Granovsky Aleksey Mikhailovich (born Abraham Azarkh) (11 September 1890, Moscow – 11 March 1937, Paris) — stage director, founder of GOSET (Moscow State Jewish Theatre).
Born into a wealthy intelligentsia family, in 1891 he and many other Jewish families were expelled from Moscow and relocated to Riga, where Granovsky completed gymnasium in 1909. In 1910, he entered the directing class at the School of Stage Art in Saint Petersburg, graduating a year later. From 1911 to 1913, he trained at the Theatre Academy in Munich and later in Berlin under Max Reinhardt, whose influence shaped his work.
In early 1914, he returned to Riga and in April debuted at the New Riga Theatre with Eduard Verhaeren’s play Philip II, which was performed over forty times prior to the outbreak of the First World War, which brought theatre activities to a halt. In November 1916, in Petrograd, the Jewish Theatre Society was established, and Granovsky argued early on for the necessity of a theatrical school.
During 1917–18, Alexey Granovsky and his wife Azarkh‑Granovskaya, later a GOSET instructor, lived in Norway and Sweden. There he taught directing and began writing a theoretical work on theatrical art, developing his method for constructing a synthetic performance integrating text, acting, scenography, costume, music, movement, gestures, and pauses—an approach that became central to his later work.
Returning to Petrograd in spring 1918, he staged Oedipus Rex in the circus arena and later Sadko and Faust at the Opera Theatre. In late 1918, by the initiative of the Jewish Section of the Commissariat of Nationalities, he established a chamber-theatre studio that became the nucleus of the future State Jewish Theatre, GOSET, whose company included luminaries such as Solomon Mikhoels and Vladimir Zuskin.
In 1920, Granovsky moved to Moscow, merging his studio with a local group to formally establish GOSET. Early productions included Sholem Aleichem’s An Evening of Sholem Aleichem. At the 1921 Comintern Congress, he staged Mayakovsky’s Mystery-Bouffe in German at the State Circus arena.
By April 1922, GOSET received premises on Malaya Bronnaya Street with a 500-seat auditorium, opening with Uriel Acosta by Karl Gutzkow. Subsequent notable productions included Goldfaden’s The Sorceress, Sholem Aleichem’s Two Hundred Thousand, Moykher-Sforim’s The Travels of Benjamin III, and I.L. Peretz’s Night in the Old Marketplace. The latter two were later featured in the US publication The Hundred Best Productions in the World.
Venturing into film in 1925, Granovsky directed Jewish Happiness. His productions featured set designs by artists such as Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Réne Falk, Marc Chagall, A. Tyshler, and N. Altman, and music by S. Rozovsky, who had returned to Riga in 1920. In 1926, he was awarded the title of Honoured Artist of the RSFSR.
In 1928, GOSET toured Western Europe to great acclaim. However, Soviet authorities, uneasy with the ideological independence of the theatre, instructed the troupe to cancel US engagements and return. Granovsky was the sole member who refused, citing obligation, and remained in the West.
While in exile, he directed Roar, China by S. Tretyakov at the Leipzig City Theatre, Der Streit um den unteren Grisch by Stefan Zweig at the German Theatre, and Uriel Acosta at Habima. He also produced five films, of which Taras Bulba attracted the most attention.
About: Актеры и режиссеры. Театральная Россия. (Actors and Directors. Theatrical Russia). Moscow, 1928;
Azarkh‑Granovskaya, A.V. Беседы с В.Д. Дувакиным. (Conversations with V.D. Duvakin). Moscow, 2001;
Ivanov, V.V. ГОСЕТ: Политика и искусство 1919–1928 (GOSET: Politics and Art 1919–1928). Moscow, 2007.