From the beginning of the XIX century there was an Alexeyev’s factory on the spot of The Theatre Art Studio. The Alexeyevs were a prosperous, bourgeois family, their factories manufactured gold tinsel for military decorations, uniforms and vestments.

In the end of the century Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev (stage name  “Stanislavsky”, that he adopted in 1884), became the director of the factory.

We all know Konstantin Stanislavsky as a great actor and the director of the theatre, but he also was an enthusiastic engineer and managing director of the factory. Konstantin Alexeyev came to work at the factory in the early 1880s. In the early 1890s, he started a major reorganization of the factory. He equipped it with the latest technology and introduced into practice the method of galvanization.

Apart from the technical reorganization, Stanislavsky was willing to improve the cultural life of the workers. That’s why he organized a choir, reading room and a theatre, that consisted of an amateur team of workers. Among other authors, they staged Ostrovsky and Chekhov.

There was an immense interest in the theatre, and Stanislavsky even constructed a small theatre building in 1904, where the theatre worked until 1909.

Later this building was adapted to the needs of the cable plant. After 1917, the factory was nationalized and given the name “The electrical cord”.

Almost 100 years after the advent of the theatre for workers passed and on the 1st of March 2008, in the restored theatre building The Theatre Art Studio celebrated house-warming.

Now the auditorium consists of 230 seats — approximately the same quantity as at the time of the factory’s theatre. The dimensions of the scene are very close to that scene’s dimensions too.

During the reconstruction Alexander Borovsky, our designer-in-chief, aimed to preserve the spirit of the factory on the one hand and to combine it with domestic cosiness on the other hand.

He preserved the authentic bricks (it was plastered and painted white), Monier archs (archs under the ceiling in the buffet and auditorium), outward copper wire and ancient ventilating system. The disposition of the scene and seats remained the same as it was in the time of Stanislavsky.

To create a domestic atmosphere Alexander Borovsky decided to put a long family plain fare in the foyer, where the audience can get acquainted before the perfomace. Antique furniture was found in the wold flea markets. We also have the “authors corner” — the portraits of the writers, whose works are on our stage. And also a bookcase, where one can look through their books.

In 2008 Alexander Borovsky was awarded with International Stanislavsky Prize for the creation of the interior of The Theatre Art Studio.

Alexander Borovsky says: “I like the very moment when the audience come to the theatre. Three people, ten, one hundred… One is having a conversation, sitting on the sofa, another one is drinking tea at the table, here a young man has opened a bookcase, and here a girl has taken a bite of apple… I have the feeling of holiday. Every evening is like someone’s birthday here. And every performance is like house-warming”.