Moscow
1926
Wednesday, December 8
at
the State Meyerhold Theatre
Invited Dress Rehearsal of

INSPECTOR GENERAL
8 pm start time

[p. 2]

INSPECTOR GENERAL
A comedy by N.V. Gogol
(15 episodes and a dumb show)
Theatrical text (a composition of variants) adapted by Vs. Meyerhold and M. M. Korenev.

Production Author:
Vsevolod Meyerhold (design of material elements, mise-en-scène, character biographies, invention of new dramatic personae, speech, accentuations, rhythm, selection of musical pieces, lighting, dumb show).

Director–laboratory assistants: M. M. Korenev, P. V. Tsetnerovich, Kh. A. Lokshina.

Artist – V. P. Kiselev (costumes, make-up, objects, lighting)

Mechanical installation supervised by Director of the construction department K. A. Soste.

Music

1. Old-fashioned “quadrille-medley” (episodes 5, 11)
2. Jewish wedding ensemble pieces: a) “A Celebratory Greeting to the Esteemed Hosts” (fantasia); b) “Quadrille-medley” (polka, ballads, waltz, gavotte, petit pieds, galop), composed by M. F. Gnesin (episodes 13, 14, 15)
3. Ballads composed by Varlamov, Glinka, Gurilev, Dargomyzhsky (episodes 3, 7, 11, 14)

Structures and furniture made at the “Inpedtekh” factory (f[ormer] MONO [Moscow Department of People’s Education]). Sculptures realized by V. M. Petrov. Costumes: the theater’s own workshop, under the supervision of E. S. Kazakova and in the Mosposredrabis theater costume shop, Moscow, under the supervision of R. N. Belotserkovskaia. Props: 1) manufactured in the theater’s own workshop; 2) antiquarian. Wigs and hairstyles made in the theater’s own workshop under the supervision of N. I. Ivanov, V. N. Shishmanov and at the Polenov House workshop. Shoes by A. Romanov and Skuriatnikov.

Stage hands: Andreev, Bekker, Kozlov, Meyerhold, N. Mukhin, N. Petrov, A. Spiridonov, Khodulev, N. Yakovlev.

On props: Merkulov, Skripchenko.

On lights: Pokorny, Gorbolikov, Karlikovsky, Kosarev, Tsaplin.

Orchestra: Averbach, Antonov, Arievich, Dub, Zaitsev, Kaprovich, Kovalsky, Kundysh, Mariasin, Milovanov, Pekarsky, Rasner, Sladky, Khozanovsky, Khoroshansky, Kholychev, Tseder, Cherny, Shved.

Pianist: L. Arnshtam.

Conductor: A.S. Yanitsky.

Assistants to the directors: D. Kozhanov, E. Loginova.

[The playbill then lists all Inspector General actors in order of first appearance in each episode. Below is a list of the episodes performed at the final dress rehearsal, but with the long lists of actors’ names omitted.]

1. Chmykhov’s Letter
2. An Unexpected Affair
3. The Unicorn
4. After Penza
5. Full of Most Tender Love
6. The Procession
7. Behind a Bottle of Tolstobriushka
8. An Elephant Knocked off its Feet
9. Bribes
10. Kiss Me
11. Master of Finances
12. The Blessing
13. Dreams of Saint Petersburg
14. Celebration as Celebration
15. Universal Embarrassment

     Dumb Show

[Episode titles based on Nick Worrall’s translation.]