Meyerhold began acting in 1896 as a student of the Moscow Philharmonic Dramatic School under the guidance of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, co-founder with Konstantin Stanislavsky of the Moscow Art Theatre. At the MAT, Meyerhold played 18 roles, such as Vasiliy Shuiskiy in "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" and Ivan the Terrible in "The Death of Ivan the Terrible" (both by Aleksey Tolstoy). In 1898, in the first successful production of Chekhov's first play, "The Seagull", Meyerhold played the lead male role, opposite Chekhov's future wife, Olga Knipper.