Vsevolod Meyerhold

Vsevolod Meyerhold By Jonathan Pitches - Esp Lib 792.0233092PIT

• He didn’t want his audience to focus their ‘eyes on the finish’, but instead to engage in the material of the production in a consciously enquiring manner. (Much like Brecht) [3]
• He filled his productions with self-conscious theatricalities, arranging the order of scenes in such a way that they might collide against one another rather than seamlessly fuse together. [3]
• One of his experiments involved a symbolist approach : to enhance the imaginative input of the spectator by making strange the actor’s body and voice and placing them in a darkened, non-specific theatrical environment. [11]
• Another means of expression included timeless costume design which aimed to capture the essence of the character and an unrealistic set that would break the natural perspective for the audience and the stage space itself being distorted, flattened…[14]
• A writer who greatly influenced Vladimir was Alek Sandr Blok. The aspects that he (Vla) liked- Blok does not allow his characters to get caught up in predictable theatrical situations. The characters that he created in his work exhibited a refreshing sense of self-irony and are capable of making huge emotional shifts. (Drew inspiration from the popular theatre) [18]
• Blok was also inspired by Commedia Dell’arte. Here are a couple things about it that I think we can use [19]-
(a) CDA uses conventional physical language instantly recognizable to the audience (Thinking of using this for Gwak’s arty character)
(b) It played outwards, making direct connection with its spectators.
• What Meyehold thought was significant in CDA [19]-
(a) It placed more emphasis on the physical craft of the actor.
(b) It established a different relationship between the actor and the text, empowering the performer to grab the audience attention through their own improvisatory skill.
(c) The commedia characters were types and were therefore not bound by Stans psychological laws. People were not asked to believe in them. Instead, they were seen for what they were, fictional dramatic creations fulfilling a function within the overall piece.
(d) It captured the spirit of surprise. Rather than the slow build up of tension, the production could undergo sharp changes in atmosphere and collision of ideas and of styles, all of which were designed to keep the audience alert and responsive.
• MH wanted his audience to react and respond- a divided and debating audience was his aim. A starkly self-conscious theatricality (meta-theatricality) [20]
• A tendency of MH work was to synthesize the ancient and modern (Eg- CDA with contemporary playwrights), an approach begun at Dramatichesky Theatre. [25]
• Biometrics (introduced by Meyerhold) is an objective system, focusing on the external apparatus of the actor and designed to create a responsive, efficient and productive actor. It was aimed at communicating its message efficiently, without waste and to specification. (Similar to Constructivism). [33] {It involved the theatre being operated as a factor, where each person was given specific tasks to complete within a deadline, thus helping the process to move on smoothly with “factory like efficiency”. However the way in which these tasks were conducted by the actors was with the same fluidity and playfulness of commedia.}
• 7 things MH did not like about Naturalism [48]-
(a) The emphasis on trivial details
(b) It leaves nothing to be imagined.- The overwhelming attention to detail in Naturalism denied the spectators their most significant right in the theatre-to imagine. [49]
(c) The actors rely on facial expressions not physical works.
(d) It results in the actors merely illustrating the playwright’s words.
(e) The natural rhythm of the play is lost in the process of textual analysis.
(f) The naturalistic aim of ‘reproducing life on stage’ is itself absurd.
• Meyerhold wanted the audience to be co-creators in making of the drama. [49]
• He searched for the rhythm of the language, in the design and in the progression of the scene.[49]

STYLISATION

• The three steps taken towards stylization [52]-
1) To simplify and reduce something down to find it’s essence.
2) To extend the range of expression used
3) To pay particular attention to the question of rhythm.
• 7 things MH liked about ST [52]-
(a) The emphasis is on the actor, working with minimal props and scenery.
(b) The spectator is compelled to use their imagination
(c) The actors rely on physical plasticity and expression.
(d) The words of the playwright may be transformed by the director.
(e) Rhythm becomes the uppermost in the director’s and the spectator’s minds.
(f) The look of the work is carefully constructed, like painting a picture.
This meant that one has free reign with the text, but you need to communicate the essence of the scene. You can reduce the technical requirements to the absolute minimum.

RHYTHM AND MUSIC
• He was not afraid of giving his audience conflicting messages and used the clash of music and action to keep them alert and consciously engaged in the performance.
• There was a central Rhythm that he used in his training that could be divided into three parts [55]-
1) Otkaz- refusal- describes the preparation an actor makes before any actual action.
2) Posil’- the verb to send- is the action itself.
3) Tochka- makes the end point of a cycle of action. It can be seen as an epilogue which suggests a new start.
• Why define such rhythms for the actor? [55]
1) It gives form and structure to everything you do on stage.
2) It makes explicit any rhythmic choices you might make on stage.
3) It gives freedom within a defined set of boundaries.
4) It establishes a language to be sued between actors and with the director.
5) It makes you think in musical terms from the outset.
• When these three part actions are taking place, other characters respond to the rhythm of the main defining character movements, creating a strong sense of ensemble. [57]

THE MASK
• A mask to him could be created by makeup, hairstyle, facial expressions or any other technique which defines a character in terms of its external characteristic. [58]
• To him the mask was seen as an overarching metaphor for the type of work he wanted to create- a stylized, external, non-psychological, popular theatre. [58]
• What he loved about the mask [59]-
(a) Being able to represent two opposing forces within the same character.
(b) Capacity to fuse past and present in one object- The intrinsic power of the mask to live in the memory and in the moment at the same time. It was MH way of marrying tradition with innovation.
(c) The mask forces the actor to externalize his means of communication- to use the body
(d) The mask demands a particular relationship of the actor with the audience- a direct, full-frontal playing style. It is non-naturalistic; a stylized formed that demands an audience to imagine.
• MH asked actors to seek out contradictions, the contrasts, the conflicts in your character, then illustrate those differences in physical terms. Contrast your character from the outside in, scoring their progress through the play in discrete 'turns' or events. [60]

The Grotesque- Isn’t something mysterious, Its simply a theatrical style which plays with sharp contradictions and produces a constant shift in the planes of perception. (Gladkov 1997:142) [61]

 It mixes opposites: tragedy and comedy, life And death, beauty and ugliness.
 It celebrates incongruities
 It challenges our perceptions.
 It naturally mischievous, even satirical.
 It borrows from different sources.
 It always has a touch of the diabolical, the devil’s influence.
 It stretches the natural to the extent that it becomes unnatural or stylized.
 It reveals in fantasy and mystery
 It is constantly transforming things: objects, figures, landscapes and atmospheres.

Aleksandr Blok (Director)- Plays were lively, playful and extravagant based on love triangles. In his plays. One is not sure whether to laugh or cry. He is clearly not afraid of collisions, transformations and surprises.
E.T.A Hoffmann (Writer)- A character in one of his plays has an emotional reaction that is caught between two extremes, pleasure and pain, between the dark rocks and the glittering white maidens (set).

BIOMECHANICS
Influences [68] -
1) Commedia dell’arte- He used exercises called ‘antics appropriate to the theatre’. These were skills involving acrobatics, the p0lay with props, engaging the audience and physicalising a scenario.
2) 1) Musical reading- HE concentrated a lot on the rhythmic aspects of the text and tried to transform that into performance.
3) 3) Movement on stage- He believed that “Movement is the most powerful means of theatrical expression.’

Industrial influences-
 Utilized the words ‘efficiency’, ‘productivity’ and ‘collectivity’.
 It involved cutting down on the many separate actions or tasks that made up a simple job so that it will not take longer that absolutely necessary to perform.
 IT was either down by (i) rationalizing the job itself or (ii) speeding up the individual action by performing them with more efficiency.

Psychological influences-
 He believed in Pavlov’s theories of reflexology: a theory of the, kind based on the premise that we can only understand what we can objectively measure, that is, physical process, not subjective moods.
 It implied that we don’t make choices, we simply respond to things outside of us.
 The theory suggested that these reflexes join together in .long chains of actions and reactions- a kind of domino line of reflexes which, at the largest scale, constitutes out very existence.
 HE maintained that emotion does not come from the inner workings of the mind but from outside stimulus, from ‘physical positions and situation’. Emotion is, in effect, a reflex. (BOAL’S EXERCISES- The 3 Haunting Voices!)
 Its emphasis lay on the external, material aspects of life.

All the influences resulted in the following ideas- the physical dexterity and playfulness of the popular theatre, including commedia; presenting the essence of a story in a short physical performance; dividing up an action into a number of efficiently performed tasks; and connecting those tasks in a long chain of reflexes.

THEAORY OF MONTAGE-
 An episodic structure to the overall production.- Against Stan, supports stylization
(Little write up on Stylization- Symbolism's contestation of realism gave rise to an era of "isms," during which the aesthetics of dramatic art assumed a new social and political significance. Such "isms" became, in time, used consciously as stylization in new dramatic formats. Such antirealistic theatre does not discard reality but enhances it with symbol and metaphor, elucidates parable and allegory, deconstructs and reconstructs subjects through language, scenery, and lighting, and finally uses the theatre's own theatricality explicitly. Briefly examining eleven of these movements makes the diverse qualities and perspectives within antirealistic theatre apparent. From the emotional and "irrational" perspectives of Theatre of Cruelty to the rational and thought-provoking nature of Intellectual Comedy, pre-World War II antirealistic approaches such as Expressionism, Theatricalism, and the French Avant-Garde challenged and extended the limits of theatrical art. Through redefining the importance and function of language, extending the concept of character to include abstract forces or archetypes, reconstructing stage imagery through metaphoric scenery and lighting, and exploring themes often tinged with anxiety, such isms and stylizations have created much of the theatrical language used on today's stages. - http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0767430077/student_view0/chapter8/)

 Carefully directed juxtaposing of the episodes to maximize the ‘explosive’ effect.
 Surprises, collisions, incongruities.- mixing of opposites- grotesque
 Pronounced and varying rhythms emerging from the overall montage.
 A thinking audience, putting together the meaning for itself.
 The possibility of two or more parallel storylines.
 A clear sense of theatricality, of being aware of the joins on the montage.

Underlying Principles of Production-

 Be bold with your vision of the production,.
 Research around the text, using as many different and related sources as possible.
 Make connections between the context pf the play and conditions topday.
 Be prepared to adapt the text to meet the needs or desires of your company.
 Intergrate your training into your performance work.

The Government Inspector- Directed by Meyerhold
 His episodes fragmented gradual rhythmic development, creating instead a series of shorter ‘this’ or shocks. Coupled with the use of multiple locations, the result of this kind of editing was to develop a more fluid and associative feel. [92]
 The biomechanical actor has to ‘make movement’ and imbue it with a sense of musicality. In Meyerhold’s own words: ‘The actor must know how to act “with the music” not “to the music” [97]
 The characters must not be caricatured, ‘exaggerated or hackneyed’. Instead, the parts must be played modestly an sincerely with the actor looking to ‘common mankind’ for a model. [88]
 Meyerhold’s directorial score, his rhythmic orchestration of the activities of his cast, worked to reveal the themes pf the episode and to determine its tragicomic genre. It was essentially operatic approach with movement, sound and speech all playing their part in the creation of meaning.
 Design- The ‘rhythm’ of the episodic structure had in some way to be translated into the design so that the audience could appreciate the play in its new format. Meyehold’s answer was called ‘kinetic staging’. It was a ‘moving stage’. The scenery was turned around between scenes
 Aspects of Biometrics that were seen in his actors-
(i) rhythms of the actors
(ii) discipline of the ensemble
(iii) constant surprises
(iv) gestural patterns of the performers
(v) dance-like quality of the action
(vi) extensive ‘play with props’
(vii) conscious attention to external form
(viii) responsiveness of the actors.
-Priscilla Jamir