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Scene Change: A Theatre Diary: Prague, Moscow, Leningrad
SCENE CHANGE:THEATRE DIARY
168 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1994
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March 6, 2016
p.58 – Friday, March 29, 1991 – Tabakov: Tabakov tells us that the position of theatre in Russia has always been a special one, like that of the Church. When there was no place in the society for discussion, there was still the theatre. Noe, he says, in these Gorbachev times, since censorship has died, the theatre is profiting. But not all of his colleagues, in his opinion, are ready for this freedom. He himself admits to disliking that some directors have come out as homosexuals. But he concedes to being from the provinces and of an older generation.
We learn there are four years of study at the Moscow Art Theatre School. The first year is all exercise and étude work. The second year includes the study of plays from both Russian and world theatre. In the third year, the students begin working on scripts, and n the fourth year, based on the school’s policy that the students experience themselves with an audience, they perform productions. Before graduating, each student will appear publically upwards of 300 times.
p.59 – Tabakov explains that when admitting students, the School looks for talent, and a capacity to think about people less fortunate than, and different from, themselves. He says they want their students to become desirous of changing the world for the better through the profession.
p.125 – Friday, April 5, 1991 – The State Theatre Library: Twenty years prior to the birth of the United States, the Leningrad State Theatrical Library was founded in St. Petersburg on what is now Pushkin Square. Our host and library director, Raisa Mikhalyva, is proud of their collection of manuscripts and memorabilia dating up to October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. She tells us that the library is unique in the Soviet Union in that it is separate from the main library system and triples as a research institution, a museum, and a haven for reading that was once frequented by Meyerhold and Mikhail Bulgakov.
p.128 – As a last treat we are shown the prompter’s book from the 1896 premiere of Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Here is the notated production script for the misbegotten pre-Danchenko/Stanislavsky Seagull that closed in five days, regardless of having Kommissarzhevskaya in the cast as the first Nina.
We learn there are four years of study at the Moscow Art Theatre School. The first year is all exercise and étude work. The second year includes the study of plays from both Russian and world theatre. In the third year, the students begin working on scripts, and n the fourth year, based on the school’s policy that the students experience themselves with an audience, they perform productions. Before graduating, each student will appear publically upwards of 300 times.
p.59 – Tabakov explains that when admitting students, the School looks for talent, and a capacity to think about people less fortunate than, and different from, themselves. He says they want their students to become desirous of changing the world for the better through the profession.
p.125 – Friday, April 5, 1991 – The State Theatre Library: Twenty years prior to the birth of the United States, the Leningrad State Theatrical Library was founded in St. Petersburg on what is now Pushkin Square. Our host and library director, Raisa Mikhalyva, is proud of their collection of manuscripts and memorabilia dating up to October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. She tells us that the library is unique in the Soviet Union in that it is separate from the main library system and triples as a research institution, a museum, and a haven for reading that was once frequented by Meyerhold and Mikhail Bulgakov.
p.128 – As a last treat we are shown the prompter’s book from the 1896 premiere of Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Here is the notated production script for the misbegotten pre-Danchenko/Stanislavsky Seagull that closed in five days, regardless of having Kommissarzhevskaya in the cast as the first Nina.
Displaying 1 of 1 review