​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nikolay Pavlovich Okhlopkov (15 May 1900 – 8 January 1967) was a Soviet actor and theatre director who patterned his work after Meyerhold. He was born in Irkutsk, Siberia and started his acting career there in 1918. Since 1930, he directed the Realistic Theatre in Moscow, although his directing style was hardly realistic: he was the first to place spectators on the stage around the actors, in order to restore intimacy between the audience and the company. ...