Theatre Journalism of the 1890s About New Trends on the Dramatic Stage (by the Example of Performances of Konstantin Stanislavsky's Society of Art and Literature)

Section: History of Journalism

This paper is devoted to several prominent theatre magazines of the 1890s, namely Artist (1889—1895) and Teatral (1895—1898) published by Fyodor Kumanin and Teatr i Iskusstvo (1897—1918) published by Alexander Kugel. They played a significant role in the development of theatre criticism as they were able to detect new phenomena in theatre life. It was at that time that the Moscow Art Theatre emerged on the stage of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s Society of Art and Literature. The magazines analyzed in the paper paid attention to the first productions of this amateur company and pioneered an attempt to explain to readers its innovations to late 19th century Russian art which would underlie the famous Stanislavsky’s system. This short but extremely important episode in the history of journalism has not been studied in its entirety so far. The object of the author’s research was the content of the Artist, Teatral and Teatr i Iskusstvo magazines while the subject was the performances of the Society of Art and Literature as seen in these publications. The work covers the period from 1889 (the year when the first issue of the Artist magazine was published) to 1898 (the year when the Moscow Art Theatre was established). The author of the paper examines the history of the publications, the editorial policies of those in charge, the transformation of article writers’ views on the performances of the Society of Art and Literature. In conclusion, it is argued that there is a connection between the attitude of the magazines to Stanislavsky’s theatre and new art as a whole.

DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.2.2019.132153

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