Amateur and Proletarian Theatre in Post-Revolutionary Russia
Primary Sources
Amateur and Proletarian Theatre in Post-Revolutionary Russia
Primary Sources
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Description
This is the first collection of primary sources that addresses the amateur theatre produced by the workers in the first decade after the Russian Revolution. Newly translated from the Russian, the essays capture both theoretical articulations on the scene – by luminaries such as Alexander Bogdanov, Platon Kerzhentsev, Valerian Pletnev, Alexander Mgebrov and Valentin Smyshliaev – and the more fleeting descriptions and first-hand accounts of the productions staged, accounts and voices which are typically harder to capture.
The essays tell a story of unabashed optimism in the creativity of the working classes. They speak of the use of theatre to carve a public and political role in the construction of a new world. The sources, however, also exhibit the flipside of the scene, or the sombre difficulties faced by the amateur actors and the incessant calls to raise standards through professional help. The narrative developed is that of an amateur theatre which began as an autonomous and heterogeneous activity but which by the mid-to-late 1920s was transformed into a regulated practice and a space for cultural programming.
The collection makes an important contribution to our understanding of modern theatre: scholarship conventionally tackles the canonical names from the professional world but gives little attention to the more down-to-earth forms of performance taking place in factories, clubs and amateur circles. An introductory essay also highlights the range and significance of the collection and draws links between the essays.
Table of Contents
Translation Credits and a Note on Transliteration
List of Figures
Introduction
Prologue, 1918
Platon Kerzhentsev
Part 1 Aims and Objectives
1. 'The Proletariat and Art', 1918
Anatoly Lunacharsky
2. 'The Proletariat and Art', 1918
Resolutions proposed at the First All-Russian Conference of
Proletarian Cultural and Educational Organizations
Alexander Bogdanov
3. 'The Proletkult and Soviet Cultural Work', 1919
Anatoly Lunacharsky
4. 'Ways Towards a Proletarian Culture', 1920
Alexander Bogdanov
5. 'The Proletkult – Organisation of Proletarian Amateur Performance', 1918
Platon Kerzhentsev
6. 'Craving the Stage', 1919
Nikolai Lvov
7. 'Socialist Theatre in the Years of the Revolution', 1919
Piotr Kogan
8. 'No to Theatre Art, but to Celebration', 1921
Adrian Piotrovsky
9. 'Drama and Mass Performances', 1921
Viktor Shklovsky
Part 2 Amateur-Professional Relations
10. 'On the Professionalization of the Workers in the Arts', 1919
Fyodor Kalinin
11. 'On Professionalism', 1919
Valerian Pletnev
12. The Creation of the Proletarian Theatre, 1923
Platon Kerzhentsev
Part 3 Repertoire Issues
13. Repertoire at a Factory Theatre, [1918]
Alexander Mgebrov
14. 'The Repertoire of the Proletarian Theatre', 1918
Platon Kerzhentsev
15. Notes on Pavel Bessalko's The Bricklayer, [1918]
Alexander Mgebrov
16. 'Adapt the Plays!', 1919
Platon Kerzhentsev
17. Garland's Inheritance, 1923
Valerian Pletnev
18. They Tried to Hide, but Ended Up Fathers, 1924
Arkhip
Part 4 Production Approaches and Examples
19. 'After the Holiday', 1918
Platon Kerzhentsev
20. Performances During the Civil War, [1919]
Alexander Mgebrov
21. Collective Readings, [1918-19]
Alexander Mgebrov
22. 'Collective Creation in the Theatre', 1919
Platon Kerzhentsev
23. 'Strife Between the Arts', 1919
Platon Kerzhentsev
24. 'On Futurism', 1919
Fyodor Kalinin
25. 'Creative Play. The Improvisation Method of N. Skarskaia', 1919
Pavel Gaideburov
26. 'Experiment in the Staging of Émile Verhaeren's Poem Insurrection', 1919
Valentin Smyshlaev
27. The Results of the New Theatre, 1923
28. The Proletarian Actor, 1922
Valentin Tikhonovich
29. 'The Dramatisation of a Living Newspaper', 1924
Moscow Proletkult
30. 'On Staging Agit-Trials', 1924
Moscow Proletkult
31. 'Club Stage – Competition of Living Newspapers', 1927
N.N.V
Part 5 Training
32. 'On the Work of the Theatre Department of the Moscow Proletkult', 1918
Valentin Smyshlaev
33. Dramatic Laboratories, 1923
Platon Kerzhentsev
34. 'A Unified Studio of the Arts', 1924
Moscow Proletkult
35. 'On Theatre Work at the Clubs', 1924
Moscow Proletkult
Epilogue
Sections from N. Evreinov's intervention during the conference on theatre
organised by the Agitprop Division of the Communist Party, 1927
Product details
| Published | May 06 2021 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 232 |
| ISBN | 9781350170971 |
| Imprint | Methuen Drama |
| Illustrations | 10 bw illus |
| Dimensions | 234 x 156 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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