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[THEATRE IN CLUBS] Rezhissior v klube: Rezhissiorskie ukazaniya po postanovke revoliutsionnykh pies v dramaticheskikh kruzhkakh molodiozhi [i.e. Director in Club: Director’s Guidelines for Revolutionary Plays in Drama Studios for Youth].

Markov, V.D.

Moscow: Gosizdat, 1924. Item #520

156 pp.: ill. 24x15 cm. In original illustrated constructivist wrappers (by P.R.). Very good, uncut and untrimmed. Small tears of the spin, Soviet bookshop’s stamp on the back cover.

First and only edition. One of 10000 copies. Rare.
The phenomenon of the workers’ clubs is one of the most
interesting ones in the history of early Soviet culture. Stated by Trotsky
that the clubs were ‘the forge of the proletarian class culture’, they were
the connection between the art and the masses, the link between left
aesthetics and proletarian self-conscience. Workers’ clubs started to
appear in 1920 and by the mid-1920s covered the country and were set
to be multi-functional tool to educate, agitate, entertain and cultivate
the masses. The result should have been the creation of a new man, a
new life, so the workers’ club were very much in tune with the Soviet
ideology of 1920s. They were organised locally, usually by the unions
or other initiative groups, and they were given a lot of privileges: good
buildings (often designed by the best constructivist architects of the
day), supplies, support in the media and by the party officials.
The unusual cultural-social experiment of making a new man
came to its end in the early 1930s, when Proletkult was closed and the
life of the country has started to change. The clubs itself remained but
lost its independence, started to be used more for propaganda purposes
or the routine entertainment events.

This edition provides guidelines and instructions on how to
organize creative process in drama studios in clubs across the Union.
Each chapter is dedicated to a specific subject and scrutinized on
example of a play. Overall 8 plays are mentioned in the book and for
some parts of script are given. There are chapters on how to reduce
a play, how to make a march more theatrical, performance on street,
‘live’ newspapers, composition of script based on a few sources, how to
connect drama studio and general work of the club, how to make a novel
into a play. Chapters also include information on lighting, costumes, set
designs, props, etc. The text is supplemented with drawings and scheme.

Worldcat located only two copies in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (both in Germany).

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