Nikita Balieff

Nikita F. Balieff (1877 – 3 September 1936), was a Jewish Russian Armenian born vaudevillian, stage performer, writer, impresario, and director. He is best known as the creator and master of ceremonies of La Chauve-Souris theater group.

Theatrical career begins in Moscow

Balieff is believed to have been born in Erzerum, Ottoman Empire in 1876 or 1877, although some sources, including IMDb list his place of birth as Rostov-on-Don, Russia. He left for Moscow in 1906 and took a job at the Moscow Art Theater under Konstantin Stanislavski. After years of only non-speaking roles, and with a desire to perform comedy rather than drama, Balieff co-created (among with Nikolai Tarasov) his own theater group in a basement near the Moscow Art Theater. He named the troupe La Chauve-Souris (French for "bat") after a bat flew up out of the basement door and landed on his hat.

Chauve-Souris enjoyed much success and popularity in Moscow, until the Russian Revolution in 1917. Balieff then went into exile in Paris and began presenting vaudeville shows there with other Russian émigrés. He was noticed by the British theatrical producer Charles B. Cochran, who brought the troupe to London.