SEEP Vol.2 No.1 March 1982

NEWSNOTES on SoviET ond EAsT EuROPEAN DRAMA end THEATRE Volume 2, Number l March, 1982 EDITOR'S NOTE This issue marks the beginning of our second year of publication. It is my pleasure to report to you that we have grown to more than five hundred institutional and individual subscribers and, most assuredly, considerably more readers who share the NEWSNOTES with subscribers. It appears that we are meeting a long-neglected need in a discipline which is considerably more popular than we imagined. It is therefore doubly gratifying that the Summer Institute will be repeated in 1982 (see page 2). I would like to thank many of our readers for their encouragingly complim_entary letters. Please do let us know what you would like to see ir. this publication. Of course this will require your contributions of material, e.g., reviews, bibliographic and instructional materials, and short articles of special interest. It is understandable that Soviet theatre and drama will continue its tendency to overshadow material from other Eastern European nations. It is therefore to be hoped that more of you will submit items of interest to our readers concerning Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria. We wish you a most productive year. NEWSNOTES is a publication of the Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre under the auspices of the Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Graduate School and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of George ~ason University. The Institute Office is Room 801, City University Graduate Center 33 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. All subscription requests (no charge) and submissions should be addressed to the Editor of NEWSNOTES: Leo Hecht, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030. 1 CITY UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL ANNOUNCES 1982 HUMANITIES INSTITUTE ON CONTEMPORARY EASTERN EUROPEAN THEATRE The Center for Advanced Study in Theat re Arts of the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York has received a second National Endowment for the Humanities grant to repeat its six-week Humanities Inst itute on "Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre: Poland and the Soviet Union," from June 13 to July 24, 1982, in New York City. Applications for participation are now being invited. The Institute, which was held for the first time in the summer of 1980, will explore new ways of integrating the study of Polish and Soviet dramatic literature into American university curricula by developing innovative cross-disciplinary programs incorporating the teaching of foreign languages, drama and theatre. Twenty college and university teachers of Slavic languages. and literature, comparative literature, drama or theatre arts, and area studies in the social sciences will be chosen to participate in the Institute which will be held at the City University Graduate Center, 33 West 42 Street in Manhattan. As part of the Institute's program, each participant will prepare a new course incorporating the study of Polish and/or Soviet drama and theatre to be taught at his or her own institution in 1982-83. The success of the first Institute indicated a continued need to provide opportunities to study further the historical and cultural roots, content, structure and techniques of Eastern European and Soviet dramatic literature and theatre. Given the general inaccessibility of information from this region, knowledge about its drama and theatre tends to be severely limited and out-of-date. Efforts to study the genre on American college and university campuses have been further limited by a lack of formal training among faculties in these areas. Yet, despite these limitations, there col}tinues to be a remarkable strong--and growing- interest in this field. The Institute will feature morning seminars devoted to the study of contemporary Polish and Soviet drama and a comparative analysis of the two so that common features can be identified and unique problems isolated. Afternoon sessions will focus on the theatre in relation to the distinctive cultural traditions of these two countries. The program will emphasize how the dramatic text comes to life in Polish and Soviet theatres and how the practices and traditions of Ea~tern European theatre shape its dramaturgy. Institute faculty will include: William Kuhlke, Professor of Speech and Drama/Slavic and Soviet Area, University of Kansas; Boleslaw Taborski, theatre critic, translator and a recognized authority on Polish drama; Kazimierz . Braun, Artistic Director and General Manager of Teatr Wsp&czesny, Wroclaw, Poland and Professor of Theatre at Wroclaw University and t he National School of Drama in Cracow; and Victor Rozov, playwright and Professor of Drama at the Gorky Institute of Literature, Moscow. Deadline for applications is March 15. Candidates must have a full-time teaching appointment at a university or college in the U.S. Preference will be 2 given to those candidates who have not attended an NEH-funded Humanities Institute, Summer Seminar or Residential Seminar within the last two years. A stipend of $2,500 to cover living expenses and round trip transportation to New York will be provided. For further information, contact Alma H. Law, Institute Director, CASTA, Room 801, City University Graduate Center, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. Telephone: (212) 790-4249 or 4464. RUSSIAN CONSTRUCTIVIST THEATER AT GUGGENHEIM In conjunction with the exhibition Art of the Avant-Garde in Russia: Selections from the George Costakis Collection, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presented four performances of The Magnanimous Cuckold: An Evening of Russian Constructivist Theater, December 10-13, 1981. Selected scenes from this farce by Belgian playwright Fernand Crommelynck have been recreated from Vsevolod Meyerhold's 1922 Moscow production and were performed on the Guggenheim's reconstruction of the original Constructivist stage set designed by Liubov Popova. Directed by Alma H. Law and Mel Gordon, the program also included introductory comments about the play, a demonstration of Meyerhold's Biomechanical exercises and reminiscences by actress Stella Duff-Ogonkova, who appeared in the 1922 production. Meyerhold's staging of the play is regarded as one of the seminal productions of 20th-century avant-garde theatre, and the Guggenheim presentation was based on his unpublished notes and prompt-book for that production. Popova's set marked a milestone in the history of Russian theatre and profoundly influenced stage design. Popova also designed the simple, loose-fitting blue "work uniforms" worn by the performers, recreated for the Guggenheim production by art historian and designer Erika Hofmann-Koenige. The Evening of Russian Constructive Theatre will also be performed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on March 25-28. Information about the performances can be obtained by calling (713) 526-1361 or by writing to the museum, 1001 Bissonnet, Houston, Texas 77265. SUMMER RESEARCH LABORATORY AT ILLINOIS The Russian and East European Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will offer in 1982 its tenth annual Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and Eastern Europe. The program is designed for scholars who wish to use the resources of the University Library. Graduate students doing dissertation research are also eligible. Associateships will be available for any period of time between June 14 and August 7. In addition to full library privileges, Associates will be offered free dormitory lodging for up to fourteen days, and are welcome to stay longer at their own expense, at a cost of about $45 per week. In addition to carrying on independent study, Associates will have the opportunity to meet with their coJleagues for the presentation of papers and the discussion of current research. 3 Application forms and additional information are available from Dianne Merridith, Russian and East European Center, University of Illinois, 1208 West California, Urbana, Illinois 61801. REPORT The following report was submitted by one of our subscribers, Helen McMahon. We are grateful to her for sharing her experiences with us. In addition she informed me that, during her stay in Poznan, Poland, she became friends with the cabaret group "Tey," superb and extremely popular performers of satirical drama. If anyone is interested in getting in touch with Ms. McMahon, you may contact her as 8355 Alvord Street, McLean, VA 22102. "My year, September 1980 - June 1981, of teaching English and American drama at the English Language Institute of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan encompassed activities beyond the classroom exercises. I had hoped to produce, through the efforts of my student drama club, an evening of theatre at the end of the semester. So, to utilize all fifteen of my interested students, mostly freshmen and sophomores who have a lighter academic load than upper level students, I chose to work on scenes from three different plays. "My premise for undertaking this project was based on the belief that drama affords a student of English as a Second Language a dynamic vehicle to better his command of the language. Plus, an introduction to American works and acting techniques is beneficient in itself. "After Christmas break, lines were to be memorized and the nitty-gritty of putting the scenes together began. However, the political events taking place in Poland at that time were eventually to involve

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