Theatre Museum Research Articles

Review of the exhibition and catalog: Girlfriends. For the anniversary of Varvara Stepanova. Exhibition catalog. Moscow: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (2024)

The exhibition "Girlfriends. To the anniversary of Varvara Stepanova", (curators A.A. Danilova, A.A. Savinov, A.N. Lavrentiev), which opened in July 2024 at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts reveals the contribution of Russian avant-garde artists to the formation of constructivism as an influential global trend in architecture and design, the development of domestic fashion design, graphic design, theater. The exhibition presents the works of A.I. Akhtyrko (students of A.M. Rodchenko in VKhUTEMAS), E.A. Ignatovich (a photojournalist and journalist who worked with V.F. Stepanova), L.S. Popova, O.V. Rozanova, V.F. Stepanova, G.D. and O.D. Chichagov (artists of children's books). The cultural and educational foundation "Magic of Fashion" under the leadership of N.B.Kozlova provided reconstructions of clothing models according to the projects of N.P.Lamanova, V.I. Mukhina, L.S.Popova and V.F.Stepanova. 15 museums and private collections provided works from their collections for the exhibition: paintings, graphics, photographs, drawings for fabric and theatrical costume designs (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, GTG, RGALI, Theater Museum, museums of St. Petersburg, Saratov, Ulyanovsk and other collections). The unifying historical and documentary space of the exhibition was excerpts from the diaries of V.F.Stepanova about the avant-garde exhibitions held in 1915-1920, where artists participated, documents and articles by O.V. Rozanova. The exhibition catalog, prepared by a team of authors (design by the ABCdesign publishing group), reflects the main sections of the exhibition: "Acquaintance", "The Birth of constructivism", "Theater", "Fashion", "From a futuristic book to a new layout". The publication was recognized as the "Book of the Year" by experts of the Annual National Competition 2024. The exhibition and catalog reflect the bright innovative nature of the art of the artists of the 1920s, who boldly invaded new areas of the designer's activity, such as cinema, photography and mass media, poetry and fashion. They have left a significant mark on Russian art, pedagogy and art criticism.

Using Embedded Assessment to Evaluate Science Center Theatre

While some people claim museum theatre is a powerful tool that can affect visitors’ attitudes and inspire learning, others continue to question if its role is education, entertainment, or some combination of the two. In light of these mixed perceptions of museum theatre, there is ongoing demand for evidence that these shows promote meaningful learning. One method for measuring outcome achievement in these nontraditional theatre settings is embedded assessment (i.e., unobtrusive instruments integrated into the experience being evaluated). This article presents a case study of using embedded assessment to measure the stability of audience understanding of three key concepts from a science show. During Lunch in Space, the project team developed a strategy where the audience took on the role of food scientists and completed a paper and pencil “menu” by selecting good foods to send into space. Results suggest that this is a stable strategy for measuring short-term learning from this type of program. Three key insights learned for embedded assessment with museum theatre include: 1) creating a role for the audience; 2) refining the assessment through rapid iteration; 3) and designing assessments with a universal design approach, simple, easy-to-understand instructions, limited text, and clear visuals.

A Museum Theatre Approach to Museum Communication in Durban, South Africa

This article explores how museum communication can be enhanced in museums in Durban, South Africa, using the Old Court House Museum (OCHM) in Durban, South Africa, as a point of departure for analysis and discussion. The aim is to close the gap between the humanities disciplines through disciplinary hybridisation while focusing on exploring the intersection of theatre arts and museums through applied theatre (AT) strategies to enhance museum communication. Grounded in Richard Schechner’s multidisciplinary approach to performance studies (PS), it incorporates the viewpoints of Dwight Conquergood on PS. The argument is that the humanities disciplines are historically and conceptually linked through cultural performance. The research employs qualitative methods, including historical-analytic analysis, key informant interviews (KIIs), and direct observation. The findings suggest the practice of the museum theatre (MT) concept in some parts of the South African cultural ecosystem, but with scant attention on Durban municipal museums.

О первоначальной редакции пьесы «Страх» сталинского драматурга Александра Афиногенова. 1930-е гг.

The article examines the work of Stalinist playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Afinogenov (1904-1941) through the prism of his complicity in the ideological campaigns of the Bolshevik Party. The study of the impact of party-state ideology on the broad masses of people during the Stalinist era is a priority direction of historical science. However, this direction needs further thematic and problematic expansion. The ideological campaigns of the Bolshevik Party in the 1930s found their artistic expression on the theatrical stage, in the plays of the most famous playwrights. This interaction between propaganda and theater art has not been studied sufficiently. There are practically no generalizing works. This is partly due to the fact that sufficient empirical material has not yet been accumulated. Almost every play by A. N. Afinogenov corresponded to one or another vector of the ideological struggle of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The play "Fear" (1931), which became a full-scale artistic expression of one of the most powerful ideological campaigns conducted by the Bolshevik Party until the time of the "Great Terror" - the campaign to "purge" state and party organs, is of particular interest. The original manuscript of this play, found in the Moscow Art Theatre Museum, significantly expands the understanding of how the play was understood by contemporaries. The initiator of the changes in the text of the play was K. S. Stanislavsky, who persuaded A. N. Afinogenov to introduce the figure of the "investigator" into the play. A. N. Afinogenov significantly remade the main pictures of the play - the eighth and ninth, in fact, they were rewritten anew. The play "Fear" was staged in two theaters - in the State Drama Theater (Leningrad) and in the Moscow Art Theater (Moscow). In Leningrad, where the performances began earlier than in Moscow, they used the original text of the play (at least until the end of 1931), and in Moscow used the revised version. This in no way contradicted A. N. Afinogenov, the playwright, who saw his work as a continuation of the ideological struggle in the artistic images of Soviet dramaturgy. In the found original version of the play and in the revised version there are different accents in the characterization of the characters of the play (in the eighth and ninth pictures, the final ones). But it was not the artistic side of the theatrical work that mattered, but the ideological basis, the meaning of which in both editions was reduced to the most important postulate of totalitarianism - to recognize the class basis of morality, to renounce oneself, one's views, one's "own" science, to erase one's former life in order to enter the "objective" state of collective unanimity without one's own personality.

Плетеные аксессуары — чемоданы — в истории моды и их возможная реставрация

The paper considers such a type of road accessories as baggage, which became an element of costume during the development of fashion of the 19–21 centuries, and won a stable position in the hierarchy of fashion art. The suitcase is one of the “youngest” types of luggage — Louis Vuitton's invention, as a light, roomy and mobile version of a bulky chest. It is noteworthy that the suitcases were made of a variety of materials, and a number of countries, including Russia, witnessed the evolution of wicker luggage, such as baskets, later chests, and with the advent of an easy option — suitcases. The authors trace the history of chests and suitcases woven from vines in Russia, dwelling upon the study of suitcase of the beginning of the 20th century. The suitcase under study belonged to the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater A.M. Timoshaeva and is a complex of materials that are used in its manufacture — a vine case, a metal alloy (brass) — fittings, an iron frame with paper porcelain cardboard, leather decorative elements and a handle, fabric lining. Being in an unsatisfactory condition, the suitcase has lost its strength and aesthetic appearance, which shows the need for restoration and reconstruction of losses. The authors conducted research surveys in the field of attribution signs of the suitcase, restoration measures to recover and strengthen the elements of the suitcase in order to give it an expositional look for the theater museum.

MEMORIES BY S.V. MAKSIMOV ABOUT A.N. OSTROVSKY: TO THE PREHISTORY OF MEMOIRS

For the first time, the article publishes archival materials related to the creative history of the memoir essays of the writer S.V. Maksimov about A.N. Ostrovsky “Literary Expedition” and “Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky”. The time of the origin of the idea of memories is determined, the circumstances that accompanied the work of Maximov, their close connection with the memories of the founder of the oral story genre I.F. Gorbunov. Genre-forming techniques of Maximov’s everyday writing prose, which bring the writer’s books closer to his memoirs, are revealed. Feedback is also emphasized: in Maximov’s memoirs, pictures of everyday life, the color of the era, descriptions of the environment, folk types and characters predominate. Maksimov’s letters, in particular, to the Moscow collector and founder of the Theater Museum A.A. Bakhrushin. They contain a detailed commentary on the theatrical relics that Maximov sent Bakhrushin to Moscow: little-known details of the history of the Russian theater, the founder of which was Ostrovsky. It is concluded that Maximov’s memoirs about Ostrovsky are presented not only in the textually designed essays “Literary Expedition” and “Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky”, but also in rough sketches, letters, reference and bibliographic notes and in the results of Maximov’s practical activities that contributed to perpetuating the memory of the playwright and popularizing the history of the national theater.

DICTIONARY OF THE RUSSIAN POPULAR LANGUAGE BY A.N. OSTROVSKY: ETHNOLINGUISTIC APPROACH, BASIC PRINCIPLES OF COMPILING

A.N. Ostrovsky’s name is associated with the development of the direction of the Russian national language, which A.S. Pushkin set and which is expressed in connection of the book base with living popular language. The works by Ostrovsky, both fiction and non-fiction, are a valuable source of studying the processes of formation and development of the Russian national language in all the diversity of forms of its existence. This article is devoted to the Dictionary of the Russian popular language, on which Ostrovsky worked for many years, but which, unfortunately, he could not complete. We have listed and briefly characterized the archival sources that are stored in the Bakhrushin State Central Theater Museum (Moscow) and formed the basis of the Dictionary of the Russian popular language by Ostrovsky. In the article we describe the principles of compiling the Dictionary of the Russian popular language, presented by Ostrovsky in “Draft Notes to the Dahl’s Dictionary” and selectively published under the title “Analysis of the Dahl’s Dictionary”. We consider the Dictionary of the Russian popular language by Ostrovsky in an ethnolinguistic approach which was due to the increased interest in national culture in the 19th century and marked a new stage in the history of Russian lexicography.

Visitor Behavior in Museums in Times of (COVID)-19

This research aims to better understand the circumstances of museums in times of COVID-19 and investigate the reopening of museums as physical spaces for visitors??? experience. The influence of visitors??? sociodemographic and tripographic characteristics on visitor behavior, safety measures implemented by museums, and visitation experience were examined in two major art museums in Catalonia (Spain): the Dal??-Theatre Museum and the Picasso Museum. Participants (879) were selected following systematic random sampling at the museum exit gates. A quantitative analysis of the data was performed using Pearson and ANOVA and the participants??? profiles are presented. Findings indicate significant relationships between visitors??? characteristics and visitor behavior, safety measures, and visitation experience, with place of residence showing a positive influence on all three. Museums complied with specific safety regulations due to COVID-19, and in this context, the findings revealed that visitors slightly changed their visitor behavior in museums. Most visitors positively evaluated the key aspects of museum management relating to health and safety and social distancing. Age, nationality, and personal experience were found to influence visitor behavior in museums. Specific effects of each characteristic are further analyzed. Theoretical and practical implications and suggestions for future research studies are also discussed. Marketing activities will benefit from knowing, in detail, the visitors??? characteristics–information that can be used to target niches. Finally, the cultural industry has a social function and supporting the digitalization of museum organizations is crucial to the dissemination of culture.

Resurrecting cultural objects and artefacts in a museum space: The indispensable roles of museum theatre in palace museums in Ghana

Resurrecting cultural objects and artefacts in a museum space: The indispensable roles of museum theatre in palace museums in Ghana

The history of the creation, formation and development of the Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema Arts of Ukraine

The authors analyzed the stages of creation, formation, development and modern activity of the Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema Arts of Ukraine, which is the only one in Ukraine in terms of its specialization. This museum has a history famous for its names and events. It is widely known in Ukraine and abroad for its permanent exhibitions and mobile exhibitions, created on unique exhibits from the history of theater, music, and cinema. Collected during its existence – since 1923 – a large and multifaceted collection of monuments from the history of the development of arts, which is constantly replenished with new materials, is the basis for scientific research, scientific advisory, expositional and exhibition work, a rich source for popularizing the achievements of the national theater, music and cinema. The article emphasizes that theater museums, film and music museums are an integral part of the development of world culture. They arose, developed and formed into a separate typological group of art museums. The uniqueness of each theater museum was determined by stationary expositions and temporary exhibitions, which were the main sphere of operation and a form of use and popularization of the processed funds. Reproducing the phenomena and events of the theatrical heritage, expositions and exhibitions visualized the most significant assets of both the past and modern theater and theater science in the language of museum exhibits. Research and analysis of the historical experience of exposition and exhibition activity of theater museums, film and music museums will be important for an objective assessment of the positive and negative consequences of the influence of national and cultural processes on their functioning and development. The challenges faced by theater museums, film museums and music museums in the course of their activities have common features and may vary depending on the specific situation and context. The article analyzes the typical problems and features that theater, film and music museums face in their activities. The article shows that these problems may differ for each specific theater museum depending on its size, financial resources, location and other factors. Their features may vary among theater, music, and film museums, depending on their resources, scale, and specialization. However, solutions to these challenges may include working with conservation professionals, attracting grants and sponsors, developing educational programs, and using new technologies to improve visitor audience engagement.

Using an Interactive Mnemonic Device to Navigate Memories in Museum Theater

ABSTRACT This article explores the use of an interactive mnemonic device called a “Map of Memories” to navigate the museum theater production Our Footprints, staged in 2017 in the Bergtheil Museum in Durban, South Africa. The Map is an interactive tool used by audience members to explore the exhibits and the performance through connecting their own memories and understandings to what is seen and experienced. The Map, along with the performance, encourages emotional and personal connections to the factual content of the museum exhibitions, with the aim of promoting stronger opportunities for remembering, learning, and new insight.

Е.К. Малиновская и балет

Elena Konstantinovna Malinovskaya (1875–1942) played a significant, albeit, at a first glance, not a particularly distinguishable role in the history of the Russian stage. After the revolution, she directed a number of Moscow State (which held the appellations of Academic starting from 1919) theaters until 1924, during the years 1930–1935 she was the director of the Bolshoi Theater. For eleven years, Malinovskaya's personality, artistic views and administrative tactics influenced in various degrees the development of one of the two largest ballet companies in the country. She was compelled to take into account the tastes of high-ranking “curators” of the theater (Anatoly Lunacharsky, Avel Enukidze et al.), to comply with the demands of a powerful trade union organization, adapt to Communist Party censorship, struggle against the desires of choreographers and dancers for tours abroad, which frequently turned into one–way trips. Malinovskaya had to deal with, and not unsuccessfully, not only management of theaters, and also provide for the living conditions of artists. On the basis of materials introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time (first of all, from Malinovskaya's extensive personal funds in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art and the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theater Museum), this article examines the complex relationships of Elena Malinovskaya, the Bolshoi Theater Ballet Troupe and various public figures from the world of art and politics, involved in ballet in various degrees, during the years 1918–1935. Overall, Malinovskaya's artistic activities have been evaluated highly in the history of Russian ballet.

«Считаю Вас очень близким мне человеком…»: Е.К. Малиновская, В.И. Немирович-Данченко и другие в 1935–1942 годах

Elena Konstantinovna Malinovskaya (1875–1942) left a noticeable mark in the history of the Russian theatre of the late 1910s — 1930s. After managing Moscow academic theatres after the revolution, in 1924 she was forced to resign, and in 1930 she returned to the theatrical world, by leading the Bolshoi Theatre. After her final resignation in 1935, the figure of Malinovskaya drops out of view for theatre scholars. Meanwhile, after having outlived the repression of her children and having lost all administrative positions, she had by no means lost touch with the world of performing arts. In this article, which is written using the material of several archives (Malinovskaya's extensive personal fonds in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Malinovsky Family Fonds in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko Foundation in the Moscow Art Theatre Museum, and the E. P. Peshkova Foundation in the Gorky Archive, as well as investigative files from the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia), the last seven years of the life of an outstanding activist for the Russian theatre have been carefully examined. The author pays particular attention to Malinovskaya’s correspondence with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, who tried to support his former boss. The article reveals that even in the difficult conditions of evacuation from Moscow to Kuybyshev (Samara) in 1941, up to the last days of her life, Malinovskaya tried to take an active part in the fate of the Bolshoi Theatre.

뮤지엄 시어터(Museum theatre)개념을 적용한 공연장 공용 공간 전시 연구

This study started with interest in inter-genre fusion through the application of the museum theater concept. To this end, the museum theater concept was applied to the documentary music play <1919 Philadelphia> which was performed three times in 2022, and the exhibition was planned and installed in the lobby of the concert hall. Out of the 20 performances, 9 exhibition and performance visitors were surveyed focusing on their reactions and the effects of inter-genre intersection. The study found that the synergy effect between the media, the need to utilize the content and commemorative and experiential elements, the need to communicate with the audience, and the environment of the exhibition space should be considered. It is expected that the museum theater project will lead to a follow-up study that can verify the degree of understanding and immersion of viewers and the synergy effect between genres.

Kyra Markham: An Introduction

Kyra Markham: An Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

Museum Theatre as an Educational Tool: Examples in Serbian Museums

The paper presents museum theatre as an interpretive tool, its theoretical framework, developmental origins, the use of drama in museums in the 20th and 21st centuries, and its pedagogical outcomes. A section of the paper is dedicated to the use of creative drama in museums and its role as an educational model for working with children and young people. Museum performances created in the last ten years in the Matica Srpska Gallery, the Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, the Belgrade City Museum, the Kikinda National Museum, the Museum of Vojvodina, and the House of Jevrem Grujić will be mentioned.

Deadly Pinter: Ghostly Precedents and New Possibilities for Staging

Recent productions of Harold Pinter’s full-length plays in the West End demonstrate how a fidelity to the text or previous productions can limit the scope for reinvention in future performances of Pinter’s work. As a contribution to the discussion of how to stage Pinter, which has become even more urgent since his death, this essay considers Peter Brook’s theory of the Deadly Theatre from The Empty Space. The argument is not about the quality of these recent productions but rather about what is gained from more imaginative, if less reverential, approaches to Pinter’s texts and what may be lost when we entomb the texts within their historical contexts. To avoid Pinter’s plays becoming museum theatre, new approaches to the context in which his plays were written and to the detail of the text will allow for a greater range of interpretation and indeed a greater performance afterlife for Pinter’s plays.

Please do not touch! learning through object-work and arts-based expression in museum theatre, a South African example

ABSTRACT This article proposes that participatory museum theatre can provide a platform through which learners studying history can engage a troubled past, specifically looking at South African history, to generate a more complex understanding of it. Through the use of performance, object-work, and creative arts-based responses, such as poetry and drawing, in the museum space, learners are able to connect with the performed historical narratives, characters, and events creating a sensory learning experience. The argument is presented through the example Beer Halls, Pass Laws and Just Cause which was performed at the KwaMuhle Museum, Durban, South Africa during March 2020.

Режиссерский метод Игоря Терентьева

The directoring activity of I. G. Terentiev can be considered as the the context of the avantgarde tradition. The reconstruction of his performances is always an appeal to the principles and techniques of futuristic arcane poetry (zaum’), which were formulated by him back in the Tiflis period of his work as a poet, artist and zaum’ theorist. Also, Terentiev’s theatrical experience is closely linked with his contemporaries, and often the performance staging was a special kind of polemic, sometimes a rebellious attack against the theatrical system. The theatre thusbecomes the most adequate form of expression of Terentiev’s revolutionary ideas. His theatrical searches are an appeal to amateur theatre, attempts to interpret the classical text using arcane language, as well as a constant search for new expressiveness. His experiments lacked evidences, with only a few photographs of his performances surviving, mostly negative criticism and eyewitness reviews that can be counted on fingers. The article examines the features of I. G. Terentiev’s directing method on the example of his most famous performances: John Reed, The Inspector General and Natalya Tarpova. The evolution of the director’s creative method is traced, which became more complicated and transformed with each performance. Three directions are singled out, the main for Terentiev’s rebellious directing method. These are propaganda performances in an amateur theatre, futuristic direction using the techniques of arcane poetry and attempts to realize on stage the process of mastering a new proletarian novel. In the article are published the photographs from the performances The Inspector General and Natalya Tarpova, that were found in the RGALI and the funds of the State Central Theatre Museum n.a. A.A. Bakhrushin. These photographs give an idea of performances’ pecularities, directing technique, scenography. The article lists a set of directorial techniques characteristic of various periods of Terentiev’s work, the method of working on the text, and concludes why Terentiev became the last director of the Russian theatrical avant-garde