Book to help
For everyone who loves
theatre A new study guide on “The History of the Theatre of Belarus 20-21st centuries” by Richard Smolsky, published quite recently, is a wonderful opportunity to get acquainted with this history in a summary form.
A
t one time, when I w as e n rol l e d i n full-time postgrad‑ uate studies, I had to take entrance exams, including the history of the Belarusian theatre. And I was preparing for it, referred to different sources. There was a lot of infor‑ mation. Numerous articles of the theatre scientists about these or those periods in the history of the Belarusian theatre made me dizzy. It was clear that each of them studied their own direction, analyzed it in detail in the context of the life of Bela‑ rus — political, social, ideological… I had to bury myself in separate mono‑ graphs of the leading Belarusian theatre scientists, doctors of art criticism, profes‑ sors Vladimir Nefed, Anatoly Sobolevsky, Gury Baryshev, doctors of philological sciences Stepan Lavshuk and other sci‑ entists. By that time a three-volume “His‑ tory of the Belarusian Theatre” had also been published. (The fourth one was pub‑ lished later). It thoroughly and in detail traced the stages of origin, development and formation of the national theatre. I remember how difficult it was in the pro‑ cess of preparing for the exam to choose the necessary information to answer the questions, to systematize it, and to choose the main aspects, one of which deals with
44
беларусь. belarus 2020
the peculiarities of the Belarusian theatre development. And the textbook “The History of the Theatre of Belarus 20–21st сenturies”, ac‑ cording to the annotation, reveals the pro‑ cess of origin, formation and development of the Belarusian professional dramatic theatre in the historical space of the past and present century.
I am convinced that the theatre is not just one of the most ancient, unique and universal art forms, which is absolutely obvious. Theatre is much more than just art; it represents a peculiar way and model of an ideal life, a life of creativity and high spirit, a life in which the eternal humanistic values, which the civilized world has been based on for centuries, are upheld and established.
The author of the manual is Richard Smolsky, Doctor of Art History, Professor, Honoured Cultural Figure of Belarus, ExRector of the Academy of Arts. By the way, being the rector, he gave our magazine a big interview (No. 10–2008). He continues to work at the Academy as a chief research‑ er, professor of the Department of Theory and History of Arts. And what is the thea‑ tre for him, to which he devoted his whole life? And that’s what he said: — I am convinced that the theatre is not just one of the most ancient, unique and universal art forms, which is absolute‑ ly obvious. Theatre is much more than just art; it represents a peculiar way and model of an ideal life, a life of creativity and high spirit, a life in which the eternal human‑ istic values, which the civilized world has been based on for centuries, are upheld and established. And when asked to whom the text‑ book is addressed, Richard Boleslavovich answered the following: — While working on this textbook, I tried to take into account my long experi‑ ence as a postgraduate student, who also took entrance exams for postgraduate studies at the Theatre Sector of the Kon‑ drat Krapiva Institute of Art History, Eth‑ nography and Folklore (now the Theatre Department — Auth.). For me it was im‑ portant that students, master’s students, post-graduate students, who major in the
