Actor Dmitry Nazarov and his wife, actress Olga Vasilyeva, resigned from the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater in order to retain the mobilization reservation for 29 theater employees. Nazarov and Vasilyeva spoke about this in an interview with journalist Katerina Gordeeva, published on March 14.
On the dismissal of Nazarov and Vasilyeva became known February 14th. Two days earlier, according to Vasilyeva, the artistic director of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, Konstantin Khabensky, contacted her. He asked her and Nazarov to go on “sabbatical”, saying they could return in April.
However, Khabensky later called back and said, “There’s nothing I can do, you have to quit.” He explained that if Nazarov and Vasilyeva did not leave the Chekhov Art Theater in Moscow, mobilization reservations would be withdrawn from 29 theater employees.
How will the reservation be taken? We better stop, no one will kill at our expense,” Vasilyeva describes her reaction to these words.
Nazarov said Khabensky was “insinuated” into the removal of armor from 29 theater employees. He added that he only knew about this threat from the words of the artistic director himself.
Now Nazarov and Vasilyeva live in France. They were there when they learned they had to leave the theater and decided not to return.
Dmitry Nazarov is best known as the performer of one of the main roles in the TV series “Kitchen”. He served at the Moscow Chekhov Art Theater since 2002, his wife Olga Vasilyeva since 2005.
After the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nazarov regularly posted videos on his social networks in which he reads anti-war poemsSometimes with Vasilyeva.