Meyerhold
A Revolution in Theatre
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- $27.99
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- $27.99
Publisher Description
Edward Braun's acclaimed work on Meyerhold available for the first time in paperback
Vsevolod Meyerhold began his career in theatre as an actor with the Moscow Art Theatre, and after a spell in the remote provinces, he returned to Moscow at Stanislavski's invitation and founded a new, experimental studio for the Art Theatre. This book takes us through Meyerhold's extraordinary life of experiment and discovery, describing his rehearsal techniques and exercises and provides an acute assessment of his continuing influence on contemporary theatre.
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Legendary Russian theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940) led the revolt against naturalism and flouted Stalinist socialist realism with his avant-garde productions incorporating mime, constructivist sets, musical scores and formalized scenery. His scenic invention and use of cinematic techniques culminated in his 1926 staging of Gogol's The Government Inspector as well as reinterpretations of classics such as Pushkin's Queen of Spades. Braun, a drama professor in England, sees Meyerhold as a supreme director-poet for whom the theater was designed to shatter the audience's complacency. Decked out with 145 photographs of set reproductions, costumes and posters, Braun's vibrant study restores Meyerhold's radical legacy for contemporary theater. This revision of a work first published in 1979 draws on a wealth of newly discovered writings by Meyerhold, as well as KGB files released since 1989 that tell the full story of the director's arrest, torture and execution after being falsely labeled a foreign agent by Stalin.
