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\n \n STARINNY (OLD) THEATRE, drama theatre. Functioned in the season of 1907/08 at Kononovsky Hall, 61 Moika River Embankment (today the University for Telecommunication), and 1911/12 in the exhibition halls of Solyanoy Settlement, 9b Solyanoy Lane. In their search for pure theatricality, founders N.N. Evreinov and Baron N.V. Osten-Drizen strove to reconstruct performances from various epochs. In the first season, directors Evreinov, Drizen, A.A. Sanin and M. N. Burnashev presented two programmes comprised of re-stagings of 11-15th century French plays of various genres, all designed by artists from the collective World of Art, including N.K. Roerich, I.Y. Bilibin, M.V. Dobuzhinsky, A.N. Benois, V.A. Shchuko, and with orchestra music played on specially reconstructed old musical instruments to music organized by composer I.A. Sats, and music directors A.K. Glazunov and L. A. Saccheti. The second season was devoted to the re-staging of 16-17th centuries Spanish theatre performances (plays by Lope de Vega, M. Cervantes, Tirso de Molina, P. Calderon; directors Evreinov, Drizen, K.M. Miklashevsky, N.I. Butkovskaya; artists Roerich, Shchuko, Bilibin, A.K. Shervashidze, N.K. Kalmakov). The productions were preceded by extensive research (see, for example, 16 - 17th century Spanish Theatre, Collected Articles by N. Drizen, K. Miklashevsky and N. Evreinov. St. Petersburg, 1911). A stylization-oriented interpretation offered by artists and composers was adopted in opposition to the archaeological approach of directors who aimed at precise reconstruction of details not only of performances but of circumstances, down to details like the re-staging of a medieval audience watching the performance (actors on the stage played an audience). The lack of information on acting technique and style was aggravated by the company's lack of experience. The Old Theatre's third season, dedicated to Italian commedia dell'arte and scheduled for 1914, was interfered with by the First World War. The Old Theatre greatly influenced innovative searches of the contemporary stage. V.E. Meyerhold, the founder of stage-stylisation in Russian theatre and developer of his own programme of theatre traditionalism in 1908 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, drew especially constructive and promising conclusions from the Old Theatre's contradictory experience.

References: Старк Э. А. Старинный театр. Пг., 1922; Рудницкий К. Л. Русское режиссерское искусство, 1908-1917. М., 1990.

A. A. Kirillov.\n
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Persons
\n \n \n Benois Alexander Nikolaevich\n
\n \n \n \n Bilibin Ivan Yakovlevich\n
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