The Russians Are Coming

Soviet Theatre and the development of Montage

•16461646

•Father Athanasius Kircher made drawings of a box that could reproduce an image through a lens.

•Ancestor of present day slide projector.

Magic Lantern

18th Century

•Showmen travel across Europe showing magic lantern shows.

•Used drawn images in the beginning.

•Eventually used photographs.

Phantasmagoria

19th Century

•Photo plays drew viewers to a story just as film does today.

•Combination of magic lantern shows, live actors, and photography.

•Some lasted up to 2 hours and told melodramatic stories.

•Proved the potential of projected film.

Projection Problems

•Projector needs a powerful light source to make images clear.

•Film has to run smoothly past this light source without tearing. Vitascope

Projector

Persistence of Vision

•The ability of the brain to retain an image a split second longer than the eye actually sees it.

•If we see 24 individual images in rapid succession the brain connects them to make a fluid sequence of movement.

Toy Makers

•Toy makers used this theory to create hand held machines that were the basis of film development.

Zoetrope

•Circular drumwith slits.

•allows momentsof darkness.

•creates illusionof movement.

•1834 by William Horner.

Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge(1830-1904) U.S.

Born in England, he was in the U.S. from youth. A photographer, he was most interested in capturing "Animal Locomotion," the title of his summary work.

In 1872, he began his famous series of photo studies, sponsored by California Governor Leland Stanford.

By 1877, the challenge to prove that at some point in a racehorse's stride, all four hooves are off the ground was met; Muybridge had produced a series of quick-exposure photos that captured all moments in the stride via sequentially-placed cameras, and Stanford had won a $25,000 bet.

Muybridge never produced "moving pictures" himself, but his work was world-renowned and an influence on many to follow.

Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin

Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin

(1805-1871) France

The son of a watchmaker, he was "the father of modern conjuring" (Cambridge Biographical Dictionary).

In Paris, he constructed mechanical toys and automata (robots, like Disney's animatronics), developed complex magic lantern shows that featured primitive motion, and performed magic in his own theatre (later to be purchased and reopened by Georges Melies).

Houdin also inspired a young American magician and escape artist named Ehrich Weiss to adopt a name in honor of Robert-Houdin--Harry Houdini.

History

The development of the motion picture projector and film stock allowed the development of film.

Early motion pictures were static shots showing an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques as this series showing a nude walking demonstrates.

Louis & Auguste Lumiere

Louis & Auguste Lumiere

(1864-1948; 1862-1954) France

Invented the Cinematographe, a combined camera and projector, and shot their first film, Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory, in 1895.

December 28, 1895, has been called by some "the birthday of world cinema"--the Lumieres presented a program of 20 short films, projected at the Grand Cafe in Paris. The program was "held over" for weeks.

Louis Lumiere dispatched photographers all over the globe, with the combined task of selling Cinematographes, showing films to paying audiences, and filming newsworthy events and actualities (e.g., "travelogues") to be marketed worldwide.

Although the Lumiere company did produce some narrative and even humorous short films, most of its offerings were in the "realist" style, and the name Lumiere remains firmly attached to the roots of the realist school of filmmaking.

Cinematographe•Machine shot

the pictures, printed them, and projected them.

•The camera was portable.

•A hand crank provided the power.

December 28, 1895•First theatre

opens to the paying public.

•Basement of a Paris café.

•Lumieres’ show:

•Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory.

•Arrival at Lyon.

•A Baby’s Meal.

Film History

» The first audience to experience a moving film did so in 1895. The film, by the Lumiere brothers was called “Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895)”

» Their film “Train Entering the Gare de Ciotat (1895)” caused people to faint with fear as the train loomed from the screen into the theatre auditorium.

» These films did not carry a story or narrative - they merely showed a moving image on the screen.

» The first audience to experience a moving film did so in 1895. The film, by the Lumiere brothers was called “Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895)”

» Their film “Train Entering the Gare de Ciotat (1895)” caused people to faint with fear as the train loomed from the screen into the theatre auditorium.

» These films did not carry a story or narrative - they merely showed a moving image on the screen.

Georges Melies

Georges Melies(1861-1938)

FranceAs a child, more interested in art, puppetry, and magic than

in business.

In 1888, he sold his interest in the family shoe business, and reopened the Theatre Robert-Houdin in Paris, and soon became famous for his shows of magic and illusion.

When he saw the Lumiere program at the Grand Cafe in 1895, he begged the brothers to sell him film equipment, but they declined. He purchased a Bioscope projector from Robert Paul, and began showing Edison shorts; but soon after, he invented and had constructed his own camera/projector system.

Although he produced a number of literary films (e.g., Joan of Arc, 1900), he is remembered most for his contribution in the realm of fantasy, and special visual effects (e.g., A Trip to the Moon, 1902).

Constantin Stanislavski

• Born in Moscow, Russia in 1863. • An actor and moved on to become a director

and teacher.• He developed a new approach to acting. • It took years of experimenting to get to what

is now known as the Stanislavski System.

Stanislavski's System• As an actor, Stanislavski saw a

lot of bad acting - what he termed as artificial. Stanislavski wanted actors to work on characters from the inside (instead of the outside) and thus create more of a "true" or "real" (i.e. not artificial) performance.

• Stanislavski's thought process toward acting differed greatly from the way actors traditionally approached their roles.

1. Given Circumstances

• The given circumstances are the character details in the script - the facts the playwright gives the actor.

• What has the playwright told us?

• Location of the play?

• Time/period/year it is set?

• People in the play?

2. Analysis of text through action

• This helps the actor understand the aim or the main idea of the play.

• In analysing an action, the actor answered three questions:

• What do I (the character) do?

• Why do I (the character) do it?

• How do I (the character) do it?

3. Adaptation

• Adaptation requires the actor to answer the questions;

• What? (action)• Why? (aim)• How? (adaptation) With respect to an action. • The function of adaptation is to allow the actor to transmit ‘invisible messages’ that could not be put in to words.

• Depends on the other actors.

• Adaptation could be used to communicate the subtext.

4. Units of action & Objectives

• Break the script down into units (sections).

• A unit (aka Beat) is a portion of a scene that contains one objective for an actor.

• There can be more than one unit that occurs during a scene.

• Every unit has an objective for each character.

• An objective is expressed through the use of an active verb.

• Not necessarily what happens, but this is what the character is striving for

5. Motivation

• Stanislavski insisted that an actor was either driven by emotions or by the mind to choose physical actions.

• This in turn aroused the ‘will’ of the actor to perform the given actions. Thus, the ‘will’ became activated indirectly through either emotions or the mind.

• The ‘will’ or motivation is in the subconscious.

• Motivation become important in realism, it is based on the subtext and any hidden meanings.

6. Super Objective

• The Super Objective is the main theme of the play.

• The subject of the play.

• Everything drives toward the Super Objective.

• When all the objectives are strung together in a logical form, a through line of action can be mapped out for the character.

7. Subtext

• Subtext refers to the meaning lying underneath the text/ dialogue.

• The subtext is not spoken, but is interpreted by the actor through, gesture, posture, pauses or choices in the action.

• There is a clear relationship between Subtexts & dialogue and between subtext and objective…

9. Imagination

• The more fertile the actor’s imagination, the more interesting would be the choices made in terms of objectives, physical action and creating the given circumstances around the character.

• There is no such thing as actually on the stage. Art is a product of the imagination, as the work of a dramatist should be. The aim of the actor should be to use his technique to turn the play into a theatrical reality. In this process the imagination plays by far the greatest part.

10. The Physical Apparatus• Stanislavski believed that an

actor’s body and voice is the physical apparatus that is needed in order for the actor to fully express every nuance and subtle shade of character.

• He saw the body and voice as ‘instruments’ that could be trained and could help the actor give shape to an actor.

• The body needs to be trained, improve posture and make movements supple and graceful, with purpose and truth.

11. Magic If…• In realism where the aim of the

actor is to create the appearance of reality or ‘truth’ on stage.

• Your character is in a specific situation. The Magic If answers the following question: "What would I do if I were in the same situation?“

• The "If" is very important. This about your real life experiences, in combination with your imagination.

• The situation is not real, and the system doesn't assume you have ever been in that situation. But knowing yourself, what would you do? How would you act?

• Take the imaginary situation and make real life decisions as to how you would behave.

• It's crucial to determine the "do" in the question. What action would you take?

…Magic If• IF I was to be in this

situation what would I do?... Thus, the character's objectives drove the actor’s physical action choices.

• Exercise: You are in a play that takes place at a bank. As your character is finishing up with the teller, a bank robber enters and shoots a gun into the air.

• If you were in a similar situation…

• What would you do? • Would you be a coward or a

hero? • Would you yell? • Would you hide behind

someone? • Would you run out? • How would this information

help in your character development?

Pre-Revolutionary Pre-Revolutionary RussiaRussia

•Only true autocracy left in Only true autocracy left in EuropeEurope

•No type of representative No type of representative political institutionspolitical institutions

•Nicholas II became tsar in Nicholas II became tsar in 18841884

•Believed he was the Believed he was the absolute ruler anointed by absolute ruler anointed by GodGod

•Russo-Japanese War (1904) – Russo-Japanese War (1904) – defeat led to political defeat led to political instabilityinstability

The Revolution of The Revolution of 19051905

•Rapid growth of Rapid growth of (discontented) working (discontented) working classclass

•Vast majority of workers Vast majority of workers concentrated in St. concentrated in St. Petersburg and MoscowPetersburg and Moscow

– No individual land ownershipNo individual land ownership

– Rural FamineRural Famine

Conservatism Conservatism Continues:Continues:1905-19171905-1917

•Tsar paid no Tsar paid no attention to the attention to the Duma; it was Duma; it was harassed and harassed and political parties political parties suppressed – only suppressed – only token land reform token land reform was passedwas passed

•Nicholas was Nicholas was personally a very personally a very weak man; he weak man; he became became increasingly increasingly remote as a rulerremote as a ruler

•Numerous Numerous sovietssoviets thus began to thus began to appearappear

Alexandra: The Power Behind Alexandra: The Power Behind the Thronethe Throne

•Even more blindly Even more blindly committed to autocracy committed to autocracy than her husbandthan her husband

•She was under the She was under the influence of Rasputin influence of Rasputin

•Scandals surrounding Scandals surrounding Rasputin served to Rasputin served to discredit the monarchydiscredit the monarchy

World War I: “The Last Straw”World War I: “The Last Straw”•War revealed War revealed

the ineptitude the ineptitude and arrogance and arrogance of the country’s of the country’s aristocratic aristocratic eliteelite

•Corrupt military Corrupt military leadership had leadership had contempt for contempt for ordinary ordinary Russian peopleRussian people

•Average Average peasants had peasants had very little very little invested in the invested in the WarWar

The Collapse of the Imperial The Collapse of the Imperial GovernmentGovernment

•Nicholas left for the Nicholas left for the Front—September, Front—September, 19151915

•Alexandra and Alexandra and Rasputin throw the Rasputin throw the government into government into chaoschaos

•Alexandra and other Alexandra and other high government high government officials accused of officials accused of treasontreason

The Collapse of the Imperial The Collapse of the Imperial GovernmentGovernment

•Rasputin assassinated in Rasputin assassinated in December of 1916December of 1916

•Complete Complete mismanagement of the mismanagement of the wartime economywartime economy

• industry production industry production plummeted, inflation and plummeted, inflation and starvation were rampant, starvation were rampant, and the cities were and the cities were overflowing w/ refugeesoverflowing w/ refugees

•cities became a hotbed cities became a hotbed for pol. activism, and this for pol. activism, and this was ignited by serious was ignited by serious food shortages in March food shortages in March 1917, esp. in St. 1917, esp. in St. PetersburgPetersburg

The Two The Two Revolutions of Revolutions of

19171917•The March The March

Revolution Revolution (March 12)(March 12)

•The The November November Revolution Revolution (November (November 6)6)

Soviet Political Soviet Political IdeologyIdeology

•More radical and More radical and revolutionary than revolutionary than the Provisional the Provisional GovernmentGovernment

•Most influenced by Most influenced by Marxist socialismMarxist socialism

•Two FactionsTwo Factions

-- “Mensheviks”-- “Mensheviks”

-- “Bolsheviks”-- “Bolsheviks”

Lenin Steps into This VacuumLenin Steps into This Vacuum

•Amnesty granted to all political prisoners in Amnesty granted to all political prisoners in March of 1917March of 1917

•A tremendously charismatic personalityA tremendously charismatic personality

•““Peace, Land, Bread”Peace, Land, Bread”

•““All Power to the Soviets”All Power to the Soviets”

•He preached that the war was a He preached that the war was a capitalist/imperialist war that offered no capitalist/imperialist war that offered no rewards for the peasants/workers; he also rewards for the peasants/workers; he also felt the war was over w/ the czar’s felt the war was over w/ the czar’s abdicationabdication

•Bolshevik party membership exploded; Bolshevik party membership exploded; their power was consolidatedtheir power was consolidated

Vsevolod Meyerhold 1874-1940

Biography

• Karl Theodor Kasimir Meyerhold was born in Russia in 1874.

• In 1898 he joined the Moscow Popular Art Theatre; an establishment with the intention of breaking class divisions and bringing theatre to the masses as part of the socialist movement.

• After a successful Bolshevik revolution in 1917 in which Meyerhold had fought as part of the Red Army, he joined the party. As an official of the Theatre Division of the Commissariat of Education and Enlightenment, he took on a prominent role in the production of ‘Agitprop’.

– During his 37 year long career, Meyerhold directed nearly 300 productions.

– TB stalled Meyerhold during 1919, and his career at the TEO was put on hold.

– 1922 saw the theatre great set up The Meyerhold Theatre, which explored the furthest boundaries of theatre. The theatre was to be closed two years before it’s founders brutal execution.

– No longer a promoter of Soviet values, Meyerhold was swiftly removed. Arrested on account of murdering his performer wife, Zinaida Raikh,who was found dead in their apartment, more likely a victim of a government assassin. An ill man of 65, Meyerhold was accused of spying for anti-communist enemies as well as various other charges and repeatedly and violently tortured. It is suspected he was executed on the 2nd February 1940.

Ideas and Practices – Much of Meyerhold’s work carries socialist themes,

with the belief that ‘Art cannot be non- political’. (Van Gyseghem)

– Meyerhold believed that attempts at naturalism in theatre are absurd when a play spanning several years may be told in a few hours.

-He also tried to break the traditional sense of barriers between actors and their audience, much like the work of Bertolt Brecht. -Meyerhold saw both movement and music not merely as an accompaniment to realism but as a means to illustrate the important aspects of a scene, such as emotion.

7 Things1. The emphasis is on the trivial detail

2. It leaves nothing to the imagination

3. The actors rely on facial features not physical dexterity

4. It results in the actors merely illustrating the playwright’s words

5. The natural rhythm of the play is subsumed under surface trivialities

6. The overall shape of the play is lost in the process of textual analysis

7. The naturalistic aim of ‘reproducing life on stage’ is itself absurd

Overall Naturalism reduced the expressivity of the performer

•Instead of using the actor’s body to define a character, Naturalism encouraged what Meyerhold called ‘reincarnation’- a transformation of the actor into the character using make-up, costume and voice. In doing so the actor is encouraged to focus on the little details, ‘trifles of everyday life’ to

capture the person they are playing

•Why invest such effort in attempting to disguise the theatre’s own theatricality? Asked Meyerhold. Why not simply give up the pursuit of

verisimilitude?

Stylisation

1. To simplify and reduce something down to find its ‘essence’

2. To extend the range of expression used

3. To pay particular attention to the question of rhythm

7 things Meyerhold liked about the stylised theatre…

1. The emphasis is on the actor, working with minimal props and scenery

2. The spectator is compelled to use their imagination

3. The actors rely on physical plasticity and expression

4. The words of the playwright may be transformed by the director

5. Rhythm becomes uppermost in the director’s and the spectators’ minds

6. The look of the work is carefully constructed, like painting a picture

7. The stylised theatre can produce any type of play from Aristophanes to Ibsen

Bio-Mechanics – Defined as ‘the scientific study of forces

and the effects of those forces on and within the human body’.

– Exercises in bio-mechanics involve prescribed movements in a sequence to tell a story. There must be the careful study of the moments before, during, and after an action, in order to portray it in simple poses.

– ‘the whole theme of the play is interpreted in movement’. (Van Gyseghem)

– The bio-mechanics movement was forced underground after Meyerhold’s execution, but re-emerged in 1972 thanks to Nikolai Kustov.

– Alexei Levinski and Gennachi Bogdanov are now the only teachers of biomechanics in Russia

Biomechanics and the actor of the future

“Biomechanical training might be compared to a pianist’s studies…Mastering the technical difficulties of the exercises and etudes does not provide the student with a prescription for the lyric energy necessary, let’s say, to perform a Chopin nocturne…yet he must master the techniques in order to master his art. Technique arms the imagination.”

(Garin- one of Meyerhold’s most talented actors)

The Fairground Booth (1906)

•Performers behave as marionettes

•“Help, I’m bleeding cranberry juice!”

•Double-stage/set

•Author as character

Problems raised by Meyerhold’s work

– As with any ground-breaking work, Meyerhold’s theatre initially experienced problems with audience response. He was asked to leave the employment of Vera Kommissarzhevskaya after poor audience response to ‘Hedda Gabler’, in which all the original stage directions were ignored.

– A modern- day audience would perhaps struggle to suspend their disbelief in a performance that constantly reminds them of their setting in a theatre.

– Bio-mechanics is a difficult skill to learn as an actor, particularly due to little written work having been produced about it, and there being only two teachers of it now in Russia. It is seen as a very specialised art form.

Impact on Theatre – During a time of political revolution, Meyerhold

took a main role in revolutionising theatre. – The idea of not using curtains to hide the

mechanics of theatre, which was so new to audiences of Meyerhold’s time, is now commonplace, as audiences often arrive to see a performance where there is no front curtain shielding the set from view.

– Despite the complexities of bio-mechanics, use of symbolism in the form of poses, and choreographed movement to music as part of performance, are now commonly accepted forms of theatre.

– Meyerhold’s expulsion from Soviet theatre has shown how the ancient art form that is theatre, can be used as a modern form of communication of political and propagandist intent.

Meyerhold•I have come to regard the mise en scène not as

something which works directly on the spectator but rather as a series of ‘passes’, each intended to evoke some association or other in the spectator . . . . Your imagination is activated, your fantasy stimulated, and a whole chorus of associations is set off. A multitude of accumulated associations gives birth to new worlds . . . . You can no longer distinguish between what the director is responsible for and what is inspired by the associations which have invaded your imagination. A new world is created, quite separate from the fragments of life from which the [piece] is composed.

Sergei Eisenstein

Russian film director and theoretician

Used the montage technique

Had an enormous influence on the development of the cinema.

Eisenstein and Montage

•Eisenstein called montage “the hieroglyph of the intellectual cinema.”

•Combinations of shots create what is graphically inexpressible in a single shot, just as a single word alone cannot express what a combination can.

The Eccentric Arts•An artistic device for pointedly comic

portrayal of reality, consisting of intentional violation of logic, sequentiality, and interdependence among the events portrayed and of alogical (from the point of view of generally accepted norms) behaviour of the characters, with the result that the occurrences appear displaced from their usual positions and receive unexpected shifted meanings.

•The Soviet Encyclopedia of Circus

MONTAGE OF ATTRACTIONS

•An attraction (in our diagnosis of theatre) is any aggressive moment in theatre, i.e. any element of it that subjects the audience to emotional or psychological influence, verified by experience and mathematically calculated to produce specific emotional shocks in the spectator in their proper order within the whole. These shocks provide the only opportunity of perceiving the ideological aspect of what is being shown, the final ideological conclusion. ”(Eisenstein, 2009a, p.30)

MONTAGE

• He distinguished the conflict of:

• graphic direction (lines),

• shot levels (between one another),

• volumes,

• masses,

• spaces etc.,

• close-ups and long shots,

• different directions of graphic symbols,

• conflict between light fragment and dark.

Eisenstein on Chinese Ideograms•“The combination of two hieroglyphs of

the simplest series is to be regarded not as their sum, but as their product, i.e., as a value of another dimension; each, separately, corresponds to an object, to a fact, but their combination corresponds to a concept.”

• For example,

•a dog + a mouth = “to bark”

•a mouth + a child = “to scream”

•a mouth + a bird = “ to sing”

•a knife + a heart = “sorrow”

Kuleshov Effect•Kuleshov edited together a short film in which a shot of the

expressionless face of Tsarist matinee idol Ivan Mosjoukine was alternated with various other shots (a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, a woman on a divan). The film was shown to an audience who believed that the expression on Mosjoukine's face was different each time he appeared, depending on whether he was "looking at" the plate of soup, the girl in the coffin, or the woman on the divan, showing an expression of hunger, grief or desire, respectively.

•It was, in fact, the same shot repeated

•In Kuleshov's view, cinema consists of fragments and the assembly of those fragments, the assembly of elements which in reality are distinct. It is therefore not the content of the images in a film which is important, but their combination.

The Wise Man

•Actors train in circus skills for two years

•Stage shaped like circus arena

•Entrances over audience heads

•The tray of drinks

•Glumov’s Diary

Glumov’s Diary

Battleship Potemkin

PSYCHO