Drama queen: actress Yevgeniya Dobrovolskaya has died
Yevgeniya Dobrovolskaya, an actress who served for more than 30 years in the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, who embodied on stage and on the screen a variety of images, from comedic to deeply dramatic, has died. However, and the life of the actress was full of dramatic turns. Pages of the biography of Evgeniya Dobrovolskaya recall "Izvestia".
Profession for life
Evgenia Dobrovolskaya was born in Moscow on December 26, 1964. Her mother was Deputy Minister of Chemical Industry of the USSR, her father - shop manager at a large enterprise. As later recalled the artist herself, parents left home early in the morning, returned late at night, so that she was left to herself. But she was not embarrassed by this: she chose her own activities with a childlike determination. Eugenia went to a variety of circles, gymnastics and figure skating, and at the age of six independently came to the ballet studio under the guidance of Tatiana Postnikova, where at the age of six danced the part of the princess in the ballet "Bremen Musicians".
At an older age in place of passion for ballet came love for the theater - seriously and for many years. Dobrovolskaya independently came to study at the studio theater at Krasnaya Presnya under the guidance of Vyacheslav Spesivtsev, at the age of 14 played there Juliet in Shakespeare's tragedy and finally decided that will become a professional actress.
After graduating from school, Eugenia went to enroll in a theater university, but failed the exams in GITIS and LGITMiK. Not planning to retreat from her goal, she got a job as a cleaner in the theater and began to prepare for further conquest of acting universities. And the next year, luck smiled on her: Dobrovolskaya became a student of GITIS, falling into the course led by Lyudmila Kasatkina.
Screen and stage
Characteristic and bright Eugenia during her studies was not easy. On the one hand, in her acting talent could not doubt even strict teachers. Especially as a freshman, she successfully passed the audition, got the main role of Olesya in the movie "Cage for canaries. There, on the set, she met her first husband - actor Vyacheslav Baranov. Teachers discouraged her from early marriage and childbirth, convincing that it is incompatible with the acting career, but Dobrovolskaya, having given birth to a son, continued her studies, after which she joined the Gorky Moscow Art Theater.
Andrei Zhitinkin, director, People's Artist of Russia:
I knew Zhenya as a deep dramatic artist, but I didn't suspect that she was so light, and such a hooligan. She accepted any of my improvisational decisions. I regret that she was not fully revealed in another role. Evgeniya Dobrovolskaya never refused to play roles. She was very much loved by Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov. Because she was a wand. Tabakov believed in her very much. He supported talented artists. He headed the committee on titles and prizes. And achieved that she was given the People's Artist of Russia at the age of 40. So Evgenia Dobrovolskaya became the youngest People's Artist.
Zhenya was very modest. And was even embarrassed by her title. She used to say: "Yes do not announce my titles. I must be known to the audience by the works. And was right. Not so much she played in the movie, but very memorable, especially in melodramas. She had many novels, and many children. And she carried them all herself. Because sometimes men did not help.
Her appearance on the theater stage was in the years of the capital theater boom, and Eugenia Dobrovolskaya had to go to, perhaps, the most interesting scenes. After the Gorky Moscow Art Theater, she went to the studio theater under the direction of Oleg Tabakov, and later, having met with Mikhail Efremov, went to the young and bold theater created under his leadership "Sovremennik-2".
Actress Yevgeniya Dobrovolskaya (Ada) in the play "Pismovnik" directed by Marina Brusnikina based on Mikhail Shishkin's novel at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater.
But the main thing for her was the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, where for three decades she went on stage in many classic plays, having managed to play heroines of different ages in a variety of genres - Sophia in the comedy "Woe from Wit", Marina Mnishek in "Boris Godunov", Krivtsova in "The Burghers". And in the classic Chekhov's "Seagull" for his stage biography Dobrovolskaya managed to perform two roles - Nina Zarechnaya, Arkadina and Masha.
In the movie Dobrovolskaya also accompanied success. She has always had enough roles in the movie and on TV - from comedy in "Male Zigzag" and "Midlife Crisis", to dramatic in "Queen Margot", where she played Marguerite Valois. However, more than anything else, the actress is remembered by viewers for her memorable appearance and talented acting in many people's favorite TV series - such as "Killing Force", "Artist", "Happiness by prescription", "Plot".
Viewers and critics have repeatedly noted the extraordinary organicity of Dobrovolskaya on the screen - no matter, in comedy pictures or tragic plays, in classical plays or experimental productions. In 2005, the actress was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation.
Strong woman
The personal life of Evgenia Dobrovolskaya was not easy. The first husband of the actress was a colleague on the set Vyacheslav Baranov, with whom she created a family in 18 years. In marriage, the couple had a son Stepan, who later went into business.
Soon after the divorce, Dobrovolskaya married director and actor Mikhail Efremov - then director of the theater "Sovremennik-2", in which the actress then served. In her second marriage, she also had a son - Nikolai Efremov, who later starred with his mother in the TV series "White Guard".
Dobrovolskaya's third official husband was the cinematographer Dmitry Manannikov, with whom she divorced in 2022. Four children - three sons and a daughter - she raised, not giving up cinema and theater, and never wanting to become a housewife. The profession chosen in childhood remained a vocation for life.
Actors Yevgenia Dobrovolskaya and Igor Zolotovitsky in a scene from the play "9th row. 10, 11 place" based on the play by Yulia Pospelova and directed by Denis Azarov at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater (MHT).
In the last year of life, the actress fought a serious illness. About her passing was reported on the website of the theater, to which she devoted herself until the last days. "Our Zhenya, infinitely talented and fearless and equally infinitely doubting, unpredictable, extremely sincere, real always and in everything. Exactly Zhenya - despite the unconditional authority, merits and anniversary dates (on December 26 we congratulated her on her 60th birthday), no one in the theater called her Evgenia Vladimirovna. Neither in life, nor in her work, she did not calm down, not "bronze", she continued to guess a ruffled and vulnerable teenage girl from her debut film "Cage for Canaries". For the past year, she has been fighting a serious illness. Literally fought - persistently, without giving up hope. But with all the thirst for life and stubbornness of spirit physical strength was finite. The first role of Evgenia Dobrovolskaya in Chekhov's Moscow Art Theater was Nina Zarechnaya in "The Seagull" (then she had to play all the heroines of this play). In her performance it was a soul, tearing into flight. Such was Zhenya herself. Fly", - wrote Evgeniya's colleagues.
