Meyerhold, Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde
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Meyerhold and Russian Theatre
The Russian theatre director, Meyerhold devised an acting technique called biomechanics. His task as a theatre director was to break down the naturalistic tendencies in Russian theatre. He wanted to combine the three dimensionality of the actors body with the two dimensionality of the stage set. Biomechanics was one of the instruments for realising this goal. Meyerhold also wanted to devise an acting technique which would be less reliant on the text and more in tune with movement. The film "Meyerhold Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde" by Michael Craig of Copernicus Films explores these questions, using actors, archive footage and contemporary drawings and images.
Meyerhold and Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde - Film
Click on picture to watch the film
People are sometimes interested in why this film was shot using actors in Shadow. Why, it is asked, did you not shoot the bodies of the actors performaing the biomechanic movements. It would, they maintain, show the body movements and techniques more accurately.
In answer to this question certain things need to be borne in mind about the film itself. Firstly, the film was not a "how to do biomechanics" film or an instructional video of Meyerhold's techniques. The idea of the film was to demonstrate the meaning of biomechanics in Meyerhold's system, to illustrate the ideas behind biomechanics. Also in the film I wanted to clearly show the graphic qualities of biomechanics. In other words how these movements intergrated with the graphic element of the stage and scenery. This was part of Meyerhold's intention. Therefore I wanted to emphasise the "textual" quality of the body. To show the body as a body would merely emphasise the body itself and not the graphic potential of the body. Connected to this fact is that the human body is a highly individual and specific entity, with specific and unique characteristics. It also expresses an individual personality. Meyerhold was much less interested in the individual personaliy and more concernd with the collective or general character of the body - put another way its mask like character rather than its individual face. Shooting the actors as projected shadows served to illustrate all of the above.
Copernicus Films - Russian Theatre on Amazon
Film by Michael Craig of Copernicus Films about the Russian theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold
Watch - Meyerhold, Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde
- Meyerhold, Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde
- A film by Copernicus Films outlining the main theories of Meyerhold's acting techniques and theatrical innovations
Shadow Mechanics
Fragment from the film "Myerhold Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde"
Part of series of 6 films about the Russian Avant-garde by Copernicus Films and directed by Michael Craig.
The Russian theatre director, Meyerhold devised an acting technique called biomechanics. Using actors this film attempts to recreate his ideas in the context of Russian Theatre of the 1920s.
The Russian theatre director, Meyerhold devised an acting technique called biomechanics. Using actors this film attempts to recreate his ideas in the context of Russian Theatre of the 1920s.
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Meyerhold Rehearsal
Rehearsal for the film "Meyerhold Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde"
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Oksana Petrova and William Pease acting biomechanics movements for the film Meyerhold Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde
Oksana Petrova and William Pease on the set of Meyerhold Theatre and the Russian Avant-garde
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cdevries
Sep 5, 2011 @ 5:57 pm | delete
- An interesting subject! I'm going to have to visit again, spend more time, and really try to understand this style.
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copernicusfilms Sep 6, 2011 @ 8:52 am | delete
- Thanks for your comment.Here is a link to an article I wrote for The Stanislavski Centre in the UK at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance to give you a bit more information id you are interested. http://www.stanislavskicentre.org.uk/meyerhold-and-the-russian-avant-garde/ Feel free to ask any questions. I also found your work on set design instructive and will be following up. Your book about set design - can it be downloaded from Amazon or anywhere.
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After a decade working in the film industry in the UK, mainly on the financial and production aspects of feature films, Michael Craig travelled to Mos... more »
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The theories of Stanislavsky changed the course of theatrical history. This is a clip from the documentary film "Stanislavsky and the Russian Theatre" which explores the main themes which led to the founding of The Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) and the formation of Stanislavsky's system of acting. The film includes material from The Stanislavski Centre at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, interviews with distinguished scholars, Anatoly Smeliansky of MXAT and Jean Benedetti, as well as archive film footage from the period.
