Teffi - theatrical terminology
Robert Chandler
kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM
Tue Feb 25 15:31:17 UTC 2014
Dear Edythe,
You are wonderful. I can't wait for you to publish more. Without that, and your help, I feel a bumbling amateur.
But I must apologize for several recent posts to the list that I hadn't thought through properly. I am sorry - I have had a rather fraught few days and have been doing things in too much of a hurry.
Thanks to you, Edythe, and to everyone else who has helped with this passage.
All the best,
Robert
On 24 Feb 2014, at 19:17, Edythe Haber <Edythe.Haber at UMB.EDU> wrote:
> Dear Robert:
>
> A little bit of biographical background: In 1906 (perhaps beginning in 1905), Teffi attended meetings of the "Fakely" theater group, which grew out of Ivanov's Wednesdays, and in which Meyerhold, as far as I understand, played the central role. Teffi wrote in a Mar. 17 (30), 1913 feuilleton in "Russkoe slovo" (in my translation -- I can find the original and scan it for you if you like:
>
> "Several years ago, when the extremely talented V.E. Meyerhold was not yet a director on the imperial stage, but only burned and dreamed, he often spoke within a circle of sympathizers about the theater of the future. About a 'real' theater.
> He had his own theory. I don't remember too well what it was about, but I remember that it was founded somehow mathematically, geometrically, all on a single theorem known in the community by the name Pythagorean trousers.
> . . . .
> 'Down with the footlights!' squealed some.
> 'Down with the stage!' another recommended.
> 'Collective action!' someone in the corner hooted.
> We burned!"
>
> In a late memoir of Meyerhold, published only after her death, Teffi wrote: "Meyerhold sketched a magic triangle. The author, director, and actor were placed in the corners of the triangle. Each in his own corner. They communicated through the sides [katety] and the hypotenuse. The hypotenuse -- the longest route -- unites the author and actor." Etc. The article was originally published in "Vozrozhdenie," !955, no. 42. Repr. in Teffi, "Moia letopis'," (M: Vagrius, 2004) and probably elsewhere.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Edythe
> ________________________________________
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2014 5:23 AM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Teffi - theatrical terminology
>
> Dear all,
>
> I am sure there are many improvements that can be made here, and I'll be grateful for all suggestions, but I'll be especially grateful to anyone who can point out anything I have got wrong as regards the theatrical terms. There may be standard translations of some of these phrases that I do not know. Am I right to shorten the Meyerhold phrase?
>
> Мы растерялись, но не все. Молоденькая наша актриса, как полковая лошадь, услышавшая звуки трубы, сорвалась и понесла — кругами, прыжками, поворотами. Замелькал Мейерхольд, с «треугольниками соотношения сил», Евреинов, с «театром для себя», Commedia dell'arte, актеро-творчество, «долой рампу», соборное действо и тра-та-ра-ра-та-ра-та.
>
> This floored nearly all of us – but not our youngest actress. Like a war horse at the sound of the bugle, she leaped to her feet and began careering around – circling, jumping and spinning. There were flashes of Meyerhold and his ‘theatre-triangle’, Evreinov’s 'The Theatre for Oneself', of Comedia dell’Arte, Stanislavsky’s 'Building a Character', of calls to ‘Do away with the Footlights!’, and heaven knows what else.
>
> All the best, and thanks,
>
> Robert
>
> Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
>
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Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
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