The Routledge Companion to Vsevolod Meyerhold (Routledge Companions)

The Routledge Companion to Vsevolod Meyerhold brings together a wealth of scholarship on one of the foremost innovators in European theatre. It presents a detailed picture of the Russian director’s work from when it first emerged on the modern stage to its multifarious present-day manifestations. By combining an historical focus with the latest contemporary research from an international range of perspectives and authors, this collection marks an important moment in Meyerhold studies as well as offering a new assessment of his relation to today’s theatre-making. Its dynamic blend of research is presented in five sections: Histories enlarges on more conventional subjects like the grotesque and Biomechanics, to overlooked topics such as Meyerhold’s ‘failed’ projects and his work in film; Collaborations and Connections extends understandings of Meyerhold’s well-known collaborative capacities to consider new cultural influences and lesser known working relationships; Sources engages with hitherto untapped material in Meyerhold’s oeuvre by reproducing and contextualising previously untranslated primary sources on his work; Practitioner Voices offer lively, on the ground, testimony of the contemporary impact of Meyerhold’s practice; Meyerhold in New Contexts maps the routes of his practice across continents and examines ways in which his work is being applied in a number of contemporary scenarios, such as motion capture, computer-based 3D visualisations, and the ‘new normal’ of digital pedagogy. This is a key resource for students and scholars of European Theatre, acting theory, and actor training, as well as for those more broadly interested in the socio-political impact of theatre. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 12 Notes on Contributors 13 Acknowledgments 22 Poetic frontispiece 23 General Introduction 26 Part I Histories 34 Introduction 36 1 Vsevolod Meyerhold and Cinema 44 2 Meyerhold, the Musician 66 3 Meyerhold in the 1930s: Language, Text, Performance 80 4 Meyerhold’s Hamlet: An Unrealised Dream 93 5 Looking at Meyerhold’s Unseen Theatre 105 6 Performing Communism, or, What if we Took Meyerhold’s Politics Seriously? 124 Part II Collaborations and Connections 138 Introduction 140 7 Meyerhold and Stanislavsky: Forty Years of Cordial Disagreement 146 8 An Unknown Legacy: Uncovering Traces of Savva Mamontov’s Work in Meyerhold’s Conditional Theatre 159 9 Meyerhold’s Female Collaborators 172 10 The Influence of Giovanni Grasso on Meyerhold’s Works, Theories, and Biography 185 11 Towards Conscious and Independent Action: Pyotr Lesgaft’s System of Physical Education as Inspiration for Meyerhold’s Biomechanics 201 12 Meyerhold and Trotsky 216 Part III Sources 232 Introduction 234 13 The Commedia Dell’arte Origins of Biomechanics: 236 Part 1: Actor Training and Collective Creation at Meyerhold’s Borodinskaia Street Studio 236 Part 2: Documents on Actor Training and Collective Creation at Borodinskaia 244 14 Fragments of a Creative Life: Introduction to Five New Sources 276 Letters to Anton Chekhov, 1899–1904 281 Comments by Doctor Dapertutto on ‘The Denial of Theatre’ by Yury Aikhenvald, 1914 290 Theatre Pamphlets I: On Dramaturgy and Theatre Culture, 1921 303 From Meyerhold’s Speech at the Discussion ‘Creative Methods at the Meyerhold Theatre’, 25 December 1930 307 On the Spatial Composition of Performance, 2 April 1936 315 Part IV Practitioner Voices 322 Introduction 324 15 A Theatre Company as a Meyerholdian Experiment in Grotesque 328 16 The Evolution of Proper Job: Working with Meyerhold in the Contemporary British Theatre 340 17 Biomechanical Diasporas: Practitioner Perspectives on the Transmission of Meyerhold’s Techniques 353 18 Transmission Impossible 364 19 Decoding the Riddle: Applying Meyerhold’s Conception of the Director’s Explication 368 Part V Meyerhold in New Contexts 384 Part V.1 Transnational Migrations 386 Introduction 388 20 Meyerhold’s Influence on Twentieth-century Japanese Theatre 392 21 Nesting Dolls: Sketches in Search of Meyerhold in Australia 405 22 An Unexpected Triangle: Politis, Meyerhold, and Karaghiozis in Interwar Greece 421 23 Biomechanical Resonances in Turkey: The Working Method of Studio Oyuncuları 431 24 Meyerhold’s Influence on the Production Processes of PERFORMA TEATRO (Brazil) 449 Part V.2 Interdisciplinarities 458 Introduction 460 25 Meyerhold in the 21st Century: The Meeting Points of Biomechanics and Postdramatic Performance 464 26 The New Meyerhold Theatre: Visualising A Lost Architectural Experiment 478 27 Theatrical Biomechanics and Movement Science 496 28 Biomechanics in Lockdown: Teaching Meyerhold in the Age of COVID-19 509 Index 524 teaching,online;,contemporary,theatre;,Samuel,Beckett;,Soviet,theatre;,Modern,Greek,Theatre;,theatre,modernism;,modern,Japanese,theatre;,Grotowski;,Bogdanov;,Proper,Job,theatre;,commedia,dell'arte;,Sergei,Tretyakov;,Soviet,comedy;,Trotsky;,actor,training;,Biomechanics;,Giovanni,Grasso;,Savva,Mamontov;,Moscow,Art,theatre;,revolutionary,theatre;,political,theatre;,David,Graeber;,communism;,unseen,theatre;,Mise-en-scène;,Socialist,Realism;,Radlov;,Akimov;,Shakespeare;,Hamlet;,music,theatre;,Chekhov;,Dalcroze;,Mikhail,Gnesin;,early,Russian,cinema;,Yuri,Olesha;,Leonid,Andreev;,Fedor,Sologub;,Stanislaw,Przybyszewski;,Picture,of,Dorian,Gray teaching online,contemporary theatre,Samuel Beckett,Soviet theatre,Modern Greek Theatre,theatre modernism,modern Japanese theatre,Grotowski,Bogdanov,Proper Job theatre,commedia dell'arte,Sergei Tretyakov,Soviet comedy,Trotsky,actor training,Biomechanics,Giovanni Grasso,Savva Mamontov,Moscow Art theatre,revolutionary theatre,political theatre,David Graeber,communism,unseen theatre,Mise-en-scène,Socialist Realism,Radlov,Akimov,Shakespeare,Hamlet,music theatre,Chekhov,Dalcroze,Mikhail Gnesin,early Russian cinema,Yuri Olesha,Leonid Andreev,Fedor Sologub,Stanislaw Przybyszewski,Picture of Dorian Gray "The Routledge Companion to Vsevolod Meyerhold brings together a wealth of scholarship on one of the foremost innovators in European theatre. It presents a detailed picture of the Russian director's work from when it first emerged on the modern stage to its multifarious present-day manifestations. By combining an historical focus with the latest contemporary research from an international range of perspectives and authors, this collection marks an important moment in Meyerhold studies as well as offering a new assessment of his relation to today's theatre-making. Its dynamic blend of research is presented in five sections: Histories enlarges on more conventional subjects like the grotesque and biomechanics, to overlooked topics such as Meyerhold's 'failed' projects and his work in film; Collaborations and Connections extends understandings of Meyerhold's well-known collaborative capacities to consider new cultural influences and lesser known working relationships; Sources engages with hitherto untapped material in Meyerhold's oeuvre by reproducing and contextualising previously untranslated primary sources on his work; Practitioner Voices radically extends geographical understandings of Meyerhold's practice by mapping the routes of migration across continents; Meyerhold in New Contexts examines ways in which Meyerhold's work is being applied in a number of contemporary scenarios, such as motion capture, computer-based 3D visualizations and the 'new normal' of digital pedagogy. This is a key resource for students and scholars of European Theatre, acting theory and actor training, as well as for those more broadly interested in the socio-political impact of theatre"-- Provided by publisher This timely book tackles underlying issues which see disproportionate numbers of African American males with dyslexia undiagnosed, untreated, and falling behind their peers in terms of literacy achievement.