导演艺术教学——俄罗斯的方法

In St. Petersburg a special degree program for education of theatre directing started in 1925. It was first led by Meyerhold's creative partner, Vladimir Solovyov. It was a time when the director called himself on the theatre poster “Author of Production”, the epoch of recognition of authorship for a stage director. Theatre overcame a secondary role in attitude compared to literature. Ideas of constructivism, of futurism and of taking devices from open theatricality of old theatre had been developed in the previous decade. The new idea was the independence of theatre nature and form, the refusal of illustrating literature on stage in favor of creating a new form of material from a combination of imagination, observations and literature. Special attention to oriental traditions of symbolic theatricality was paid by directors of non-realistic beliefs.

In fact, Meyerhold educated theatre directors together with set designers on a platform of traditionalism and futurism even earlier in 1918-19. Exactly 100 years ago, he founded Courses of Skills in Stage Production that existed for a year. In many ways we are back in that philosophy of theatre now. Futurism returns in forms of post-dramatic, immersive theatre and practice of performativity.

Later, from the 1930's, the period of domination of the Stanislavsky method started, and realistic representation of “psychological life relations” was thoroughly developed in directing methodology. In fact, it was rarely true life on stage. Socialist realism used a mask of the Stanislavsky method for animation of fake illustrations of ideological patterns; but the true school of “psychological” directing was revived at the end of the 1950's. This school still exists in an improved version.

Currently in Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, St. Petersburg, we have several studios for theatre directing; each of which has a headmaster professor. It is a 5-year degree education with various methodologies in each studio.

The education is arranged in “studios”, groups of about 15 students, all who attend the same classes over 5 years of education together; they form a small theatre company in which they participate as performers in projects of their classmates until they complete a final project to professional theatre. Each studio has its own auditorium during the 5 years, and in this room, they study all professional disciplines (directing, movement, speech),keep set and props, rehearse, and show class productions for spectators. This is their home and theatre house, an important space where they prepare for work in repertory theatre.

Besides the directing class, students learn courses of speech and voice, dance, fencing, philosophy, European theatre, Russian theatre, European literature, Russian literature, music, European visual arts,Russian visual arts, general history, theory of drama, work of director with set-designer and more.

The amount of studies in a directing class is as follows:

Contact hoursIndependent work and rehearsals without facultyCredits/ hours1 semester: 8 × 15 weeks. = 120 hours.1307 / 2522 semester: 8 × 16 weeks. = 128 hours.1227 / 2523 semester: 8 × 15 weeks. = 120 hours.31012 / 4324 semester: 8 × 16 weeks. = 128 hours.30212 / 4325 semester: 10 × 15 weeks. = 150 hours.35214 / 5046 semester: 6 × 16 weeks. = 96 hours.33412 / 4327 semester: 8 × 16 weeks. = 128 hours.26611 / 3968 semester: 8 × 15 weeks. = 120 hours.32812,5 / 4509 semester: 10 × 14 weeks. = 140 hours.63221,5 / 774Total: 1130 hours2776109 / 3924

Additionally, students get individual advising lessons with faculty of the directing class.General arrangement of education is similar in all studios, but methodology varies.

Cultural theorists generally divide various cultural mentalities that developed throughout the 20th century as classical, non-classical, and post-non-classical. This difference may be found in types of contemporary theatre and respectively, in methods of teaching.

Realistic art is based on classical mentality:the creator aims at perceiving and presenting a picture of the world and of human consciousness in its direct reflection, with a belief of adequate perception of the audience.

Modernistic, metaphorical art is based on the non-classical platform: we may express a parabolic or partial, artistically transformed image of the world, and of ourselves, to be only subjectively perceived by the viewers.

Post-dramatic theatre, immersive theatre, site-specific projects, and performative practices represent post-non-classics. Any imitation of “life” is rejected. Performance happens as a real event. The communication of performers and audience is initially predetermined as self-expressivity, and it should be directly personal with the understanding that it will not be wholly perceived in the same way by all spectators, and may be perceived only partly, relatively or subjectively.Contemporary theatre school has to prepare our disciples for various kinds of art of the future. The basic methodology of educating amongst theatre directors varies in different studios.

CLASSICALSCHOOL

In the “classical” field, Russian theatre school developed realistic methods for several decades. In Russia, directing is considered classical, realistic, and “psychological” school; it is viewed more as pedagogical work with actors than the staging of a production in a vivid form.

The Heritage of Stanislavsky has numerous different interpretations. Those interpretations sometimes contradict one another. Each version is represented in contemporary theatre school, and in the education of the directors.

One version is the “Method of action analysis” that teaches to build a structure of events through production and by this, aims to provoke actors into overcoming obstacles (not necessarily explained consciously) so that action is supported by a progression from one dramatic event to the next. Emphasis is placed on human motivation in given circumstances. Action analysis starts as a “situation” parsing—a director defines circumstances or conditions that provoke a character to act. It may not necessarily be an immediate cause of action, not necessarily circumstances that are logically realized; often circumstances are subconscious, many of them are latent circumstances: e.g., Tusenbach (in “Three sisters” by Chekhov), who, in his childhood and youth, was treated by his mother as a perfect personality, yet appears to be totally abandoned as he searches for some firm background and direction for his living. His sisters are from the military high-rank family, their mother died early, their search for stability goes wrong and is converted to the destruction of their own lives. Through analysis of a play, and through the method of action analysis, the director creates a chain of situations and circumstances that provoke dramatic activity. Circumstances may be hidden and indirect, as in the psychological theory of psychiatrist Eric Berne (“Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships”).

The director in his parsing turns the attention of an actor to answering questions: “What is basic disharmony inside the character? What does he/she intentionally or subconsciously undertake (or fail to undertake) to overcome a trouble?”. This is the nature of action in drama of the “psychological type”.

A different interpretation of the Stanislavsky Method is “Method of etudes”, which considers action an exceptional element in the rich flood of life. Life does not consist of doing, existence is mostly passive. Etudes are improvisations around the main line of the play that allows an actor to get deep into contextual circumstances, feelings, and reflections and thus create spontaneity of behavior on stage caused by miscellaneous conditions (not necessarily events but also contemplation, perceiving life, waiting for the development, etc.). A director should learn how to stimulate actors through improvisations in order to penetrate the depths of feeling and consciousness in the character. Students of directing practice by themselves, and should be ready to provide etude training to actors.

Other teachers pay attention to techniques of “Physical actions” (score of life behavior that leads to true psychological condition) or use a special training of spontaneity in rehearsals, created by Nikolai Demidov. Demidov was a collaborator of Stanislavsky who later came to dispute him.But, towards the very end of his life, Stanislavsky agreed to Demidov's protest against the rationalism of Method acting and his emphasis on the deep sub-consciousness of acting that requires special keys. Etudes created by Demidov are concentrated on the actors' communication, and dialogues.This training develops his or her ability to listen, to hear, to see, to prolong being involved in the situation, to avoid the result and concentrate solely on the process, the partner, while allowing occasional, unpredictable behavior. Many teachers also apply some exercises of eurythmy acting techniques of Michael Chekhov (psychological gesture, interaction of atmospheres).

Stanislavsky's teachings, based in contemporary methodology, are a combination of Method of etudes and Method of action analysis in variable proportions. Most teachers agree on the concepts of integrity of physical condition, mental action and imagination of the actor on stage. Young directors are taught to create “life” in the performance through rehearsal processes with actors.

Mikhail Ilyin, professor of directing works in this trend, describes the basics of his method as the following:

“Our way to directing art goes through learning of acting. It's the tradition that was initiated by Stanislavsky. In Meyerhold's words directing is a combination of acting and craft of composition.

We find background of our teaching acting in the Stanislavsky method. Obviously, this method is enriched with knowledge and experience that grew in the past over 100 years of this school and of theatre art in general.

We see that desired high level of identifying actor and character depend on many conditions, difficult process of convergence, hard work on an actor's abilities and profound work on material of the role together with the director and with teachers. One of basic elements of my method is developing the ability of actors in true communication of their partners and with the audience. Communication involves a creative process at all internal and external levels of actor's being — attention, imagination, logical and creative mentality, building relations with reality that surrounds an actor, sensitivity, desiring and actions that are caused with desires, all kinds of human and artistic expression. Action on stage is a form of multilateral communication and interrelations of various subjects. We use training of memory of physical actions and sensations, exercising interaction, forms of games, storytelling (also on behalf of another person). Later these skills are developed in dialogues that are based on observations or on literature, later on fragments of plays, finally in playing roles in plays. In education of directors acting training prevails during the first year. But at the same time first tasks in directing are given: small scenes based on students' observations and imagination (played in movement, in music) so they start to express their fantasy, to build simple composition, to arrange performers. Another exercise is creation of installations in space with or without people. Storytelling of one's own life gradually develops in short sketches (“etudes”). Etudes may also be created on the topic that is proposed by the teacher. From the very beginning students should read books by great directors and discuss them at the seminars.

The next step in education is creating small performances based on non-dramatic art (like painting, poems, songs). It involves analysis of the material such as content and style, it develops skills of arranging space, selecting means of expression (light, sound, costumes, props), practice of work with performers. More complicated task is staging a fairy tale. Magic stimulates development of director's imagination: fantastic events should be represented in theatrical form. A fairy tale stimulates analytical and associative thinking of a director. The idea of a fairy tale is usually hidden behind whimsical imagery and narration, it appeals to psychoanalysis, to knowledge of history, to hints from your fantasy, to cultural traditions and codes. Work on a fairy tale allows a unique personal approach of each student. Sometimes staging a fairy tale involves also students of set design. It happens that student productions that are based on fairy tales develop to full scale performances that are included in repertoire of the Student Theatre.

The task of the next stage of education is staging non-dramatic text (piece of prose). That kind of texts usually contains an elaborate description of various situations, circumstances and motivation of characters' behavior. It's important if a student feels personal connection to some motives of the text. At the same time the student has to get much knowledge of circumstances and context of authentic reality that is reflected in the text as well as of biography and personality of the author and specific features of his/her style. Analysis of text should contain: selection of given circumstances, understanding of theme, of idea (or complex of problems, or author's conclusion), conflict (general contradiction, collision that causes action), continuity of action, features of characters and motivation of their behavior. If the abstract of a large literary text is chosen it should be parsed in the context of the whole story. A student should create a space concept, choose furnishing, objects, costumes and props for action, select music and sounds, stage light. Rehearsals with performers should be based on etudes (improvisational variable approaches to certain elements of the action, without direct implementation of action and text). For me the most important thing in analysis of the text is the general problem of the story and of certain characters. This analysis in not an easy one because in a good novel problems are not found on a surface and may contain contradictions. But when a problem is discovered it provides a clear way for all creators of a performance.

After successful staging of prosaic text students come up to scenes of plays. Usually drama does not contain as much contextual information of the general action that prose provides. The author does not express his or her own attitude, this makes the task for a director and for actors difficult. So the director should be attentive to small details in a text that reveal circumstances of action and relations of characters. The director has to imagine the whole life of characters in every detail as it would be described in a novel (the great Russian director Tovstonogov called this method “composing a novel of life on a basis of a text of a play”). Through a thorough study of a play and enriching it with his own fantasy the director helps develop action of performers.

A great challenge for every student is staging a one-act play. In our school this work is accomplished by a student independently only with some advice from the faculty. All skills of directing art should be involved. The student selects a play, fulfills preparatory “home” work on analysis, selects a team, creates a space concept together with a set designer, creates light and music score (independently or with involvement of experts), rehearses a play with performers, invites in this work a choreographer, a vocal coach and musicians if necessary. The educational requirement is staging a play with consideration of its specific features of composition, genre and style. At the same time the personal interpretation of the play by the director that is different from the author's perspective is possible if this approach may be convincing. The director is able to choose a certain form of communication with the audience that is suitable for this performance.

The final stage of education at the department of directing is staging a performance at a professional theatre. It is a full check of professional work — with actors of a company, in the conditions of work of a certain theatre, cooperation with workshops and theatre management, this performance should be addressed to the general audience. The student writes the analytical paper that contains conception of the performance in detail and description of the rehearsal work. The state degree committee reviews the performance, the student presents his report at the procedure of “defense of a degree work”.

These is just a basic scheme of education that in reality varies in accordance with specific cast of each student group, with personal features of students. The development of unique creative personality of each student is a target of education.”

Method of Action analysis was strictly formed by the famous director Tovstonogov, leader of the school of directing during the period from the 1960’s to the 1980's. He proclaimed that in each play, the director should define the hierarchy of action that goes through Initial, Basic, Central, Final, and Main events. This conventional kind of approach to structuring action logically requires that the director find in the play a certain topic, clear idea, overarching goal, or dramatic “conflict” that becomes a basis for integrity of structure. The Philosophy of educating directors of this type is based on parsing the play, on bringing to actors more and more “given circumstances” in order to direct them to the task (goal) of doing.

A specific feature of realistic methodology is its limitation of authentic life; event structure is built in life-likely consciousness while metaphysics, mythology, symbolism, and free fantasy have limited allowance in this artistic space. Another feature of this method is basic subordination of stage production to a play, to literary text, and to logical mentality. The great director and teacher of 1900's-1930's, Meyerhold opposed realistic “theatre of subjects (characters)” to “theatre of syntheses” and developed the latter.

NONCLASSICALSCHOOL

Russian theatre has more creators of directing methods than Stanislavsky, including Meyerhold, Tairov, Vakhtangov, the art of futurism, early absurdism of the 1920's, etc. All traditions during the socialist realism times from the 1930's to the 1980's were interrupted in practice of theatre and officially excluded from theatre education. In new times, from these sources, from achievements of European art of the 20th century, and from rising affection to traditional Asian art with its metaphysics and artistic perfection, a new wave of directing that is openly theatrical, metaphoric, independent of literature, and aiming for imagery of syntheses has been developing. This tendency has reached theatre schools.

Education of non-realistic directing starts as classical: etudes for presentation of observations of people, of their own life events, training of memory of physical actions and sensuality.

But soon students are required to find analogy of direct representation. They use a working notion “equivalent” to not illustrating and not imitating but finding theatrical form of representation that provokes spectators' imagination. The game is revealed as the nature of theatrical mimesis. Students are taught to select indirect ways and necessary details in order to present not a life-likelihood surface, but the essence of scene. Poetic mentality engages imaginary characters, imaginary actions (not similar to real life), attention to purely artistic expressive means like rhythm, movement, space, light, color, and sounds. Students are taught to create a theatrical form that is the best artistic materialization of the essence of contents.

Anatoly Praudin , professor of directing, comments on his experience of teaching:

“In our Studio students start to learn the art of directing through acting and basic set design. Directing is a complex composition that consists of many layers. It's a composition of numerous means of expression that make a production. Basis of the method is training the ability of composing. We teach our students to use language of theatre, language for stage. We teach them to translate from the language of literature to the language of stage. We discover abilities of composing theatre during the admission process and we do our best to develop just this ability. Yes, these abilities are likely to develop through training if you do it consistently. Great director Meyerhold defined art of director as “composing”. That's right. We have to reach integrity on many levels of composition. Even on admission auditions we check perceiving life as a structural composition. In directing class, we teach students that a director's creation should be structural. Composing should be structural. We study principles of composition, means of theatre composition. This training is consistent for five years. It starts with simple exercises and finally comes to graduate productions that should be a complex integral structure. Members of a team collaborate with each other. But the composition of the whole is created by a director independently. “Method of etudes” is the strongest technique of education. Etudes are small theatre compositions that should reveal some topic, and in order to express it students feel necessity of building a structure. At this point we start to introduce a notion of rhythm. Space, structure and rhythm are means of directing. You have to learn what are these phenomena and how to use them. For example, we teach rhythm as a system of iterations that makes a meaning (idea) more expressive, as well as it makes visual form more expressive. We explain it to students and to make them exercise it. They have to understand and to practice the device of rhythmic iterations that amplifies the meaning. And in every etude they should practice it in order to have it as a habit of work, and as a skill. One of theatre types — is imitation of life in forms of life (life-likelihood, direct realism). It's just one of theatre types! Russian theatre has absorbed also ideas of Brecht and this type is more practical here. We try to practice various theatre types, from their sources. Different types of material require on stage different keys of directing. It is impossible to open Shakespeare with keys that we use to open Chekhov. It's impossible to open Chekhov with keys that we use to open Gorky. Different artistic worlds have different doors, you need different locks for them. It needs education and practicing. There is methodology of theatre of life-likelihood, methodology of theatre of estrangement, theatre of Michael Chekhov (eurythmy)… We use all heritage that was created by theatre mankind. Theatre is fake when it imitates, when it directly illustrates everyday reality. Direct representation of life is the most boring, the most unbearable thing in theatre. We may agree with Brecht: some estrangement in theatre is not only more expressive, but more true to life than life-likelihood. That is why we suggest that students find not direct but equivalent representation of life situations. Equivalent makes it more meaningful. Just the simple example. Real fights, traumas, wounds and deaths are impossible on stage. But this kind of events are important in many plays, for example in tragedies by Shakespeare. But also in plays by Chekhov — there are shots and wounds. In his play called “Ivanov” the main character commits suicide on stage, shooting himself. We may imagine that the actor will take a wooden prop “a gun” in his hands, someone behind the stage produces a bang-bang sound, an actor will produce a scream, fall down on stage and maybe put red paint on his head. No life, no reality in this imitation. Audience will not take it as truth. But theatrical presentation of this action would be more expressive and more truthful. Maybe just the character leaves the room and shuts the door loudly, and a chord of music emphasizes the moment. The strongest ability that theatre has for expression is producing conditions for spectators' imagination to work. In this kind of presentation there is more life, and it is just more truthful! Category of “truth” in theatre belongs to poetry. Theatre is the space for poetry. We try to teach students to find this kind of indirect presentation. It's important for the students of directing to learn how to create poetry on stage. Then together with actors they will try to achieve poetic truth on stage. And then everything depends on the talent of a student, and that is out of teacher's will...”

In the directing studio supervised by Praudin, the chosen literary material makes direct presentation impossible. It provokes imagination. The group that has just graduated worked on texts by Gogol (author of fantastic grotesque style who may be compared to E.T.A. Hoffmann).

Students started with“associative etudes” from their own life and found in it analogies to phantasmagoric stories by Gogol. They discovered fantastic circumstances that were provoking fantastic action. The second year of education was based on fragments of Gogol's writings. Then, students staged whole performances based on writings of this author (“Dead Souls”, “Viy”) and of other authors who provoke metaphorical imagery.

POST-NONCLASSICALSCHOOL

Many theatre makers try to avoid such a quality of theatre as imitation (when theatre appears to be secondary reproduction of reality and of literature). Performance can be a real event happening in a certain place with certain people converting an everyday moment of life into a dramatic situation.

This kind of training of directors is developed in St. Petersburg at a Studio that is supervised by director Andrei Moguchy. He is a prominent artist of avant-garde and art of performance, awarded a European New Theatre Reality Prize, and presently the artistic director of the National Bolshoi Drama Theatre in St. Petersburg. In his teaching Moguchy relies on his experience of arranging laboratories and workshops for experimental theatre creators.

Methodology is very much based on the broken boundaries between drama and event of performativity. Some features of this method may turn graduates to post-dramatic theatre, a phenomenon described in theoretical books by Erica Fischer-Lichte, Heiner Goebbels, and Hans Thies Lehmann. But focus in education is more on theatre than fringe forms.

The teaching goal is based on understanding theatre directing as the art of composition comparable to composing music and searching for theatre that exists beyond traditional boundaries of expressivity.

Andrey Moguchy, professor of directing, describes his approach to teaching:

“In education of directors in parallel to class of directing and to class of acting we involved the playwright, the composer, the visual artist. The artist Shishkin does not teach them set design, but in a very special way they create visual theatre, rather not just theatre but a way to coordinate vision, hearing, feeling and meaning. The task for the first term was to create “comics” type installations, the next one — costumes (rather visual presentation of character/object/image), the next term — creating film, during the next term they will discover nature of laughter (not impersonated, but through devices of visual arts). It's not merely creating theatre with visual means but creating visual thinking of students. The course is called “Visual directing”. The same non-standard way of education offers composer Manotskov. Yes, they get some basic knowledge of polyphony, of ensemble, but more importantly they learn to think “musically”, to have mentality associated with categories of time (and music as the measure of time). They not only sing in ensemble and play orchestra of self-created instruments of sound, but write verse — not as poetry but as learning rhymes, rhythm and sound composition. It provokes work on special meanings. The course is called “Directing as the art of a composer”… These artists who are invited to teach students are outstanding and very special personalities of contemporary art, and their charisma means much for upbringing of young directors. Students must have role models of bright and special people with their own way in the arts… Another part of education was offered by playwright Demakhin. Students had to learn basic rules of dramatic composition (structure, events, circumstances etc.) so that the students were able to create their own plays. These original plays had to be based somewhere deep inside on one of tragedies by Shakespeare but placed in any reality, with contemporary characters, something that correlates with students' feelings and knowledge. On the first stage of this project the students had to defend the plan (synopsis) of the play, then to create episode continuity. Then each student had to select one episode of the whole plan and to create it in the form of dramatic text. Then these scenes were offered to other students as directors to be staged. Some plays were selected and staged by several classmate directors, so we had various interpretations of the same texts. This work created conditions for collaboration of students in position of “playwrights” with “directors” and with “performers” (also students of this studio). It created dialogue and dispute over the text, and texts underwent changes. This communication taught students to provide, to motivate and to defend their parsing of dramatic text. Through this analytical discussions of plays students achieved understanding of the creation of strong dramatic structure of cause and effect. They found out what questions will arise in analysis of play and in conception of performance. They have to understand what questions every director faces in the process of independent work, and while they are at school the teachers may provide possible answers. The next year they took scenes of “The Seagull” by Chekhov and practiced their method of work not on their own variable text but on a classic. They got experience of their approach and of their mistakes in the process of staging.

Another project was called “Russia, what you want from me?” (a line from a classical novelDeadSoulsby Gogol). Two goals were pursued: to create one's own monologue, or confession, the direct expression of idea, to work as directors with other students as actors. It's very important that from the first day on the director work with someone else, on someone else's expression, not with himself/herself, not on his or her own performance. As if I stay outside the action and rule it. So again they faced questions of the way of work, and teachers commented on these questions. This is the educational method: questions appear in the process of independent work of student and then the response of teacher is required and efficient. Along with these projects students prepared small scenes on a free theme, and worked in acting class on etudes, observations. That was education for the first two (of five) years. The next step in education — is directing the one-act play.

What goals were achieved? First of all every student had to understand himself/herself: what they are, what they want, what is their own way. And teachers had to reveal their deep personalities. After 2 years of education this self-positioning was successful for maybe 40% of students, others are in search of themselves, or they copy someone or something in life and in arts. It is important for teaching: it's impossible to help a person if you don't know what is an inside him. Important that they don't copy me but express themselves. Some great people (like painter Kandinsky) believed in primacy of art that has an impact on life. Some students are close to this belief and we should not destroy this belief. But sometimes they copy each other, or copy models that they believe to be “fresh”. Besides it (of the achieved goals) they acquired basics of directing techniques that I would define as category of “event”, “eventfulness” on stage, on all levels. They have to understand each one, among the team, with spectators, through directing, through acting: what is an event on stage.

We think about relation of life and art. What is primary and what is secondary… In Stanislavsky's heritage we should distinguish his discoveries in techniques of theatre making and aesthetics that he followed. Aesthetics of realistic theatre and of life-likelihood may not be followed at all. But the techniques of acting that Stanislavsky introduced is universal to the same extent as the table of chemical elements created by Mendeleyev. And it may be well used not only for realistic theatre but also for any non-life-likelihood theatre type — surrealistic, absurdist, suprematist etc. Psychology is inevitable in any approach. Every kind of theatre is psychological from the moment when a human being enters a stage. Psychology may be presented in any artistic form. It applies to the category of event. Any scene on stage in any aesthetic contains some change that is caused by the fact of action. Fact of action becomes an event when it results in meaningful changes, it is a structural point in every type of theatre. We pay much attention to it in our education. For people who were trained in realistic aesthetics it's difficult to use techniques of building the structure of events in a different kind of theatre. This is our way, we use the structure of events in other than realistic kinds of theatre. It's a matter of our understanding of phenomenon of “reality”. What is “reality” and what should be “real” on stage? We perceive “authentic” reality, we perceive history through some attitude that has already been formed, in frameworks of already existing paradigms. Any phenomenon may be “real” and “realistic” in various ways — in social way, in surrealistic way, in poetic way, in metaphysical way… There are plenty of “realisms”, as many as types of “reality”. This is a matter of our experiments: what will spectators perceive as “reality” presented on stage? We believe in “performative” quality of art: when I am the true object of my art. And it is not necessarily my “everyday” condition. It applies to artistic life-creation. In performative art a person comes on stage and creates his or her own body and mind, a “psycho-body”. Borders of our understanding of “dramatic art” are getting wider”.

On the post-non-classical platform students learn that theatre has to be created by a director from zero position at all levels including space, timing, cast of characters, plot, dialogue, sound, aesthetics, style, and acting method.

Visual composition class, supervised by the prominent and innovative set designer Alexander Shishkin, has three different stages:

1)Comics: Students arrange stories in a form of installation.

2)Costumes: The task is to create a costume that demands a dramatic character and, through this means of expression, build a certain dramatic situation.

3)Films: Short clips that should involve no people, are associative, non-figurative, demand understanding of dynamical form, composition, color concept, rhythm, frame, choice of objects and relations of objects.

Famous creator of contemporary music, Alexander Manotskov, leads the entire process of the 5-year education of his class. Finally, it is about musicality as quality of thinking through intonation, form, rhythm, and instrumentation, finding for every student his or her own way to implement forms of “musicality” in theatrical expression.

After releasing a full range of imagination from artistic devices figurative or non-figurative, personalized or impersonal, visual, musical, or technological, students move to the classical play (“The Seagull”) in order not to imitate some authentic reality, but to create with all their means a new authenticity, a performance event that happens just this moment with themselves personally and with the audience. After students get to experience totally free composition activity, and total release of their imagination in figurative and non-figurative forms, they return to the classical play and in this project, combine dramatic theatre and performative practice. After deconstruction of the conventional level of interpretation of a play, they move to building a fresh structure that is based on their personal involvement.

Education of theatre directors is to change in accordance with changing art and changing life. Outside theatre schools many workshops for young directors take place and some of them are devoted to staging new plays. We live in times of new forms of theatre—immersive theatre, site-specific theatre, mixture of games and quests with theatrical forms, documentary theatre, etc. Festivals bring new ideas of directing. Studios of education for directors at St. Petersburg Institute have admission of a new group of students in five years. It is a long term during which the curriculum of the education is to be updated, and headmaster teachers create specific contents of education for a certain group; they select specific literary material which becomes a basis for aesthetics and techniques of teaching. Differences of pedagogical approaches and developments of methodology are obvious. However, our teachers believe that all changes and developments are possible if we have a basic, profound pedagogical platform. In Russian school we did not refuse (as many European and American schools did) continuous education based on the integral methodology provided by the constant team of teachers for all five years; we did not replace this curriculum with a series of master classes of prominent directors who work in different styles. We believe that the heritage of exactly one hundred years of teaching directing (starting from courses of Meyerhold in 1918-1919) is still alive.