On the 100th anniversary of the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow and the erecting of the Cultural Center in Vakhtangov’s house in Vladikavkaz

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article describes the celebratory events held at the state level from 2019 to 2021 dedicated to the centenary of the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow. The article also stresses a special role of Yevgeni Vakhangov’s home town Vladikavkaz in the history of the formation of the personality of the world famous theatre director and disciple of Konstantin Stanislavski. Vakhtangov was the best person to prove in practice the possibility of using the System in the development of many theatrical forms. Vladikavkaz is also a site where a cultural Centre will be opened in Yevgeni Vakhtangov’s reconstructed birth house in fall 2022. The Moscow period of Vakhtangov’s life described here emphasizes, on the one hand, the foundation of a drama studio which, by the end of Vakhtangov’s life, was transformed into The Third MAT Studio, and finally into the Vakhtangov Theatre. On the other hand, the article maintains the fact that the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow emerged from a drama school, which, in turn, is based on the collective work of Vakhtangov and his students during their practical studies and application of Stanislavski’s System in the drama studio. The results of that collective work are expressed in Vakhtangov’s use of fantastic realism (based on Stanislavski’s term of realism) on stage – a phenomenon he discovered while elaborating his unique method of directing.