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Vsevolod Meyerhold As A Theatre Practitioner Analysis

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Vsevolod Meyerhold is a broadly known Russian theatre practitioner, who created and taught Theatrical Biomechanics, which is both “an acting technique and a production style” (Baldwin, 1995: p. 181). Mostly because of Meyerhold’s unique position as the leading Soviet avant-garde director, his Biomechanics received wide attention in the beginning of the XXI century (Law, 1995: p. 1). However, if Meyerhold was influenced by Commedia dell’arte at first and after the Revolution by Taylor’s scientific management while designing his technique (Gordon, 2005), can he be named an innovator? Can a practice be innovative without being revolutionary? This essay will focus on Vsevolod Meyerhold as a theatre practitioner, critically analysing the extent to which his practice can be considered “innovative”. It will discuss the concept of “innovation”, …show more content…

It is highly important to define a word “innovation” from the question, as depending on how we understand it, the whole meaning of the question changes, which causes the final conclusion to be completely different. According to Collins English Dictionary, innovation means “something newly introduced, such as a new method or device”. The synonyms that it provides to this word are: “revolution, introduction, newness, novelty, etc.”. At the same time, it offers the translation of “innovation” to Russian – “нововведение” – which literally translated as “newly introduced” (no date). Hence, we can see that innovation, by its meaning, is really close to invention or revolution. How can this affect the question, can be asked? If innovation is a revolution, it means that it has to be wholly original, without drawing on precedents or not be based on any other movements or practices. It is hard to find any examples of this kind of innovative because you have to be entirely and physically isolated

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