The Vsevolod Meyerhold State Theatre (GOSTIM, GosTiM, TiM; ) was a drama theatre in Moscow, Soviet Union that operated under various names from 1920 to 1938.Ростоцкий Б. О. Мейерхольда имени театр // Theater Encyclopedia (edited by P. A. Markov). Moscow. Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1964. Vol. 3. pp. 773–776.
Throughout its entire 18-year existence, the theatre was headed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, a pupil of Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. A former actor of the Moscow Art Theatre, Meyerhold had parted ways with the artistic views of his teachers as early as the beginning of the 20th century.
In early 1938, GosTiM was declared incompatible with Soviet art and the Soviet audience and was subsequently closed. Soon afterward, Meyerhold himself became a victim of political repression. Following the director's rehabilitation in 1955, his theatre was rehabilitated as well.
Background After graduating from the Music and Drama School under the direction of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1898, Vsevolod Meyerhold was invited to join the company of the newly established Moscow Art Theatre. He took part in its earliest—and later legendary—productions, portraying Vasili Shuisky in Feodor I of Russia, Treplev in The Seagull, and later becoming the first actor to perform the role of Tuzenbach in Three Sisters.Ростоцкий Б. О. Мейерхольд, Всеволод Эмильевич // Theater Encyclopedia (edited by P. A. Markov). Moscow. Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1964.Vol. 3, pp. 768–773. Drawn increasingly to directing, Meyerhold left the Moscow Art Theatre in 1902 and formed his own troupe, with which he toured the southern cities of the Russian Empire, initially continuing the traditions of the Art Theatre.
Beginning with productions of plays by Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky, Meyerhold became increasingly interested in the repertoire of modernism, which prompted his search for new means of theatrical expression. In 1905, he was appointed head of the experimental Studio on Povarskaya Street, established at the initiative of Stanislavski. Inspired by Symbolist aesthetics, Meyerhold formulated the programme of a conventionally aesthetic theatre, emphasizing stylization and the subordination of stage action to musical and visual design.Theater Encyclopedia. Meyerhold, 1964, p. 768–769
Stanislavski soon became disillusioned with the studio, whose credo, in his words, amounted to the belief that "realism and everyday life had outlived their time". Meyerhold, however, from 1906 onward staged productions at various theatres, including the Alexandrinsky and Mariinsky theatres.Театральная энциклопедия. Мейерхольд, 1964, p. 769 His subsequent artistic explorations were associated with "theatrical traditionalism", drawing upon the experience of medieval theatre and the art of .Theater Encyclopedia. Meyerhold, 1964, p. 770 All of Meyerhold's experiments constituted a protest against what he regarded as derivative naturalism, which in his view was "bourgeois and philistine". He came to conceive of theatrical performance as a festive spectacle while at the same time gravitating toward the tragic grotesque, which, he believed, should be rooted in the traditions of popular fairground entertainment.
Meyerhold greeted—and immediately embraced—the October Revolution with these ideas already fully formed. He marked the first anniversary of the Revolution with a production of Vladimir Mayakovsky's Mystery-Bouffe in Petrograd, a work that perfectly corresponded to his conception of mass spectacle. Шнеер А.Я. Мистерия-буфф // Theater Encyclopedia (edited by P. A. Markov). — Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1964. Vol. 3. pp. 851–852.
From the RSFSR Theatre to the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) In 1920, Meyerhold, then head of the Theatre Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, founded a theatre in Moscow known as the First RSFSR Theatre. The new company was granted the building at 20 Street, which had belonged to the Theatre of the Artistic and Educational Union of Workers' Organizations. Since 1919, that theatre had been headed by , whose artistic pursuits closely aligned with those of Meyerhold. In early 1920, the theatre was dissolved, and a significant portion of its troupe, led by Bebutov himself, joined Meyerhold's company. Among Bebutov's students were Maria Babanova, Mikhail Zharov, and Igor Ilyinsky. К. С. Театр ХПСРО // Theater Encyclopedia (edited by P. A. Markov). Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1961–1965. Vol. 5.
The new theatre, which adopted the slogan of combating political neutrality in theatrical art, opened on 7 November 1920 with a production of Dawns (Zori) by Émile Verhaeren.Theater Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, 1967. Both this production and the subsequent staging of Vladimir Mayakovsky's Mystery-Bouffe, presented to the public on 1 May 1921, fully embodied the programme of , which Meyerhold had first advanced in 1918 and which called for the creation of a vividly spectacular theatre of political agitation.
In his productions, Meyerhold sought to establish direct contact with the audience. In Dawns, for example, Red Army soldiers participated in the performance with their banners and military bands,Головникова О.В. ДОКУМЕНТЫ РГВА О ТРАГИЧЕСКОЙ СУДЬБЕ В.Э. МЕЙЕРХОЛЬДА. К 90-ЛЕТИЮ РОССИЙСКОГО ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО ВОЕННОГО АРХИВА Вестник архивиста[Herald of the Archivist]: journal. Moscow, 2008. — No. 6. while reports of victories from the fronts of the Russian Civil War were announced during the action.Берёзкин В. И., Фельдман О. М. Советский театр / К. Л. Рудницкий. Moscow. Iskusstvo (Art), 1967. p. 4. In Mystery-Bouffe, there was no curtain, and part of the action was moved into the auditorium, effectively merging the stage with the audience space.
Workshops The Higher Directing Workshops were established under the First RSFSR Theatre and soon acquired the status of State Higher Directing Workshops (GVYRM). Enrollment began in the summer of 1921.Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, p. 11. According to the memoirs of Erast Garin, the Workshops consisted of two departments—directing and acting. Although students were formally divided into "actors" and "directors", they were required to attend classes in both departments.Гарин Э., С Мейерхольд. НАЧАЛО. 1974. p. 25.
At the Workshops, Meyerhold, who was critical of Stanislavski's system, trained actors for his theatre according to his own methods, including instruction in biomechanics.Гарин Э., С Мейерхольд. НАЧАЛО. 1974. с. 27. In accordance with Meyerhold's original conception, an actor was not meant to portray an individual "character" but rather a generalized type and, in the context of his revolutionary productions, to embody class consciousness rather than individual psychology.Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, p. 15.
More than eighty students were admitted to the first class, including Sergei Eisenstein, Nikolai Ekk, Sergei Yutkevich, , , Zinaida Reich, and .Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, p. 12.
Actor's Theatre
In 1921, the First RSFSR Theatre met the fate of many young theatrical companies of the period: it was closed as financially unviable, and the troupe gave its final performance on 10 September. Meyerhold subsequently established the so-called Free Workshop of Vsevolod Meyerhold within his Directing Workshops, which absorbed a group of actors from the First RSFSR Theatre, including , , , and Grigori Roshal. In the spring of 1922, the State Higher Theatre Workshops were established, incorporating the GVYRM. The Free Workshop, in turn, merged with the troupe of —whose theatre had earlier been renamed the Second RSFSR Theatre by Meyerhold and had likewise been closed in December 1921—to form the Actor's Theatre under the auspices of the new institution.Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, pp. 19-21.
The new theatre occupied the same premises at 20 Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, near Triumfalnaya Square, and formally opened on 20 April with a production of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, which Meyerhold hastily staged using Nezlobin's troupe. The production proved unsuccessful and was performed only three times. The theatre's effective opening took place on 25 April 1922, when audiences were presented with Le Cocu magnifique by Fernand Crommelynck.
By staging the play as a tragicomedy, Meyerhold avoided the coarseness of the literary original. Dedicated to Molière, the production proved remarkably vivid despite its sparse stage design and the absence of theatrical costumes: the actors performed in Blue Blouses and bell-bottom trousers, without makeup or wigs. For contemporary audiences, the production, despite its very different methods, invited comparisons with Yevgeny Vakhtangov's Princess Turandot.Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, pp. 22-24.
In this production, Meyerhold employed constructivist stage structures in place of conventional scenery for the first time. These subsequently became a hallmark of his productions, serving practical and functional purposes in deliberate contrast to the pictorial illusionism of traditional theatre.
The success of Le Cocu magnifique, which inaugurated the era of constructivism in Soviet theatre, weakened the position of Konstantin Nezlobin. His troupe eventually disbanded, and he ultimately resigned from the theatre.Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, pp. 27—31.
GITIS Theatre In the summer of 1922, the merger of Meyerhold's Workshops with the State Institute of Musical Drama resulted in the formation of the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS).Горбунов М.А. ГИТИС // Theater Encyclopedia, (Edited by S. S. Mokulsky). Мoscow. Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, 1961. Vol. 1. Among those admitted to the Acting Faculty were A. Ya. Moskalyova, N. I. Tverdynskaya, N. I. Bogolyubov, and Lev Sverdlin, all of whom later became actors in Meyerhold's theatre. Students of the Directing Faculty who would subsequently associate their careers with Meyerhold included Nikolay Okhlopkov, , , and .Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, p. 33.
Meyerhold's Free Workshop, in turn, merged with the of to form the GITIS Theatre, which opened on 1 October 1922 with a performance of Le Cocu magnifique. However, the theatre proved short-lived.
At the GITIS Theatre, Meyerhold, together with his assistant director Sergei Eisenstein, staged one of his favourite plays, by Aleksandr Sukhovo-Kobylin. "Throughout the performance," wrote , "the audience was confronted by Meyerhold's sorrowful eyes gazing out from the depths of darkness. The tragic picture of Russian reality convulsively writhed within the fairground and circus-like form of the production."Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, pp. 35-36.
Before long, however, disagreements emerged within GITIS itself, leading to a split.Золотницкий Д. И. Будни и праздники театрального Октября. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo (Art), 1978, p. 40.
Repertoire 1920 — Dawns by Émile Verhaeren; directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold and ; sets designed by . 1921 — Mystery-Bouffe by Vladimir Mayakovsky (second version); directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold and ; designed by , V. L. Khrakovsky, and . 1921 — The League of Youth by Henrik Ibsen; directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold (revived in 1922 at the Actor's Theatre under the title Stensgaard's Adventure, or The League of Youth). 1922 — A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen; directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold.