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 * Sandbox for the article on the First Studio

The First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) was a theatre studio that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski created in 1912 in order to research and develop his 'system' of actor training. Its founding members included Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Michael Chekhov, Richard Boleslavsky, and Maria Ouspenskaya, all of whom would exert a considerable influence on the subsequent history of theatre. Leopold Sulerzhitsky, who had been Stanislavski's personal assistant since 1905 and whom Maxim Gorky had nicknamed "Suler", was selected to lead the studio. In a focused, intense atmosphere, its work emphasised experimentation, improvisation, and self-discovery. Until his death in 1916, Suler taught the elements of Stanislavski's 'system' in its germinal form: relaxation, concentration of attention, imagination, communication, and emotion memory. On becoming independent from the MAT in 1923, the company re-named itself the Second Moscow Art Theatre, though Stanislavski came to regard it as a betrayal of his principles. Chekhov led the company between 1924 and 1928. A decision by the People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the Communist Party closed the theatre in 1936, to the bewilderment of its members.

History


At a meeting of the board of the MAT on 5 September 1911, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko proposed that the organisation should respond to Stanislavski's repeated requests for proper facilities to pursue his pedagogical experiments with young actors. The playwright Maxim Gorky encouraged Stanislavski to seize the opportunity not by founding a drama school to teach inexperienced beginners, but rather—following the example of Vsevolod Meyerhold's Theatre-Studio of 1905—to create a |studio for research and experiment that would train young professionals. Stanislavski created the First Studio on 1 September 1912. Initially, though, he financed it himself (as he had done with the Theatre-Studio). The First Studio occupied an appartment consisting of two small rooms and one large one that had been used previously by the Lux cinema, and which occupied a floor of the same buliding in which, in 1888, Stanislavski's Society of Art and Literature had been inaugurated.

Suler was almost entirely responsible for the day-to-day operation of the studio. He taught the elements of Stanislavski's 'system' in its germinal form: relaxation, concentration of attention, imagination, communication, and emotion memory. Some of the studio's classes were led by Vakhtangov. Its first production was Herman Heijermans' The Wreck of the 'Hope', which Boleslavsky directed. It opened on 15 January 1913 and ran for a total of 454 performances. In light of this demonstration of the studio's achievement, the board of the MAT agreed to fund its activities. Its following production was Gerhart Hauptmann's The Festival of Peace, which Vakhtangov directed.

When Harley Granville-Barker, who visited from England to study Stanislavski's approach to theatre-making on 26 February 1914, sent two students to learn more, Stanislavski placed them in the First Studio rather than with the main company of the MAT.

In the autumn of 1914 the studio relocated to more spacious premises. Following its particularly successful next production—an adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Cricket on the Hearth—by the end of the 1914-15 season the studio was regarded as, in Jean Benedetti's words, "the centre for original work and expressive acting." Vakhtangov played Tackleton and Chekhov played Caleb, while Boris Sushkevich adapted Dicken's novella and directed the production. A cinematic version was released as Sverchok na pechi on 20 May 1915, directed by Sushkevich and Aleksandr Uralsky.

Early in 1915 Nemirovich convened meetings of the management committee of the MAT in order to disucss what he perceived as the deleterious effects of the First Studio on the main company. He proposed that the studio should sever all connections with the MAT and that Stanislavski should return to the company full-time. The committee decided to create a monitoring group to oversee the activities of the studio.

After the October Revolution in 1917, Stanislavski let most of the rooms in his house on Carriage Row to members of the studio, who used its larger rooms as rehearsal spaces, until he was evicted in 1921.



In 1923 the First Studio became independent of the MAT and re-named itself the Second Moscow Arts Theatre. Michael Chekhov, one of the First Studio's original members, led the company between 1924 and 1928, after which he created studios of his own in Europe and the US. Sushkevich, Ivan Bersenev, and Serafima Birman took over the leadership of the theatre after Chekhov's departure.

Following an announcement published in the Izvestia newspaper on 28 February 1936, the Second MAT was closed by the People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the Communist Party, to the bewilderment of its members. Its members were incorporated into the MGSPS (Moscow Region Professional Union of Actors).

First Studio

 * Serafima Birman (1913-1936)
 * Richard Boleslavsky
 * Michael Chekhov
 * Mariya Durasova
 * Maria Ouspenskaya
 * Vera Solovyova
 * Boris Sushkevich
 * Yevgeny Vakhtangov

Second Moscow Art Theatre

 * Azarii Azarin
 * Ivan Bersenev
 * Serafima Birman (1913-1936)
 * Aleksey Diky
 * Sophia Giatsintova
 * Sergei Obraztsov
 * Aleksey Popov
 * V. I. Yuren'yeva (1930-1936)

Productions

 * 1913: The Wreck of the 'Hope' by Herman Heijermans. Opened on 28 January. Directed by Boleslavsky. 454 performances given in total.
 * 1913: The Festival of Peace by Gerhart Hauptmann. Opened on 28 October. Directed by Vakhtangov (his directorial début). 96 performances given in total.
 * 1914: The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens, adaptated from his novella by Sushkevich. Opened on 7 December. Cast included Vakhtangov as Tackleton and Chekhov as Caleb. Directed by Sushkevich. Scenic design by M Libakov and P Uzunov. Music by N N Rakhmanov.
 * 1914-1915: Travels of the Invalids by V M Volkenshtein. Opened 4 January 1915. Directed by Boleslavsky. 55 performances given in total.
 * 1915: Flood by G Berger. Opened on 27 December. Directed by Vakhtangov. 427 performances given in total.
 * 1917: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Opened on 4 December 1917. Directed by Sushkevich. 221 performances given in total.
 * 1918: Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen. Opened on 14 May. Directed by Vakhtangov. Cast included Vakhtangov as Brendel. 19 performances given in total.
 * 1919: The Daughter of Jorio by Gabriele d'Annunzio. Opened on 20 January. Directed by N Bromlei and L Deikun. 80 performances given in total.
 * 1921: Erik XIV by August Strindberg. Opened on 29 March. Cast included Chekhov as Erik. Directed by Vakhtangov and Sushkevich. 107 performances given in total.
 * 1923: Hero by John Millington Synge. Opened on 17 January. Directed by Aleksey Diky. 23 performances given in total.
 * 1923: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. Opened on 4 April.
 * 1923: King Lear by William Shakespeare. Opened on 23 May. Directed by Sushkevich.
 * 1924: Love - The Golden Book by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Opened on 3 January. Directed by Birman. 30 performances given in total.
 * 1929: Crank by Aleksandr Afinogenov. Cast included Azarin as Volgin, Birman as Troshchina, and Giatsintova as Sima.
 * 1930: The Homestead by Karavaeva.
 * 1930: Shine, Stars by Ivan Mykytenko.
 * 1930: Peter I.
 * 1931: A Matter of Honour by Ivan Mykytenko.
 * 1933: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Cast included Giatsintova as Maria and Mariya Durasova as Viola. Scenic design by Favoysky.
 * 1934: The Death of Ivan the Terrible by Alexei Tolstoy
 * 1934: The Spanish Curate by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. Cast included Giatsintova as Amaranta and Birman as Violanta. Scenic design by Aristarkh Lentulov.
 * 1935: Plea for Life by Jacques Deval. Cast included Bersenev as Pierre Massoubre and Giatsintova as Genevieve.

Influence
Stanislavski went on to establish several more theatre studios in which he continued his experiments with actor training and developed further his 'system.' Boleslavsky modeled the American Laboratory Theatre, which was to prove so influential for 20th-century acting in the US, on his experience in the studio. When former members of the First Studio came to the US to teach, however, they were ignorant of the development that the 'system' had undergone in the years since Stanislavski had first started to experiment with them in 1912. Pavel Markov wrote an influential history of the First Studio that Mark Schmidt translated into English for the Group Theatre in 1934. On the basis of its description of Vakhtangov's approach to the 'system,' Lee Strasberg reduced its concept of "experiencing" to romantic self-expression and rejected the paradoxical dual consciousness of the actor, first advanced by Diderot and reformulated by Stanislavski.