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Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold

Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold (Russian: Всеволод Эмильевич Мейерхольд; German: Karl Kazimir Theodor Meyerhold) (28 January [O.S. 10 February] 1874 — 2 February 1940?) was a Russian theatrical producer, director, and actor whose provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern theatre. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Events 1077 - Walk to Canossa: The Excommunication of Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor is lifted Old Style (or OS) and New Style (or NS) are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year Year 1874 ( MDCCCLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 962 - Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. A theatre director or stage director is a practitioner in the Theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production (a play, An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works "Symbolic" redirects here For other uses see Symbolism (disambiguation and Symbolic (disambiguation.

Contents

Life and work

Meyerhold was born in Penza on January 28 (February 10), 1874 into the family of a Russian-German wine manufacturer Emil Meyerhold. History Penza was founded in 1663 as a frontier outpost on the then southeastern border of Russia Though he was by no means from a poor family, he was the last of many children and somewhat unwanted. This partial neglect from his family allowed other, more common people influence him and this may have led him toward his more socialist tendencies during the revolution.

After completing school in 1895 he studied law at Moscow University but never completed his degree. On his 21st birthday, Meyerhold converted from Lutheranism to Orthodox Christianity, and accepted "Vsevolod" as an Orthodox Christian name. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world His acting career began when in 1896 he became a student of the Moscow Philharmonic Dramatic School under the guidance of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre and Stanislavski (the other co-founder), where Meyerhold later served as an actor. Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko ( Владимир Иванович Немирович-Данченко in Russian) ( December 11 (23 1858 Moscow Art Theatre ( Russian: Московский Художественный Академический Театр МХАТ is a theatre company in Moscow There he played 18 roles such as Vasiliy Shuiskiy in Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and Ivan the Terrible in The Death of Ivan the Terrible (both by Aleksey Tolstoy), and Treplev in Chekhov's The Seagull. See also Tolstoy Another Russian writer is Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (Алексей Anton Pavlovich Chekhov ( –) (Анто́н Па́влович Че́хов) was a Russian short-story writer and Playwright, considered to be one The Seagull ( Russian: "Чайка" ("Chayka" written in 1895 is the first of what are generally considered to be Anton Chekhov's

After leaving the Moscow Art Theatre in 1902, Meyerhold participated in a number of theatrical projects, as both a director / producer and an actor. Each of his projects served as an arena for experiment and creation of new staging methods. Meyerhold was one of the most fervent advocates of symbolism in theatre, especially when he worked as the chief producer of the Vera Kommisarzhevskaya theatre in 1906-1907. "Symbolic" redirects here For other uses see Symbolism (disambiguation and Symbolic (disambiguation. Vera Fyodorovna Komissarzhevskaya ( Вера Федоровна Комиссаржевская November 8, 1864, St He was invited back to the Moscow Art Theater around this time to pursue his experimental ideas, but not one of his plays there was performed because Stanislavski hated his work.

Alexandre Golovine's portrait of Meyerhold.
Alexandre Golovine's portrait of Meyerhold.

Meyerhold continued his search for theatrical innovation during the decade 1907-1917, while working with imperial theatres in St. Petersburg, introducing classical plays in an innovative manner, and staging works of controversial contemporary authors like Fyodor Sologub, Zinaida Gippius, and Alexander Blok. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River Fyodor Sologub (Фёдор Сологу́б born Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov, Фёдор Кузьми́ч Тете́рников - December 5, 1927) was Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius, Зинаида Николаевна Гиппиус (1869 - 1945 was a Russian Symbolist poet and author Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok (Александр Александрович Блок &ndash August 7, 1921 waswas one of the most gifted lyrical poets produced by Russia In these plays Meyerhold tried to return to acting in the traditions of Commedia dell'arte, rethinking them for the contemporary theatrical reality. Commedia dell'Arte ( Italian: "the comedy of artists" is a form of Improvisational theatre that began in Italy in the 16th century His theoretical concepts of the ‘conditional theatre’ were elaborated on in his book On Theatre in 1913. Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

The Russian Revolution of 1917 made Meyerhold one of the most enthusiastic activists of the new Soviet Theatre. See also Russian Revolution (1905 The Russian Revolution of 1916 refers to a series of popular revolutions in Russia, and the events surrounding them He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1918 and became an official of the Theater Division (TEO) of the Commissariat of Education and Enlightenment, forming an alliance with Olga Kameneva, the head of the Division in 1918-1919. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Olga Davidovna Kameneva ( Russian: Ольга Давыдовна Каменева, 1881 - September 11, 1941 (née Bronstein, sometimes translated Together, they tried to radicalize Russian theaters, effectively nationalizing them under Bolshevik control. However, Meyerhold came down with tuberculosis in May 1919 and had to leave for the south. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common In his absence, the head of the Commissariat, Anatoly Lunacharsky, secured Vladimir Lenin's permission to revise government policy in favor of more traditional theaters and dismissed Kameneva in June 1919[1].

Vsevolod Meyerhold by Boris Grigoriev, 1916
Vsevolod Meyerhold by Boris Grigoriev, 1916

After returning to Moscow, Meyerhold founded his own theatre in 1922, which was known as The Meyerhold Theatre until 1938. Boris Grigoriev ( 11 July, 1886 &ndash 7 February, 1939) was a Russian painter and graphic artist. Meyerhold fiercely confronted the principles of theatrical academism, claiming that they are incapable of finding a common language with the new reality. Academic art is a style of Painting and Sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities Meyerhold’s methods of scenic constructivism and circus-style effects were used in his most successful works of the time: Nikolai Erdman's The Mandate, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Mystery-Bouffe, Fernand Crommelynck's The Magnificent Cuckold, and Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin’s Tarelkin’s Death. Constructivism was an Artistic and architectural movement in Russia from 1919 onward which rejected the idea of " Art for art's sake " A circus is most commonly a traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, Clowns trained animals trapeze acts Hoopers, tightrope walkers Nikolay Robertovich Erdman ( &mdash 10 August, 1970) was a Soviet dramatist and Screenwriter primarily remembered for his work with Vsevolod Meyerhold Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский ( &ndash April 14, 1930) was a Russian poet and Fernand Crommelynck ( b Nov 19 1886 Paris France d March 17 1970 Saint-Germaine-en-Laye was a Belgian Dramatist. Aleksandr Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin (Александр Васильевич Сухово-Кобылин ( Moscow -, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France) was Mayakovsky collaborated with Meyerhold several times, and it is said that Mayakovsky wrote The Bed Bug especially for him; Meyerhold continued to stage Mayakovsky's productions even after the latter's suicide. The actors participating in Meyerhold’s productions acted according to the principle of biomechanics (only distantly related to the present scientific use of the term), the system of actor training that was later taught in a special school created by Meyerhold. Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles on living organisms

Meyerhold gave initial boosts to the stage careers of some of the most distinguished comic actors of the USSR, including Igor Ilyinsky and Erast Garin. Igor Vladimirovich Ilyinsky (1901-1987 was the favorite comic actor of Vsevolod Meyerhold who starred in a number of his world-famous productions including Magnificent Erast Pavlovich Garin (Эраст Павлович Гарин &ndash 4 September 1980) was together with Igor Ilyinsky and Sergey Martinson In his landmark production of The Inspector General (1926): "Energetic, mischievous, charming Ilyinsky left his post to the nervous, fragile, suddenly freezing, grotesquely anxious Garin. Energy was replaced by trance, the dynamic with the static, happy jesting humour with bitter and glum satire". [2]

Meyerhold's acting technique had fundamental principles at odds with the American method actor's conception. Method acting is an Acting technique in which Actors try to replicate real life emotional conditions under which the character operates in an effort to create a life-like Where method acting melded the character with the actor's own personal memories to create the character’s internal motivation, Meyerhold connected psychological and physiological processes and focused on learning gestures and movements as a way of expressing emotion outwardly. Following Stanislavski's lead, he argued that the emotional state of an actor was inextricably linked to his physical state (and vice versa), and that one could call up emotions in performance by practicing and assuming poses, gestures, and movements. He developed a number of body expressions that his actors would use to portray specific emotions and characters.

Russian stamp depicting Meyerhold (left) and Stanislavski (right), 2000.
Russian stamp depicting Meyerhold (left) and Stanislavski (right), 2000. Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski (Константин

Meyerhold inspired revolutionary artists and filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, who studied with Meyerhold and whose films employed actors who worked in Meyerhold’s tradition. Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн January 23, 1898 &ndash February 11, 1948) was Eisenstein cast actors based on what they looked like and their expression, and followed Meyerhold’s stylized acting methods. In Strike!, which portrays the beginnings of the Bolshevik revolution, the oppressive bourgeois are always obese, drinking, eating, and smoking, whereas the workers are athletic and chiseled. Strike ( Russian " Стачка " is a 1925 Silent film made in the Soviet Union by Sergei Eisenstein The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution

Meyerhold's mugshot, taken at the time of his arrest by Soviet police
Meyerhold's mugshot, taken at the time of his arrest by Soviet police

Meyerhold was strongly opposed to socialist realism, and in the beginning of the 1930s, when Joseph Stalin clamped down on all avant-garde art and experimentation, his works were proclaimed antagonistic and alien to the Soviet people. Socialist realism is a teleologically -oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of Socialism and Communism The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Avant-garde (avɑ̃gaʁd in French) means "advance guard" or "vanguard His theatre was closed down in January 1938, and a year later (20 June 1939) in Leningrad Meyerhold was arrested and imprisoned. Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. His wife, actress Zinaida Raikh, was found dead in their Moscow apartment 15 July 1939. Late that year he was brutally tortured[3] and forced to make a confession that he worked for Japan and British intelligence agencies, which he later recanted in a letter to Molotov.

The file on Meyerhold contains his letter from prison to Molotov: "The investigators began to use force on me, a sick 65-year-old man. I was made to lie face down and beaten on the soles of my feet and my spine with a rubber strap. . . For the next few days, when those parts of my legs were covered with extensive internal haemorrhaging, they again beat the red-blue-and-yellow bruises with the strap and the pain was so intense that it felt as if boiling water was being poured on these sensitive areas. I howled and wept from the pain.

"When I lay down on the cot and fell asleep, after 18 hours of interrogation, in order to go back in an hour's time for more, I was woken up by my own groaning and because I was jerking about like a patient in the last stages of typhoid fever. " (From the letter to V. Molotov on January 13 1940).

He was sentenced to death by firing squad on February 1, 1940. Execution by firing squad is a method of Capital punishment, particularly common in times of war The date of his death is unclear; some sources say he was executed on February 2, 1940. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. The Soviet government cleared him of all charges in 1955, during the first wave of destalinization. Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) The Cold War ensued as the USSR and the United States struggled indirectly for influence around the world

Notes

  1. ^ See Robert Leach and Victor Borovsky. A History of Russian Theatre, Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-43220-0 p. 303.
  2. ^ Konstantin L. Rudnitsky. Meyerhold the Director. Moscow, 1969.
  3. ^ Simon Sebag Montefiore. Stalin: The court of the Red Tsar. 2004 p. 323

See also

Vsevolod Meyerhold in his own production of Alexander Blok's Puppet Show (1906).
Vsevolod Meyerhold in his own production of Alexander Blok's Puppet Show (1906). Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok (Александр Александрович Блок &ndash August 7, 1921 waswas one of the most gifted lyrical poets produced by Russia

Bibliography

in English:

Texts by Meyerhold

Works on Meyerhold

External links

Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.
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