How I Became an Actor

Characters

• Pavel Andreevitch Leontovitch (Vassiliev) — the narrator and a novice actor: A witty, stubborn, vulnerable man driven into the troupe by necessity under a name not his own.
• Samoilenko — the company's stage manager and actor: A round-faced tyrant who bullies and fines the newcomer at rehearsals until he is slapped for it.
• Valerianov — the theatre's managing director: A long-legged, pockmarked manager who hires the narrator for twenty-five roubles and never pays them.
• Nelioubov-Olguine — the company's scene-painter: A gifted drunkard, the one member of the company who treats the narrator as a friend.
• Lara-Larsky — the leading man, the "celebrated Kharkoff actor": He plays Uriel Akosta and Mark the Magnificent; vain, and brutal to the tailor and the barber.
• Androssova — an actress from the Petersburg theatres: The one true artist in the company; she sees the newcomer is starving and offers him money.
• Doukhovskoi — the assistant stage manager: A fidgety youngster whose slip of the tongue christens the narrator Vassiliev.
• Timofeev-Soumskoi — the company's tragedian: A huge red-haired actor who plays Ivan the Terrible and lectures on the lost classical gesture.