD in 1948 and his successor, Benjamin Zuskin, was arrested shortly after. In 1948 the Soviet authorities ordered the theatre to be shut down along with all other Yiddish theatre companies in the Soviet Union.
context_section_description: It was conceived in 1916 and founded in 1919 by Alexander Granowsky as the Jewish Theatre Workshop in St. Petersburg. Early productions were offered at Maly Theatre, a small, 80-seat space. On April 1, 1920, after the capital was changed to Moscow, the company was moved at the request of Anatoly Lunacharsky and became the Moscow State Jewish Theatre. Lunacharsky, the Soviet Minister of Enlightenment at the time, saw the company's potential to spread the Bolshevik message to the Jewish population of Russia and abroad.
  Once in Moscow, the company began utilizing a house which was confiscated from a Jewish merchant by the name of L. I. Gurevich who had decided to flee the city around the time of the Russian Revolution. The house, which was built in 1902, consisted of three floors. The second floor featured a large living room that was converted into an auditorium consisting of 90 seats. The kitchen, which was directly adjacent to the new auditorium, was turned into a stage. The first and third floors were reserved for the actors and their families. The house-turned-theatre would later be named Chagall Hall after designer Marc Chagall. The design of the foyer, as well as decorations, sets, and costumes for its first production were done by Chagall. However, this would be Chagall's only collaboration with Granowsky, as the two could not get along.
  January 1, 1921 was the date of GOSET's first performance in Moscow, a production called An Evening of Sholom Aleichem. A year later, the company relocated to a substantially larger auditorium on Malya-Bronnaya Street capable of seating 500 people.
caption: Photograph of Marc Chagall taken in 1921, the same year he would design the sets for GOSET's first Moscow production, An Evening of Sholem Aleichem
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