The main themes in the work of A. Ostrovsky. Features of the Ostrovsky style he opened to the world

This feature of Ostrovsky was noted by critics even when his first plays appeared. “... The ability to depict reality as it is - “mathematical fidelity to reality”, the absence of any exaggeration ... All this is not distinctive features poetry of Gogol; all these are the distinctive features of the new comedy,” wrote B. Almazov in the article “Dream on the occasion of one comedy”. Already in our time, the literary critic A. Skaftymov in his work “Belinsky and the dramaturgy of A. N. Ostrovsky” noted that “the most striking difference between the plays of Gogol and Ostrovsky is that Gogol does not have a victim of vice, and Ostrovsky always has a suffering victim vice... Depicting vice, Ostrovsky protects something from it, protects someone... Thus, the entire content of the play changes. The play is colored by suffering lyricism, enters into the development of fresh, morally pure or poetic feelings; the author's efforts are directed towards sharply putting forward the inner legitimacy, truth and poetry of genuine humanity, oppressed and driven out in an atmosphere of dominant self-interest and deceit. Ostrovsky’s approach to depicting reality, which is different from Gogol’s, is explained, of course, by the originality of his talent, the “natural” properties of the artist, but also (this should not be overlooked) by the changed time: increased attention to the individual, to his rights, recognition of his value.

Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko in his book "The Birth of the Theatre" perceptively points out what makes Ostrovsky's plays especially scenic: "the atmosphere of kindness", "clear, firm sympathy is on the side of the offended, to which the theater hall is always, extremely sensitive."

“Oh don't cry; they are not worth your tears. You are a white dove in a black flock of rooks, so they peck at you. Your whiteness, your purity is offensive to them, ”Narokov Sasha Negina says in Talents and Admirers.

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"I've been working all my life."

Slide 1 and 2.

Lesson objectives: introduce students to a new author; determine the originality of his work, expressed in the reflection of the problems of the era; show innovation and tradition in the work of A.N. Ostrovsky, the originality of his style.

Slide 3.

During the classes

I. Teacher lecture with presentation.

slide 4.

1. Pages of the history of the Russian theater before A.N. Ostrovsky (information). The originality of the themes of dramatic works; features of heroes (estates); characterization principles. A. Ostrovsky's predecessors: D.I. Fonvizin, A.S. Griboedov, A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol.

Slide 5.

2. Features of Ostrovsky's plays. A new hero, whom Russian literature did not know before him. "He opened to the world a man of a new formation: an Old Believer merchant and a capitalist merchant, a merchant in an Armenian coat and a merchant in a troika, traveling abroad and doing his own business. Ostrovsky opened wide the door to the world, hitherto locked behind high fences from prying eyes" - wrote V.G. Marantsman. The new hero of Ostrovsky determines the originality of the problems and themes of the plays, the features of the characters of the characters.

Slides 6-13

3. Pages of the biography of the playwright: family, Zamoskvorechie, study, service. Life in Zamoskvorechye, work in conscientious and commercial courts, where the main "clients" are merchants, allowed the playwright to observe the life of the merchant class. All this is reflected in Ostrovsky's plays, the characters of which seem to be taken from life. The incredible work capacity of the writer contributed to the birth of 48 works in which 547 heroes act.

Slides 14-19

4. Beginning of literary activity.

The creative path of A. Ostrovsky.

The first work - the play "Insolvent Debtor" - appeared in 1847 in the newspaper "Moscow city sheet". In 1850, the same work, modified by the author, was published in the Moskvityanin magazine. Then it was under arrest for 10 years, because in it, according to Dobrolyubov, "... human dignity, freedom of the individual, faith in love and happiness and the shrine of honest labor" were crushed to dust and brazenly trampled on by tyrants.

“This is what I am doing now, combining the high with the comic,” Ostrovsky wrote in 1853, defining the emergence of a new hero, a hero with a “hot heart”, honest, straightforward. One after another, the plays "Poverty is not a vice", "Do not sit in your own sleigh", "Profitable Place", "Forest", "Hot Heart", "Talents and Admirers", "Guilty Without Guilt" and others appear. “And such a spirit has become in me: I’m not afraid of anything! It seems that cut me into pieces, I’ll still put it on my own,” says the heroine of the play “The Pupil”. "I'm not afraid of anything" - that's the main thing in the new hero of Ostrovsky.

Slide 20

The Thunderstorm (1860) is a play about an awakening, protesting personality who no longer wants to live by the laws that suppress personality.

slide 21

"Forest" (1870) - the play raises the eternal questions of human relationships, tries to solve the problem of moral and immoral.

slide 22

"The Snow Maiden (1873) is a look at the ancient, patriarchal, fairy-tale world, in which material relations also dominate (Bobyl and Bobylikha).

slide 23

"Dowry" (1879) - the playwright's look 20 years later on the problems raised in the drama "Thunderstorm".

II. Student performances. Individual assignments for the lesson.

Slides 24-38

1. Features of Ostrovsky's style (Individual tasks)

1. Speaking surnames;
2. An unusual presentation of the characters in the poster, defining the conflict that will develop in the play;
3. Specific author's remarks;
4. The role of the scenery presented by the author in determining the space of the drama and the time of action
5. The originality of names (often from Russian proverbs and sayings);
6. Folk moments;
7. Parallel consideration of compared heroes;
8. The significance of the first replica of the hero;
9. "Prepared appearance", the main characters do not appear immediately, others first talk about them;
10. The peculiarity of the speech characteristics of the characters.

Final questions

Slide 39

• Can we talk about the modernity of Ostrovsky's plays? Prove your point.
• Why do modern theaters constantly turn to the playwright's plays?
• Why is it so difficult to "modernize" the plays of A. N. Ostrovsky?

III. Lesson summary.

Slides 40-42

A.N. Ostrovsky opened a page unfamiliar to the viewer, bringing a new hero onto the stage - a merchant. Before him, Russian theatrical history consisted of only a few names. The playwright made a huge contribution to the development of the Russian theater. His work, continuing the traditions of Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Pushkin, Gogol, is innovative in the depiction of heroes, in the language of characters and in the socio-moral problems raised.

Homework:

Drama Storm. The history of creation, the system of images, methods of revealing the characters of the characters. The nature of the conflict. The meaning of the name.

Group 1. History of the play. Student messages (homework with additional literature).

Group 2 The meaning of the play's title is "Thunderstorm".

Group 3. The system of characters in the play

Group 4. Features of the disclosure of the characters of the heroes.

He opened the world to a man of a new formation: an Old Believer merchant and a capitalist merchant, a merchant in an Armenian coat and a merchant in a “troika”, traveling abroad and doing his own business. Ostrovsky opened wide the door to the world, hitherto locked behind high fences from strange prying eyes.
V. G. Marantsman

Dramaturgy is a genre that involves the active interaction of the writer and the reader in considering the social issues raised by the author. A. N. Ostrovsky believed that dramaturgy has a strong impact on society, the text is part of the performance, but the play does not live without staging. Hundreds and thousands will view it, and much less will read it. Nationality is the main feature of the drama of the 1860s: heroes from the people, a description of the life of the lower strata of the population, the search for a positive national character. Drama has always had the ability to respond to topical issues. Creativity Ostrovsky was at the center of the dramaturgy of this time, Yu. M. Lotman calls his plays the pinnacle of Russian drama. I. A. Goncharov called Ostrovsky the creator of the “Russian national theater”, and N. A. Dobrolyubov called his dramas “life plays”, since in his plays the private life of the people is formed into a picture modern society. In the first big comedy "Our People - Let's Settle" (1850), it is through intra-family conflicts that public contradictions are shown. It was with this play that Ostrovsky's theater began, it was in it that new principles of stage action, the behavior of an actor, and theatrical entertainment first appeared.

Creativity Ostrovsky was new to Russian drama. His works are characterized by the complexity and complexity of conflicts, his element is a socio-psychological drama, a comedy of manners. The features of his style are speaking surnames, specific author's remarks, peculiar titles of plays, among which proverbs are often used, comedies based on folklore motives. The conflict of Ostrovsky's plays is mainly based on the incompatibility of the hero with the environment. His dramas can be called psychological, they contain not only an external conflict, but also an internal drama of a moral principle.

Everything in the plays historically accurately recreates the life of society, from which the playwright takes his plots. The new hero of Ostrovsky's dramas - a simple man - determines the originality of the content, and Ostrovsky creates a "folk drama". He accomplished a huge task - he made the "little man" a tragic hero. Ostrovsky saw his duty as a dramatic writer in making the analysis of what was happening the main content of the drama. “A dramatic writer ... does not compose what was - it gives life, history, legend; his main task is to show on the basis of what psychological data some event took place and why it was so and not otherwise ”- this, according to the author, is the essence of the drama. Ostrovsky treated dramaturgy as a mass art that educates people, and defined the purpose of the theater as a "school of social morals." His very first performances shocked with their truthfulness and simplicity, honest heroes with a "hot heart". The playwright created, "combining the high with the comic", he created forty-eight works and invented more than five hundred heroes.

Ostrovsky's plays are realistic. In the merchant environment, which he observed day after day and believed that the past and present of society were united in it, Ostrovsky reveals those social conflicts that reflect the life of Russia. And if in "The Snow Maiden" he recreates the patriarchal world, through which modern problems are only guessed, then his "Thunderstorm" is an open protest of the individual, a person's desire for happiness and independence. This was perceived by playwrights as an affirmation of the creative principle of love of freedom, which could become the basis of a new drama. Ostrovsky never used the definition of "tragedy", designating his plays as "comedies" and "dramas", sometimes providing explanations in the spirit of "pictures of Moscow life", "scenes from village life", "scenes from backwoods life", pointing out that that we are talking about the life of a whole social environment. Dobrolyubov said that Ostrovsky created a new type of dramatic action: without didactics, the author analyzed historical origins contemporary phenomena in society.

The historical approach to family and social relations is the pathos of Ostrovsky's work. Among his heroes are people different ages divided into two camps - young and old. For example, as Yu. M. Lotman writes, in The Thunderstorm Kabanikha is the “keeper of antiquity”, and Katerina “carries creativity development”, which is why she wants to fly like a bird.

The dispute between antiquity and newness, according to the scholar of literature, is an important aspect of the dramatic conflict in Ostrovsky's plays. Traditional forms of everyday life are regarded as eternally renewing, and only in this the playwright sees their viability... The old enters into the new, into modern life, in which it can play the role of either a “fettering” element, oppressing its development, or stabilizing, ensuring the strength of the emerging novelty, depending on the content of the old that preserves the people's life. The author always sympathizes with young heroes, poeticizes their desire for freedom, selflessness. The title of the article by A. N. Dobrolyubov “A ray of light in a dark kingdom” fully reflects the role of these heroes in society. They are psychologically similar to each other, the author often uses already developed characters. The theme of the position of a woman in the world of calculation is also repeated in "The Poor Bride", "Hot Heart", "Dowry".

Later, the satirical element intensified in the dramas. Ostrovsky refers to Gogol's principle of "pure comedy", bringing to the fore the characteristics of the social environment. The character of his comedies is a renegade and a hypocrite. Ostrovsky also turns to the historical-heroic theme, tracing the formation of social phenomena, growth from a “little man” to a citizen.

Undoubtedly, Ostrovsky's plays will always have a modern sound. Theaters constantly turn to his work, so it stands outside the time frame.

Dramaturgy by A.P. Chekhov.

Chekhov is called "Shakespeare of the 20th century". Indeed, his drama, like Shakespeare's, played a huge turning point in the history of world drama. Born in Russia at the turn of the new century, it has developed into such an innovative artistic system that has determined the future development of dramaturgy and theater throughout the world.
Of course, the innovation of Chekhov's dramaturgy was prepared by the searches and discoveries of his great predecessors, the dramatic works of Pushkin and Gogol, Ostrovsky and Turgenev, on the good, strong tradition of which he relied. But it was Chekhov's plays that made a real revolution in the theatrical thinking of their time. His entry into the sphere of drama marked a new starting point in the history of Russian artistic culture.
By the end of the 19th century, Russian dramaturgy was in an almost deplorable state. Under the pen of craft writers, the once lofty traditions of drama degenerated into routine clichés, turned into dead canons. The scene is too noticeably removed from life. At that time, when the great works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky raised Russian prose to unprecedented heights, Russian drama eked out a miserable existence. To overcome this gap between prose and dramaturgy, between literature and theater, it was destined for none other than Chekhov. Through his efforts, the Russian stage was raised to the level of great Russian literature, to the level of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
What was the discovery of Chekhov the playwright? First of all, he brought the drama back to life itself. Not without reason did it seem to his contemporaries that he simply offered briefly written long novels for the stage. His plays were striking in their unusual narrative, realistic thoroughness of their manner. This manner was not accidental. Chekhov was convinced that drama cannot be the property of only outstanding, exceptional personalities, a springboard only for grandiose events. He wanted to discover the drama of the most ordinary everyday reality. It was in order to give access to the drama of everyday life that Chekhov had to destroy all the outdated, firmly rooted dramatic canons.
“Let everything on the stage be as simple and at the same time as complicated as in life: people dine, only dine, and at that time their happiness is added up and their lives are broken,” said Chekhov, deriving the formula of a new drama. And he began to write plays in which the natural course of everyday life was captured, as if completely devoid of bright events, strong characters, sharp conflicts. But under the upper layer of everyday life, in an unprejudiced, as if accidentally scooped up everyday life, where people "just dined", he discovered an unexpected drama that "constitutes their happiness and breaks their lives."
The drama of everyday life, deeply hidden in the undercurrent of life, was the first most important discovery of the writer. This discovery required a revision of the previous concept of characters, the relationship between the hero and the environment, a different construction of the plot and conflict, a different function of events, breaking the usual ideas about dramatic action, its plot, climax and denouement, about the purpose of the word and silence, gesture and look. In a word, the entire dramatic structure from top to bottom has undergone a complete re-creation.
Chekhov ridiculed the power of everyday life over a person, showed how in a vulgar environment any human feeling becomes smaller, distorted, how a solemn ritual (funeral, wedding, anniversary) turns into absurdity, how everyday life kills holidays. Finding vulgarity in every cell of life, Chekhov combined a cheerful mockery with good humor. He laughed at human absurdity, but did not kill the man himself with laughter. In peaceful everyday life, he saw not only a threat, but also protection, appreciated the comfort of life, the warmth of the hearth, the saving power of gravity. The genre of vaudeville gravitated towards tragic farce and tragicomedy. Perhaps that is why his humorous stories were fraught with the motive of humanity, understanding and sympathy.

24. Moscow Art Theater. Creativity of K.S. Stanislavsky.

Moscow Art Theatre. The innovative program of the Moscow Art Theater (founded in 1898) and its connection with the ideas of advanced Russian aesthetics of the 19th century. Use in creative practice of the best achievements of the world realistic theater. Theatrical activities of K. S. Stanislavsky (1863-1938) and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko (1858-1943) before the creation of the Moscow Art Theater. Creation of the Moscow Public Art Theater by Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko (1898). "Tsar Fedor Ivanovich" by A. K. Tolstoy - the first performance of the Moscow Art Theater. Historical and everyday line of performances of the Moscow Art Theater.

Productions of Chekhov's plays in the period 1898-1905: "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters", "The Cherry Orchard", "Ivanov". Innovation in the interpretation of Chekhov's plays.

Socio-political line in the repertoire of the Moscow Art Theater. "Doctor Stockman" Ibsen. Performances of Gorky's plays "Petty Bourgeois", "At the Bottom", "Children of the Sun". Passion for recreating life on stage. "At the bottom" - the creative victory of the Moscow Art Theater. Staging "Children of the Sun" during the revolutionary events of 1905. Gorky's role in the ideological and creative development of the Art Theater.

Acting art of the Moscow Art Theatre: K.S. Stanislavsky, I. M. Moskvin, V. I. Kachalov, O. L. Knipper-Chekhova, L. M. Leonidov and others.

Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky(real name - Alekseev; January 5, 1863, Moscow - August 7, 1938, Moscow) - Russian theater director, actor and teacher, theater reformer. The creator of the famous acting system, which for 100 years has been very popular in Russia and in the world. People's Artist of the USSR (1936).

In 1888 he became one of the founders of the Moscow Society of Art and Literature. In 1898, together with Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko founded the Moscow Art Theater.

Konstantin Sergeevich was born in Moscow, in a large (he had nine brothers and sisters in total) family of a well-known industrialist, who was related to S. I. Mamontov and the Tretyakov brothers. Father - Alekseev, Sergey Vladimirovich (1836-1893), mother - Elizaveta Vasilievna (nee Yakovleva), (1841-1904).

The mayor of Moscow N. A. Alekseev was his cousin. The younger sister is Zinaida Sergeevna Sokolova (Alekseeva), Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

His first and illegitimate son from a peasant girl Avdotya Nazarovna Kopylova V. S. Sergeev (1883-1941) was adopted by Stanislavsky's father S. V. Alekseev, after whom he received his surname and patronymic, later became a professor at Moscow State University, a historian of antiquity.

Wife - Maria Petrovna Lilina (1866-1943; by her husband - Alekseeva) - Russian and Soviet theater actress, actress of the Moscow Art Theater.

S. V. Alekseev, father of K. S. Stanislavsky.

In 1878-1881 he studied at the gymnasium at the Lazarev Institute, after which he began serving in a family firm. The family was fond of the theater, in the Moscow house there was a hall specially rebuilt for theatrical performances, in the Lyubimovka estate - a theater wing.

Stage experiments began in 1877 in the home Alekseevsky circle. He intensively studied plasticity and vocals with the best teachers, studied on the examples of the actors of the Maly Theater, among his idols were Lensky, Musil, Fedotova, Yermolova. He played in operettas: "The Countess de la Frontière" by Lecoq (the ataman of the robbers), "Mademoiselle Nitouche" by Florimore, "The Mikado" by Sullivan (Nanki-Poo).

On the amateur stage in the house of A. A. Karzinkin on Pokrovsky Boulevard in December 1884, his first performance as Podkolesin in Gogol's "Marriage" took place. Also for the first time, the young actor worked under the direction of the artist of the Maly Theater M. A. Reshimov, who staged the play.

On the day of the premiere, there was also a curiosity that Konstantin Sergeevich remembered for the rest of his life. In his declining years, he himself spoke about this episode: “In the last act of the play, as you know, Podkolesin climbs out the window. The stage where the performance takes place was so small that, getting out of the window, one had to step along the piano standing behind the scenes. Of course, I blew the lid and broke a few strings. The trouble is that the performance was given only as a boring prelude to the upcoming merry dances. But at midnight they could not find a master to repair the piano, and the unlucky performer had to sit all evening in the corner of the hall and sing all the dances in a row. “It was one of the most fun balls,” recalled K. S. Stanislavsky, “but, of course, not for me.” We will also sympathize not only with the poor young man, but also with the charming young ladies who lost this evening an elegant and skillful handsome gentleman ...

In 1886, Konstantin Alekseev was elected a member of the directorate and treasurer of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society and the conservatory attached to it. His associates in the directorate of the conservatory were P. I. Tchaikovsky, S. I. Taneev, S. M. Tretyakov. Together with the singer and teacher F. P. Komissarzhevsky and the artist F. L. Sollogub, Alekseev is developing a project for the Moscow Society of Art and Literature (MOIiL), investing personal funds in it. At this time, in order to hide his real name, he took the name Stanislavsky for the stage.

The impetus for the creation of the Society was a meeting with the director A.F. Fedotov: in his play “The Players” by N. Gogol, Stanislavsky played Ikharev. The first performance took place on December 8 (20), 1888. For ten years of work on the stage of MOIiL, Stanislavsky became a famous actor, his performance of a number of roles was compared with the best works of the professionals of the imperial stage, often in favor of an amateur actor: Anania Yakovleva in A Bitter Fate (1888) and Platon Imshin in A. Pisemsky; Paratov in "Dowry" by A. Ostrovsky (1890); Zvezdintsev in "The Fruits of Enlightenment" by L. Tolstoy (1891). On the stage of the Society, the first director's experience was "Burning Letters" by P. Gnedich (1889). A great impression on the theatrical community, including Stanislavsky, was made on tour in Russia, in 1885 and 1890, by the Meiningen Theater, which was distinguished by a high production culture. In 1896, regarding Stanislavsky's Othello staged, N. Efros wrote: “The Meiningen people must have left a deep mark on the memory of K. S. Stanislavsky. Their setting is drawn to him in the form of a beautiful ideal, and he strives with all his might to approach this ideal. Othello is a big step forward on this pretty path.

In January 1891, Stanislavsky officially took over the directorship of the Society of Arts and Literature. Staged performances Uriel Acosta by K. Gutskov (1895), Othello (1896), Erkman-Shatrian's The Polish Jew (1896), Much Ado About Nothing (1897), Twelfth Night (1897), The Sunken Bell "(1898), played Acosta, burgomaster Matis, Benedict, Malvolio, master Henry. Stanislavsky was looking for, according to the definition he formulated later, "director's techniques to reveal the spiritual essence of the work." Following the example of the Meiningen artists, he uses authentic antique or exotic objects, experiments with light, sound, and rhythm. Subsequently, Stanislavsky would single out his production of Dostoevsky's The Village of Stepanchikov (1891) and the role of Thomas (Paradise for the Artist).

Moscow Art Theater

Dissatisfaction with the state of the drama theater at the end of the 19th century, the need for reforms, and the denial of stage routine provoked the search for A. Antoine and O. Bram, A. Yuzhin at the Moscow Maly Theater and Vl. Nemirovich-Danchenko at the Philharmonic School.

In 1897, Nemirovich-Danchenko invited Stanislavsky to meet and discuss a number of issues related to the state of the theatre. Stanislavsky kept a business card, on the back of which is written in pencil: “I will be at the Slavianski Bazaar at one o'clock - see you?” On the envelope, he signed: “The famous first meeting-sitting with Nemirovich-Danchenko. The first moment of the founding of the theatre.

In the course of this conversation, which has become legendary, the tasks of the new theatrical business and the program for their implementation were formulated. According to Stanislavsky, they discussed "the foundations of the future business, questions of pure art, our artistic ideals, stage ethics, technique, organizational plans, projects for the future repertoire, our relationships." In an eighteen-hour conversation, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko discussed the composition of the troupe, the backbone of which was to be composed of young intelligent actors, a circle of authors (G. Ibsen, G. Hauptman, A. P. Chekhov) and the modestly low-key design of the hall. Duties were divided: the literary and artistic veto was given to Nemirovich-Danchenko, the artistic veto to Stanislavsky; sketched out a system of slogans by which the new theater would live.

On June 14 (26), 1898, in the suburban suburb of Pushkino, the work of the Art Theater troupe began, created from the students of Nemirovich-Danchenko in the Philharmonic Society and amateur actors of the Society of Arts and Literature. In the very first months of rehearsals, it turned out that the division of duties of leaders is conditional. The rehearsals of the tragedy "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" were started by Stanislavsky, who created the mise-en-scenes of the play that shocked the audience at the premiere, and Nemirovich-Danchenko insisted on choosing his student I. V. Moskvin for the role of Tsar Fyodor from six applicants and, in individual lessons with the artist, helped him create a touching the image of the "king-peasant", which became the opening of the performance. Stanislavsky believed that the historical and everyday line in the Moscow Art Theater began with "Tsar Fyodor", to which he attributed the productions of "The Merchant of Venice" (1898), "Antigone" (1899), "The Death of Ivan the Terrible" (1899), "The Power of Darkness" (1902), "Julius Caesar" (1903), etc. With A.P. Chekhov, he connected another - the most important line of productions of the Art Theater: the line of intuition and feelings - where he attributed "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboyedov (1906 ), “A Month in the Village” (1909), “The Brothers Karamazov” (1910) and “The Village of Stepanchikovo” (1917) by F. M. Dostoevsky and others.

K. Stanislavsky, 1912.

The most significant performances of the Art Theater, such as "Tsar Fedor Ioannovich" by A. K. Tolstoy, "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters", " The Cherry Orchard» by A.P. Chekhov were staged by Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko together. In the following productions of Chekhov, the discoveries of The Seagull were continued and brought to harmony. The principle of continuous development united the crumbling, disparate life on the stage. A special principle of stage communication (“an object outside the partner”), incomplete, semi-closed, was developed. The spectator at Chekhov's performances of the Moscow Art Theater was pleased and tormented by the recognition of life, in its previously unthinkable details.

In the joint work on the play by M. Gorky "At the Bottom" (1902), the contradictions of the two approaches were identified. For Stanislavsky, the impetus was a visit to Khitrov Market's rooming houses. In his directorial plan, there are a lot of sharply noticed details: Medvedev's dirty shirt, shoes wrapped in outerwear on which Satin sleeps. Nemirovich-Danchenko was looking for "cheerful lightness" on the stage as the key to the play. Stanislavsky admitted that it was Nemirovich-Danchenko who found "the real manner of playing Gorky's plays", but he himself did not accept this manner of "simply reporting the role". The poster for "At the Bottom" was not signed by either director. From the beginning of the theater, both directors sat at the director's table. Since 1906, “each of us had his own table, his own play, his own production,” because, Stanislavsky explains, each “wanted and could only follow his own independent line, while remaining true to the general, basic principle of the theater.” The first performance where Stanislavsky worked separately was Brandt. At this time, Stanislavsky, together with Meyerhold, creates an experimental Studio on Povarskaya (1905). Stanislavsky would then continue his search for new theatrical forms in L. Andreev’s Life of a Man (1907): against the background of black velvet, schematically depicted fragments of interiors appeared, in which schemes of people arose: grotesquely pointed lines of costumes, make-up masks. In The Blue Bird by M. Maeterlinck (1908), the principle of the black cabinet was applied: the effect of black velvet and lighting techniques were used for magical transformations.

Stanislavsky-actor[edit | edit wiki text]

When creating the Art Theater, Stanislavsky believed Nemirovich-Danchenko that the roles of the tragic warehouse were not his repertoire. On the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, he played out only a few of his previous tragic roles in performances from the repertoire of the Society of Arts and Literature (Heinrich from The Drowned Bell, Imshin). In productions of the first season, he played Trigorin in The Seagull and Levborg in Hedda Gabler. According to critics, his masterpieces on stage were the roles: Astrov in "Uncle Vanya", Shtokman in G. Ibsen's play "Doctor Shtokman"), Vershinin "Three Sisters", Satin in "At the Bottom", Gaev "The Cherry Orchard", Shabelsky in Ivanov, 1904). The duet of Vershinin - Stanislavsky and Masha - O. Knipper-Chekhova entered the treasury of stage lyrics.

Stanislavsky continues to set himself more and more new tasks in the acting profession. He demands from himself the creation of a system that could give the artist the possibility of public creativity according to the laws of the “art of experience” at every moment of being on stage, an opportunity that opens up to geniuses in moments of the highest inspiration. Stanislavsky transferred his searches in the field of theatrical theory and pedagogy to the First Studio he created (public shows of its performances began in 1913).

The cycle of roles in modern drama - Chekhov, Gorky, L. Tolstoy, Ibsen, Hauptmann, Hamsun - was followed by roles in the classics: Famusov in "Woe from Wit" by A. Griboyedov (1906), Rakitin in "A Month in the Country" by I. Turgenev (1909), Krutitsky in A. Ostrovsky’s play “Enough Stupidity for Every Wise Man” (1910), Argan in Molière’s “Imaginary Sick” (1913), Count Lubin in W. Wicherly’s “Provincial Girl”, Cavalier in “The Hostess of the Inn” by K. Goldoni (1914).

On the fate of Stanislavsky, his last two acting works responded: Salieri in the tragedy “Mozart and Salieri” by A. S. Pushkin (1915), and Rostanev, whom he was supposed to play again in the new production of “The Village of Stepanchikov” by F. M. Dostoevsky. The reason for the failure of Rostanev, the role that was not shown to the public, remains one of the mysteries of the history of the theater and the psychology of creativity. According to many testimonies, Stanislavsky "rehearsed beautifully." After a dress rehearsal on March 28 (April 10), 1917, he stopped work on the role. After Rostanev was “not born”, Stanislavsky forever refused new roles (he violated this refusal only out of necessity, during his tours abroad in 1922-1924, agreeing to play the governor Shuisky in the old play “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich”).

After 1917[edit | edit wiki text]

K. S. Stanislavsky with the troupe of the studio theater in Leontievsky Lane in the scenery of the Lensky Mansion (c. 1922)

In the autumn of 1918, Stanislavsky directed a 3-minute comic film that was not released and has no title (it is found on the net under the name "Fish"). Stanislavsky himself and the actors of the Art Theater I. M. Moskvin, V. V. Luzhsky, A. L. Vishnevsky, V. I. Kachalov take part in the film. The plot of the film is as follows. In the garden at the house in Karetny, I. M. Moskvin, V. V. Luzhsky, A. L. Vishnevsky and Stanislavsky begin a rehearsal and wait for V. I. Kachalov, who is late. Kachalov comes up to them, who gestures that he cannot rehearse, because something is wrong with his throat. Moskvin examines Kachalov and removes a metal fish from his throat. Everyone laughs.

Stanislavsky's first production after the revolution was D. Byron's Cain (1920). Rehearsals had just begun when Stanislavsky was taken hostage during the Whites' breakthrough to Moscow. The general crisis in the Art Theater was aggravated by the fact that a significant part of the troupe, headed by Vasily Kachalov, who went on tour in 1919, was cut off from Moscow by military events. An absolute victory was the production of The Inspector General (1921). For the role of Khlestakov, Stanislavsky appointed Mikhail Chekhov, who had recently moved from the Moscow Art Theater (the theater had already been declared academic) to his 1st studio. In 1922, the Moscow Art Theater under the direction of Stanislavsky went on a long foreign tour of Europe and America, which was preceded by the return (not in full force) of the Kachalovsky troupe.

In the 1920s, the issue of changing theatrical generations became acute; the 1st and 3rd studios of the Moscow Art Theater turned into independent theaters; Stanislavsky painfully experienced the "betrayal" of his students, giving the studios of the Moscow Art Theater the names of Shakespeare's daughters from King Lear: Goneril and Regan - the 1st and 3rd studios, Cordelia - the 2nd [ source unspecified 1031 days] . In 1924, she joined the troupe of the Art Theater large group studio students, mostly pupils of the 2nd studio.

Stanislavsky's activity in the 1920s and 1930s was determined, first of all, by his desire to defend the traditional artistic values ​​of Russian stage art. The production of "Hot Heart" (1926) was the answer to those critics who assured that "The Art Theater is dead." Rapid ease of pace, picturesque festivity distinguished Beaumarchais's Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro (1927) (set by A. Ya. Golovin).

After joining the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater of youth from the 2nd studio and from the school of the 3rd studio, Stanislavsky taught them classes and released on stage their works performed with young directors. Among these works, far from always signed by Stanislavsky, are “The Battle of Life” according to Dickens (1924), “The Days of the Turbins” (1926), “The Sisters Gerard” (a play by V. Massa based on the melodrama of A. Dennery and E. Cormon “Two orphans") and "Armored Train 14-69" Sun. Ivanova (1927); "Squanderers" by V. Kataev and "Untilovsk" by L. Leonov (1928).

Later years[edit | edit wiki text]

After a severe heart attack that happened on the anniversary evening at the Moscow Art Theater in 1928, the doctors forbade Stanislavsky to go on stage forever. Stanislavsky returned to work only in 1929, focusing on theoretical research, on pedagogical tests of the "system" and on classes at his Opera Studio of the Bolshoi Theater, which had existed since 1918 (now the Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko).

For the production of Othello at the Moscow Art Theater, he wrote the director's score of the tragedy, which act after act was sent along with letters from Nice, where he hoped to complete the treatment. Published in 1945, the score remained unused, since I. Ya. Sudakov managed to release the performance before the end of Stanislavsky's work.

In the early 1930s, Stanislavsky, using his authority and the support of Gorky, who had returned to the USSR, applied to the government to secure a special position for the Art Theatre. They went towards him. In January 1932, the abbreviation "USSR" was added to the name of the theater, equating it with the Bolshoi and Maly Theaters, in September 1932 it was named after Gorky, - the theater became known as the Moscow Art Theater of the USSR. Gorky. In 1937 he was awarded the Order of Lenin, in 1938 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1933, the building of the former Korsh Theater was transferred to the Moscow Art Theater to create a branch of the theater.

In 1935, the last one was opened - the Opera and Drama Studio of K. S. Stanislavsky (now the Moscow Drama Theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky) (among the works - Hamlet). Practically without leaving his apartment in Leontievsky Lane, Stanislavsky met with the actors at home, turning the rehearsals into an acting school according to the method of psycho-physical actions he was developing.

Continuing the development of the "system", following the book "My Life in Art" (American edition - 1924, Russian - 1926), Stanislavsky managed to send the first volume of "The Actor's Work on Himself" (published in 1938, posthumously) to print.

Stanislavsky died on August 7, 1938 in Moscow. An autopsy showed that he had a whole bunch of diseases: an enlarged, failing heart, emphysema, aneurysms - a consequence of a severe heart attack in 1928. " Pronounced arteriosclerotic changes were found in all the vessels of the body, with the exception of the brain, which did not succumb to this process."- such was the conclusion of the doctors [ source unspecified 784 days] . He was buried on August 9 at the Novodevichy cemetery.

25. Creativity of V.E. Meyerhold.

Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold(real name - Karl Casimir Theodor Mayergold(German Karl Kasimir Theodor Meyergold); January 28 (February 9), 1874, Penza - February 2, 1940, Moscow) - Russian Soviet theater director, actor and teacher. Theorist and practitioner of theatrical grotesque, author of the Theater October program and creator of the acting system, called "biomechanics". People's Artist of the RSFSR (1923).

Biography[edit | edit wiki text]

Karl Casimir Theodor Mayergold was the eighth child in the family of Germanized Lutheran Jews of the winemaker Emil Fedorovich Mayergold (d. 1892) and his wife Alvina Danilovna (nee Neeze). In 1895 he graduated from the Penza Gymnasium and entered the law faculty of Moscow University. In the same year, upon reaching the age of majority (21), Meyerhold converted to Orthodoxy and changed his name to Vsevolod- in honor of the beloved writer V. M. Garshin.

In 1896, he moved to the 2nd year of the Theater and Music School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society in the class of Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.

In 1898, Vsevolod Meyerhold graduated from college and, together with other graduates (O. L. Knipper, I. M. Moskvin), joined the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater being created. In the play "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich", which opened the Public Art Theater on October 14 (26), 1898, Vasily Shuisky played.

In 1902, Meyerhold left the Art Theater with a group of actors and began an independent directorial activity, heading a troupe in Kherson together with A. S. Kosheverov. From the second season, after the departure of Kosheverov, the troupe received the name "New Drama Partnership". In 1902-1905, about 200 performances were staged.

In May 1905, Konstantin Stanislavsky invited him to prepare the performances The Death of Tentagil by M. Maeterlinck, The Comedy of Love by G. Ibsen and Shlyuk and Yau by G. Hauptmann for the Studio Theater, which he planned to open on Povarskaya Street in Moscow. However, the Studio did not exist for long: as it turned out, Stanislavsky and Meyerhold understood its purpose in different ways. Having watched the performances staged by Meyerhold, Stanislavsky did not consider it possible to release them to the public. Years later, in the book “My Life in Art”, regarding Meyerhold’s experiments, he wrote: “A talented director tried to hide the artists with himself, who in his hands were simple clay for sculpting beautiful groups, mise-en-scenes, with the help of which he carried out his interesting ideas. But in the absence of artistic technique among the actors, he could only demonstrate his ideas, principles, searches, but there was nothing to implement them, no one with whom, and therefore the studio’s interesting ideas turned into an abstract theory, into a scientific formula. In October 1905 the Studio was closed and Meyerhold returned to the provinces.

In 1906, he was invited by V. F. Komissarzhevskaya to St. Petersburg as the chief director of her own Drama Theater. In one season, Meyerhold produced 13 performances, including: "Hedda Gabler" by G. Ibsen, "Sister Beatrice" by M. Maeterlinck, "Public Show" by A. Blok, "The Life of a Man" by L. N. Andreev.

Imperial theaters[edit | edit wiki text]

Director of the Imperial Theatres.

In 1910, in Terijoki, Meyerhold staged a performance based on the play by the 17th century Spanish playwright Calderon Adoration of the Cross. The director and actors have been looking for a suitable place in nature for a long time. It was found in the estate of the writer M.V. Krestovskaya in Molodyozhny (fin. Metsäkyla). There was a beautiful garden here, a large staircase descended from the dacha to the Gulf of Finland - a stage platform. The performance, according to the plan, was to go on at night, "by the light of burning torches, with a huge crowd of the entire surrounding population." At the Alexandrinsky Theater he staged At the Royal Doors by K. Hamsun (1908), Jester Tantris by E. Hart, Don Giovanni by Molière (1910), Halfway by Pinero (1914), The Green Ring by Z. Gippius, "The Steadfast Prince" by Calderon (1915), "Thunderstorm" by A. Ostrovsky (1916), "Masquerade" by M. Lermontov (1917). In 1911 he staged Gluck's opera Orpheus and Eurydice at the Mariinsky Theater (artist - Golovin, choreographer - Fokin).

After the revolution[edit | edit wiki text]

B. Grigoriev. Portrait of V. Meyerhold, 1916

Member of the Bolshevik Party since 1918. Worked at Theo Narkompros.

After the October Revolution, he staged V. Mayakovsky's Mystery Buff in Petrograd (1918). From May 1919 to August 1920 he was in the Crimea and the Caucasus, where he experienced several changes of power, was arrested by white counterintelligence. From September 1920 to February 1921 - head of the TEO. In 1921 he staged the second edition of the same play in Moscow. In March 1918, in the cafe "Red Rooster", opened in the former San Galli Passage, Meyerhold staged A. Blok's play "The Stranger". In 1920, he proposed and then actively implemented the program "Theatrical October" into the theory and practice of the theater.

In 1918, the teaching of biomechanics as a theory of movements was introduced at the Stage Performance Courses in Petrograd; in 1921 Meyerhold uses the term for the practice of stage movement.

GosTeam[edit | edit wiki text]

Main article:State Theater named after Vs. Meyerhold

State Theater named after Vs. Meyerhold (GosTiM) was created in Moscow in 1920, initially under the name "Theater of the RSFSR-I", then since 1922 it was called the "Actor's Theater" and the GITIS Theater, since 1923 - the Meyerhold Theater (TiM); in 1926 the theater was given the status of a state theater.

In 1922-1924, Meyerhold, in parallel with the formation of his theater, directed the Theater of the Revolution.

In 1928, GosTiM was almost closed: having gone abroad with his wife for treatment and negotiations about the theater tour, Meyerhold stayed in France, and since at the same time Mikhail Chekhov, who headed the Moscow Art Theater at that time, did not return from foreign trips 2nd, and head of the GOSET Alexei Granovsky, Meyerhold was also suspected of unwillingness to return. But he was not going to emigrate and returned to Moscow before the liquidation commission had time to disband the theater.

In 1930, GosTiM successfully toured abroad - Mikhail Chekhov, who met Meyerhold in Berlin, said in his memoirs: “I tried to convey to him my feelings, rather premonitions, about his terrible end if he returns to Soviet Union. He listened in silence, calmly and sadly answered me this way (I don’t remember the exact words): from my school years in my soul I carried the Revolution and always in its extreme, maximalist forms. I know you are right - my end will be as you say. But I will return to the Soviet Union. To my question - why? - he answered: out of honesty.

In 1934, the play "The Lady of the Camellias", in which Reich played the main role, was watched by Stalin, and he did not like the performance. Criticism fell upon Meyerhold with accusations of aestheticism. Zinaida Reich wrote a letter to Stalin saying that he did not understand art.

On January 8, 1938, the theater was closed. Order of the Committee for Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the liquidation of the Theater. Sun. Meyerhold" was published in the newspaper "Pravda" on January 8, 1938. In May 1938, K. S. Stanislavsky offered Meyerhold, who was left without a job, the position of director in the opera theater he himself directed. After the death of K. S. Stanislavsky, Meyerhold became the chief director of the theater. Continued work on the opera "Rigoletto".

Arrest and death[edit | edit wiki text]

Photo of the NKVD after the arrest

On June 20, 1939, Meyerhold was arrested in Leningrad; at the same time, a search was carried out in his apartment in Moscow. The search protocol recorded a complaint from his wife Zinaida Reich, who protested against the methods of one of the NKVD agents. Soon (July 15) she was killed by unidentified persons.

After three weeks interrogations, accompanied by torture, Meyerhold signed the testimony necessary for the investigation: he was accused under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. In January 1940, Meyerhold wrote to V. M. Molotov:

... They beat me here - a sick sixty-six-year-old man, they laid me face down on the floor, they beat me with a rubber tourniquet on my heels and on my back, when I sat on a chair, they beat me with the same rubber on my legs […] the pain was such that it seemed to be on the sore sensitive places of the legs poured boiling water ...

The meeting of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR took place on February 1, 1940. The board sentenced the director to death. On February 2, 1940, the sentence was carried out. The Teatral magazine writes about the burial place of Meyerhold: “Granddaughter of Vs. E. Meyerhold Maria Alekseevna Valentey back in 1956, having achieved his political rehabilitation, but not knowing then how and when her grandfather died, she installed on the grave of Zinaida Nikolaevna Reich, in the Vagankovsky cemetery, a common monument - to her, the actress and her beloved wife, and to him. The monument is engraved with a portrait of Meyerhold and the inscription: "To Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold and Zinaida Nikolaevna Reich."<…>In 1987, she also became aware of the true burial place of Meyerhold - "Common grave No. 1. Burial of unclaimed ashes from 1930 - 1942 inclusive" at the cemetery of the Moscow crematorium near the Donskoy Monastery. (According to the decision of the Politburo of January 17, 1940 No. II 11/208, signed personally by Stalin, 346 people were shot. Their bodies were cremated, and the ashes poured into a common grave were mixed with the ashes of other dead.) ".

In 1955, the Supreme Court of the USSR posthumously rehabilitated Meyerhold.

Family[edit | edit wiki text]

• Since 1896 he has been married to Olga Mikhailovna Mundt (1874-1940):
• Maria (1897-1929), married Evgeny Stanislavovich Beletsky.
• Tatyana (1902-1986), married Alexei Petrovich Vorobyov.
• Irina (1905-1981), married Vasily Vasilyevich Merkuriev.
• The son of Irina and V.V. Merkuriev - Pyotr Vasilyevich Merkuriev (he played the role of Meyerhold in the film " I'm an actress", 1980, and in the television series" Yesenin", (2005).
• Since 1922 he has been married to Zinaida Nikolaevna Reich (1894-1939), in her first marriage she was married to Sergei Yesenin.

In 1928-1939 Meyerhold lived in the so-called "House of Artists" in Moscow, Bryusov per., 7. Now there is a museum in his apartment

Creativity[edit | edit wiki text]

Theatrical work[edit | edit wiki text]

Acting[edit | edit wiki text]

• 1898 - "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" by A. K. Tolstoy. Stage directors K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko - Vasily Shuisky
• 1898 - " The Merchant of Venice» W. Shakespeare - Prince of Aragon
• 1898 - "The Seagull" by A.P. Chekhov. Directors K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko - Treplev
• 1899 - "Death of Ivan the Terrible" by A. K. Tolstoy. Directors K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko - Ivan the Terrible
• 1899 - Antigone by Sophocles - Tiresias
• 1899 - "Lonely" by G. Hauptmann. Directors K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko - Johannes
• 1901 - "Three Sisters" by A.P. Chekhov. Directors K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko - Tuzenbach
• 1907 "Balaganchik" A. Blok - Pierrot

Director's[edit | edit wiki text]

• 1907 - "Balaganchik" by A. Blok
• 1918 - "Mystery-Buff" by V. Mayakovsky

Theater of the RSFSR-1 (Actor's Theatre, GITIS Theater)

• 1920 - "Dawns" by E. Verharn (together with V. Bebutov). Artist V. Dmitriev
• 1921 - "Union of Youth" G. Ibsen
• 1921 - "Mystery-buff" by V. Mayakovsky (second edition, together with V. Bebutov)
• 1922 - "Nora" by G. Ibsen
• 1922 - "The Magnanimous Cuckold" by F. Krommelink. Artists L. S. Popova and V. V. Lutse
• 1922 - "Death of Tarelkin" by A. Sukhovo-Kobylin. Director S. Eisenstein

Tim (GosTim)

• 1923 - "The Earth on End" by Martin and S. M. Tretyakov. Artist L. S. Popova
• 1924 - "D. E." Podgaetsky according to I. Ehrenburg. Artists I. Shlepyanov, V. F. Fedorov
• 1924 - "Teacher Bubus" A. Fayko; director Sun. Meyerhold, artist I. Shlepyanov
• 1924 - "Forest" by A. N. Ostrovsky. Artist V. Fedorov.
• 1925 - "Mandate" N. Erdman. Artists I. Shlepyanov, P. V. Williams
• 1926 - The Inspector General by N. Gogol. Artists V. V. Dmitriev, V. P. Kiselev, V. E. Meyerhold, I. Yu. Shlepyanov.
• 1926 - “Roars, China” by S. M. Tretyakov (together with the laboratory director V. F. Fedorov). Artist S. M. Efimenko
• 1927 - "Window to the village" R. M. Akulshin. Artist V. A. Shestakov
• 1928 - “Woe to the mind” based on the comedy by A. S. Griboyedov “Woe from Wit”. Artist N. P. Ulyanov; composer B. V. Asafiev.
• 1929 - "The Bedbug" by V. Mayakovsky. Artists Kukryniksy, A. M. Rodchenko; composer - D. D. Shostakovich.
• 1929 - "Commander-2" by I. L. Selvinsky. Artist V. V. Pochitalov; stage design by S. E. Vakhtangov.
• 1930 - "Shot" by A. I. Bezymensky. Directors V. Zaichikov, S. Kezikov, A. Nesterov, F. Bondarenko, under the direction of Vs. Meyerhold; artists V. V. Kalinin, L. N. Pavlov
• 1930 - "Bath" by V. Mayakovsky. Artist A. A. Deineka; stage design by S. E. Vakhtangov; composer V. Shebalin.
• 1931 - "The last decisive" Sun. V. Vishnevsky. Design by S. E. Vakhtangov
• 1931 - "List of good deeds" by Y. Olesha. Artists K. K. Savitsky, V. E. Meyerhold, I. Leystikov
• 1933 - "Introduction" by Yu. P. German. Artist I. Leystikov
• 1933 - "Krechinsky's Wedding" by A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin. Artist V. A. Shestakov.
• 1934 - "Lady with Camellias" by A. Dumas son. Artist I. Leystikov
• 1935 - "33 fainting" (based on the vaudeville "Proposal", "Bear" and "Jubilee" by A.P. Chekhov). Artist V. A. Shestakov

In other theaters

• 1923 - "Lake Lyul" A. Fayko - Revolution Theater
• 1933 - "Don Juan" by Moliere - Leningrad State Drama Theater

Filmography[edit | edit wiki text]

• "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1915) - director, screenwriter, performer of the role Lord Henry
• "Strong Man" (1917) - director
• "White Eagle" (1928) - dignitary

Legacy[edit | edit wiki text]

Monument to Meyerhold in Penza (1999)

Exact date The death of Vsevolod Meyerhold became known only in February 1988, when the KGB of the USSR allowed the granddaughter of the director Maria Alekseevna Valentey (1924-2003) to get acquainted with his “case”. On February 2, 1990, the day of Meyerhold's death was marked for the first time.

Immediately after the official rehabilitation of Vs. Meyerhold, in 1955, the Commission on the creative heritage of the director was formed. From the moment of foundation to 2003, M.A. Valentei-Meyerhold was the permanent scientific secretary of the Commission; chaired the Legacy Commission in different years Pavel Markov (1955-1980), Sergei Yutkevich (1983-1985), Mikhail Tsarev (1985-1987), V. N. Pluchek (1987-1988). Since 1988, the director Valery Fokin has been the chairman of the Commission.

At the end of 1988, it was decided to create a memorial Museum-apartment in Moscow - a branch of the Theater Museum. A. A. Bakhrushina

Since February 25, 1989 at the Theater. M. N. Yermolova, who at that time was headed by Valery Fokin, held evenings in memory of Meyerhold.

In 1991, on the initiative of the Heritage Commission and with the support of the Union of Theater Workers of Russia, on the basis of the All-Russian Association "Creative Workshops" established back in 1987, the Center named after Vs. Meyerhold (CIM). The Center is engaged in scientific and educational activities; in more than two decades of its existence, it has become a traditional venue for international festivals and the Golden Mask national festival, a platform for touring the best European and Russian performances.

Memory[edit | edit wiki text]

• In Penza, on February 24, 1984, the Center for Theater Arts "Meyerhold's House" was opened (director Natalia Arkadyevna Kugel), in which the Theater of Doctor Dapertutto has been operating since 2003.
• In 1999, a monument to V. E. Meyerhold was unveiled in Penza.
• In honor of the 140th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Meyerhold in St. Petersburg on the street. Borodinskaya 6, February 10, 2014 a memorial plaque was unveiled in the hall where Meyerhold worked [ source unspecified 366 days] .

1. Brief biographical information.
2. The most famous plays by Ostrovsky; characters and conflicts.
3. The value of Ostrovsky's work.

The future playwright A. N. Ostrovsky was born in 1823. His father served in the city court. Ostrovsky lost his mother at the age of eight. The father married a second time. Left to himself, the boy became interested in reading. After graduating from the gymnasium, A. N. Ostrovsky studied for several years at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, then served in the judiciary. It should be noted that the professional experience gained played a big role in Ostrovsky's subsequent literary work. The deep knowledge of folk life, which we find in Ostrovsky's plays, is connected with childhood impressions; apparently, the playwright owes much to his unmarried wife, Agafya Ivanovna, with whom he became friends in the mid-1950s, with the expansion of ideas about the life of Muscovites. After her death, Ostrovsky remarried (1869).

Ostrovsky during his lifetime achieved not only fame, but also material prosperity. In 1884 he was appointed head of the repertoire of the Moscow theaters. A. N. Ostrovsky died in 1886 in his estate Shchelykovo. However, interest in the works of Ostrovsky did not fade after his death. And until now, many of his plays are successfully performed on the stages of Russian theaters.

What is the secret of the popularity of Ostrovsky's plays? Probably, in the fact that the characters of his heroes, despite the color of a certain era, at all times remain modern in their basis, in their deepest essence. Let's look at this with examples.

One of the first plays that brought wide popularity to Ostrovsky is the play "Our People - Let's Settle", which was originally called "Bankrupt". As already mentioned, Ostrovsky at one time served in court. The plot of "Bankrut" is developed on the basis of real cases from judicial practice: the fraud of the merchant Bolshov, who declared himself insolvent in order not to pay his debts, and the reciprocal fraud of his son-in-law and daughter, who refused to redeem the "tyatenko" from the debt hole. Ostrovsky in this play clearly shows the patriarchal life and customs of the Moscow merchants: “Mama has seven Fridays a week; Auntie, if not drunk, is so silent, but if he is drunk, he will beat him, just look. The playwright reveals a deep knowledge of human psychology: the portraits of the petty tyrant Bolshov, the rogue Podkhalyuzin, Lipochka, who imagines herself to be "an educated young lady," and other characters are very realistic and convincing.

It is important to note that in the play "Our People - Let's Settle" Ostrovsky raised a theme that became a cross-cutting one for all his work: this is the theme of the destruction of the traditional patriarchal way of life, a change in the essence of human relations, a change in value priorities. Interest in folk life also manifested itself in a number of plays by Ostrovsky: “Do not sit in your sleigh”, “Poverty is not a vice”, “Do not live as you want”.

It should be noted that not all of Ostrovsky's plays have a plausible, realistic ending. A happy resolution of the conflict sometimes looks deliberate, not quite corresponding to the characters of the characters, as, for example, in the plays “Poverty is not a vice”, “Bulk apples”. However, such utopian "happy endings" do not reduce the high artistic level of Ostrovsky's plays. However, one of the most famous works of Ostrovsky was the drama "Thunderstorm", which can be called a tragedy. In fact, this play is deeply tragic, not only because of the death of the main character in the finale, but because of the insolubility of the conflict shown by Ostrovsky in The Thunderstorm. It can even be said that in The Thunderstorm there are not one, but two conflicts: the antagonism of Katerina and her mother-in-law Marfa Ignatievna (Kabanikha), as well as Katerina's internal conflict. Usually, literary critics, following N. A. Dobrolyubov, call Katerina “a ray of light in the dark kingdom”, contrasting her with Kabanikha and other heroes of the play. Undoubtedly, there are worthy qualities in the character of Katerina. However, these qualities become the cause of the internal conflict of Ostrovsky's heroine. Katerina is not able to resign herself to her fate, patiently waiting for the time when she could become the second Kabaniha and give free rein to her character, nor enjoy secret meetings with her beloved, outwardly showing a model of obedience to her husband and mother-in-law. main character"Thunderstorms" surrenders to its feeling; however, in her heart she considers this a sin and is tormented by remorse. Katerina lacks the strength to refrain from a step that she herself considers sinful, but her voluntary confession of her misdeed in the eyes of her mother-in-law does not at all reduce her guilt.

But are the characters of Katerina and her mother-in-law so different? Kabanikha, of course, is a type of complete tyrant who, despite ostentatious piety, recognizes only his own will. However, after all, one can say about Katerina that in her actions she does not take into account anything - neither with decency, nor with prudence, or even with the laws of religion. “Oh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, God forbid this happens! And if I get sick of it here, they won’t hold me back by any force, ”she sincerely admits to her husband’s sister. The main difference between Katerina is that she does not want to hide her actions. “You are kind of tricky, God bless you! But in my opinion: do what you want, if only it was sewn and covered, ”Varvara is surprised. But it is unlikely that the girl herself came up with it. Obviously, she caught this worldly "wisdom" in the hypocritical atmosphere of her mother's house. The theme of the collapse of the traditional way of life in The Thunderstorm sounds especially sharp - both in the ominous forebodings of Katerina, and in the melancholy sighs of Kabanikh, dedicated to the outgoing "old times", and in the formidable prophecies of the crazy lady, and in the gloomy stories of the wanderer Feklusha about the approaching end of the world. Katerina's suicide is also a manifestation of the collapse of the patriarchal values ​​that she betrayed.

The theme of the collapse of the values ​​of "old times" in many of Ostrovsky's plays is refracted into the theme of careerism and greed. The hero of the play “Enough Stupidity for Every Wise Man”, the cunning cynic Glumov, is even charming in his own way. In addition, one cannot fail to recognize his intelligence and ingenuity, which, of course, will help him extricate himself from the unpleasant situation that has developed as a result of the exposure of his machinations. Images of prudent businessmen are found more than once in Ostrovsky's plays. This is Vasilkov from Mad Money, and Berkutov from Wolves and Sheep.

In the play "The Forest" the theme of decline again sounds, but not the patriarchal merchant way of life, but the gradual destruction of the foundations of the life of the nobles. We see the nobleman Gurmyzhsky in the image of the provincial tragedian Neschastlivtsev, and his aunt, instead of taking care of the fate of her nephew and niece, thoughtlessly spends money on the subject of her late love interest.

It should be noted Ostrovsky's plays, which can rightly be called psychological dramas, for example, "Dowry", "Talents and Admirers", "Guilty Without Guilt". The characters of these works are ambiguous, multifaceted personalities. For example, Paratov from "Dowry" is a brilliant gentleman, a secular man who can easily turn the head of a romantic young lady, the "ideal of a man" in the eyes of Larisa Ogudalova, but at the same time he is a prudent businessman and a cynic for whom nothing is sacred: me, Moky Parmenych, there is nothing cherished; I will find a profit, so I will sell everything, anything. Karandyshev, Larisa's fiancé, is not just a petty official, a "little man", a "straw", which Larisa tried to grasp in desperation, but also a person with painfully hurt pride. And about Larisa herself, we can say that she is a subtle, gifted nature, but she does not know how to soberly assess people and treat them calmly, pragmatically.

In conclusion, it should be noted that Ostrovsky firmly entered literature and stage art as a writer who laid down realistic traditions in the Russian theater, a master of everyday and psychological prose of the 19th century. The plays of Columbus Zamoskvorechye, as Ostrovsky was called by critics, have long become classics of Russian literature and theater.

Creative ideas of A.N. Ostrovsky. Karandyshev. The symbolic meaning of names and surnames. The purpose of the lesson. At first glance, the first two phenomena are exposition. What do we learn about Paratov. Discussion of the image of L.I. Ogudalova. Analysis of the drama "Dowry". Usually the name of Ostrovsky's plays is sayings, proverbs. A.N. Ostrovsky Drama "Dowry". Characters. Paratov Sergey Sergeevich.

"Ostrovsky's play" Thunderstorm "" - Give a description of each literary hero. Victims of the "dark kingdom". Katerina. What role does the storm scene play in the play? Read aloud Katerina's monologue in the scene of repentance. Barbara - translated from Greek: foreigner, stranger. Read aloud Katerina's last words. What is your opinion and why? Kabanova Marfa Ignatievna is a typical representative of the "dark kingdom".

"The play" Dowry "" - Or maybe here's the right decision: Knurov's frank proposal .... Katerina is a truly tragic heroine. "Dowry". The heroine of “Dowry” lacks the will to commit suicide. Larisa's world contains both a gypsy song and a Russian romance. Capitalism is booming. Photo 1911. Image of Paratov. But after all, the ability to get carried away and prodigality does not at all reject a sober calculation. And everyone looks at Larisa as a stylish, fashionable, luxurious thing.

"Heroes of the Thunderstorm" - The main theme of the Thunderstorm. The concept of mirror images. The results of the actions of the heroes. Two conflicts. Small Academic Art Theatre. Social activities of A.N. Ostrovsky. Katerina's lessons. I. Levitan. The playwright's work. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Speech characteristic. Catherine's protest. The play "Thunderstorm" was written in 1859. Dictionary. Love. National Theatre. Human feelings.

"Ostrovsky's play" Dowry "" - What kind of person is Paratov. Karandyshev shot. Cruel romance. Ostrovsky. Does Larisa Paratova need it? Bridegroom of Larisa. Problem questions. Love for Larisa. What gives the gypsy song to the play and the film. Poetic lines. The mystery of Ostrovsky's play. Analysis of the play. Gypsy song. What is Karandyshev. Acquisition of text analysis skills. Expression skills. A sad song about a dowry. Romance.

"Heroes of the Snow Maiden" - Folklore. The content of the songs. Ancient Russian rite. huge power. Tests for fixing on the topic. What heroes are just fabulous. Dancing birds. A.N. Ostrovsky. V.M.Vasnetsov. Respect for the cultural traditions of the people. The power and beauty of nature. Lely's image. Goblin. Fantastic characters. Winter fairy tale. Test results. Musical instruments. Scene. Music. Music by Rimsky-Korsakov. Characters.