Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1983 - 18

The Moscow State School of Circus
and Variety Art
Before the founding of this school,
in a converted stable in 1926, circus careers were not favored by the public and
no formal training was available. Young
talent came from the children of established circus families. The School of
Circus began with a clown-juggler, an
acting specialist, and two pupils of
Meyerhold-Foregger and Mistichtkin
-and became a full high school in 1936.
Now, the school has 400 students.
Its training objective is not just "actors," but "artists with capacious
minds." Students are drawn from all
over the USSR plus the satellite countries and Vietnam, Cuba, and Laos.
Through its services, circus programs
have been established in Mongolia, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The Berlin and
Havana circuses have contracts with the
school to furnish talent.
There are two ways to train. Either
a student comes from eight years of
comprehensive school for four years of
circus study, or the student is "adopted"
at age ten for seven years of study at the
School of Circus. The program includes
the usual academic disciplines (physics,
chemistry, geography, math, etc.) plus
history of circus, history of theatre, and
history of the arts.
There are 3500 applications per year
of which only eighty are admitted, on
the basis of stage talent, physical fitness,
psychological testing, and knowledge of
Russian language, literature, and history. Auditions begin all over the USSR
with finals held in Moscow. Basic circus
skills are taught upon further auditionacrobatics, gymnastics, juggling, and
balance. If a student shows promise in
one of these, the teachers may encourage specialization.
Famous graduates of the School of
Circus include Karandash, Popov, icoot all children
laief, and Kuklatchov.
of famous circus artists, enrolled in the
school, turn out to be superior. Popov's
daughter is whispered to be a mediocre
tightrope walker. Graduates may be
sent to work in the large Union State
Circus or any of the eighty circuses in
the USSR. They "work out a routine,"
travel with their family at state expense,
with apartment or hotel furnished, for a
beginning salary of 180 rubles a month.
Soon after, wages may be reconsidered
and bonuses are possible for the exceptional performer. As with all performing artists, a pension is available after
16

twenty years but retirement is not compulsory-an artist may continue to perform, teach, or cond uct research.
We visited several classrooms where
courteous, well-scrubbed, eager, and
curious youngsters stood at their desks
to exchange questions with us. We inquired about their ambitions and they
asked which of us were famous. Then
we were treated to a student performance which highlighted gymnastic skill
and "eccentric acrobats " (clowns).
Through a bureaucratic nuke, no animal training is possible at the school
since, at the insistence of the Health
Department, animals cannot be housed
where children are on the premises.
Of the multitude of rich impressions
brought back from our trip, none will
outlast the warmth of those bright
youngsters, so polite but eager, in their
red-scarved school uniforms, standing
smartly at their desks. When these
children were specially released from
classes to attend the performance staged
for us, the high-school-age students in
the audience greeted them joyfully and
sat them on their laps. It gave us much
to ponder.
Dovzhenko Film Studio
Kiev, the capital city of the ancient
Rus and the modern Ukraine, is celebrating its 1500th birthday. Rockwell
Kent, speaking of its 200 parks, called it
"a big park with a city in it." It also is
home to three film studios, one of which
we explored in depth-the Dovzhenko
Studio, named after the Soviet film
writer and director.
Founded fi fty-three years ago, under
the first Five-Year Plan with the development of electricity, the self-supporting
studio now annually produces twelve
cinema and eighteen television films,
specializing in documentaries and short
features. The Ukranian government
provides funds for capital outlay, but
the vast facilities themselves resemble
a seedy back-lot setting of dismal warehouses. Inside, there is creative
excitement.
The studio maintains a permanent
staff of actors (recruited from college
graduates "with high grades") and they
are kept active, when not on camera,
giving song and dance concerts, multimedia presentations, and even selling
lickets. BUI the studio also maintains
a legitimate Iheatre used by the entire
staff (writers, directors, designers, as
well as actors) to keep skills sharp and
productive.

Theatre Design & Technology/ USITT /Spring/ 1983

Scenery, props, costumes, and special effects are all built at the studio, for
its own use and under contract to other
studios. All wigs, beards, and hairpieces
are made by hand in a bustlingly busy
shop on the premises. In the prop shop,
foliage was being fabricated from paper
by hand, and a model ship was being assembled by four interns recently graduated from high school. Eleventh-century
Kiev in miniature was under restoration
in order to place the model-that was
burned for the film Yaroslav the Wisein a museum. Overhead, model aircraft
swung in the breeze like mobiles. Sound
recording is computerized and appears
to be of modern quality. Hungarian
electronic equipment is prevalent (and
even the tour buses assigned to us were
Hungarian). Editing, on 70mm equipment, is done exclusively by women because "they have more patience." Final
editing, the responsibility of the chief director, is done in consultation with a
qualified committee from all branches
of society. A film is then screened by the
Artistic Council, which includes studio
workers, for "collective improvement"
as a process to help the chief director in
making final decisions.
Everywhere we visited, we enjoyed
lengthy, probing discussions and frank
exchanges of opinion. At the Dovzhenko Studio, we learned of the power of
the local union to forbid overtime or
waive days off, and its "merciless" attitude about health and safety. The
studio's manager explained that he had
wanted to fire some actors whom he
considered lazy, but was forced to surrender to the union's contrary opinion.
Even upon a higher appeal, the union
has veto power.
We were keenly interested in film
censorship and were told of the right of
the State Committee to advise on an
ending for a submitted film, justified by
the state's financial support. Soviet
films have ratings similar to those in the
United States, but the question of "X"
does not arise. The film, The Red
Snowball Tree, was severely cut by the
review board due to its violence and sex.
Films, we were told, should not promote
bad habits, such as drinking or smoking,
nor should they promote violence or
promiscuity. "The USSR favors pure
water in its rivers, pure air in its cities,
and purification of the soul through its
art. Many of our films deal with love affairs, but this does not mean that we
have to explain the exact technology of

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1983