Theatre Design & Technology - May 1973 - 19

NEW DIRECTIONS (SCENOGRAPHIC
QUESTS) IN SOVIET THEATRE
YITALY GANKOYSKY, SCENOGRAPHER
Great attention is paid in the Soviet Union to scenic
art whose development requires more and more modern
theatrical buildings equipped aher the latest achievements
in modern technology. At present there are over 500
theatres in the USSR which, according to UNESCO data,
form about a quarter of all the theatres of the world.
During a recent five-year period (1966-1970) 56 theatres
have been built or reconstructed in the USSR. Altogether,
during the years of Soviet power (a little more than half
a century) 355 theatres have been either bu ilt anew or
reconstructed. Fifty more new theatre buildings will be
put into operation in the course of the present five-year
period of 1971-1975.
The observed increase in VISitS to the theatre also
testifies to an unfading interest in scenic art in Soviet
Russia. In 1950 the number of these visits was 67,900,000;
in 1969 the figure had reached 109,600,000.
Soviet arch itects and scenographers designing new
theatres have a vast field for their activities. Quite
naturally, in their work they take into account both the
existence of various new trends in modern theatrical art
which is extremely diverse in its quests, and the achievements of modern building technology.
The compositional construction and dimensions of
the stage and the house which influence the architecture
of the whole theatre building are the main thing in experimental theatre designing. The problem of building new
kinds of stages in accordance with the requirements of
the progressive tendencies in modern theatrical art has
proved to be an extremely difficult one.
Research aimed at reforming scenic art and the scenographic principles of theatrical action were started in the
Soviet Union as far back as the 1920s and 1930s by such
outstanding Soviet directors as Vsevolod Meyerhold,
Nikolai Okhlopkov, Yevgeni Vakhtangov and Alexander
Tairov. Such outstanding architects of the time as
Academicians Alexei Shchusev, Vladimir Shuko, the
brothers Leonid, Victor and Alexander Vesnin and others
engaged in the elaboration of new forms of scenic space.
The design of the theatre made by Nikolai Okhlopkov
and Yakov Stoffer, a well-known painter of decors, in
1932 was based on the principle of stage arrangement of
the times of Shakespeare, as well as on the form of the

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

antique Greek theatre and the theatre of medieval
mysteries. According to Okhlopkov, the new theatre did
not require either any footlights or curtain: the chairs in
the house were removable (in order that they could be
placed in any part of the stage and the hall) and, in
addition, galleries were provided around so that the actors
cou Id appear in any part of the scenic space. Thus
Okhlopkov strove to achieve pliability of space, a merging
of the stage with the house in order that the creative
work of the actor could be supplemented by a feeling of
the spectators' cooperation.
The tendency to bring the stage and the auditorium
together found its reflection in an interesting design for a
theatre (Fig. 2) designed by Vsevolod Meyerhold together
with architects Mikhail Barkhin and Sergei Vakhtangov
(son of director Yevgeni Vakhtangov). This theatre had
no portal arch separating the stage from the hall. The
scenic platform, shaped like a paraboloid, was moved
forward and embraced on three sides by seats which
formed an amphitheatre. Such an arrangement of the
stage and auditorium also revealed an attempt to recreate
the antique theatre in a certain way. In such a theatre
both scenic space and seats for the public formed a single
whole, there was no curtain, and the performance was to
go on without any decors.
New research in Soviet theatre arch itectu re took place
in the two decades between 1950 and 1970. The most
important works of th is period were the experimental
theatre designs made by architect Venyamin Bykov and
scenographer Izekial Maltsin together with such leading
Soviet theatre directors as Nikolai Okhlopkov, Nikolai
Akimov, Yuri Zavadsky and others. Among these designs
mention should be made in the first instance of the
experimental design of the Leningrad Comedy Theatre
(Fig. 3, 1961).
The planners proceeded from the following creative
principle of the theatre: to treat a performance as an
action saturated with rapid changes and an al most cinemagraphical rapidity of alternating episodes and events. The
satirical and comic trends of the theatre also required the
creation of conditions for a more intimate, chamber
contact with the audience. Therefore, bringing the foreground of the stage as close to the audience as possible
was very important from the spectator's point of view.

MAY, 1973

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