How I was an actor by Alexandr Kuprin. Short summary

5 seconds

Left destitute in a foreign land, the narrator is hired by a provincial theater company. He describes the mores of the actors and the dictatorship of the director. The narrator rebels and takes advantage of his good fortune to leave.

1 minute

The narrator has come to a Ukrainian town to start his own business. But his partner, who was supposed to arrive with the money, died suddenly. Left without funds, the narrator is forced to enlist in a provincial theater troupe.

He describes the mores that reign in the town and in the theater. There are hypocritical people, like the owner, who does not pay the actors their wages in order to keep them for a season. But there are also kind ones, like the footman Sergei, who feeds the storyteller who is starving.

The actor is given various small roles. But, as an intelligent man, he understands how silly the texts are, and that he is required to pronounce them in a botched manner. He can’t stand it, and smacks the director in the face with his notebook.

This is when the narrator is sent money. He throws a feast for the entire troupe and leaves for St. Petersburg.