Nikolay Mikhailovich Foregger, Baron von Greifenturn (1892–1939) — director, choreographer, artist. Foregger was born in Kiev, studied law at the Imperial University of St. Vladimir. In 1916–1918, he worked at the Chamber Theatre in Moscow, Crooked Mirror theatre in Saint Petersburg, Free Theatre in Voronezh. In 1918, Foregger established the Theatre of Four Masks and Moscow Booth, taught and staged performances in Moscow theatres. He published articles on theatre under the pseudonym Fracasse, created scenography, worked at front propaganda trains. In 1920, Foregger established the Mastfor (Nikolay Foregger Workshop). He experimented with styles of fair folk and circus performances, music-hall and cinematography. The stagings included clownery, acrobatics, singing, dancing, parodies, and pamphlets. Foregger invented a teatrical-physical training (“thephystrainage”); his students could use its elements for any performance. The director staged "A Good Attitude Towards Horses" by Vladimir Mayakovsky, the operetta "The Mysteries of the Canary Islands", melodrama "The Children Thief" and other productions, dancing numbers and parodies. Foregger’s idea of “Dance October” (similar to Meyerhold’s “Theatre October”) was embodied in the production “The Dance of the Machines” (1922), where actors imitated production processes through acrobatics and dancing. After the Mastfor burned down by accident in 1924, Foregger continued his work as a director and choreographer. He worked in Leningrad and Moscow and also went on a tour with his students, staged dance numbers and such productions as “Max and Moritz” and “Vain Distress”, directed the film “Aurora Borealis”. His stagings had an influence on the Blue Blouse movement, theatres of small forms, estrada. In 1929–1934, Foregger worked in Kharkov at the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (and other Kharkov theatres); he was the head director and choreographer of this theatre until 1931. He staged the ballet “The Football Player” (1930, the first staging) by Viktor Oransky, "Prince Igor" by Alexander Borodin, “The Golden Ring” by Boris Lyatoshinsky, "Ferenji" by Boris Yanovsky, “Don Quixote“ by Ludwig Minkus. Foregger worked on operas such as “Maschinist Hopkins”, “Pagliacci”, and “The Marriage of Figaro”. In 1934–1937, Foregger worked in Kiev as a director and choreographer in the theatre, circus, and estrada. In 1937–1938, he was the art director at the Noginsk City Drama Theatre. In 1938, Foregger became the chief director at the Kuybyshev Opera and Ballet Theatre, where he staged his last productions — the operas “And Quiet Flows the Don” and “Ruslan and Ludmila”. Our museum holds Foregger’s archive and his drawings. Sketches of costumes and scenery, photos, and playbills represent "A Good Attitude Towards Horses", "The Children Thief", “The Supernatural Son”, “The Football Player”, “Prince Igor”, “Maschinist Hopkins”, "Ferenji”, dance performances, and other Foregger’s works.