An invitation to reflection
I don’t know how it is in other areas of human activity, but in art—even with enormous natural talent—it is only a reason to hope for success. Here you need at least five or ten different components that together would ultimately produce the desired result. Among them, of course, there is a lucky chance, a fortunate coincidence—but most importantly, diligence, hard work, and endurance.
Oleg Anofriev finished the School-Studio at the Moscow Art Theater and received an invitation to the Central Children’s Theater—one of the most popular in Moscow in the mid-1950s. From the very first days, he was fully occupied with the repertoire. Children’s theaters always experience a sharp need for young actors. It is harder to stay there in mature years: roles become fewer, while applicants become more and more. That’s why those who managed it, having started successfully, then moved on to adult theaters, giving up their place without a fight to younger, more reasonably securing themselves work for the future. It’s enough to remember N. Cherkasov, B. Chirkov, O. Efremov…
Others stayed in youth theaters for life, painfully searching for a transition to new roles. Sometimes fortune turned toward them. Then they began all over again—and were happy themselves and brought joy to others. That happened almost simultaneously to two of our best travesty performers—L. Chernyshova and V. Sperantova—when they started playing mothers and grandmothers.