A play about government corruption will cap a day-long tribute on Saturday, Oct. 4, to the artistic legacy of a Russian theater director who was executed during Joseph Stalin's regime.
The director being honored, Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940), was a contemporary and creative rival of Konstantin Stanislavsky. During the 1920s Meyerhold developed an acting method called "biomechanics," in which actors were trained to use their bodies and gestures to make characters real. A leader of the Russian avant garde, Meyerhold was arrested and shot in 1940 during Stalin's rule. For nearly two decades afterwards, the director's works were purged from all Russian textbooks, and his name banned in drama classes. It is only recently that Meyerhold's works have been rediscovered in post-Soviet Russia and in America.
"Meyerhold was the greatest director in the history of theater, and his complex and surreal legacy is only now emerging from the detritus of the cold war. We all still have so much to learn from him," says internationally renowned opera and theater director Peter Sellars.
Mr. Sellars will be among the scholars of Russian history, art and theater who will participate in a panel discussion on Meyerhold and his times, which will be held 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Yale Repertory Theatre, corner of Chapel and York streets. Also participating in the panel -- which will focus on Meyerhold's artistry, his influence on contemporary theater and the cultural context of Russia in the 1920s -- will be Alexei Levinsky, who teaches Meyerhold's practice of biomechanics, and Nicholai Pesochinsky, a professor of theater at Russia's St. Petersburg Academy of Theatre Arts. Meyerhold's granddaughter, Maria Valenti, will also take part in the discussion via the Internet, and will conduct an on-line tour of the Meyerhold Museum in Moscow.
At 8 p.m. that day, students from the School of Drama and St. Petersburg Academy will present a performance-demonstration of Meyerhold's acclaimed 1926 production of Nikolai Gogal's play "Revizor" ("The Inspector-General") at the Yale Rep. The cross-cultural, bilingual presentation is the culmination of a collaboration between faculty and students in the two schools, which began last year under the direction of David Chambers of the School of Drama and Gennady Trostianetsky of St. Petersburg Academy.
In his approach to "Revizor," Meyerhold broke with the conventions of social realism, using nontraditional staging and veiled political and social critiques. This will
be the first time the play has been staged using Meyerhold's approach since his death.
In their investigation of the play, the Yale and St. Petersburg scholars used newly uncovered archival material on Meyerhold. For instance, notes Nikolai Pesochinsky, the Russian producer for "Revizor," "Meyerhold had planned on visiting the United States in the 1930s, but had to stay in Russia to protect his theater. By traveling to America we are helping to fulfill his plan." Mr. Chambers is the American producer for the play.
The Yale students in the "Revizor" cast include Jon Ecklund, Joanna Glushak, Jim Hart, Austin Jones, Adrian LaTourelle, Heather Robinson and Graham Shiels. The St. Petersburg students include Alexander Borokhovsky, Edward Gaidai, Janis Ioma, Svetlana Naugolnaia, Julia Panina, Vladimir Robinsky, Denis Rubin, Igor Selin, Alexei Uteganov, Yuri Yadrovsky, Tsianna Zavgovodnaia, Vladimir Zolotar and Irina Zubzhitskaia.
Also collaborating on the production are Andrew
Holland, scenic designer; Lars Klein, technical director; Roman Kondratenko, director of research; Dasha Krizhanskaya, dramaturg; Mel Marvin, composer; Robert Perry, lighting designer; Shane Rettig, sound designer; and Christy Weikel, stage manager.
"Revizor" is also being presented in partnership with CEC International Partners, a nonprofit organization that implements programs for the arts and environment in eastern and central Europe, and The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre, a New York-based experimental theater that is building a cyber-theater on the World Wide Web for international productions. "Revizor" is funded in part by Philip Morris Companies, Inc., as part of its corporate cultural program.
All the events are free and open to the public. To
reserve tickets for "Revizor," call the Yale Rep box office
at 432-1234.