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Class number:
3489
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Title: Russian Theater |
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Department: First Year Sem & Colloq |
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Career: Undergraduate |
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Component: Seminar |
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Session: Regular |
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Instructor's Permission Required: Yes |
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Grading Basis: Graded |
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Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 15 |
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Current enrollment: 14 |
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Available seats: 1 |
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Start date: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 |
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End date: Thursday, December 21, 2023 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
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Schedule: MW: 1:30PM-2:45PM, LIB - B02 |
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Instructor(s): Lahti, Katherine |
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Prerequisite(s): Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class. |
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Distribution Requirement: Meets FirstYr Seminar Requirement |
Course Description:
Russia has the best theater tradition in the world: it is all excellent. The acting is the best in the world. The directing is the best in the world. The sets and costumes are the best in the world. Just why is Russian theater so good? We will start with the masterworks of Nikolai Gogol and the possibility that there is something inherently “theatrical” about Russian culture. Then we move to Chekhov and Stanislavsky who established the Moscow Arts Theater and the definition of good acting that is used around the world today. Particular emphasis will be given to the 30 years at the beginning of the 20th century, the time of the great Russian experiment in the avant-garde where plays were produced that were so radical and exciting they would still astound us today. Then we turn to Stalinist times and look at ways the theater both accommodated and spoke out against political power in the Soviet Union. Lastly we will look at theater after the fall of Communism in Russia and see how the radical experimentation as well as the insistence on stellar quality continue today. |