Distinguished Artist of Russia

(Born 22.04.1938)

Anisimov graduated from the Leningrad State Theater Institute named after A. Ostrovsky in 1961 (Ye.I. Timeh’s class). Anisimov played in many theaters, both in St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia, among those were the Leningrad Leninsky Komsomol theater (1961-1964) and V. Komissarzhevskaya Drama Theater (1964-1969), where he had played a whole series of major roles: Matti (Puntilla and His Man Matti by B. Brecht), Alastair (The Millionairess”by B. Shaw), Yaichnitsa (The Marriage by N. Gogol), Bezhan (If the Sky Were a Mirror by N. Dumbadze). In 1969 – 1972, the actor worked at the Mayakovsky Theater in Norilsk; in 1973-75, he performed on the stage of the Lermontov Russian Drama Theater in Alma-Aty.   Creative explorations of Alexander Anisimov were also connected with directing. In 1971, he worked as Assistant Director at the Norilsk drama theater. In 1972, he directed C. Perrault’s Puss in Boots and Orekhov’s Tit for…. In 1987, already on the stage of the Pushkinsky Theater, he directed Don Juan, a play by H. Figueiredo (together with Tamara Anisimova).

Already a professional master, Alexander Anisimov came to the Pushkin Theater in 1976. Almost immediately after that, he became the theater's leading. In his very first seasons, he luminously played in the performances Fairness is my Craft”by L. Zhukhovitsky (Shapkin, 1977), Children of the Sun by M. Gorky (Chepurnoy, 1978), Ivanov by A. Chekhov (Doctor Lvov, 1978), Over the Light Water by V. Belov (Chairman, 1979), Talents and Admirers by A. Ostrovsky (Velikatov, 1980), Live and Remember by V. Rasputin (Guskov, 1980), Vassa Zheleznova by M. Gorky (Melnikov, 1983), Alexandr Nevsky by V. Belov (Vladico Kirill, 1990), etc. In the quarter of a century, he had played over forty major and bit part roles. Each time, a full scale personage would appear on the stage, with human joys and sorrows, unique character, habits and weaknesses. Alexander Anisimov always contributes a lot of details into his roles; he tries to reveal all secret motivations of his character’s behavior.

Alexander Anisimov has been involved with pedagogical practice for many years. He became director-pedagogue at the theater-studio at the Leningrad Institute of the Railway Transport Institute in 1975. In 1976, this theater-studio became laureate of the International Festival of student theaters in Lublin (Poland) for its performance A Hundred of Bestuzhev Brothers  by Goller.  Alexander Anisimov had worked at this theater-studio for over 10 years. Since 1997, he is Associate Professor of the direction chair at the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theater Arts.

Today’s repertoire of Alexander Anisimov includes the role of Svistunov in Gogol’s The Inspector General (Director Valery Fokin).  In Andrey Moguchy and K. Filippov’s performance “The Fortune” he plays the role of a member of the Orchestra of Forgotten Instruments’ Souls (Director Andrey Moguchy, 2011).