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The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde

Dassia N. Posner 2016
The Director's Prism investigates how and why three of Russia's most innovative directors— Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Tairov, and Sergei Eisenstein—used the fantastical tales of German Romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann to reinvent the rules of theatrical practice. Because the rise of the director and the Russian cult of Hoffmann closely coincided, Posner argues, many characteristics we associate with avant-garde theater—subjective perspective, breaking through the fourth wall, activating the spectator as a co-creator—become uniquely legible in the context of this engagement. Posner examines the artistic poetics of Meyerhold's grotesque, Tairov's mime-drama, and Eisenstein's theatrical attraction through production analyses, based on extensive archival research, that challenge the notion of theater as a mirror to life, instead viewing the director as a prism through whom life is refracted. A resource for scholars and practitioners alike, this groundbreaking study provides a fresh, provocative perspective on experimental theater, intercultural borrowings, and the nature of the creative process.
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  • 978-0-8101-3356-3 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-8101-3355-6 (paper)
  • 978-0-8101-3357-0 (e-book)
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  • Performing Arts
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Costume sketch for Ma, a constructivist character in Columbine’s Garter who is half human, half restaurant. One of her thighs is marked roast (rôti) and the other soup (potage), while her left breast has three taps for dispensing drinks.

Costume sketch for Ma in Columbine’s Garter

From Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

Sergei Eisenstein, costume sketch for Ma in Columbine’s Garter, by Sergei Eisenstein and Sergei Yutkevich (1922). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 817: 2.

Costume sketch for Pa, a constructivist character in Columbine’s Garter who is half human, half toilet. His body is assembled from human and mechanical parts. His top hat is capped with a toilet lid crammed with various newspapers. A toilet tank marked PA juts upward from his body. At the center of his body is the word "Pipifax"––Eisenstein and Yutkevich's joint alter ego.

Costume sketch for Pa in Columbine’s Garter

From Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

Sergei Eisenstein, costume sketch for Pa in Columbine’s Garter, by Sergei Eisenstein and Sergei Yutkevich (dated 1922, 1934). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 817: 6.

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