ABSTRACT
The Duke of Saxe-Meiningen was able through simple production methods, without the aid of exceptionally talented actors, to show much of the creative thought of great poets artistically. The productions were realistic because the directors, only having inexperienced actors, had to give them simple things to do artistically, using memories of everyday life as their material. In staging Tsar Fyodor and The Death of Ivan the Terrible, the artists' main concern was to get away from the usual cliched style of production used for historical plays about the boyars in old Russia. The Snow Maiden is a fairy tale, a dream, a national legend, written and recounted in Ostrovski's wonderful, resounding verse. The production of The Snow Maiden was significant in that it marked the debut of an exceptional, highly talented actor, Kachalov, who gradually, but not immediately, achieved great success and the status of a star.
