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Another iconic name is Leonid Kolobov, the last manager of the Kursk Theatre and the stage director, the artistic director and an actor. He played on the local stage for more than ten years in the last century.
He worked at the Kursk Drama Theatre from 1915 till 1923, and then again from 1934 till 1935. He was a stage director, an artistic director and an actor. He was awarded the titles of «Honoured Artist of the Republic», and «People's Artist of Ukraine» and was the last entrepreneur of the Kursk theatre.
Leonid Kolobov began his career in 1895 at the Yaroslavl Theatre. From the summer of 1915 to the autumn of 1916, Kursk theatregoers gave priority to the enterprise of Petr Shumsky with Leonid Kolobov, who for many years linked his theatre life with Kursk.
On November 29, 1915, Leonid Kolobov had a benefit performance. He played in the production of «The Tambourine Head» by Fedor Kireev.
«The benefit performance was a real pleasure to see.»
«The audience's love for the artist was expressed in gifts to the beneficiary: he was given a silver liqueur set and two large silver glasses, as well as many flower baskets. A group of Kharkov residents arrived to see Kolobov’s benefit performance and they gave him a large dinner set as a present. They invited him to come to Kharkov...»
In the autumn of 1916, after Shumsky's departure with his almost entire troupe, Kolobov decided to set up his own theatrical enterprise and on October 7, 1916, the first night of the production «The Townsfolk» by Ryshkov took place at the Shchepkin City Winter Theatre. The new entrepreneur had to re-create the troupe, because there was only one actress left from Mr Shumsky’s troop. It was Kolobov’s wife, Maria Drozdova.
Unfortunately, the information about Kolobov’s new productions at that time is very scarce. They were «Sweet Ghosts» by Leonid Andreev, «Miss Gibbs» by Jerome K. Jerome, «Potash and Mother of Pearl» by Simon Saburov, «Pavel I» by Dmitry Merezhkovsky with Leonid Kolobov in the leading role.
A review in the «Svobodnaya Rech» newspaper:
The theater was full.
There was no shortage of
applause and encores
The theatre gave charity performances as well. For example, on December 11, 1916, the theatre sold tickets at the lowest prices for the plays «Labor Bread», and later for «The Truth is good, but happiness is better» by Alexander Ostrovsky.
In the summer of 1917, Kolobov's troupe performed at the Summer Theatre in the Merchant's Garden. The repertoire comprised 39 productions including «To the Stars» and «The Days of Our Lives» by Leonid Andreev, «The Killer Whale» by Alexey Tolstoy as benefit performances of Leonid Kolobov.
In 1917, the newspaper «Svobodnaya Rech» wrote:
«On Thursday, September 28, the winter season at Kolobov’s city theatre will open with the comedy «The Golden Cage» by Konstantin Ostrozhsky followed by «Savva» and «Sweet Ghosts» by Leonid Andreev, «Pavel I» by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, «The Bitter Color» by Alexey Tolstoy, and «The King of the Jews» by Konstantin Romanov. The theatre played a number of comedies such as: «Home Table» by Myasnitsky and «Vova the Revolutionary» by Evgeni Mirovich.»
The October Revolution did not seem to have affected Kolobov’s work. However, the theatre audience became different. Therefore, it was necessary to change the repertoire. Then the civil war broke out and mobilization began…
By the summer of 1918, Kolobov's troupe had shrunk by almost half. In the autumn of 1918, the theatre was taken over by Alexey Zhulyabuzhsky, a director who came from Moscow.
The Kolobovs left Kursk; their whereabouts for the next two years are unknown, but it is assumed that they worked in Kharkov at that time.
In 1920, Kolobov and his wife returned to Kursk from Kharkov and joined the troupe of the 1st City Garden Theatre. At that time the theatre was called «Gospokaz» and was directed by Vladimir Igrenev who was assisted by Zhelyabuzhsky.
On March 16, 1921, Leonid Kolobov celebrated his 25 years on the theatre stage. The playbill had his name with the title: «The Honoured Artist of the Republic». The date of awarding him this title remains still unclear. In 1922-1923, Kolobov staged the play «Across the Ocean» by Yakov Gordin. At the end of the season, the Kolobovs left Kursk.
According to some rumors, in early June of 1934, the city theatre administration negotiated with Kolobov, inviting him to lead the theatre after the Kursk province had been converted into the Kursk region. Kolobov did return but events unfolded differently.
Leonid Kolobov worked as an actor and the artistic director only for the season of 1934 to 1935. In 1934, in «The Philistines» by Maxim Gorky, directed by Alexander Kanin, he played the role of Perchikhin.
Unfortunately, no pictures have been preserved showing Leonid Kolobov in the Kursk Theatre productions.
Kursk mass media wrote about Kolobov the following:
- ...Kolobov's playing of Arkadiy Schastlivtsev in «The Forest» is one of his best achievements;
- ...The citizens of Kursk were able to appreciate the great contribution of Leonid Kolobov, who led the only drama theatre in Kursk for almost three years from 1918 to 1920;
- ...Leonid Kolobov has an exceptional intuitive ability to combine two different states of mind: laughter and tears.
Leaving Kursk, Kolobov went to Omsk, where he played at the Omsk Drama Theatre.
As the actor Alexey Teplov recounted, ‘During the World War II, they often rehearsed at night because the small theatre building couldn't accommodate the schedules of the two theatres: the Moscow Vakhtangov Theatre and the Omsk Drama Theatre. One night they were rehearsing Leonid Leonov's play «The Invasion». Kolobov was playing the role of Talanov. Being tired and exhausted, he failed to follow some instructions from the director Boris Zakhava and started to explain with tears in his eyes:
«I can’t. I’m unable to… I don't know how…». Zakhava shouted back, «You can’t? You are Leonid Kolobov, People's Artist of Ukrainian SSR! You can't say so when there’s a war going on and people are dying on the frontline. How come you admit your helplessness?!» These words seemed to have energized Kolobov; he started to rehearse again and did everything that was required of him.
After the performance, Zakhava came up to him, bowed to him from the waist and said. «You are a brilliant actor. Thank you!»
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