Hra na celý život – Finkelstein Eitan (2025)

The collection of short stories 'A Game for a Lifetime' depicts the life story of the Russian-American theater impresario Anatoly Borisovich Kron-Astrachansky. However, the overall thematic scope of the book is much broader than the biography of a single person. It narrates the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary theatrical life in the capitals and especially in the 'Pale of Settlement' designated for Jews, which in Tsarist Russia was located in the territory of present-day Belarus and Ukraine, about Russian theater artists in exile and their efforts not only to survive but also to succeed in Berlin and Paris, New York and Hollywood. An important layer for the author is also the complex issue of Russian-Jewish relations and the socio-political atmosphere of the time, enriched by a cultural component. According to the author, among other things, he sought to describe the unique cultural situation that existed in the world during the 1920s and 1930s. The reader will learn details about Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and the foreign tours of his Music Studio, about Russian, French, and American audiences, about the theater backstage, about Konstantin Stanislavsky, the Jewish theater Habima, about Alexei Granovsky and his Jewish Chamber Theater, about Mikhail Chekhov, and many others.