Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Soviet theatre'

Title: Performing Work: Internationalism and Theatre of Fact between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. Theatre’s public, and yet intimate emotional ability to demarcate extraordinary occurrences and provoke communal escalation make it useful for internationalist organizing. “Performing Work: Internationalism and Theatre of Fact between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.,” traces 1920s and 1930s leftist theatre through transnational circuits of political and aesthetic dialogue. I argue that these plays form a shared lexicon in response to regional economic and political challenges. Sergei Tretiakov’s Rychi, Kitai/Roar, China! (1926); Hallie Flanagan and Margaret Ellen Clifford’s Can You Hear Their Voices? (1931); Langston Hughes’s Scottsboro Limited (1931); and Hughes, Ella Winter, and Ann Hawkins’s Harvest (1933-34) constitute the dissertation’s primary texts. “Performing Work” begins by reading the Soviet play Roar, China! as a work of theatre of fact which performs conflicted internationalisms in plot, and in its politicized production history. The middle chapters track revisions to Soviet factography and internationalism by three American plays in light of the Depression, racism, feminism, and labor disputes. The study considers the reception of Russian and English translations, as well as figurative translations across cultural contexts. Performance theory and literary history support this analysis of dramatic forms—embodied, temporal, and textual. I narrow my study to four plays from the United States and Soviet Union to argue for the tangible impact of ephemeral contact and performance in order to resist polarizing simplification of relationships between these two countries. The three central figures of this study, Sergei Mikhailovich Tretiakov (1892-1937), Hallie Flanagan (1890-1969), and Langston Hughes (1909-1967) each had either direct or indirect contact with one another and with each other’s theatrical work. This study is primarily concerned with the transnational circulation of politically significant dramatic form and only secondarily occupied with verifying direct influence from one author to another. The four plays participate in transnational dialogue on working conditions, cultural imperialism, racist legal systems, and gender inequality. This dissertation includes previously published material.
10000-01-01

Post-Soviet nostalgia, generally understood as a sentimental longing forthe Soviet past, has penetrated deep into many branches of Russian popular culture in the post-1989 period. The present study investigates how the Soviet past has been mediated in the period between 1991 and 2012 as one element of a prominent structure of feeling in present-day Russian culture. The Soviet past is represented through different mediating arenas – cultural domains and communicative platforms in which meanings are created and circulated. The mediating arenas examined in this study include television, the Internet, fashion, restaurants, museums and theatre. The study of these arenas has identified common ingredients which are elements of a structure of feeling of the period in question. At the same time, the research shows that the representations of the past vary with the nature of the medium and the genre. The analysis of mediations of the Soviet past in Russian contemporary culture reveals that there has been a change in the representations of the Soviet past during the past twenty years, which roughly correspond to the two decades marked by the presidencies of Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s and of Vladimir Putin in the 2000s (including Dmitrii Medvedev's term, 2008–2012). The critical and reflective component that was present in representations of the Soviet past in the 1990s has slowly faded away, making room first for more commercial and then for political exploitations of the past. Building on Svetlana Boym's conceptual framework of reflective and restorative nostalgia, the present study provides an illustration of how reflective nostalgia is being gradually supplanted by restorative nostalgia. Academic research has provided many definitions of nostalgia, from strictly medical explanations to more psychological and socio-cultural perspectives. The present study offers examples of how nostalgia functions as a label in ascribing political and cultural identities to oneself and to others, creating confusion about the term and about what and who can rightly be called nostalgic.

This thesis explores dissident theatre in East Central Europe during the second half of the Cold War (1964-1989). Contextualised within the discussion of individual theatrical and performance cultures and practices in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and The German Democratic Republic, it examines how theatre was used to subvert the dominant ideologies and dissent from the status quos in these countries. It establishes a framework that addresses the divergences between Anglo-American political theatre and Eastern Bloc dissident theatre, and discusses the necessity of considering the work of subcultural and subversive artists when analysing work of this kind. The core chapters discuss the theatrical and dramatic techniques, and the intention of the artists with regards to the work itself and to audience interpretation and response in the plays and performances of Václav Havel (Czechoslovakia), Theatre of the Eighth Day (Poland) and Autoperforationsartisten (East Germany). Further, these chapters demonstrate the significant differences in the ways dissident theatre and performance was conceptualised and staged. This thesis also analyses similarities in the theoretical and philosophical motivations for the work of the artists, and the development of ‘second’ or ‘parallel’ societies as a result of the performances.

This thesis proposes a theoretical framework for spatial inquiry into conditions of radical social gregariousness, through probing the crowd design problem in the work of the Soviet Rationalist architects (1920s-30s) - particularly their submissions to the Palace of Soviets competition (Moscow 1931-3). Legitimizing the crowd construct as an index of collective consciousness, and examining the early-modern revolutionary crowd's struggles for proclaiming its self-consciousness, this thesis investigates the interwar political phenomenon of amassing large crowds within buildings as a device for constructing collective social relations. The research project is divided into two main parts. The first is concerned with the crowd design problem, identifying this problem not just as the technical task of accommodating large political crowds, but as the basis of the formulation a new kind of conceptual intent in architecture. Finding the competition brief inadequate to in-depth formulation, the thesis investigates three primary sources for the crowd design problem: mass-events, revolutionary-theatre and revolutionary-art. Four components comprise the Crowd Design Problem each seeking legitimacy in the mass of crowd-bodies: i) the problem of crowd configurations; ii) challenges from the kinesthetic-space conception evoked by theatrical director V.E. Meyerhold's Biomechanics; iii) the legitimacy of 'the object' within a spatial-field of intersubjectivity; and iv) the challenge of 'seeing' crowds from immersive viewpoints counteracting representational filters of class privilege. Part-II focuses on the response of the Rationalists--one of the groups participating in the competition--to the crowd design problem. The study unearths in their designs a logic of space-making founded in the construction of inter-subjective states of consciousness radically different from prevailing individualistic conceptions of social space. To explain this logic of space-making, it proposes the notion of Gregarious Space--a theoretical framework of inquiry into what Marx called "species-being", taking radical gregariousness as the primary, generative condition of society. Besides drawing on morphological principles, social theory, historical analyses, and philosophical reflections, the notion of Gregarious Space is found to be particularly amenable to design propositions. Within the proposed theoretical framework, the Rationalists' design-proposition of curved-grounds, dense notations, textured co-visibilities and empathetic graphic conventions - all comprise a founding spatial-principle trafficking in rhythmic fields between subjects and against non-commodified objects: a principle which challenges the material domain of Productivist Constructivism as well as Historical Materialism's canonical constructs of alienation. Moreover, its uncertain kinesthetics sustain dynamic, aleatory states of consciousness which subvert prevailing disciplinary techniques of Panopticon inspection.

Theatre artists and acting teachers throughout history have sought to find and create presence. By combining modern sports science with an understanding of systems of actor training I have suggested an approach that makes presence a trainable skill. My coach Dr. Scott Sonnon, developer of the Circular Strength Training System, has refined modern sports science to emphasize the development and maintenance of flow-state. This state allows the athlete to respond openly and freely within a constantly changing situation.By combining my life long study of acting with my eight years of work with Coach Sonnon I am developing a system to teach actors the skill of cultivating flow. This work will enhance the actor's presence and ability to handle the stress of performance while developing a strong, supple, and coordinated psychophysical instrument. Video of examples of the exercises can be found in the accompanying materials.This work was created in Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac.

The Red Scare of 1919-1920 has been presented as a wave of anti-Radical hysteria that swept post WWI America; a hysteria to which the state reluctantly capitulated to by arresting Radicals and deporting those alien Radicals they deemed most threatening. This presentation, however, is ludicrous when the motivations of the state and its conservative allies are examined. The truth of the matter was that almost all of the people targeted by the Red Scare represented no significant threat to the institutions of the United States and were merely targeted for holding Leftwing ideas, or being connected to a group that did. This work examines how the Red Scare deportations were used as a performance to gain power and funding for the Bureau of Investigation and how the Bureau sought to use this performance to set itself up as the premier anti-Radical agency in the United States. While the topic of the Red Scare of 1919-1920 has been thoroughly covered, most works on the subject attempt to cover the whole affair or even address it as part of a larger study of political repression in the United States. In these accounts these authors do not see the Red Scare as a performance, which culminated in the Soviet Ark deportations, put on by the BI in order to fulfill its goal of expanding its own importance. This work addresses the events leading up to climactic sailing of the Soviet Ark, as political theater put on by the BI and its allies in order to impress policy makers and other conservative interest groups. Since the Soviet Ark deportations were the climax of the Red Scare performance, this work addresses the event as a theatrical production and follows a three act dramatic structure. It begins by exploring the cast of characters, both individuals and organizations, in the BI's performance. This is followed by an analysis of the rising action of the BI, and other reactionary groups in the evolution of their grand performance. Finally the deportations serve as the climax of the Red Scare in this performance that the BI and its allies would use to justify an expansion of their influence. Through the use of government records, biographies, and first hand accounts, this work explores the Soviet Ark deportations as the high point of the first Red Scare, the point in which the BI and its allies took their quest for expanded power the furthest before having to change course. The grand performance that the Bureau of Investigation put on is looked at, not as a response to placate others – something the BI was merely swept up in – but as a performance that they designed to meet the specific needs of their campaign to grow their agency, a performance for which they were willing to draft those that represented no real threat despite the consequences to those individuals.
M.A.
Masters
History
Arts and Humanities
History; Accelerated MA

Die Dissertation ist eine medienhistorische Studie über die Einführung des Tons im sowjetischen Kino, die ästhetische und technologische Veränderungen in einem weiter gefassten politischen und kulturellen Kontext interpretiert. In historischen Untersuchungen des frühen Tonfilms der letzten zehn Jahre wurde der sowjetischen Methode des asynchronen Tons häufig die verbreitetere Methode der möglichst genauen Synchronisation gegenübergestellt, wie sie von der Filmindustrie in Hollywood in den späten 1920er und frühen 1930er Jahren entwickelt wurde. Die Arbeit geht über diese zum Standard gewordene Erzählung hinaus. In einer Reihe von Fallstudien wird die Arbeit sowjetischer Filmemacher, Drehbuchautoren, Filmtheoretiker und Toningenieure analysiert, um zu demonstrieren, dass in der Sowjetunion in der Frühphase des Filmtons sehr unterschiedliche Haltungen zum Ton existierten. Die Dissertation konzentriert sich sowohl auf die Theorien des Filmtons als auch auf die Praktiken, wobei es sich unter anderem auf Dziga Vertov, Nikolai Ekk, Michail Cechanovskij und Pavel Tager bezieht. Die Begriffe „Asynchronizität“ und „Synchronizität“ haben in den Debatten über die Einführung des Tonfilms in der Sowjetunion eine zentrale Rolle gespielt. Die vorliegende Dissertation bietet die erste grundlegende Untersuchung dieser Begriffe innerhalb des Kontextes der komplexen Ursprünge des frühen sowjetischen Tonfilms.
The dissertation is a media-historical study of the emergence of sound in Soviet cinema, which links aesthetic and technological changes to the broader political and cultural context. Over the last decade, histories of early sound film have usually contrasted the Soviet method of asynchronous sound to the prevalent method of tight synchronization as it was popularized by the Hollywood film industry in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The dissertation looks beyond this standardized narrative. In a series of case studies, it analyzes the work of Soviet filmmakers, screenwriters, film theoreticians and acoustical engineers to demonstrate that many diverse approaches to sound were actually in play at the onset of film sound in the Soviet Union. The dissertation focuses on both film sound theory and practice mainly in the works of Dziga Vertov, Nikolai Ekk, Pavel Tager and Mikhail Tsekhanovsky. The terms “asynchronicity” and “synchronicity” were central in the debates about the emergence of sound film in the Soviet Union. This study provides the first thorough examination of these terms within the context of the complex origins of early Soviet sound cinema.

Hamlet a longtemps été une partie inséparable de l'identité nationale russe. Cependant, les mises en scène d’Hamlet en Union soviétique (surtout en Russie) durant l'époque de Staline présentèrent des problèmes spécifiques liés aux doctrines idéologiques imposées sur les arts et la culture en général ainsi qu’aux idées reçues concernant l’opinion personnelle de Staline envers de la tragédie. Les deux mises en scènes principales d’Hamlet en Russie au cours de cette période ont été celles réalisées par Nikolai Akimov (1932) et Sergei Radlov (1938). Un réexamen approfondi de ces mises en scène, entrepris dans les chapitres centraux de cette thèse, révèle des détails précédemment inconnus au sujet de leurs conceptions, réalisations, réceptions et au-delà. Cela met en évidence l'importance du rôle de la musique de scène composée pour elles par Dimitri Chostakovitch et par Sergei Prokofiev, respectivement, et suggère l'interaction complexe des agendas individuels et institutionnels. Ce travail a été rendu possible grâce à de nombreuses visites aux archives russes, qui contiennent de précieux documents tels que des livrets des mises en scène et les rapports sténographiques de discussions, précédemment non référencées à l'Ouest. Ces chapitres centraux sont précédés d'un aperçu historique d’Hamlet en Russie et de la musique et de Shakespeare en général. Ils sont suivis par une enquête au sujet des adaptations notables d’Hamlet à la fin de l’époque de Staline et après la mort du dictateur, se concentrant sur ceux qui contiennent les contributions musicales les plus importantes. Le résultat est un aperçu plus riche et plus complexe de l'image familière d’Hamlet comme miroir de la société russe / soviétique
Hamlet has long been an inseparable part of Russian national identity. Staging Hamlet in Russia during the Stalin era, however, presented particular problems connected with the ideological framework imposed on the arts and culture as well as with Stalin’s own negative perceived view of the tragedy. The two major productions of Hamlet in Russia during this period were those directed by Nikolai Akimov (1932) and Sergei Radlov (1938). Thorough re-examination of these productions, as undertaken in the central chapters of this dissertation, reveals much previously unknown detail about their conception, realisation, reception and afterlife. It highlights the importance of the role of music composed for them by Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, respectively, and it suggests a complex interaction of individual and institutional agendas. This work has been made possible by numerous visits to Russian archives, which contain invaluable documents such as production books and stenographic reports of discussions, previously unreferenced in Western scholarship. These central chapters are preceded by a historical overview of Hamlet in Russia and of music and Shakespeare in general. They are followed by a survey of major adaptations of Hamlet in the late-Stalin era and beyond, concentrating on those with significant musical contributions. The outcome is a richer and more complex account of the familiar image of Hamlet as a mirror of Russian/Soviet society

碩士
淡江大學
俄羅斯研究所
91
Taganka Theatre was established in Moscow since 1964. The style of its performance was fairly unique for the theatre art of the late Soviet period. Based on literature, rich with musical elements, vivid expressionism , symbolic decoration and innovative design of the stage, skillful treatment of dramatic material by director Yury Lyubimov as well as the peculiar art of political hints this style obtained a very sympathetic response from the contemporary Soviet public but came under attack of the Soviet authorities. Taganka Theatre met with such a spectacular success because it managed to create a peculiar atmosphere that conveyed to the audience the sense of “living truth”. Furthermore, Taganka Theatre tried to restore the value of the revolutionary action and that had a subversive effect in the later, fairly bureaucratic Soviet society. 1.Analyze the literature and the art expression of the Taganka Theatre. 2.The research of characteristic regard to the actor/ actress in Taganka Theatre. 3.The relationships between the Taganka Theatre and intellectual.. 4.Analyze the social construction and the social meaning of the Taganka Theatre to late Soviet period (1964-1991). 5.The most important objective and motive to established the Taganka Theatre. 6.Conclusions regard to the art character and social contents of the Taganka Theatre. Though research and analysis, we understand that the art expression was just an implement, a trick. Performances not only an art, but also a life, consequently, the truly life and social style was shown though Taganka Theatre, awoke the public what is “truth” from Soviet Union government, which was sedulously cover by the government. The value and consciousness of Taganka Theatre toward Soviet’s social, get beyond to the restrict of Soviet Union government, restore the function of pass on the “truth” in the drama, to enable the “truth” became the original element in the drama once more.

The thesis focuses on the staging of Soviet operettas in Czechoslovakia between 1946 and 1987. The import of the Soviet repertoire to Czechoslovak operetta theaters was linked to the cultural and political transformations at the outset of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The so-called Soviet socialist operetta would soon have been established as a model for new Czechoslovak operettas. As such, it became an important part of the repertoire which was influenced by the official polical system. The thesis surveys the progressing intensity of the import and the developing operetta genre in the Soviet Union. On the examples of Isaac Dunayevsky's operettas Free Wind and, more intensively, White Acacia, in comparison with the original versions of these operettas, it shows the tendencies of interpretation of Soviet operettas in Czechoslovakia, in the changing cultural and political context. The thesis also concerns the topic of critical perception in both cultural environments and, overall, it aspires to capture the examined topics in the widest possible contextual horizon.

Mikhail Bulgakov’s satirical novel The Master and Margarita offers a humorous and caustic depiction of 1930s Moscow. Woven around the premise of a visit by the devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union, it is directed against the repressive bureaucratic social order of the time. In chapter 12 of the book, the devil appears onstage at the Variety Theater and turns Moscow on its head. By appealing to their greed and desire for status, he turns the spectators into the spectacle. A close reading of the text confirms that the Theater is much more than a fictional setting for the chapter. Instead, it serves as a backdrop for a disturbing portrait of human frailty, a scathing criticism of Soviet bureaucracy and hypocrisy, and unmistakable references to real-life Moscow institutions and to the author’s personal experiences during the tumultuous 1930s.
text