Examining theatrical performance under Stalinist cultural mandates
Talk of Joseph Stalin's 'show trials,' the public prosecutions in Moscow's Hall of Columns in the late 1930s, is so familiar as to obscure the relationship between actual shows - in the Soviet Union's major theaters - and politics. Travesty Actors: Self and Theater in Stalinist Culture examines theatrical performance within the context of the Soviet cultural establishment's fashioning of a 'genuine Soviet person.' Boris Wolfson focuses on prominent and controversial plays by artists including Aleksandr Afinogenov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Yuri Olesha, and Natalia Sats and the efforts of theater companies, like the Moscow Arts Theater, the Meyerhold Theater, and the Central Children's Theater, to adhere to this cultural mandate while grappling with repression, censorship, and conflicting interpretations of its aims. Drawing on archival materials, diaries and memoirs and eyewitness accounts, Wolfson greatly illuminates the achievements of Soviet theater during this harsh period and the cultural significance of artistic theories and practices for articulating and enacting ideological programs.
| ISBN: | 9780810149250 |
| Publication date: | 15th September 2025 |
| Author: | Boris Wolfson |
| Publisher: | Northwestern University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 232 pages |
| Series: | Studies in Russian Literature and Theory |
| Genres: |
Theatre studies Literary studies: plays and playwrights History of Performing Arts Literature: history and criticism |
Examining theatrical performance under Stalinist cultural mandatesTalk of Joseph Stalin's 'show trials,' the public prosecutions in Moscow's Hall of Columns in the late 1930s, is so familiar as to obscure the relationship between actual shows - in the Soviet Union's major theaters - and politics. Travesty Actors: Self and Theater in Stalinist Culture examines theatrical performance within the context of the Soviet cultural establishment's fashioning of a 'genuine Soviet person.' Boris Wolfson focuses on prominent and controversial plays by artists including Aleksandr Afinogenov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Yuri Olesha, and Natalia Sats and the efforts of theater companies, like the Moscow Arts Theater, the Meyerhold Theater, and the Central Children's Theater, to adhere to this cultural mandate while grappling with repression, censorship, and conflicting interpretations of its aims.
Travesty Actors features in the following genres: Theatre studies, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, History of Performing Arts, Literature: history and criticism
Hardback, Paperback. Not Available.
Travesty Actors was written by Boris Wolfson and published by Northwestern University Press
Travesty Actors has 232 pages
Yes it is part of Studies in Russian Literature and Theory series