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Proletcult Theatre (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Театры Пролеткульта; abbr. from Proletarian Cultural and Educational Organizations Theatre) was the theatrical branch of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

cultural movement Proletcult. It was concerned with the powerful expression of

ideological An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...

content as political

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

in the years following the

revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

Platon Kerzhentsev Platon Mikhailovich Kerzhentsev (russian: Плато́н Миха́йлович Ке́рженцев), (real name Lebedev (Ле́бедев), pseudonym V. Kerzhentsev) (4 August 1881 – 2 June 1940) was a Soviet state and party official, rev ...

was one of its principal practitioners. It was used as a tool of political agitation that promoted a culture of the factory-floor and industrial motifs, but also folk singing and

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

.Stites (1992, 40).

Plot Plot or Plotting may refer to: Art, media and entertainment * Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction Music * ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava * The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003 Other * ''Plot' ...

was unimportant; its goal was to shock the audience with its style of performance, lighting techniques, props, radio broadcasts, blown-up newspaper headlines and slogans, projected films, circus elements, etc. The Proletcult Theatre attempted to affect the audience psychologically and emotionally, producing a shock in the spectator, the effect of which is to make the viewer aware of the condition of their own lives. This style is often referred to as the theatre of attractions, where an attraction is any aggressive emotional shock that provides the opportunity to raise awareness of the ideological reality of life (to “ defamiliarize the familiar”), particularly the mundane material reality. Prince

Serge Wolkonsky Prince Serge Wolkonsky (also referred to as Sergei Mikhailovitch Volkonsky; russian: Серге́й Миха́йлович Волко́нский) (4 May 1860 – 25 October 1937) was an influential Russian theatrical worker, one of the first R ...

taught and gave lectures for Proletcult. Russian film director

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenw ...

was at one time in charge of the Proletcult Theatre before pursuing his film work. His most significant production for the Proletcult was an adaptation of

Aleksandr Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Остро́вский; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 origina ...

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man ''Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man'' (russian: На всякого мудреца довольно простоты; translit. Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovolno prostoty) is a five- act comedy by Aleksandr Ostrovsky.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 37 ...

'' in April 1923.Rudnitsky (1988, 96). He continued many of the experimental and ideologically expressive elements of this theatrical form in his films and

intellectual montage Soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing (''montage'' is French for "assembly" or "editing"). It is the principal contribution of Soviet film theorists to global cinema, and broug ...

technique. Proletcult collapsed at the end of the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

due to external as well as internal factors, such disputes among leaders and between intellectuals and workers; it lingered on in vestigial form in the 1920s.

References

Sources

*Kleberg, Lars. 1980. ''Theatre as Action: Soviet Russian Avant-Garde Aesthetics''. Trans. Charles Rougle. New Directions in Theatre. London: Macmillan, 1993. . *Rudnitsky, Konstantin. 1988. ''Russian and Soviet Theatre: Tradition and the Avant-Garde''. Trans.

Roxane Permar Roxane Permar is an artist who has worked in the field of public art and socially engaged practice. Her career has been based in the UK, where she lived and worked in London before moving to Scotland in 1998. Her practice is situated locally, nat ...

. Ed. Lesley Milne. London: Thames and Hudson. Rpt. as ''Russian and Soviet Theater, 1905-1932''. New York: Abrams. . * Stites, Richard. 1992. ''Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP. . * von Geldern, James. 1993. ''Bolshevik Festivals, 1917–1920.'' Berkeley: U of California P.
Available online here
Modernist theatre Theatre in Russia {{theatre-hist-stub ru:Пролеткульт

See also

References

Sources