What is a director in the theater? Theater director

The centuries-old history of the theater knows periods of dawn and decline, and has thousands of names of great artists. Hundreds of times people who know and love theater have tried to explain the magical art of the stage, to discover the secrets of its influence on people.

Each era left its own theory of theater. Many theatrical trends emerged. But no one other than Stanislavsky united the creative experience of outstanding actors of the 19th and 20th centuries into a single harmonious system, discovered the objective laws of human behavior on stage, or tried to find a conscious path to the actor’s subconscious. He is not only a great actor and thinker, but also a brilliant director. He created a certain theatrical direction.

The Stanislavsky system creates an artist, a director - creates performances

The system is as simple as anything ingenious. And unimaginably complex. Who knows and loves life. He will understand her. Who is talented will master it.

The laws of the system are born from practice and practice confirms it. Every artist must one day discover it within himself. And having discovered, develop and improve the laws of creativity.

In just one hundred years, the concept of the director has undergone a significant revolution. The director is a manager, manager. In the middle of the last century, the concept of a director did not imply anything more. The manager is like at a festival, otherwise he is the scriptwriter. The play was learned and performed by the actors. The director made sure that costume designers, props, make-up artists, lighting technicians, and workers served the artists well and on time.

The art of theater directing is an acquisition of the second half of the 19th century. There are some discrepancies about when and with whom “it all began.” Some theater scholars trace the history of directing to the Duke of Meiningen and his assistant L. Kroneck, others to A. Antoine and O. Brahm, while others begin the history of the new theatrical era with the founders of the Moscow Art Theater Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. However, the latest theater studies again push back the time of the birth of director's art by several decades and trace its history exactly from the middle of the last century, linking the emergence of director's theater in Europe with the activities of Charles Kean in the London Princess Theater (1850 - 1859) and Heinrich Laube in the Vienna Burgtheater (1849 - 1867) Of course, not only because it was Laube who really turned out to be the first in the history of theater to turn directing into an independent profession. He came to the Burgtheater, already a famous playwright, but, having headed the theater, he did not write any more plays, because he believed that the duties of a theater director and director could not be combined with any other activities. The point is not at all that until the middle of the 19th century directing as a profession did not exist at all. The point is different - in the specific revolution that took place in theatrical art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The acting theater became a director's theater. That's the whole point. Not just a new profession appeared, a fundamentally new type of art was born - the art of theater directing.

The entire middle and second half of the 19th century is the pre-director era in the theater. This is a time when there were already directors, but the art of directing did not yet exist. Directing was just receiving citizenship rights. The profession, the position of director, already really existed in the theater, was designated in the theatrical nomenclature, but the functions of directing still continued to be purely auxiliary.

At the turn of the century, the emergence of director's theater in Europe took contemporaries “by surprise.” The emergence of the director as the first creative person confused everything: traditions, hierarchy, the relationship of the artist with the public and criticism, the very structure of theatrical production. The invasion of directing into the performing arts was perceived as something seriously threatening the very nature of the theater; the figure of the theater director was seen as a dangerous destructive force. And the director’s stage, as often happens in new things, really wasn’t very convincing. In 1889, he tried his hand at directing, staging P. Gnedich’s one-act comedy “Burning Letters”, Konstantin Stanislavsky. The performances of the famous European theater have become a good school for aspiring actors and aspiring directors.

Theater of the 20th century is the era of great directors. What does it mean? This means that we live in the era of director's theater. Modern theater - theater 070998 is the leader of the theatrical process, heads and conducts the theatrical business, it is the director who today determines the creative face of the theater, its ideological orientation, repertoire policy, its artistic style, handwriting, method, organizational and creative structure, its aesthetic and ethical principles.

“What” and “how” in directing are the relationships between the director and the author (with his era, environment, social circumstances), the director and the actor, the director and the time in which he lives and stages this performance. The director is responsible for the logic of connecting all the artistic structures of the performance, and - this is perhaps the most important thing - for connecting theater with life.

The director must be able to read and understand the play, he must also be able to hear and understand life. Only with a subjective, purely individual approach of the director to the play is directorial creativity possible, the creation and birth of new independent content is possible. And this content will be filled with the director’s individuality, personal attitude both to the world of the play and to the world of life itself.

Based on the author’s super- and super-task, from the author’s entire world and the specific integral life of his play and relying on his own knowledge, his intimate, spiritual, human experience, the director creates an independent concept of the play and performance. Exactly this independence makes the director an artist, creator, interpreter. Finding the way, not getting lost in the magical labyrinth of connections created by nature itself and the specifics of theatrical creativity - this is the main task of all theater artists. The difficulties of an actor in this work are incommensurable with anything. The creation of a stage character, the mystery of the birth of a living person in the circumstances proposed by the author and director, that is, the connection of a human actor with the individuality of the author, the alien soul of the role, the director’s plan - what could be more complex, inexplicable, more mysterious?... And how necessary is the actor here? the hand of the director, the sensitive and intelligent hand of the director-teacher. The director of the actor and his assistant, who, in the words of Nemirovich-Danchenko, is able to “simultaneously follow the will of the actor and direct it.” The actor is the follower in this work, the leader is the director.

“As Nemirovich-Danchenko said: the director is a three-dimensional being”

1. Director and interpreter of the play

2. The director is a mirror reflecting the individual qualities of the actor (to be able to manipulate, to be a good teacher and psychologist)

3. Director and organizer of the performance.

“A theater director today is not a stage director, he is the author of a play,” writes G.A. Tovstonogov. - the director’s possibilities in interpreting the play today are limitless. His role and responsibility for creating the performance has increased many times over, even compared to the heyday of Stanislavsky’s directing work... There is no need to be afraid to admit this, just as there is no need to be afraid to recognize natural changes in art...”

The director is responsible both for the logic of connecting all the artistic structures of the performance, and - this is perhaps the most important thing - for connecting the theater.

K.S. Stanislavski paid great attention to ethical issues. It includes ethics as a decisive condition for life and the development of art. In “Notes on Artistic Ethics and Discipline,” he wrote that an artist must obey not only the ethical laws accepted in society, but also artistic ethics (“narrowly professional ethics of stage activity”). Another ethical norm in the theater is knowledge of the text, since an actor who gets confused in his words disturbs both his partners and the audience. Particularly noteworthy is the need for a certain relationship between the director and the actor. It is necessary to consciously, for one's own success, submit to the will of the director and other artistic directors of the performance.

The practical results achieved by Stanislavsky made his system the greatest achievement of theatrical culture, a generally recognized, scientifically based method of acting. The true material of directing, from Stanislavsky’s point of view, is not the body or psyche of the actor, but his creativity. This leads to ch. director functions:

1) evoke a creative process in the actor;

2) continuously support and direct it towards a specific goal in accordance with the general ideological and artistic concept of the performance;

3) coordinate the result of each actor’s creativity with the result of the creativity of the other performers to create a harmoniously integral unity of the performance.

In the theater, as in any collective work, a certain organization, an exemplary order is necessary in order for the external, organizational part of the performance to proceed correctly, without interruptions. Iron discipline serves as such an organization. But even more order, organization and discipline are required by the inner, creative side - it requires inner discipline and ethics. Without this, it will not be possible to carry out all the requirements of the “system” on stage.

Ethical education is one of the most important principles underlying the professional education of an actor. As a worker in theatrical art, he must feel his responsibility to the audience, to the theater group, to the author of the play, to his partner and to himself. A sense of responsibility helps to overcome selfishness and contribute through your creativity and behavior to strengthening the cohesion and unity of the team.

If an actor does not possess such qualities as integrity, truthfulness, directness, a sense of duty, moral responsibility for himself and for the team, then he has nowhere to get these qualities even when he is on stage. To create the inner life of an image, the actor has no other material than that contained in his own intellectual and emotional experience. The “small” person will not play a big role.

First of all, the director should take care of the education of the theater group. If he is helpless or mediocre in this regard, then he is not only a bad teacher, but also an inferior director. After all, a truly good performance can only grow in a good moral and creative atmosphere.

Media, entertainment in the form of films, shows, plays, theater productions and the like have become a part of our lives. Now we cannot even imagine how we would live and have fun if there were no television and theater. But someone comes up with all these productions and films, develops the script, and embodies what was planned in the actors’ performances. This is the profession we will talk about in this article.

In any movie, show or production, the profession “Director” appears. A certain job description is hidden under the mysterious name. Although a person who is far from the industry of filmmaking understands the director’s list of actions quite vaguely. Or perhaps it doesn’t represent him at all. So, what kind of profession is a director?

In fact, the director is the most important person in the film. It is on him that the acting, the presence and type of scenery, the quality of the film, the correctly selected cast, the composition of screenwriters, voice acting, special effects, and so on depend. The profession of "Director" involves continuous communication with and management of many people. Without him, there would be chaos and complete misunderstanding between people on the site.

Profession "Director": description

This profession is very complex, capacious, but also exciting. The director can be compared to the conductor of an orchestra. It is he who directs the actions of all the specialists who are on the set. His task is to achieve productivity in the interactions of people, to coordinate the sequence and necessity of performing different tasks, to convey to the creative staff what exactly is required from whom, and most importantly - in what time frame and in what form. The profession of "Director" is the most important in the field of cinema and theatrical productions. It is thanks to these people that truly exciting and fascinating masterpieces of world cinema and productions are presented to our attention.

History of the profession

The history of the “Director” profession is not as long as one might assume. It appeared only in the second half of the nineteenth century. Before this, there was no such position. It would seem, how did theaters function then? In those days, performances were staged either by the authors of the works themselves or by the acting troupe together. The need for directors arose with the increase in the number of theaters, as well as with the advent of the film industry.

Demand for the profession

The profession of "Film Director" is one of the most prestigious at the moment. Making your way to the big screens, working on films that will subsequently be seen by millions of people, is the cherished dream of many people who have connected their lives with directing. However, not everyone can really reach such heights. At the moment, a director can engage not only in film editing, but also accompany holidays and concerts of various sizes, stage plays in theaters, work with a group of animators, and so on. So, we can say that the demand is average. In big cinema there is almost none of it, and in very modest circles there is enough of it, but there are not enough people willing to work from time to time, and even for a small remuneration.

Human qualities

In order to get a good position in this profession, you must have a set of certain human qualities. The profession of “Film Editing and Theater Director” is exclusively creative. A candidate director must have an exceptional sense of beauty. Bring the actors' performance to a perfect level, feel the temporary components of the production, see what additional and main effects are needed, lighting, sequence of actions, and so on. The director must see the picture as a whole and at the same time in parts, so as not to lose sight of any important detail. In addition, communication skills must be well developed. Still, you will have to constantly work with a huge number of different people, explain to them their tasks, and find an approach to everyone.

Director's skills and abilities

You can learn the profession of director at colleges, academies, universities, cultural and cinematographic institutes. At least one of them in any city provides the opportunity to learn this craft. The profession of "Theater and Film Director" requires excellent knowledge of both foreign and national, both modern and historical. The director must understand genres and be able to correctly express his thoughts, both orally and in writing. Developed oratory and competent speech are important. No director can achieve anything in this matter without leadership data. Imagination, broad outlook, personal artistry, the ability to quickly make the most unexpected decisions - all this must be possessed by a director. The specifics of the profession require constant improvement of this data.

Director's responsibilities

This person is responsible for selecting the script, reading it, and correcting it. His tasks include collaborating with screenwriters and producers and finding funds for the film adaptation. director" and "film director" imply direct participation in the production and organization of a film adaptation or theatrical performance. These people select suitable candidates for a particular role, carry out preparatory work with them, explain the essence of the future role, the nuances of the game, and set the time for filming and rehearsals. At the final stage, the director’s responsibilities include checking the proper level at all stages of the work. He needs to make sure of the quality of the sound, lighting, music, scenery, work of stylists, etc. The director includes the most important co-operator of all representatives on the set. he is the organizer, manager and manager all rolled into one. His tasks include promoting his brainchild, advertising, selling to cinemas or theaters. Without his active participation, no one will ever hear about the new masterpiece.

Most famous universities

Almost all Russian directors are graduates of two famous Moscow universities. This is the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S.A. Gerasimova (VGIK) and These two universities have produced many creative and talented individuals. It's quite difficult to get there. And most likely, you will have to study on a paid basis. There are only 5-8 budget places available. But the prospects that these educational institutions give their students are worth the money they have to pay for education. Education and the fame of the place in which it was received is a very important moment in the career of a public person.

Pros and cons of being a director

The work of a director is quite labor-intensive and requires full dedication from a person. In order to get to a more or less enviable position, you will have to work a lot. Sometimes even for days on end. Look for opportunities, find and make useful contacts, keep in touch with many necessary people at the same time. In addition, you will have to invest a lot of emotions and your own feelings into the creative process and the process of conveying your point of view to the people around you. You will have to work a lot, for a long time, persistently and not always with good pay. In order to get a good project, you may have to go through several free competitions. But if the plan is realized, respect, position in society and the material side of the issue will not fail to please.

Salary expectations

You can start your career with Depending on the total cost of the project, the salary of assistants ranges from twenty thousand to forty. Directors and producers of various large-scale conferences and exhibitions, various presentations designed for a large number of participants, can receive a salary of seventy to two hundred thousand rubles per project.

It is quite difficult to estimate average salaries for this profession. Successful directors can earn millions for their films, and ordinary industry representatives involved in low-budget films and productions can really work for pennies. In the theater, the director can receive either a percentage of the proceeds for the entire performance or a clearly fixed salary. The salary usually in such cases ranges from thirty-five to fifty thousand rubles per month. The interest rate may be more favorable, but it does not promise stability.

Sergei Zhenovach is the only purely literary theater in the capital. The main part of the performances is based on prose works. Being a student of Pyotr Fomenko, Sergei Zhenovach follows the master’s precepts and, in principle, works in the same coordinate system. It is characterized by the idea of ​​joint creativity, a common composition with the actors, aimed at the free flow of creative imagination, and the director himself plays the role of a leader, combining individual episodes into a single and integral composition.

The playwright, theater and film director staged more than ten performances in Moscow, Irkutsk and the Polish cities of Warsaw and Krakow. For the play “Oxygen” Vyrypaev was awarded the “Golden Mask”, and is also a laureate of numerous Russian and international theater festivals. In 2009, Vyrypaev was named the best playwright of the year in Germany, his plays have been translated into many languages ​​and are performed throughout Europe.

Came to directing from the acting troupe of the Theater. Vakhtangov, also acted as a performer. For a long time he refused to stage productions based on texts, but after meeting Pavel Pryazhko, he began actively staging his plays. Grigoryan's directing style is called designer style; the predecessor of this direction is Bob Wilson. The director's major works are a wandering play at the Theater of Nations and the premiere of the 2014-2015 season - Gogol's with Ksenia Sobchak and Maxim Vitorgan in the leading roles.

The founder of the Moscow theater, winner of TEFI, Golden Mask and other prestigious awards, Kirill Serebrennikov is famous not only as a theater director, but also as a film director. His performances have been and are being performed at the largest theater venues in Moscow and St. Petersburg (Bolshoi Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre, Sovremennik, Theater of Nations and others), as well as on the stages of Riga and Berlin.

People's Artist of the Russian Federation, professor at the Moscow Art Theater School, winner of major theater awards, including Golden Mask, The Seagull and Crystal Turandot. Ginkas are distinguished by their dark coloring, sensuality, ruthlessness and naturalism of detail. Masterfully embodying tragedy, he is also interested in Russian classics, tragic farce, and the theme of death and fate.

Artistic director, Rimas Tuminas adheres to the traditions of the Russian psychological school. There is no shocking or political satire in his productions; they are always philosophical and unhurried. Classic Russian drama directed by Tuminas is filled with metaphors, poetry and visual symbols. The director was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation, the Order of Friendship and the Golden Mask.

The unexpected mixture of drama and painting in his works is explained by the fact that Dmitry Krymov is not only a director, but also a set designer. He is struck by visual metaphors, they contain a lot of humor and fantasy, while the dialogue of the characters or even the plot may be completely absent. Dmitry Krymov is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia, a laureate of the Golden Mask and international theater awards.

The artistic director of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop gravitates toward large-scale productions based on novels by “non-theatrical authors” (James Joyce, ). His performances are often ironic and even grotesque. In addition to the Workshop stage, Kamenkovich’s productions are staged at Sovremennik, the Theater named after. Ermolova, Theater Arts Studio. The director is a winner of the Golden Mask, Highlight of the Season and other awards.

Artistic director of the Theatre. Vl. Mayakovsky was awarded the prize named after. Stanislavsky, “Crystal Turandot”, “Golden Mask” and more. Most often based on classical texts, they are restrained, subtle and imbued with philosophical depth. Karbauskis's works have nothing to do with entertainment theater, and he prefers a clearly expressed main idea to innovation and enthusiasm.

A graduate of VGIK and GITIS, winner of the Golden Mask special prize for the play “Life is a Good Thing,” Marat Gatsalov stages plays by contemporary young playwrights using . According to the director, he is interested in studying life at arm's length. The “new drama” became such an experimental laboratory for him, cultivating in the young director a keen ear for theatrical falsehood.

The young director, a graduate of the Moscow Art Theater School, became famous thanks to his hip-hop opera “Cops on Fire,” the heroes of which soon went beyond the stage into the media space. Today Yuri Kvyatkovsky teaches at the Moscow Art Theater School, and one of the performances staged with students, Verbatim, has entered the repertoire of the Praktika Theater. The director’s recent grandiose project was a wandering play staged in the space of the Center. Meyerhold.

A graduate of GITIS, he received a diploma as the owner of the “Golden Mask” - common to the entire Liquid Theater, in the performance of which Vytoptov participated as an actor. Actively participates. Among the director’s best works is the production of the synthetic modern opera “Dreams of the Minotaur.” There is no destructive element in Vytoptov’s direction; he clings tightly to what is reliable and proven, while not being afraid to use the latest technologies.

A master of shocking, known for his more than extraordinary productions of classics, Konstantin Bogomolov became especially famous thanks to performances based on Oscar Wilde and Dostoevsky’s novel. In 2014, at the invitation of Mark Zakharov, Bogomolov staged Pushkin’s play, full of unexpected finds, on the stage of Lenkom. The director’s performances are also staged at the Moscow Art Theater. A.P. Chekhov, Oleg Tabakov Theater Studio and more.

The artistic director is perhaps the most mysterious of all the capital's directors. A student of Efros and Vasiliev, about whom legends have been circulating since the early 90s. Klim’s first project on the stage of the Central House of Artists is the duology “Serving the Word - Russian Logos”, the first part of which lasts 5 hours, and the second - almost 2. A poetic text is performed from the stage by a single actress. Klim's performances are the co-presence of a group of people - spectators - between the past and the present, alone with the magical law of phrases.

On June 22, 1897, at two o’clock in the afternoon, one “significant meeting” began in the Moscow restaurant “Slavic Bazaar”. The younger participant in the meeting described the older one, who at that time was approaching forty years:

“...he was then a famous playwright, in whom some saw Ostrovsky’s successor. Judging by his performances at the rehearsal, he is a born actor who only by chance did not specialize in this field... [Besides, he] directed the school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. “Many young Russian artists passed through his hands onto the imperial, private and provincial stages.”

The elder also left a portrait of the younger, 34-year-old:

“On the theatrical field [he] was a completely new person. And even a special one... An amateur, that is, not a member of any theatrical service, not associated with any theater either as an actor or as a director. He has not yet made theater his profession...”

That summer day, two people spent 18 hours talking. They wanted to create their own theater - free, independent, artistic, opposed to the official stage. The eldest was Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko; youngest - Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseev (on stage - Stanislavsky). In a year they will open the Moscow Art Theater, which in the history of world stage art will become the emblem of a new era - the era of director's theater.

It is difficult for a modern viewer to imagine a theater without a director. Questions immediately arise: how was the theatrical process organized in the pre-director era? Who “invented” the theatrical performance?

The position of director existed in Russian practice of the 19th century and primarily on the imperial stage, but it was a technical (administrative) unit with an unclear range of responsibilities. The creator of a theatrical performance in the era of pre-director theater was considered to be a playwright (author of a play)
and/or actor (author of the role).

From the beginning of the 19th century, under the influence of various political, economic and socio-cultural reasons, the old theatrical system began to deform, the previous well-functioning mechanisms broke down and stopped working. And first of all, the unity of action in dramaturgy was destroyed, and in connection with this, the hierarchy in the art of acting. This meant that instead of the story of one main character - and therefore, one premier actor on stage - there were several parallel developing stories and several main roles. The clear three-stage structure (prime actors, secondary and tertiary actors) was replaced by the idea of ​​an ensemble, soloing of different actors at certain moments. Such a dramatic construction excluded the spontaneous “directing” of the prime minister, who was more busy on stage than others and, willy-nilly, became the “axis of the action.” Several competing centers now emerged in the performance.

The playwright's right to authorship in the theatrical process was also shaken. A conflict situation was created by the new, growing role of the decorator. The playwrights did not want to give in: in particular, in the “new drama” New drama- a term used to describe the work of innovative playwrights at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries: Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg and others. they significantly increased the stage directions, direct authorial instructions, through which they tried to dictate the artistic will not only of actors, but also of theater designers.

Interestingly, a similar process occurred at the same time in another performing art - music. The emergence of director's theater can be compared with the emergence of a symphony orchestra and the role of the conductor in it. A small group of musicians, among whom there was always a “first one,” was replaced by orchestras in which there are no main ones, but there are solo instruments at different times. The organizing conductor (such as, for example, Hans von Bülow or Anton Rubinstein) exists not inside, but outside the orchestra. He is located between the listeners and the musicians: facing the musicians, with his back to the audience. In essence, this is the same place and role of a theater director.

The director arose “from among his own” (playwrights or actors), but gradually became a separate independent figure. The functions of directing as a new profession did not develop immediately. Although the process went quickly, several stages can still be distinguished in it. Directing was born to solve organizational problems, and only later were creative rights added to them.

First of all, a generation of theater directors of a new type appeared (in many European languages, a director is still designated by the phrase “theater director”). They no longer simply recruited a troupe ready to play whatever they had to, but had a common program: they were looking for a specific repertoire, like-minded actors, and a permanent building adapted for their purposes. An example of such directorship is Andre Antoine and his Paris Free Theater, created in 1887.

The second organizational task is the coordination of the theatrical process. The preparatory stage has become important for the theater (collection of material, especially for historical performances; rehearsals, including explanatory ones, “table rehearsals”). During the creation of the play, it was necessary to unite the entire theater team under one command, maintain discipline, and unquestioning obedience. It was on these foundations that another early European director's theater arose - the German troupe of the Duke of Meiningen, which was headed by Ludwig Kroneck in 1866.

Another function is pedagogical, which consists in educating both actors and spectators in certain rules suitable for this particular theater.

The director's creative opportunity lies primarily in creating mise-en-scène. Mise-en-scène is literally the arrangement on stage: the actors in relation to each other, to individual parts of the scenery, to the space of the stage, to the audience. Complex, thoughtful staging in the director's era became a new theatrical language, along with words and plasticity (gesture, posture, facial expressions), and it could only take shape when someone appeared - a director - who saw the stage from the audience.

And finally, when all these tasks and opportunities came together, the director declared himself as the author of the play - instead of the playwright and actor. From that moment on, it was the director's idea and the director's composition of the performance that became decisive and dominant. Then the opportunity arose to talk about the integrity of the performance, subordinated to one artistic will.

The first European directors appeared in England in the 1850s-60s, in France and Germany in the 1870s-80s. The peculiarity of the Russian situation was that, firstly, Russia was a young European theatrical power and all processes took place here in a slightly different rhythm compared to theatrical Europe. Secondly, the law on theatrical monopoly, issued by Catherine II, restrained the energy of theater development in St. Petersburg and Moscow for almost a century. According to this decree, private theater enterprises were not allowed in the two capitals (unlike the provinces), and only imperial theaters could exist. The abolition of the state monopoly in 1882 released this energy and led to the emergence of private theaters in the capitals. However, it was difficult for these theaters to compete with the imperial stage. Private theaters in the 1880s-90s arose and soon closed, without having time to have a significant impact on St. Petersburg and Moscow theatrical life.

By the time the Moscow Art Theater was born, Moscow was looking forward to a new private theater. And the initial agreement and unanimity of the two dreamers - the founders of this theater - can be considered a miracle. They would still have the most difficult half-century relationship ahead, often on the verge of a break, but Stanislavsky wrote about that “significant meeting”:

“The World Conference of Nations does not discuss its important state issues with the same precision with which we then discussed the foundations of the future, issues of pure art, our artistic ideals, stage ethics, technology, organizational plans, projects for the future repertoire, our relationships.” .

Nemirovich echoed him:

“The conversation began immediately with extraordinary sincerity. The general tone was captured without any hesitation. We had a huge amount of material. There was not a single place in the old theater that we both would not attack with merciless criticism.<…>But more importantly, there was not a single part in the entire complex theatrical organism for which we did not have a ready-made positive plan - reform, reorganization, or even complete revolution.<…>Our programs either merged or complemented one another, but never encountered any contradictions.”

Almost immediately they agreed on dual management of the theater. They also took into account Stanislavsky’s organizational gift, the authority of the Alekseev family in the Moscow philanthropic environment (it was he who would allow the creation of a society of shareholders to begin theatrical activities), and Nemirovich’s literary reputation. In the practice of the Moscow Art Theater, Nemirovich will receive the right to a literary veto, and Stanislavsky - to a production veto (that is, a ban). The core of the troupe will be amateur actors from the Alekseevsky circle and young people from Nemirovich’s class at the Philharmonic Society of various graduates: Ivan Moskvin, Olga Knipper, Vsevolod Meyerhold and others.

In this instantly established program of the future theater (and, in fact, in one of the wonderful utopias of the Silver Age), the “new directors” probably took into account all the components of the theatrical process. Some things will be easily accomplished by them and immediately left behind, some will have to be achieved over years and decades, and some provisions will remain an unattainable dream.

At first, in the name of the theater after the word “artistic” there was the word “publicly accessible,” but it quickly disappeared, since the idea of ​​targeting, “one’s own” audience, turned out to be more important. What was being created was not just another theater, but a common home, a strong theatrical family, which included the audience. In this idea of ​​a “commune” - a form of community life - the theatrical ideas of the Moscow Art Theater correlated with the attitudes of the democratic intelligentsia.

From the very beginning, they tried to build relationships within the troupe differently than on the official stage, based on social and creative equality. Nemirovich listed the shareholders of the Moscow Art Theater:

“...a tradesman of the city of Odessa, a wonderful actor; wonderful actress, peasant woman of the Saratov province Butova; penmanship teacher, charming Artem; “Rurikovich” Count Orlov-Davydov, Prince Dolgorukov; Her Excellency of Jerusalem is ours grande dame Raevskaya; an honorary merchant, another merchant, Countess Panina, Prince Volkonsky, doctor Anton Chekhov.”

They dreamed of “ideal human relationships” that would remove all hierarchy: “Today you are Hamlet, tomorrow you are an extra.” The new actor seemed to be a model for the man of the future.

The changing relationship between the stage and the auditorium was to be helped by the space of the theater building on Kamergersky Lane, which was reconstructed by Fyodor Shekhtel. “The theater begins with a hanger” - this famous phrase of Stanislavsky is not at all anecdotal, as it might seem. A wardrobe appeared at the Moscow Art Theater, where all spectators were required to hand over their outerwear. Not only the obligation - unusual in general for European theater - but also the democracy (equality of the audience), in which both a modest soldier's overcoat and a luxurious fur coat hung side by side in this wardrobe, without class distinction, aroused surprise. Subdued lighting in the audience foyers, neutral olive color of the walls, a strict curtain - everything was thought out and executed for cooperation, teamwork of actors and spectators.

The actors prepare for the performance for a long time and seriously: the “table” period - reading the play, analysis; multiple rehearsals on stage; dress rehearsal. But the audience is also prepared for a meeting with a theatrical event, accustoming them - with the help of new, rigid rules that previously did not exist in the Russian theater - to the role of a “quiet witness”: do not enter after the third bell, do not move walk around the hall, do not applaud or encore during the action, and so on, that is, do not interfere with the concentrated work of the actor. But there are also rules: for example, ladies in hats with large brims are recommended to take off their headdresses before entering the hall (this is so that the audience takes into account each other’s interests).

Nemirovich-Danchenko dreamed of a “literary” theater. From the very first days, the Moscow Art Theater was concerned about the high level of drama in its repertoire. Nothing casual or random. At the same time, the literary program of the artists was not limited to any one stylistic or thematic direction. Stanislavsky in “My Life in Art” listed several lines that developed in the poster of the first decade of the Moscow Art Theater: the historical and everyday line (Alexey Tolstoy), the line of intuition and feelings (Chekhov), the socio-political line (Gorky, Ibsen), the social line -everyday (Hauptmann, “The Power of Darkness” by Leo Tolstoy), the line of fantasy and symbolism (“The Snow Maiden” by Ostrovsky, Maeterlinck).

It took over a year to prepare for the opening of the Public Art Theater. During this time, they rented a theater room in the Hermitage garden and assembled a troupe. They chose a play - the historical drama “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” by Alexei Tolstoy, finally approved by censorship. The play met one of the primary goals of the new theater - to become “the second Meiningen-ians” (the touring performances of the Duke of Meiningen’s troupe amazed both Nemirovich-Danchenko and Stanislavsky). The Meiningeners were imitated in their historicism - the authenticity of the situation, in the elaboration of crowd scenes, in the impeccable coherence of the elements of the performance.

The first performance of the Public Art Theater - “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” - was performed on October 14, 1898 (and it seemed symbolic that 74 years earlier the Maly Theater opened on the same day). However, Nemirovich-Danchenko recalled:

“...the new theater has not yet been born.<…>Beautiful external innovations did not explode the deep essence of the theater. There was success, the play was selling to capacity, but there was no feeling that a new theater had been born. He was to be born later, without pomp, in a much more modest atmosphere.”

The announcement of the theater’s repertoire included Sophocles (“Antigone”), Shakespeare (“The Merchant of Venice”), Ibsen (“Hedda Gabler”), Pisemsky (“The Self-Governors”), Hauptmann (“The Sunken Bell” and “Gannele”) and Chekhov ("Gull"). Nemirovich said ironically:

“...a whole fleet of battleships and dreadnoughts, heavy artillery - howitzers and mortars. Among them, Chekhov with his “Seagull” seemed like a small ship, five thousand tons, some kind of six-inch gun. Meanwhile..."

Meanwhile, it is “The Seagull” with its everydayness, lack of historical showiness, exoticism, with everyday things (“Zolaism”, that is, naturalism), with its speech pauses filled with sounds, with internal concentration and sparsely populated (in the play there are no winning crowd scenes) The Art Theater owes its real birth.

On December 17, 1898, at the premiere of “The Seagull,” the theater was half empty. Chekhov's play was not fully assembled. And suddenly - the unexpected success of the play, which not only determined the future fate of Chekhov the playwright and the Art Theater, but also changed the theatrical art of the 20th century as a whole. Later, it was four of Chekhov’s dramas (from “The Seagull” to “The Cherry Orchard”) that became the programmatic basis for artists, the laboratory where the most important discoveries were made in the field of director’s psychological theater. “Uncle Vanya,” which Chekhov almost gave to the Maly Theater. “Three Sisters” is, in Nemirovich’s opinion, the best performance based on the ensemble cast and Stanislavsky’s “mise-en-scene.” And finally, “The Cherry Orchard” is the brightest and most expressive symbol of the Art Theater. By the way, Chekhov was dissatisfied with the production of The Cherry Orchard. This seemingly private episode, at first glance, turned out to contain a future conflict between two authors - the playwright and the director - acute and relevant to this day.

In performances based on Chekhov (in the “line of intuition and feeling”), the “theater of the fourth wall” (that is, a theater clearly divided by an invisible imaginary plane into the stage and the auditorium) studied theatrical psychologism. Chekhov's pauses, the discrepancy between the words and actions of his characters, revealed a gap between the external and the internal (the so-called psychological subtext). The audience's attention switched from external events to the nuances of the characters' experiences, to the subtle and complex connection of human relationships. Both the characters on stage and the audience in the hall were aimed at understanding the inner world of the “other.” The artistic integrity of the performance was created with the help of the atmosphere (that emotional authenticity that allowed contemporaries to define Chekhov’s performances as “mood theater”).

As soon as it emerged, the Moscow Art Theater became the favorite (and fashionable) theater of the intelligent public, who found in its performances a correspondence with their ideals, tastes, and aspirations. However, the theatrical process developed rapidly in the first decade and a half of the 20th century. Only four seasons will pass, and Nemirovich’s favorite student, one of the leading actors of the Art Theater Vsevolod Meyerhold, will suddenly leave Stanislavsky and Ne-Mirovich, open the “Association of New Drama” in the provinces, trying himself not only as an actor, but also as a director . And three years later, in the summer of 1905, in the Studio on Povarskaya (a branch of the Moscow Art Theater), Meyerhold, invited by Stanislavsky, together with the artists Nikolai Sapunov and Sergei Sudeikin, began to free himself “from the naturalistic shackles of the Meinin-Gen school ”, from the “unnecessary truth” (the expression of Valery Bryusov) of his teachers. The studio theater became “a theater for the search for new stage forms.” And although the audience never saw the performances prepared in it, in this work Meyerhold for the first time approached the idea of ​​a theater of intentional convention - an opponent of psychological theater.

Having gone to the possible limit of one of the paths of the “conventional theater” of the early 20th century - the symbolist “static theater”, going back to the theory and practice of Maurice Maeterlinck, Meyerhold opens the aesthetics of the farce theatre. On the eve of the new year, 1907, he staged “Balaganchik” on the stage of the St. Petersburg theater of Vera Fedorovna Komissarzhevskaya, the poster of which read: “The authors of the play are Alexander Alexandrovich Blok and Vsevolod Meyerhold.” For the first time, the director directly called himself “the author of the play.”

The theory of the farce theater referred to those theatrical eras in which there was no rigid literary basis (written dramaturgy). The actor was the center of such a theatrical performance, which created not a “life reality”, but an open “game of life” with improvisation based on a “script” - a sequence of dramatic situations, with a mask image outlining types of behavior without specific individual characteristics ( “not just one Harlequin, but all the Harlequins ever seen”), with the conventions of the stage space and the objective world. “The public is waiting for thought, play, skill,” Meyerhold manifested in his programmatic article “Balagan” in 1912. And this meant: studying acting technique (craft fundamentals), past theatrical eras to extract techniques (tricks), mastering the grotesque - “a favorite trick of a farce.”

By the beginning of the 1910s, two poles were clearly identified in the director's theater. One is a psychological, literary “theater of the fourth wall.” On the other - a playful, improvised (in the spirit of commedia dell'arte) theater-booth. Between them (next to them), complementing and mutually influencing each other, there existed various types of combinations of “life-like” and “conventional” theatrical art.

A little more than 15 years have passed since the legendary meeting in the Slavic Bazaar. During this time, not only did the Moscow Art Theater emerge and strengthen its position, which largely determined the theatrical art of the first half of the 20th century, but a new creative profession was born, which radically changed the theatrical language, and the author - the “owner” of the performance - changed. The appearance of the director provoked the theater to define its boundaries and realize the independence of theatrical art. And directing itself, rooted in the Moscow Art Theater experiments, took different roads, trying and experimenting in several directions at the same time.

Many years later, Mikhail Chekhov, in a lecture for American students “On Five Great Russian Directors,” tried to summarize the experience of early Russian filmmaking, rich in names, discoveries, experiments - that part of the cultural heritage of the Silver Age that became significant not only for the Russian, but also for the world stage. Mikhail Chekhov singled out five great director names: Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Evgeny Vakhtangov, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Alexander Tairov - and gave a brief description of the work of each: Stanislavsky with his fidelity to the “truth of inner life”, Meyerhold with his “demonic imagination” (“in everything he saw evil first of all”), Vakhtangov with his “luscious theatricality”, Nemirovich-Danchenko with his mathematical thinking, sense of structure and whole, Tai-rov with its beauty as an end in itself. All of them, in the end, according to Chekhov, expanded the boundaries of the theater and opened up freedom in choosing a creative method: “Comparing the extremes of Meyerhold and Stanislavsky with the theatricality of Vakhtangov, we ultimately come to the conviction: everything is permissible, everything is possible. maybe in the theater.” The main lesson of early director's theater: “Everything is compatible and compatible! Courage! Freedom! This is how Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Tairov and others raised us.”

Today's teenagers dream of fame and recognition; they want to work in the film industry and create their own large-scale video projects. Many people, including girls, no longer dream of being actresses. They believe that there are many more opportunities in the director's field. Before choosing a department at a cultural institute or theater school, you need to get a clear idea of ​​who the director is.

Freedom of expression

Most often, independent young people who think creatively, love and know how to express themselves, and are not afraid to experiment, enter the directing department. It’s so tempting to be the ideological inspirer of a theatrical production, play, performance, short or full-length film. Many find themselves filming commercials and video clips. Who is the director?

Great responsibility

Essentially, this is the artistic director of a theatrical production or television project. He is responsible for organizing the process from beginning to end. It would be useful for young schoolchildren to learn that in addition to broad powers, the director is responsible for the success of the event. If young people love to express themselves and have a lot of creative ideas, this alone may not be enough for success in the professional field. Organizational and leadership skills are also required here. This is why there are so many unclaimed directors and failed projects.

Project concept, concept development, dramaturgy

Work on a project begins with defining the concept and design. People with script writing skills often combine the work of director and screenwriter. However, for the best results, outside help is needed. That is why, once the concept is determined, the search for a good playwright begins. It’s easier for people who have been working in the field of theater or cinema for several years: they have developed a sufficient number of connections. Young directors are distinguished by their creativity and informal approach. They often resort to the help of their classmates at the theater institute.

Art group

What does a director do after he has decided on a concept and selected a screenwriter who meets his requirements to collaborate with? Recruitment for the production team begins. For example, if this is a theatrical production, in addition to the approved actors, the presence of a costume designer, choreographer, assistants and their assistants, light and sound specialists, and make-up artists is required.

If the production requires it, then the masters responsible for the stunts will be involved in the work. For a grandiose play, one director is not enough, so the artistic director hires an assistant. Then the entire assembled group begins rehearsal activities, after which performances follow. So, we found out who a theater director is. Now let's talk about film and television projects.

Film and television

To some extent, theatrical productions seem easier to perform. Today's youth are increasingly attracted to profitable film projects. However, in order to realize your plan, you need to find producers, because these days few people shoot with an amateur camera using non-professional actors. In addition to creating a concept, the film director must think through the shooting scenes in detail and calculate the estimate. And only then, based on the available finances, the selection of a film crew begins.

Unknown but ambitious actors are invited to low-budget projects. If the project has influential sponsors and producers, the director can offer work to well-known, well-established performers. Having a big acting name in the project is almost a win-win step. Despite the fact that the sought-after artist will have to pay a high fee for his work, audience interest compensates for the costs with box office receipts. It is clear from everything that a film director is a fairly responsible profession that requires risk. It is known that not every project pays off at the box office.

Required qualities and skills

The work of a production director seems tempting, however, it requires maximum dedication from a professional. Sometimes filming lasts 18 hours a day. Therefore, the director on set must be able to do not only his own job. While requiring actors to execute a scene accurately, he must also possess a considerable amount of performance skill. In essence, this person is the link and holds in his hands the threads of process control. He must understand the intricacies of light, know winning angles, and partly be a costume designer.

This person is directly involved in the selection of decorations. He does not deprive himself of stunt tricks, visual and technical effects, and sound recording. If necessary, the chief director can intervene and correct certain movements. As you can see, this profession requires you to be a jack of all trades and understand all the intricacies of cinema. That is why only a few achieve wide recognition.

Group work

Staging work takes a lot of energy. What does a director do if crew members refuse to follow certain instructions? This work requires both the skills of an educational psychologist and an experienced leader. In order to interact with people, the project manager must have a strong will and the ability to defend his own point of view. The director can be compared to a puppeteer, holding all the threads of controlling the process in his hands. However, this activity is much more difficult and unpredictable, because instead of dolls, the director has people, each of whom has a bright personality.

Conclusion

The article will be useful to future applicants to theater educational institutions and their parents. You learned who the director is, what his powers and scope of activity are. Undoubtedly, the advantages of the profession include creative prospects, working with unique and interesting personalities, as well as recognition in case of success. There are also a lot of disadvantages: directing takes up almost all of your free time, you can’t discount protracted creative crises and lack of money if the project fails. One way or another, this profession is one of the most difficult. When making a decision, this must be taken into account.