Olga Pyzhova

As a child, Pyzhova lived in the Varkava area of Moscow.^[6] She studied at Institute for Noble Maidens^[3][4] but left before finishing to train as an accountant.^[4] After her father died, the family moved to St. Petersburg to be nearer her maternal aunts, including Ekaterina [ru].^[7][4][5] Her aunts introduced her to the world of theatre, inspiring her to become an actress herself. She reached out to MAT director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, who encouraged her to go to Moscow to audition. She was one of two applicants accepted from a pool of more than 200^[4][5] for the 1914/1915 season.^[4][3]

Pyzhova became a student of Konstantin Stanislavski at the First Studio,^[1] where she appeared as Mirandolina in The Mistress of the Inn, Viola and Sebastian in Twelfth Night (1917), and Golpana in Balladyna (1920), and traveled with the troupe to America to appear as Varya in The Cherry Orchard (1924).^[2][3][4] By the time she returned to Russia, the First Studio had become the Second Studio under Michael Chekhov. She rejoined but was not cast in the theatre's new productions.^[4] She and other company members left in 1928 to join Vsevolod Meyerhold's Revolution Theatre, where she worked until 1938. Her appearances there included as Xenia Travern in Man with a Briefcase (1928), Veronica in Anatoly Glebov's Inga (1929), and Nurse in Romeo and Juliet (1935).^[1][4][5]

Pyzhova began directing in the 1920s.^[1][3] In the 1930s, as her eyesight began to fail, she became more focused on teaching and directing than on acting and worked variously at Lunacharsky State Institute for Theatre Arts (GITIS), All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK),^[4][5][3] Yermolova Theatre, and Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre, among others.^[1][7][5] By the late 1930s, she was working at the Moscow State Academic Children's Music Theater with her husband, Boris Bibikov.^[1][3] They both trained ethnic minorities in theatre over the duration of their careers, primarily by holding workshops.^[7] At GITIS, she managed the Karakalpak, Uzbek, Tatar, Tajik, Lezgin, Turkmen, and Moldovan troupes.^[5]

In 1939, she became Russia's first female Professor of Acting.^[4][3] She worked at the Auezov Theater and the Mossovet Theatre during World War II as an actress, director, and teacher.^[1][3] Between 1948 and 1950, she served as artistic director at Moscow Central Children's Theater. She and Bibikov taught acting workshops at VGIK;^[5] their students included Vyacheslav Tikhonov,^[8][3] Nonna Mordyukova, Rufina Nifontova^[3] Ekaterina Savinova,^[9] Svetlana Druzhinina,^[10] Maya Bulgakova, Lyubov Sokolova, Leonid Kuravlyov, Tamara Nosova, Sofiko Chiaureli,^[5] Yuri Belov, and Yevgeny Tashkov.^{[citation needed]} Two of her students at GITIS were Maya-Gozel Aimedova^[11] and Nadezhda Rumyantseva, the latter of which she brought with her to VGIK.^[12]

Her awards included Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1947), People's Artist of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1949), the People's Artist of the Tajik SSR (1964),^[5][1] and a Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945".^[5] In 1950, she and Bibikov were also awarded the State Stalin Prize in the third degree for their production of Sergey Mikhalkov's play I Want to Go Home.^[5][1] Her memoir, Призвание (Calling), written with the help of her daughter, was published by Iskusstvo in 1974.^[13]

Pyzhova and Vasily Kachalov fostered a romantic relationship during his marriage to Nina Litovtseva, who Pyzhova became close to during her time touring America. Her daughter, Olga Vasilievna, was born in 1929; it is disputed whether Kachalov was her father or if she just bore his name.^{[14][8][7][15]} The Olgas remained close with the Kachalovs even after Pyzhova and Vasily's affair ended, so much so that Olga Vasilievna lived with them as a child.^[15] Pyzhova later married actor Boris Bibikov. She died in Moscow on 7 or 8 November 1972^[3] and is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery.^[6][16]