Summary Nikolai Pesochinsky. The Actor in Vsevolod Meyerhold’s Theatre

The article on Meyerhold’s theatre method of acting is based on shorthand records of the director’s classes in his theatre workshop, which have never been published, the records of his rehearsals, Meyerhold’s speeches, his disciples’ memoirs, «The Love of Three Oranges» (the magazine published by Meyerhold). critical reviews of the 1910 – 1930 s. The development of Meyerhold’s school of acting is shown from as early as the first symbolistic experiments of the Studio Theatre in Povarskaya Street (1905) and Komissarzhevskaya’s Theatre (1906 – 1907) up to Meyerhold’s teaching at his theatre workshop (1921 to 1938).

The three main parts of the article are: Acting in Meyerhold’s Theatre Aesthetics; Structure of Theatre Character; Biomechanics. Grotesque, musical and metaphoric nature, constructivist action are shown to be the essentials of Meyerhold’s Acting school. The character in Meyerhold’s theatre is part of the «Theatre of Syntheses» but not of the realistic «Theatre of Types». Its structure is based on «the mask principle», estrangement, paradoxical combination of traditional character type (emploi) with elements of authentic life, polyphony of associations. As for the essence of acting art and the acting techniques used in his theatre, Meyerhold’s main ideas were conscious acting, psychophysiological coordination of thought — movement — emotions — speech, a special understanding of rhythm and space, rules of musical thinking, the principle of «pre-acting».