ABSTRACT
WE were faced by a great deal of labor in the preparation of a repertoire for the winter. Besides, we were confronted by a first season of daily performances, which were to be
prepared at all costs during the summer months. Where were we to begin working? We had no theatre of our own, for the one we had rented was to pass into our bands only with the beginning of September, and there was not even a room at our disposal for rehearsals. Figuring practically, it was more profitable to conduct rehearsals and pass the summer outside of the city. Happily, one of the members of the Society of Art and Literature, N. N. Arkhipov (later the stage director Arbatov) offered our theatre a good-sized barn on his estate near the summer resort Pushkino, some thirty versts from Moscow. We accepted his offer and remodelled the barn for our needs, - built a stage, a small auditorium, a rest room for the men, one for the women, and added a roofed terrace where the actors might wait for their entrances and drink tea.
