ABSTRACT
Stanislavsky became part of United States history in 1923 and 1924, when he and his famous Moscow Art Theatre toured the country. His photograph, published in newspapers of the day, shows a tall, clean-shaven gentleman of 60, his shock of white hair thinning on top, his lips tensely set in a prim smile, a pince-nez perched on his nose. The political context into which he stepped was at best ambivalent, at worst hostile toward Soviets, and he was immediately pulled into its vortex. He and senior members of his company became the first Soviet citizens to visit the White House, nine years before the United States recognized the Bolshevik government as legitimate. Stanislavsky’s native country not only mirrored but magnified the politically suspicious atmosphere. Stanislavsky had found some of his most eager students on the very eve of his beloved Theatre’s apparent demise.
