H28.0719 Lecture 4 Credits
This course will examine the major directors and theorists of acting in Russia, from the creation of the Moscow Art Theater in June, 1897 to the installation of Socialist Realism as the official state aesthetic in 1934, and further tracing the MAT’s impact on American stages in the 1930s. Stanislavski first outlined his system of naturalistic acting on paper in 1909, and formed the First Studio a few years later. The first part of the course will examine in detail the formation of this new ”method,” tracing the roots of the idea of “affective memory” In psychological, social scientific, and theatrical theory of the time, with particular comparison to the trajectory of Freud’s thought in the same period. In its second phase, the MAT emerged as a focal point in a larger genealogy of artists working in new and modern styles (Symbolism, Biomechanics), most famously, V. Meyerhold. The second part of the course will examine the impact of the Studios, developed as laboratories and run by disciples of Stanislavski who altered the mix of physical and emotional “truth” in the actor’s formula, often to the point of disagreement with the master. Vakhtangov took over the First Studio in 1911, and worked with Richard Boleslavsky, Michael Chekhov, and Vera Soloviova, all of whom were teaching in New York by the late 1920s. The third part of the course investigates how the Method transformed American dramatic art. Immigrants to the United States in the wake of the Russian Revolution included Boleslavsky, Chekhov, Soloviova, and Maria Ouspenskaya. And, the MAT toured the States in 1923, leaving behind not only the effects of memorable productions but also company members who formed themselves around Boleslavsky in a studio on Washington Square. Students there included Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Harold Clurman. In addition to primary sources from the various periods of Stanislavski’s work, readings will include texts by Meyerhold, Eisenstein, and Brecht, as well as interviews with actors and directors from the period. Students will be asked to consider the questions: what is the spectator’s experience of “empathy?” how might Stanislavski’s ideas be considered “avant-garde” or “experimental” today? and, how was the Method a critical element in unifying an American theater style, even as theater became decentralized in the decades following the 1930s?
