Among the great theater directors, the name of Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold stands somewhat apart. Perhaps the reason for this is a certain incomprehensibility and too bright personality. Or the Soviet government tried to retouch mistakes and tried not to mention the name of a talented person who was shot in 1940. But he made a tremendous contribution to the development of the theater. The system of training actors created by the great creator was forever included in theatrical routine under the name "Meyerhold Biomechanics".
Tradition change
The biomechanics developed by Vsevolod Meyerhold is not just one of the most important actor training systems, which appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century and found its development in the work of numerous successors and students. By its nature, the biomechanics of W. Meyerhold is a complex and intriguing creative process that should be interpreted in a broader perspective. In the two-pronged space of the semantic component of the preparation of the actor, as if there are several hypostases. One of them is interested in the precise mechanical functioning of the human body â rational and predictable. Another component seems to be trying to push the natural boundaries, raise the bar of development, achieve the ideal.
The very revolutionary nature of the method, known as Meyerholdâs biomechanics, is that its creator considered the work of the playwright and director to be only a preparatory stage. The whole emotional load of the performance was to be performed jointly by the most active parties - the actor and the audience.
Meyerhold (1874-1940): a brief biography
It is impossible to understand the prerequisites for the emergence of a method without getting to know the life of its creator. He was born into a Russified Catholic family. He was educated at the Moscow Theater and Music School (class of V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko). He worked at the Moscow Art Theater, and later organized a theater troupe in Kherson.
Since 1905 he worked in Moscow. As a director, he was invited by K. S. Stanislavsky (Theater Studio on Povarskaya), and later by V.F. Komissarzhevskaya (Drama Theater). During this period, Meyerhold staged a number of performances in a conditionally symbolic manner - the characters' characters were not worked out, and the plot was transmitted conditionally.
In the early 1920s, a new authorâs concept was formed, which Meyerhold began to energetically promote - biomechanics. The exercises used during rehearsals made it possible to achieve a well-coordinated, clear work of a group of artists. The basis of the method was not the interaction of individuals, but the state of the whole society. He sought the embodiment of the ideal of collectivism. The stated laws of constructivism and biomechanics denied the movement from the inner world to visual display. Meyerhold believed that external factors play a decisive role, and through them it is necessary to convey the experiences and inner world of the heroes to the viewer. A trained versatile actor who owns rhythm and perfectly controls his body - that was what the director needed to realize his intentions. To translate his ideas into reality, the director worked until the last days.
In June 1939, V.E. Meyerhold was arrested by the NKVD on false charges. Under torture, he confessed to anti-Soviet activities, but later was able to renounce his testimony. The sentence was pronounced on February 1, 1940. Enforced the next day. In 1955, Vsevolod Emilievich was rehabilitated (posthumously).
In the footsteps of puppets
The works of the German playwright and writer Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), especially his essay on the puppet theater, had a great influence on Meyerhold's work. The author believed that human capabilities do not exist independently, but are controlled by higher forces. All people in his understanding were only puppet beings subordinate to God. A break in this connection could lead to the liberation of man and his return to a state of complete primitive harmony. Although the author admitted that such an event could give rise to unimaginable chaos. Meyerholdâs biomechanics relies heavily on the judgments made by Kleist.
The director managed to form a training system in which the actor could achieve perfection, disciplined his body. To be both a creator and a material for embodiment, to control and be controlled in oneâs plastic is the task set by Meyerholdâs theater biomechanics.
Not only theater
The unique technique of training actors has been forgotten for many years and has not been studied by specialists. This can be seen in the political reasons for the persecution that accompanied the brilliant director at the end of his life: the Stalinist purges, as a result of which the Meyerhold Theater was liquidated, his arrest and execution in February 1940. In principle, the biomechanics of Meyerhold could not have reached our days. The method, deleted from the official history of the theater, temporarily disappeared from professional discourse.
Despite the declassification of archives, in the 90s all the subtleties of the original methodology were lost. Some details were preserved only in the writings of students and followers, who during the directorâs lifetime attended a master class on biomechanics of Meyerhold. He himself in his notes did not leave explanations about the principles and foundations of his system, and the methods used in our time are based solely on the recollections of eyewitnesses.
Social aspects
The influence of biomechanics on the artistic formation and growth of the actor's capabilities is enormous. But this is not limited to its potential. It is possible that the system has not only artistic value. Although Meyerhold himself never lost sight of theatrical reasons, he believed that the potential of biomechanics was much broader. In order to understand this point of view, it is necessary to consider what Meyerholdâs biomechanics is in a historical context.
The system was created as a result of the directorâs experiments with traditional theater genres: the comedy dell'arte or the Japanese kabuki theater . But at the same time, the technique was created at a time when Meyerhold fully supported communist ideas. He wanted by means of theatrical art to convey not only the perception of the world by the artist. Class struggle, social problems, the creation of a new human type - Meyerhold dealt with these issues. Biomechanics briefly and concentratedly reflected the revolutionary ideas of their time - joint management, collective labor and others. But at the same time, she did not cease to be ingenious in the artistic sense, an excellent physical training and theatrical method.
Biomechanics and Sociomechanics
For a complete understanding of the essence of the process under consideration, it is necessary to return to the time when Meyerhold's biomechanics was formed. One of his opponents was the bright ideologist of the revolution and the new theater A.V. Lunacharsky - a theater expert, critic, and the first People's Commissar for the Education of Soviet Russia. He often criticized the directorâs experiments, but considered him to be a talented and original creative person. It was Lunacharsky who introduced the concept of âsociomechanicsâ - a system designed to study human nature in its natural social environment and thereby create real scenic images of a contemporary.
Despite the obvious opposition of the two schools, Vsevolod Emilievich largely agreed with his counterpart. Their views on the duty and goals of art coincided. Both agreed that the person is best characterized by class consciousness and position in society, and not by individual qualities of psychology. The biomechanics developed by Meyerhold became a reflection of the revolution on the stage. This is how the creator of the system imagined its purpose.
Scientifically
Based on what internal messages did Meyerhold's biomechanics appear? The theater system was partly based on knowledge that was far from the realm of art. The foundation was laid on the research of the American engineer Frederick Taylor (1856-1915). His theory of effective labor organization was applied on the stage. The accuracy of the movements of the actors and their ergonomics were achieved by grueling exercises and divisions into game cycles: intentions, actions, reactions. This shows a direct analogy with the Taylor "work cycles."
Meyerhold's biomechanics used a number of advanced knowledge of his time. The system of exercises for training actors was based on research on the psychology of Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), using the work of V. M. Bekhterev (1857-1927) in the field of reflexology. The psychological state of the hero of the play as a set of reflexes can be traced in the production of the play âForestâ by A. N. Ostrovsky: the feelings of the hero are replaced by jumping. Each new take-off of a lover is higher than the previous one. The premiere of this performance took place at the Meyerhold Theater in 1924.
Biomechanics Studio
Director Meyerholdâs attempts to find a suitable classroom for his own system were reflected even in the cartoons of those years. On one of them, the four-armed Meyerhold grabs all the buildings that he can reach. These were the Alexandrinsky Theater, and Suvorinsky, and the movie studio in which he wanted to create his own studio. As a result, the room was found and went down in the history of the theater as a Studio on Borodinskaya.
The curriculum included boxing, fencing, gymnastics, classical and modern dancing, singing, diction, juggling. In addition to this, theater history, economics and biology were taught. Given the variety of subjects studied, we can safely say that Meyerhold's biomechanics is a complete actor training system.
Actor of a new type
The requirements for the actors were put forward tough. They were supposed to combine drama and Chinese opera, choreography and balancing, gymnastics and clowning on stage. These are the tasks that Meyerhold set. Biomechanics briefly and in a short time allowed to achieve the desired effect. Thanks to her, each of the actors could constantly improve and improve the baggage of their expressive means. Vsevolod Emilievich believed that the theater does not tolerate stillness, is always in a hurry and recognizes only modernity. And the theatrical actor should not keep up with the times thoughtlessly, but must seek and experiment.
Experiment
The created studio was not supposed to become the basis of the new theater and did not take on the tasks of the acting school. Her mission was different - to become a kind of theater laboratory. The biomechanics of Vsevolod Meyerhold demanded the study of acting plastic and stage movement, improvisation and strict adherence to the director's plan.
Creative experiments in the framework of the new system were not limited to working with actors. Drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of the circus, fair theater, comedy dell'arte, the director rebuilt the interior. He abandoned the wings and the separation of the stage and the auditorium. For actors, he created three-dimensional metal structures, which he called "game machines." As an illustration, the production of the play âThe Magnanimous Cuckoldâ based on the play by F. Krommelinka (1886-1970). The actors dressed in blue overalls played on stage without decorations, surrounded by gymnastic apparatus. In other performances, multi-level platforms, scaffolding, stairs and scaffolds connecting to the auditorium were used.
Practical implementation
One of the proposed exercises, the director amazed his students. "Jump to the chest" is a well-known exercise illustrating the possibilities offered by the biomechanics of V. E. Meyerhold. Its simplest incarnation is already reflected in the name itself. One of the actors in a static pose stands on the stage, putting one foot in front of the other. The second student runs up and jumps right at him. At the same time, he puts his legs bent at the knees forward and grabs his partner's neck. The first actor manages to grab one or two hands legs under the bouncing knees.
The analysis of this sketch shows how much both actors should be coordinated in space. Their movements are brought to automatism. The strength of the jump, dynamics and flight paths are completely subordinate to the logic of collective fulfillment of the goal set by the director. In addition, each of the actors performs his individual task, aimed at achieving a common, joint result. This was the main training load carried by the biomechanics of Vsevolod Meyerhold.
Nowadays
Despite the past years, the Meyerhold system of training actors has not lost its appeal. It is still the subject of discussion and study in theater circles. We can say that when biomechanics V.E. Meyerhold appeared, he was far ahead of time. Many of the students who absorbed Vsevolod Emilievichâs system in his studio became famous actors and directors. Through their efforts, the ideas of the illustrious master were passed on to subsequent generations of actors and did not interrupt in time along with a fatal shot that sounded muffled in the cellars of the Lubyanka in the winter of 1940.