Russian Theatre

The article explores the tendency of inviting non-professional artists to contemporary theatre and dance performances. From the examples of the Rimini Protokoll, Jérôme Bel, Nicole Seiler, Tatyana Gordeeva, Vsevolod Lisovsky and Dmitry Volkostrelov performances it is shown how the participation of “ordinary” people serves aesthetic and ethical purposes of the stage directors and choreographers. Ordinary bodies, gestures and voices in contemporary theatre are valued as manifesting the extra-institutional identity of the participants, namely, a professional or social one, with which the spectators could easily identify themselves. The non-virtuosity of movements and speech, making mistakes and even fatigue, become specially constructed “signs of naturalness”. Participatory projects in which the main action is expected to be performed by the audience can be seen also as a performance with non-professional artists. The borders between artistic and non-artistic in such projects are blurred. Likewise, the community creation, the attention paid to other people and the inclusion of “everyday” life becomes its main aesthetic feature.

This volume rests upon two premises: 1) That collective creation is pivotal to the evolution of the modern theatre; and 2) That women have been central to the emergence and development of collective creation.
    Though written to be read as a self-contained work, Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance is in fact the third volume in an ongoing body of research into collective creation and devising practices from 1900 to the present. Our two previous studies, A History of Collective Creation and Collective 
Creation in Contemporary Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), argued that modern collective theatre-making praxis may be best understood as an ongoing, resistant tradition emerging, in its European and North American contexts, circa 1900 and running throughout the twentieth century and on into present-day devising practices. Our goal at the inception of this body of work had been to contest the broadly accepted view of collective creation as a minor phenomenon peculiar to the New Left political theatre of the 1960s and ’70s, associated in the main with developments in the United States, Canada, Quebec, and England (and to a lesser extent, France).  Working in collaboration with an international team of scholars, we sought to elucidate the aesthetic, processual, and political links between theatrical devising in the contemporary period, collective creation practices of the ’60s and ’70s, and pre-war experiments in collaborative theatre-making—and to do so from an internationalist perspective.  In so doing, we worked to draw out both resemblances and divergences in collective practice, and in the aesthetic, social, and/or political impulses underpinning those practices, in their particular cultural and historical contexts.
    This new volume seeks to deepen that historicization, by investigating the centrality of women to the development of collective and devised theatre-making in the modern and contemporary period. Our project is two-fold: to historicize the enormous, ongoing contribution of women to collective creation; and to investigate questions about the relationship between gender and collaborative process, authority, authorship, and attribution.
    Women must be credited with a central, foundational, and continued role in the development and transmission of practices of collective and devised theatre-making since the start of the twentieth century.  A cursory scan of a few prominent names in North America and Europe hints at the consideration women demand in the history of collective performance praxis: directors such as Joan Littlewood, Judith Malina, Ariane Mnouchkine, Elizabeth LeComte, Tina Landau, Anne Bogart, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, Lin Hixson, and Julia Varley; pioneering teachers such as Viola Spolin, Suzanne Bing, Rena Mirecka, and Roberta Carreri; companies and networks such as Lilith, WOW Cafe, At the Foot of the Mountain, Spiderwoman Theater, Guerilla Girls, Omaha Magic Theatre, Split Britches, SITI Company, Nightwood Theatre, Théâtre Expérimental des Femmes, The Magdalena Project, FEMEN, and Pussy Riot; choreographers such as Anna Halprin, Yvonne Rainer, Aileen Passloff, Trisha Brown, and Mary Overlie; playwrights such as Caryl Churchill, Helene Cixous, Deb Margolin, Muriel Miguel, and Megan Terry.  And yet, the deep engagement of women in collectively generated performance has been grossly under-historicized.
    This volume traces a sprawling lineage, revealing a hitherto unacknowledged web of transmission—connecting, by way of example, the educational play movement spearheaded by such reformers as Dr. Maria Montessori in Italy, Margaret Naumberg in New York, and Neva Boyd of Chicago’s Hull-House, to the theatrical devising pedagogies of Suzanne Bing in 1920s’ France and Viola Spolin in 1930s’ Chicago, to the collective practices of (among others) Théâtre du Soleil and the Living Theatre in the 1960s, to the nomadic performances of the women of the Odin Teatret in 1980s’ Europe, to Pussy Riot’s recent protests in Russia.  In doing so, the book further elucidates a history of modern theatre begun in our previous volumes, in which the seemingly marginal and disparate practices of collective creation are revealed as central, and women practitioners further revealed as primary progenitors, renovators, stewards, and disseminators of these practices.  The history of the modern theatre is a history of collaborative methods and the history of collaborative methods is a women’s history.

Предметом исследования являются жанровые стратегии отобранных драматических текстов, их типологические особенности и характер функционирования в театральном процессе обозначенного периода.
Специальность 10. 01. 01-«Русская литература».
Диссертация на соискание ученой степени кандидата филологических наук.
Научный руководитель: кандидат филологических наук, профессор Громова М.И.
Москва-2008

The article is dedicated to the genre of lecture-performance. The case analysed is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening at the Moscow Meyer-hold Centre. Created and performed by the playwright Ekaterina Bondarenko and the professional dancer and choreographer Tatiana Gordeeva, it explores the perception of space through the body and of a woman in public space. The combination of physical and verbal means, interactive and non-interactive ways of communication with the public and  academic and artistic dimensions - all of those contribute to the new poetics of non-virtuosic, casual body that can at the same time be the object and the subject of narration, dance and research. By getting naked while making an academic report, the performers test the audiences’ ability to look at a female body in a non-voyeristic way.

Leon Bakst's 1910 Art Nouveau costume design entitled The Firebird, and Mikhail Larionov's oil on canvas Russian Neoprimitivism, Spring, painted in 1912 are examples of artists outside of traditional 'western' culture reconciling the narrow definition of artistic genius and subsequent value while celebrating their own culture.

This article focuses on a detailed analysis of Chekhov’s training schema as he developed it as part of his studio activity at Dartington using the scene study of the Fishers’ scene (1936–37), written by Paul Rogers. Described by Deirdre du Prey as the scene designed by Chekhov ‘to provide training and experience for the student-actors, directors, playwrights, musicians, technicians, designers etc.’, it is a training regime in microcosm and one which du Prey singled out as a teaching tool when she later trained actors in the Chekhov technique in the US. There is an entire box of unpublished materials dedicated to this scene in the Devon Records archive, including the actors’ own visualised performance scores and art works associated with Goethe’s colour psychology. These diverse sources are brought together here for the first time and related to Chekhov’s later publications. This paper addresses the themes of interdisciplinarity and of Chekhov, training and the archive, paying close attention to the archival records by reconstructing on paper what Deirdre Hurst du Prey later called ‘a truly classic example of the use of Chekhov’s method’ in Laurence Senelick’s book Wandering Stars (1992). Its conclusion moves to a wider consideration of progressive education in the inter-war period and positions Fishers’ as a key example of alternative pedagogy, alongside those of Black Mountain and Cornish colleges.

Впервые увидев танец Айседоры, и Станиславский, и Мейерхольд были равно очарованы ее искусством, которое они и многие их современники определили как безыскусную, невинную радость и высшую простоту. И хотя со временем их энтузиазм несколько остыл, а у Мейерхольда даже сменился острой и часто несправедливой критикой Дункан, первое впечатление стереть из памяти было невозможно. Радостный танец легконогой Айседоры оказался созвучен театральным поискам двух режиссеров в конце 1900-х гг. Танцовщицу поэтому можно считать той ниточкой, которая связывала двух режиссеров даже в период их крайних расхождений.

Esta dissertação, concluída em 2014, discute a influência do Yoga nos discursos e técnicas de Konstantin Stanislávski. A pesquisa revela relações entre o desenvolvimento do Sistema de preparação de atores de Konstantin Stanislávski e seus estudos em Yoga, advindos principalmente dos livros de Yogi Ramacharaka. Além disso, utiliza diferentes edições das obras de Stanislávski e analisa o conteúdo de seus escritos e de seus comentadores, incluindo pesquisas recentes que tiveram acesso a registros de Stanislávski censurados ou não publicados. Este estudo também apresenta autores que verificam a relação de Stanislávski com o Yoga em diferentes aspectos práticos e teóricos. São citadas publicações de diversos autores e mestres de Yoga, tanto da época de Stanislávski como da atualidade, que consideram o Yoga em sua diversidade de aspectos históricos, práticos e filosóficos. Pretende-se com isso refletir sobre formas de atualizar a compreensão do discurso e das técnicas de Stanislávski a partir de um novo ponto de vista que reinsere o Yoga como uma das bases do desenvolvimento do Sistema Stanislávski. A dissertação se estrutura a partir de três segmentos: a contextualização necessária para compreender as motivações de Stanislávski em sua investigação; a reconstituição dos fatos que possibilitaram a Stanislávski aprender princípios do Yoga e experimentá-los com seus atores; e, finalmente, a demonstração de pontos específicos em que o Yoga influenciou o discurso e as técnicas do Sistema.  |  The present study, written in 2014, discusses the influence of Yoga in speeches and techniques of Konstantin Stanislavski. This research reveals some relations between the development of the Stanislavsky’s System and his studies in Yoga, particularly through Yoga books from Yogi Ramacharaka. In addition, it uses different editions of the Stanislavski’s works to analyze the content of his writings and his commentators’, including recent research which had access to Stanislavski’s unpublished and censored notes. This study also presents a variety of authors verifying the relations of Stanislavski and Yoga in both practical and theoretical aspects. This particularly applies to references from Yoga publications, considering the diversity of Yoga in its historical, philosophical and practical aspects. The aim is to reflect in ways to update the understanding of the Stanislavski’s discourse and techniques from a new point of view that reinserts Yoga as one of Stanislavski’s System foundations. This dissertation is structured through three segments: the needed context to understand the motivations of Stanislavski in his research; reconstitution of the facts that made possible to Stanislavsky learn Yoga principles and experience them with his actors; and, finally, demonstration of how Yoga has influenced the System’s discourse and techniques.

Ik wil een vergelijking maken van drie monologen, te weten: de monoloog van " To be or not to be " van Hamlet, acte 3 scene 1, van W. Shakespeare, de monoloog van Sonja in Oom Wanja van A. Tsjechov en Krapp's Last Tape van S. Beckett. Waar ik naar wil kijken is de dramatische functie van de monologen, hoe worden ze uitgesproken, tegen wie, wat is de acteerstijl en hoe wordt de mise-en-scene gebruikt. Om te beginnen wil ik proberen duidelijk te maken waarom dit soliloquy's zijn. Volga's Leach is een soliloquy <<Dialogue is complemented by monologue (a long speech by a single character) or soliloquy (when a character speaks, but not to another character)>>(Leach,2008, blz.31) Bij Hamlet zien we dit als hij hardop spreekt in de spiegel. Hij praat tegen zichzelf, zijn spiegelbeeld word een ander karakter. Bij Sonja zien we ook dat ze hardop praat en eigenlijk zeg ze deze monoloog tegen haarzelf. En bij Krapp zien we Krapp luisteren naar de bandopname van een stem, die naar naderhand blijkt zijn eigen stem is. De soliloquy staat op band en wordt gezegd naar een luisteraar, in dit geval Krapp zelf. Als we de monologen bekijken, kunnen we de manier gebruiken zoals Aristoteles keek naar tragedies en we kunnen zijn zes elementen van tragedie gebruiken te weten<<1. Plot, that is action, the story, which , he adds, is enacted by people, actors, as opposed to be being narrated or sung. 2.Character, the way a person behaves (for behavior defines character); it is important to note that tragedy, according to Aristotle, deals with ''the better type of person " , that is royalty, generals, governors, people whose fate is of significance to more than just themselves. 3. Reason, the way plot and character are connected, the logic and coherence of what is presented, and how what is shown is ''likely to happen''. 4. Diction, the speaking of the text. 5.Poetry, the poetic qualities of the text itself. 6. Spectacle, what you see on the stage.>>(Leach, 2008, blz.43-44) We kunnen plot, reason en character vergelijken met de dramatische functie, namelijk tegen wie wordt de monoloog gezegd. Diction kan vergeleken worden met de acteerstijl en hoe de monoloog wordt uitgesproken en spectacle met de mise-en-scene. Bij de monoloog van Hamlet begint Hamlet met de vraag " To be or not to be, that is the question " (minuut 0:01-0:09). Het karakter hier is prins Hamlet, die weet via zijn vaders geest, dat deze vermoord is door de huidige koning. Het plot is hier de actie die Hamlet nu gaat nemen. Doet hij hier wel iets aan of laat hij de zaken zoals ze zijn. De reden is wraak voor de moord op zijn vader en dat maakt de verbinding duidelijk van de actie om de vraag te stellen van " To be or not to be, that is the question " en de verbinding met het karakter van Hamlet, die immers de zoon is van de vermoorde koning. Wat betreft de dictie zegt Hamlet de monoloog in de spiegel tegen zichzelf. Hij praat hier dus tegen zijn spiegelbeeld, die een ander karakter kan voorstellen, maar aan de andere kant ook niet want het is immers zijn spiegelbeeld. Misschien kunnen we ook stellen dat Hamlet dwars door de spiegel spreekt. Hamlet is immers op de hoogte van het feit dat de spiegelzaal tevens kleine kamertjes erachter heeft, waar iemand zou kunnen zijn die naar hem kijkt. De schrikreactie van de koning kan zo verklaard worden (minuut 1:37) Verder valt op als het om de manier gaat hoe Hamlet de tekst zegt hij nadruk legt op bepaalde woorden of zinnen. " To be or not to be, that is the question " wordt uitgesproken alsof één van de twee mogelijkheden gekozen moet worden. Tevens de woorden " to die " (minuut 0:24) en " to sleep " (minuut 0:25). Een andere belangrijke keuze die Hamlet afweegt is " suffer the slings and arrows " (minuut 0:13-0:16) of " to take arms against a sea of

Konstantin Stanislavski descreveu em suas obras o conceito de superconsciente como a origem da criatividade do ator. Este artigo apresenta descrições do superconsciente nos escritos de Stanislavski e discute as possíveis influências do Yoga na elaboração desse conceito. Para isso, observam-se semelhanças entre os escritos de Stanislavski e obras de autores de Yoga e psicologia vigentes à sua época.

Konstantin Stanislavski described in his works the concept of superconscious as the origin of the actor's creativity. This paper provides descriptions of the superconscious in Stanislavski's writings and discusses the possible influences of Yoga in the development of this concept. To do that, it observes similarities between Stanislavski's writings and works of Yoga and Psychology authors prevailing in his time.

Диссертационная работа Е.И. Гордиенко посвящена выявлению и объяснению состава и структуры языковых трансформаций в процессе инсценировки повествовательного текста на современном этапе развития театра. На материале 70 инсценировок на русском и французском языке автор исследования вычленяет и описывает четыре модели смещения отношений между изображающими знаками и воспринимающим сознанием. Эти модели получают названия: драматизация, сценическое гетеродиегетическое повествование, сценическое гомодиегетическое повествование, театр повествования. Каждой модели посвящена практическая глава. Анализ производится с семиотической точки зрения (разбираются все нюансы «означивания» на сцене – от слов до поступков актеров), а также с лингвистической точки зрения (пристальное внимание уделяется глагольным трансформациям, смещениям в модальности высказывания и модусно-диктумным отношениям), эпизодично применяется литературоведческий и искусствоведческий анализ.

В книге на материале истории журнала «Репертуар и Пантеон» (1839–1856) рассматриваются особенности функционирования театральной журналистики в России в 1840-е годы. Этот журнал явился результатом сложного издательского эксперимента по соединению разных типов современной западноевропейской театральной периодики под одной обложкой, контаминации элементов газетного и журнального типов, учету опыта русских предшественников. Такие эксперименты вызывали пристальное внимание цензуры, взаимодействие с которой редакторов и издателей «Репертуара и Пантеона» также потребовало анализа.
По самой своей природе театральный журнал одновременно вписывался сразу в два разных контекста — театральный и журнальный. Будучи ярким представителем нового «торгового» направления русской журналистики, «Репертуар и Пантеон» воплотил в себе все особенности этого культурного явления. Его издатель Иван Песоцкий в поисках финансовой прибыли напряженно анализировал читательский запрос, исходя из базового представления, что именно читатель определяет содержание периодического издания, отрабатывал новый тип отношений между читателем и автором, искал новые рынки сбыта. Именно последним стремлением определяется и решение отца-основателя «Репертуара и Пантеона» обратиться к театру: театральный зритель в 1839 году представлял собой совершенно неосвоенную и перспективную читательскую аудиторию. Усилия Песоцкого вызывали неприятие в литературно-театральной среде, которая воспринимала его едва ли не как авантюриста и зло высмеивала в волевилях.
При всей привлекательности этого рынка обращение к театру требовало чрезвычайной осторожности и готовности к рискам. Театр на протяжении всего николаевского царствования оставался совершенно особой социальной средой — местом пересечения интересов самых разных инстанций, едва ли не единственной социальной площадкой в России (в условиях отсутствия политической жизни и чрезвычайно жесткого контроля над публицистикой), где одновременно сходились представители разных социальных классов. Поэтому правительство чрезвычайно пристально следило за жизнью театра, поддерживало монополию на театральные представления в столицах, а цензурный надзор в этой области был едва ли не самым строгим.
Тем не менее, на протяжении 13 лет (в 1852 г. при новом издателе Федоре Кони «Репертуар и Пантеон» был трансформирован в журнал общелитературного типа) «Репертуар и Пантеон» следил за наиболее актуальными событиями российской театральной жизни, напечатал не менее 300 пьес текущего репертуара, предпринял несколько попыток реформирования русской театральной критики, которая в 1840-е годы отличалась чрезвычайной осторожностью и поверхностностью. О двух таких попытках говорится в настоящем исследовании: в 1841 году Рафаил Зотов развернул довольно яркую критику театрального начальства, но вскоре был остановлен соседями по журнальной отрасли, а в 1846 году Аполлон Григорьев, для которого «Репертуар и Пантеон» стал стартовой площадкой в большой литературе, предложил сразу два новых способоа говорить о театре и артистическом мастерстве.
Издание Песоцкого послужило местом публикации большинства пьес Николая Полевого — одного из центральных драматургов рассмотренной эпохи. Причем за этим сотрудничеством нам удалось обнаружить общность теоретические установок и взглядов на театр между издателем и драматургом. И тот и другой полагали, что театральный успех совершенно невозможно измерить в литературных категориях и, таким образом, оправдывали и объясняли невысокое литературное качество помещавшихся в журналах пьес. Наполнение драматического отдела журнала объявлялось принципиально несамостоятельным и зависело от театрального успеха или неуспеха того или иного текста.
В соответствии со спецификой самого объекта описания — театрального журнала — исследование выполненно на стыке историко-литературных и театроведческих подходов. В то же время в ряде сюжетов исследование потребовало применения инструментария «новой экономической критики» (история слияния журналов «Репертуар» и «Пантеон» в 1842 году; история сотрудничества в журнале Аполлона Григорьева) и семиотики бытового поведения (анализ водевильных пародий на Песоцкого и Кони и реконструкция их прижизненных репутаций). Сам «Репертуар и Пантеон» стал не только и, возможно, не столько объектом наблюдения, сколько «точкой зрения» — таким литературным и журнальным предприятием, через которое просвечивают и обнаруживают себя многочисленные административные, художественные и бытовые построения, релевантные для истории русской культуры 1840-х годов в целом.

Este artículo establece relaciones de semejanza entre los conceptos concentración, yo soy y autoestudio, presentes tanto en las obras de Konstantin Stanislavski como en estudios y prácticas de yoga, con la finalidad de percibir de que formas los estudios de Stanislavski sobre el yoga influenciaron el desarrollo de su Sistema. Entiéndase el yoga como una práctica ascética milenaria, estudiada y experimentada por Stanislavski con sus actores tanto en el Teatro de Arte de Moscú como en los Estudios de Teatro organizados por Stanislavski y por Leopold Sulerzhitski, su asistente. El artículo se estructura a partir del abordaje de tres factores fundamentales: la comprensión de lo que es el yoga, las motivaciones de Stanislavski para investigarlo y emplearlo, y la identificación de algunos de los puntos específicos en los cuales el yoga influenció el Sistema Stanislavski.  |  Este artigo estabelece relações de semelhança entre os conceitos concentração, eu sou e autoestudo, presentes tanto nas obras de Konstantin Stanislávski como em estudos e práticas de yoga, com a finalidade de perceber de que formas os estudos de Stanislávski sobre o yoga influenciaram o desenvolvimento de seu Sistema. Compreende-se o yoga como uma prática ascética milenar, estudada e experimentada por Stanislávski com seus atores, tanto no Teatro de Arte de Moscou como nos Estúdios de Teatro organizados por Stanislávski e Leopold Sulerjítski, seu assistente. O artigo se estrutura a partir da abordagem de três fatores fundamentais: compreender o que é o yoga, examinar quais as motivações de Stanislávski para investigá-lo e utilizá-lo, e identificar alguns dos pontos específicos nos quais o yoga influenciou o Sistema Stanislávski.

Древнегреческий миф о судьбе титаниды рассказан языком современного театра. Авторы спектакля погружают зрителя в процесс преображения юной красавицы в ужасающую Медузу Горгону. Свободная пластика с элементами стиля буто сочетаются с драматической и вокальной линиями спектакля, раскрывая синтетическую природу античного действа.
"Смех - не дело богов.
Смех придумали смертные.
От отчаяния.
Когда все плохо, а сделать с этим ничего нельзя. Но когда они смеются, боги не властны над нами"

Da totalidade da produção vygotskiana sobre arte, há duas obras editadas e traduzidas para vários idiomas: o ensaio sobre Hamlet, A tragédia de Hamlet, príncipe da Dinamarca, de 1915-6, e Psicologia da arte, de 1925. Ambas foram editadas em russo em um mesmo volume somente em 1965. Entre elas, há uma intensa produção do autor como crítico teatral e literário, que até muito pouco tempo constava apenas de listagens de bibliografias e era inédita mesmo em russo. Assim, o objetivo da presente tese é contribuir para a superação dessa importante lacuna na divulgação da obra inicial de Vygotski (entre 1915 e 1926). O corpus investigado compreende um vasto conjunto de resenhas e artigos, principalmente sobre literatura e teatro, além de uma breve incursão no campo das artes plásticas. A partir do levantamento e exame dessa produção, foi feita a tradução diretamente do russo de uma seleção de textos inéditos em português. Esse material foi agrupado temática e cronologicamente em oito eixos: 1) teatro e revolução; 2) crítica literária; 3) crítica teatral sobre a Companhia Solovtsóv; 4) crítica teatral sobre o teatro judaico de Rubin; 5) crítica teatral – balanço; 6) dança; 7) teatro infantil; 8) artes plásticas. A tese está dividida em dois blocos principais: no primeiro deles são comentadas as produções do “Vygotski conhecido” (A tragédia de Hamlet, príncipe da Dinamarca e Psicologia da arte), ao passo que o segundo é dedicado ao comentário sobre os textos inéditos selecionados, cujas traduções são apresentadas em anexo. O Vygótski-crítico que conhecemos a partir do material estudado é alguém com grande sensibilidade estética e também um militante pelo desenvolvimento de uma cena de qualidade nos palcos provincianos. Sua perspectiva sobre a arte busca superar tanto o reducionismo de uma tendência estritamente formal quanto da estética marxista vulgar.

В статье рассматриваются возникшие в XX веке типы инсценировок повествовательной прозы, в которых сохраняется текст нарратора в прошедшем времени. Функционирование прошедшего времени в инсценировках рассматривается в связи с соотношением текста персонажа и текста нарратора, с природой сценической условности, с категорией времени в драматургическом и нарративном текстах.

Nicola Benois in Forties Milan
The article provides an analysis of a tormented period in the life of the painter and scenographer Nicola Benois. The reconstruction of the artist's hard days, resulting from both private life troubles and the particularly unfavourable living conditions that took hold in Milan after the outbreak of World War II, has been mainly based on the study of archive materials. To this aim, the correspondence between the painter and  scenographer and his parents has been of the utmost importance. The letters belonging to the period ranging from the Forties to the immediate post war years can be divided into two main categories: the first category includes private life, daily hurdles to be faced in war-torn Milan and sometimes troublesome family relationships, whilst the second represents an overview of the artist's work performed at the Scala, which for all difficulties went on uninterruptedly, as well as a snapshot of Benois’s artistic partnerships, especially those involving theatre director Sanin.

Il pensiero estetico di N. Evreinov dalla teatralità alla ‘poetica della rivelazione’, Firenze University Press 2015, Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici.

http://www.fupress.com/catalogo/il-pensiero-estetico-di-nikolaj-evreinov-dalla-teatralita--alla--poetica-della-rivelazione-/3114

ABSTRACT:

The Aesthetic Thought of Nikolai Nikolayevich Evreinov
from Theatricality to the ‘Poetics of Revelation’

This research presents an analysis of the aesthetic thought of the director, playwright, theater theorist and historian, philosopher and art theorist Nikolai Nikolayevich Evreinov (1879-1953), based on a comprehensive study of his artistic and philosophical-theoretical legacy, especially with reference to his critical work during his émigré years in Paris (1927-1953). My intent is to reconstruct the link between Evreinov’s theoretical work, formulated in the pre-Revolution era, and his treatise The Revelation of Art (Otkrovenie iskusstva), written in Paris in the 1930’s and recently published in the original Russian in St. Petersburg in a critical edition edited by myself (see Evreinov 2012). Otkrovenie iskusstva was for Evreinov a kind of intellectual testament. This work, however disorganized, should be considered the summa of his aesthetic concepts, as the destination of a troubled path of research begun as far back as 1908, in the midst of the modernist movement, with the publication of his manifesto-study The Apology of Theatricality (Apologija Teatral’nosti). This volume is divided into two parts: the first presents Evreinov as a director and theoretician of theater, while the second, with a more markedly philosophical approach, examines his ‘poetics of revelation,’ the conceptual essence and interpretive horizon of his aesthetic thought, considered here at last in its entirety and complexity.
 
The first part of the book presents an overview of Evreinov’s critical fortune in Russia and in the West from the 1910’s to the present. Subsequently, his artistic personality is placed in the cultural context of the first two decades of twentieth-century Russian theater. Hence I recount the key moments of his education and the first lines of development of his thought (concerning the relationships between norm and transgression in art, violence and theater), the key thematic nuclei that mark his theoretical production during his Russian period, condensed into his two major works: The Theater as Such (Teatr kak takovoj, 1912) and The Theatre for Oneself (Teatr dlja sebja, 1915-1917). After covering the basic stages of Evreinov’s career as a theorist and director in his homeland, I provide a complete reconstruction of his activities abroad, which I have subdivided into two phases (1925-27 and 1927-1953). Evreinov’s theoretical production is thus presented by contextualizing Revelation of Art in the overall framework of his oeuvre.
The second part of the book presents a formal and conceptual analysis of Evreinov’s major text, Otkrovenie iskusstva, marking the special relationship the author had with his country of origin and its more recent cultural tradition. Herein his tacit models of reference are revealed (Tolstoy’s What Is Art?), and his possible relationships, connections and derivations with respect to the various schools of critical method: formalism and especially Viktor Shklovsky, sociological criticism of Marxist inspiration, Freudianism and its reception in the Russian milieu of the 1920’s. The comparison with the first period of theoretical thought that Evreinov devoted to the theater is here adopted as a basic methodological key, although every kind of influence is taken into account, including his involvement in the Russian Masonic movement of his fellow émigrés in Paris. After having provided a formal-typological analysis of the text, I illustrate in chapter four the cardinal points of his system of thought, focusing on his ‘archetypal I’ (iskonnoe Ja) and the dyad ‘art of mastery’-‘art of super-mastery’ (masterstvo-sverch-masterstvo) by comparing Evreinov’s ideas with those of authors who were his contemporaries (in particular Vladimir Vejdle, Nikolai Berdyaev, Henri Bergson, Georgy Fedotov), or by placing them in relation with the general elements of Masonic moral philosophy. The fifth and final chapter deals with the last part of what according to Evreinov is the path that leads to true artistic revelation. I show here how the author developed a new interpretive theory of normative type that led to a thoroughly original concept of theatricality (teatral’nost’) as a specific method of artistic creation based on visual effectiveness.

The end of this multifaceted analysis reveals that my reflection on Evreinov’s theater, by which he is now known to critics, was from the very start an incursion into the realm of the psychology of art as such. In fact this is the absolute uniqueness and complexity of the Revelation of Art in the context of Evreinov’s aesthetic thought: a sweeping, original theory of art, an important document, till recent years neglected, of a historical segment of Russian émigré culture. His treatise, however, is also the supreme result of the reinterpretation he made as an émigré, a Mason (and in this special sense ‘re-educated’), of a segment of the tradition of Russian aesthetic thought and especially of himself as an anarchic, passionate apologist of theater in life. In this sense, this work represents a summation of the studies and research he carried out over a lifetime, which encloses and reorganizes into a system all the ideas he expressed in his decades-long career as a theoretical provocateur and interpreter of culture.
The Revelation of Art is thus the most eloquent proof of the enlargement of Evreinov’s disciplinary research horizons, in which this multifaceted figure can be more properly placed, no longer identified solely with the disciplinary realm of the history of theater (theory, directing, dramaturgy), but making his way into the history of culture, the history of thought and criticism.

The main focus of this research regards the figure of Nikolai Evreinov in the 1930’s, but it also touches on various disciplines, taking into account elements of textual analysis, the history of the Russian theater, the theory of theater and of symbolic forms in general, and the history of Russian thought and criticism. This without losing sight, in the background, of the intellectual history of the first wave of Russian émigrés (1917-1939), and primarily some phases of the debate on art held in the Russian press published in Paris and some data and documents relating to the history of the Russian Masonic lodges in the Paris of the 1930’s.

Konstantin Stanislávski mencionou o conceito de prana em uma de suas obras para explicar a comunicação sem palavras do ator em cena. Neste artigo, apresento pontos do discurso de Stanislávski nos quais é possível identificar de que formas ele pode ter compreendido, teórica e praticamente, o conceito da energia prana a partir de seus estudos em Yoga. Para isso, apresento referências do Yoga de diferentes momentos históricos, incluindo os livros que Stanislávski possuiu em sua biblioteca pessoal. Analiso também uma prática respiratória proposta por Stanislávski com a intenção de equilibrar o prana no organismo do ator.

Konstantin Stanislavski mentioned the concept of prana in one of his works to explain the actor’s communication without words on stage. In this article, I present Stanislavski’s discourse points, which is possible to identify how the concept of prana energy could be understood theoretically and practically from his studies in Yoga. I present Yoga references from different historical moments, including books that Stanislavski owned in your personal library. I also analyze the respiratory practice proposed by Stanislavski intended to balance the prana in the actor’s body.

"Andrea Gullotta‟s essay, “The „Cultural Village‟ of the Solovki Prison Camp: A Case of Alternative Culture,” follows the history of the Solovki prison camp and describes the intellectual culture that flourished in its early years of existance. Gullotta takes an “internal” approach, relying on documents produced by camp inmates, as well as on memoirs, poems, and other artistic works produced later, but deal- ing with the camp experience."

quoted from:

ALPERT E., BREVIG H., KLIMOVA O. (2010)
Editor’s Introduction
STUDIES IN SLAVIC CULTURES, vol. IX; p. 5-6, ISSN: 1527-3776

Lorsque Maxime Gorki relate sa rencontre avec le cinématographe en 1896, il met en garde contre cet appareil qu’il craint de voir s’allier au mouvement symboliste auquel il s’oppose. Dix ans plus tard, la jeune invention se trouve emportée dans les débats des symbolistes et est brandie par l’un d’eux, Andreï Biély, comme réponse à la recherche d’un « théâtre démocratique de l’avenir » jusqu’ici opérée sur les planches, notamment avec La Baraque de foire (Balagantchik), pièce d’Alexandre Blok montée avec fracas par le jeune Vsevolod Meyerhold. Ce travail revient sur cette période et son contexte théorique et artistique, montrant et expliquant les raisons pour lesquelles Andreï Biély, lorsqu’il lui consacra un article en 1907, qualifia énigmatiquement le cinématographe de « baraque de foire au sens le plus noble et le plus élevé du terme ».

When Maxim Gorky relates his encounter with the Cinematograph in 1896, he warns against this device, which he fears might be aligned with the Symbolist movement to which he is opposed. Ten years later, the new invention is drawn into Symbolist debate and is brandished by one of them, i.e. Andrei Bely, as an answer to the search for a ‘‘democratic theater of the future’’, which until then had been articulated on stage, particularly with ‪‪The Fairground Booth‪‪ (‪‪Balaganchik‪‪), an Alexander Blok play that had been controversially staged by a young Vsevolod Meyerhold. The present study looks back on this period and its theoretical and artistic context, showing and explaining the reasons why Andrei Bely, in an article he devoted to the cinematograph in 1907, enigmatically described it as a ‘‘fairground booth in the noblest and highest sense of the word’’.‪

Quando Maksim Gor’kij riferisce del suo incontro con il Cinematografo nel 1896, mette in guardia contro questo apparecchio che teme possa allearsi con il movimento simbolista al quale egli si oppone. Dieci anni più tardi, la giovane invenzione si trova catapultata nei dibattiti dei simbolisti ed è brandita da uno di essi, Andreï Biély, come risposta alla ricerca di un ‘‘teatro democratico del futuro’’ fino ad allora portato si palcoscenici, in particolare con ‪‪La Baraque de foire‪‪ (‪‪Balagantchik‪‪), pièce di Aleksandr Blok allestita con fragore dal giovane Vsevolod Mejerchol’d. Questo lavoro torna su questo periodo e il suo contesto teorico e artistico, mostrando e spiegando le ragioni per le quali Andrej Belyj, quando vi dedicò un articolo nel 1907, qualificò enigmaticamente il cinematografo come ‘‘baraccone da fiera nel senso più nobile e più alto del termine’’.‪

This is my translation to Portuguese of Meyerhold's 1922 lecture 'Актер будущего и биомеханика'. The lecture was followed by work demonstrations of the so-called biomechanical exercises. This translation was published as a chapter, with a subsequent note in: TAVARES, Joana Ribeiro da Silva, Org.; Kaiserman, Nara, Org. O corpo cênico entre a dança e o teatro. São Paulo: Annablume, 2013. P. 163.

Ivan Vyrypaev is one of the most influential and celebrated Russian directors in the new millennium, earning major accolades both at home and abroad and virtually unrivalled in his ability to move between theater and cinema. While acting as art director and creative engine behind the experimental Theater Praktika in Moscow from 2006-2016, Vyrypaev wrote and directed over a dozen original plays, one animation, one short, and four feature films. These films and plays reveal an evolving, but discernible method and thematic preoccupations that invite greater examination. While a growing body of scholarship has examined specific aspects of Vyrypaev’s work, surprisingly the central preoccupation that underlies these various devices remains relatively unformulated and unexamined. This article analyzes Vyrypaev’s oeuvre—with particular attention to recent works, the 2013 film Delhi Dance (Tanets Deli) and 2015 play Unbearably Long Embraces (Nevynosimo dolgie obiatiia)—to articulate a theory of ‘subjective re-orientation’ at the heart of his dramaturgy. Building upon other valuable studies of violence, affect and materiality, and performative dialogues in Vyrypaev’s works, this article moves beyond a view of these devices as disparate and experimental to situate them into a more coherent artistic program.

Vyrypaev’s works invariably portray a breaking away from rational, relatively stable conceptions of identity in order to test the boundaries of desire and locate more ‘authentic’ understandings of self. While in Vyrypaev’s earlier, darker works, violent ruptures with stable identity are an end in and of themselves, often leading to a ‘liberated’ destruction of the protagonist; in his recent, more affirmative works, such rebellions lead to self-discovery and the possibility of sustainable spiritual clarity. This article argues that Vyrypaev employs an array of affective devices,  including violence, visual and aural saturation, and performative dialogues, to enact what theorist Gilles Deleuze calls a ‘shock to thought.’ However, these dimensions of Vyrypaev’s dramaturgy do not simply destabilize rational perception in order to create a Deleuzian ‘line of flight’ away from discernible meanings into open-ended potential (1989:156; 1987:10). Rather, they reconstitute subjectivity in strikingly affirmative ways according to Vyrypaev’s own vision.  By considering a range of influences on his works—from his well-known zeal for Buddhism and eastern religion to postmodern alienation and a general subjective disorientation in post-Soviet Russia—this article sheds light on both Vyrypaev’s sui generis dramaturgy and the resonance of his works in Russia today.

Работа, связанная с менеджментом культуры, – новая территория. Как мы употребляем это понятие – «новая»? Мы имеем в виду не что-то, вновь изобретенное, не то, чего никогда не было, не научное открытие. Скорее, мы говорим о новом укладе общей социокультурной территории, принявшей в себя целый ряд функций. Приходится иметь дело – как в содержательном, так и в оперативном смысле – с довольно неожиданными явлениями, художественными и социальными, в традиционном ракурсе раньше к театру не относившимися.

The article deals with the theatrical adaptations of narrative prose fiction that retain the text of a narrator. In drama studies that kind of dramatization, so called theatre-narrative, is characterized as a non-adaptation of narrative text. Meanwhile, linguistic and semiotic approaches reveal that changes are inevitable. Interpretation of a text in such adaptations is done by the selection of text fragments, defining the subject of enunciation, as well as correlation with the visual code of the performance and the simultaneous scenic action.

The article is dedicated to the theatre-narrative experiments as the special method of theatre adaptations of non-dramatic texts. This method consists in pronouncing both narrator’s and character’s texts, so that one cue could include third-person and first-person narratives. Specialists in drama study usually mention a non-adaptation as the main principle of this theatre practice. We consider that the key feature of the theatre-narrative is the modification of text structure and subjects of discourse. When pronounced by a dramatis persona, a narrator’s text becomes a part of his speech. The research has revealed that a character, in cues of whom the narrator’s discourse is put in, is obligatory to be a subject of the utterance’s dictum or a subject of modus

Статья посвящена деятельности актера и режиссера Александра Яблочкина, в 1841–1874 гг. служившего в Александринском театре. Исследование составленных режиссером монтировок, воспоминаний современников и рецензий позволяет частично восстановить процесс работы над спектаклем в дорежиссерском театре. Деятельность Яблочкина предстает в статье как один из этапов зарождения режиссерского театра в России.
The article is devoted to the activity of actor and director Alexander Yablochkin, who served at the Alexandrinsky theatre in 1841-1874. The study of the director's set ups, memoirs of contemporaries and reviews allows to partially restore the performance work process at the pre-director's theatre. The article represents Yablochkin's activity as one of the milestones of the emergence of the director's theatre in Russia.

The article reflects on the tradition of the Russian ludic theater, a
pedagogical and scenic approach that can be considered a development
of the Stanislavski System and a nourishment for contemporary
theatricalities. It is developed from the analysis on my direct experiences
with the ludic approach through personal meetings with directorpedagogues such as Jurij Alschitz and Anatoly Vassiliev and bibliographic
research. I present some ideas that generated this scene, its perspective
on the formation of the actor and I also seek to draw parallels among its
proposals and implicit potentials in Anton Chekhov’s texts, primarily from
the analysis of the way the author writes.
Keywords: Russian theater, Ludic scene, Stanislavski, Chekhov, Jurij
Alschitz.