Biomechanics was a system of actor training developed by Vsevolod Meyerhold. Its purpose was to widen the emotional potential of a theater piece and express thoughts and ideas that could not be easily presented through the naturalistic theater of the period.
The techniques of biomechanics were developed during the rehearsals of a series of plays directed by Meyerhold in the 1920s and 1930s when Socialist Realism was at its height in Russia. Biomechanics is a precursor to and influence on much of the 20th century's physical theatre.
Despite a lack of scenery in many of Meyerhold's plays, “if the actor remains on the bare stage, the greatness of the theater stays with him”. [1] In a similar vein, Markov claims that the constructivists saw the stage “merely as a platform for showing off the external technique of the actor”. [2] This facilitated Meyerhold's use of biomechanics, an acting system which relied on motion rather than language or illusion. Opposing the Stanislavsky System, which Meyerhold believed “over emphasized the 'spirit' and 'psychologizing'”, biomechanics emphasized “elementary laws of reflexes” [1] . In addition to the scenery facilitating this technique, the costumes were also integral. In constructivist fashion, the costumes were not extravagant, but drastically simplified, which allowed the actors to easily perform using biomechanics and without hiding mistakes [2] . This method of acting lends itself very well to the constructivist style of being basic and as straightforward as possible.
Meyerhold's success with biomechanics played a large role in the introduction of “physical training into the curriculum of every Soviet drama school”. [3] Physical training for actors is an aspect that is still employed today, especially for actors who participate in dance numbers and musicals.
Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode.
Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski was a seminal Russian theatre practitioner. He was widely recognised as an outstanding character actor and the many productions that he directed garnered him a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. His principal fame and influence, however, rests on his 'system' of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique.
Theatre techniques are procedures that facilitate a successful presentation of a play. They also include any practices that advance and enhance the understanding the audience brings to the action and the acting by the cast on stage.
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance-drama, musical theatre performance etc. by unifying various endeavors and aspects of production. The director's function is to ensure the quality and completeness of theatre production and to lead the members of the creative team into realizing their artistic vision for it. The director thereby collaborates with a team of creative individuals and other staff to coordinate research and work on all the aspects of the production which includes the Technical and the Performance aspects. The technical aspects include: stagecraft, costume design, theatrical properties (props), lighting design, set design and sound design for the production. The performance aspects include: acting, dance, orchestra, chants, and stage combat.
Epic theatre is a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to the political climate of the time through the creation of a new political theatre. Epic theatre is not meant to refer to the scale or the scope of the work, but rather to the form that it takes. Epic theatre emphasizes the audience's perspective and reaction to the piece through a variety of techniques that deliberately cause them to individually engage in a different way. The purpose of epic theatre is not to encourage an audience to suspend their disbelief, but rather to force them to see their world as it is.
Stanislavski's system is a systematic approach to training actors that the Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski developed in the first half of the twentieth century. His system cultivates what he calls the "art of experiencing". It mobilises the actor's conscious thought and will in order to activate other, less-controllable psychological processes—such as emotional experience and subconscious behaviour—sympathetically and indirectly. In rehearsal, the actor searches for inner motives to justify action and the definition of what the character seeks to achieve at any given moment.
Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre. During the Great Purge, Meyerhold was arrested, tortured and executed in February 1940.
Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova was a Russian artist associated with the Constructivist movement.
Yevgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov was a Russian-Armenian actor and theatre director who founded the Vakhtangov Theatre. He was a friend and mentor of Michael Chekhov.
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1915 by Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko. Abstract and austere, constructivist art aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space. The movement rejected decorative stylization in favor of the industrial assemblage of materials. Constructivists were in favour of art for practical and social purposes, and were associated with Soviet socialism and the Russian avant-garde.
Oleksandr-Zenon Stepanovych Kurbas, a Ukrainian movie and theater director, is considered by many to be the most important Ukrainian theater director of the 20th century. He formed, together with Vsevolod Meyerhold, Yevgeny Vakhtangov and several other directors, the Soviet theater avant-garde in the 1920s and 1930s. He is one the most prominent representatives of Ukrainian avant-garde art. He is considered to be one of the lead figures of the Executed Renaissance.
Erast Pavlovich Garin was a Soviet and Russian actor, director and screenwriter. He was, together with Igor Ilyinsky and Sergey Martinson, one of the leading comic actors of Vsevolod Meyerhold's company and of the Soviet cinema. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1977.
The Russian Institute of Theatre Arts – GITIS is the largest and oldest independent theatrical arts school in Russia. Located in Moscow, the school was founded on 22 September 1878 as the Shostakovsky Music School. It became the School of Music and Drama of the Moscow Philharmonic Society in 1883, was elevated to the status of a conservatory in 1886, was renamed the Institute of Music and Drama in 1918, and was known as the Lunacharsky State Institute for Theatre Arts (GITIS) from 1934 to 1991.
Yevgeny Valerianovich Samoilov was a Soviet actor who gained prominence in youthful heroic parts and was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1974. He was the father of Tatiana Samoilova.
Alexander Yakovlevich Tairov was one of the leading innovators of theatrical art, and one of the most enduring theatre directors in Russia, and through the Soviet era.
Le Cocu magnifique is a Belgian play by Fernand Crommelynck. It was first published in 1921.
The American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theatre (ART/МХАТ) Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University was founded in 1987 as a training ground for the new American Theater by the Robert Brustein and the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
Semyon Solomonovich Mandel was a prominent Soviet/Russian theatre and film production designer and art director. He was named an Honored Art Worker of the USSR in 1969, and received the USSR State Prize in 1948.
Boris Yevseyevich Gusman (1892–1944) was a Soviet author, screenplay writer, theater director, and columnist for Pravda. As deputy director for the Bolshoi Theatre and later director of the Soviet Radio Committee Arts Division, Gusman played an important role in promoting Sergei Prokofiev's music in the USSR and internationally. Gusman was arrested during the Great Purges of the late 1930s, and died in a labor camp in 1944.
ZRELISHCHA was a Russian language Soviet illustrated weekly theatre journal. It was originallyublished in Moscow from May to August 1922 under the name "Hermitage" ; from August 1922 to June 1924 it was known as Zrelishch. The journal published a chronicle of cultural events in Moscow with a focus on theatre, dance, opera, circus and music-hall. The journal regularly featured critical reviews, correspondence and discussion on avant-garde cultural activities in the Soviet Union and abroad. Edited by theatre critic Lev Kolpakchi, the journal was associated with the work of V. Ardov, B. Bebutov, O. Brik, P. Markov, V. Meyerhold, S. Yutkevich, A. Fevralsky, B. Arvatov, S, Tretyakov, and others. Many writers of the journal published under pseudonyms. The journal editors expressed affiliation to the Left Front of the Arts and the journal served as forum for the discussion and critique of Constructivist theatre, Formalism and the methods of dialectical materialism. The journal's position in regards to revolutionary cultural production, as set out in one of the first issues, was the "study the material characteristics and methods for its organization, the creation of a science of art, the transformation of art into a scientifically-organized mode of production."