For everyone who loves theatre

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.

At one time, when I was enrolled in full-time postgrad‑ uate studies, I had t o 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 s cientists 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 h ad to bury myself in separate mono‑ graphs of the leading Belarusian theatre s cientists, doctors of art criticism, profes‑ sors Vladimir Nefed, Anatoly Sobolevsky, G ury 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 b een published. (The fourth one was pub‑ lished later). It thoroughly and in detail t raced 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 t he necessary information to answer the questions, to systematize it, and to choose the main aspects, one of which deals with 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, ExR ector 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: — W hile 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

field of culture and art, before taking en‑ trance as well as candidate exams, did not have to be burdened with mountains of textbooks. On the basis of numerous his‑ torical phenomena and new facts, signifi‑ cant events in the national theatrical life of this period, my main task was to show them and other students of higher educa‑ tional institutions of culture of Belarus, as well as all other amateurs and admirers of creative activity, a complex and sometimes contradictory process of origin and de‑ velopment of the Belarusian professional stage art in the space of 20–21st centuries, at times very unquiet. I have also tried to reveal the great role and valuable contri‑ bution of the theatre to the formation of the Belarusian nation and the Belarusian statehood, to the enrichment of national culture and the strengthening of spiritual potential of our people.

It is clear that the limited volume and format of the textbook, according to the author, determined the approach to the very structure of the book, its content, choice and selection of the material. — Only the most fundamen‑ t a l ly imp or t ant phenomena, events and trends in the theatrical process of 20–21st centuries were in my sight. I also paid attention to the most important creative personalities. These are playwrights, directors, actors, scenographers and other talented figures of the national stage art. And, of course, those professional groups who have made a big contribution to the common cause of cultural and state construction in Belarus.

By the way, the textbook by Rich‑ ard Smolsky is based on the materials of his own long -term research into various stages and problems of the national stage art development. Most of them are re‑ flected in his monographs, brochures, ar‑

ticles published in collections of scientific conferences and analytical works of the Academy of Arts and the Belarusian Un‑ ion of Literary and Art Critics, as well as seminars on theatre criticism for students of the Academy of Arts. So, it turns out that personal professionalism of the the‑ atrical critic, theater historian, the critic served him well in writing this manual. I think that those who will have to take the exams in the history of the Belarusian the‑ atre, and these are first of all the students who study “acting skills” and “theatre di‑ rection”, will be grateful to the author. They will surely understand that the theatrical art of Belarus passed a great, complicated, at times controversial, but in general fruit‑ ful way of its creative development and formed into a bright phenomenon of the national artistic culture.

And there is another thing I remem‑ bered in connection with the profession‑ alism of the Smolsky theater historian, theater expert. There is one story that relates to Napoleon when the Emperor was in Moscow. I quote my in‑ terlocutor: — I magine, October 12, 1812. Napo‑ leon is in Moscow. The campaign has been failed. The city is on fire. Na‑ poleon needs to save his army and himself. And what do you think he did? On Octo‑ ber 12, 13, 14, Napoleon personally red p encils the La Comédie-Française Theatre charter, which contains 102 paragraphs. And on October 15, in the Kremlin, he ap‑ proves these regulations. Emperors, kings, governments, presidents have been chang‑ ing in France since then. But the charter remains the same to this day and protects the theatre. Even today, the French respect Napoleon as an outstanding figure who did a lot to develop culture in France.

I gave this example to underline how much Smolsky understands the regulari‑ ties inherent in the art world and how well he can draw parallels. There are parallels in the textbook as well.

I would also like to point out that, while talking about theatre, he chose a con‑ venient and proven classic chronological approach, according to which five periods are distinguished in the history of theatre. The last one refers to the theatrical art of Belarus in the period of 1991–2010.

And there is another remarkable fea‑ ture in the book by Richard Smolsky. He takes a modern look at the facts of ideo‑ logically charged history of the theatre, he is objective, his book is full of interest‑ ing facts. So, the panorama of the theatri‑ cal life seems to the readers worthy of their attention. By Valentina Zhdanovich