The Studio on Povarskaia 1905: “Young Theatre of Searching”

The emergence of Symbolism in Russian theatre was a turning point for both Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold, prompting the former to set up a studio in 1905 to experiment with the new drama. Accounts in English of the Studio on Povarskaia, as it was to be called, have tended to view it largely as a failure. On the contrary, the Studio process was important not only as an experiment with Russian Symbolist theatre but as a catalyst for both Stanislavsky in the development of the System and for Meyerhold in the development of his method, eventually to be termed Biomechanics. This essay makes use of Russian sources and archival materials to examine comprehensively, for the first time, the Studio’s importance as the starting point for both Stanislavsky and Meyerhold’s methods of actor education. The discussion also clarifies widespread misunderstandings of the work of both directors, which continues to be highly significant today.