ABSTRACT
As the eighth child of the family, Vsevolod Meyerhold had to work hard to make an impression. He was born into the affluent family of the German vodka distiller, Emil Meyerhold, on 28 January 1874, and, recognising that he would never inherit the family business, he developed a closer relationship with his mother, Alvina, than with his businessman father. Meyerhold began reading for a degree in law at Moscow University in 1895, after graduating with some effort from his school in Penza. Meyerhold's love of innovation may also explain why he accepted Stanislavsky's invitation to return to his Alma Mater as co-director of the Theatre Studio. For this project, entirely funded by Stanislavsky's own money and therefore independent of the main theatre, offered Meyerhold an opportunity to develop an alternative directorial approach – what he called stylisation. By the end of that year Meyerhold had left the Moscow Art Theatre for a second time and was bound for St Petersburg.
