Born in 1944 in Siberia, in the city of Stalinsk (Novokuznetsk). He began his theatrical career at the age of 13 at the Leningrad Theater of Youth Creativity under the direction of Matvey Dubrovin. At the age of 22 he graduated from the Leningrad State Theater Institute, class of Professor B.V. Zone.
His directorial debut - the teleplay “First Love” based on the story by I. S. Turgenev - took place in 1966. This was followed by work at the Leningrad Youth Theater. In collaboration with Zinovy Korogodsky and Veniamin Filshtinsky, he composed the plays “Our Circus”, “Ours, Only Ours”, “Our Chukovsky”, and in 1972 - the first independent author’s play “Our People - We Will Be Numbered”. After these works in Leningrad they started talking about the birth of a serious director. In 1975, Lev Dodin was forced to set off on a “free voyage”; during his “time of wanderings” he carried out more than 10 productions on the stages of various theaters. The performances “The Meek” with Oleg Borisov at the Bolshoi Drama Theater and at the Moscow Art Theater and “Lord Golovlevs” at the Moscow Art Theater with Innokenty Smoktunovsky are recognized today as major milestones in the history of Russian theater.
Collaboration with the Maly Drama Theater began in 1974 with “The Robber” by K. Capek. The play “Home” based on the prose of Fyodor Abramov, which appeared in 1980, determined the subsequent creative fate of Lev Dodin and MDT. Today, the main part of the troupe consists of graduates of six courses and three trainee groups of Dodin. The first of them joined Dodin’s team in 1967, the last in 2012. Since 1983 Dodin - chief director, and since 2002 - artistic director-director of the theater. In 1998, the founder and president of the Union of European Theaters Giorgio Strehler invites Lev Dodin and Maly drama theater to the Union.
In September 1998, the Dodin Theater received the status of the Theater of Europe - the third after the Odeon Theater in Paris and the Piccolo Theater in Milan. Lev Dodin is a member of the General Assembly of the Union of European Theaters. In 2012 he was elected honorary President of the Union of European Theaters. Lev Dodin is the author of more than 70 performances, including one and a half dozen operas, created at leading European opera venues, such as the Parisian Bastille Theater, Milan's La Scala, Florence's Teatro Communale, Amsterdam Dutch Opera, Salzburg Festival and others.
Lev Dodin's theatrical activities and his performances have been recognized by many state and international prizes and awards, including the State Prizes of Russia and the USSR, the Prize of the President of Russia, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III and IV degrees, the independent Triumph Prize, and the K . S. Stanislavsky, national Golden Mask awards, the Laurence Olivier Prize, the Italian Abbiati Prize for the best opera performance, French, English and Italian theater and theater awards. music critics. In 2000, he, so far the only one Russian directors, awarded the highest European theater prize “Europe - Theater”.
Lev Dodin is an honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France, commander of the Order of the Star of Italy, laureate of the Platonov Prize in 2012, honorary doctor of the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University. Head of the Department of Directing, St. Petersburg Academy theatrical arts, professor, permanent member of the jury of a professional competition literary works“Northern Palmyra”, “Golden Soffit”, the editorial board of the almanac “Baltic Seasons”.
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Lev Abramovich Dodin(born May 14, Stalinsk) - Soviet and Russian theater director, People's Artist of the Russian Federation (), laureate of the USSR State Prize () and State Prizes of the Russian Federation (,,).
Biography
Lev Dodin was born in Stalinsk (now Novokuznetsk), where his parents were evacuated. In 1945, the family returned to Leningrad. Passionate about theater since childhood, Lev Dodin, together with classmate Sergei Solovyov, studied at the Theater of Youth Creativity (TYUT) at the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers under the direction of Matvey Dubrovin. Immediately after school, in 1961, he entered the B.V. Zone course. Together with him, Olga Antonova, Victor Kostetsky, Leonid Mozgovoy, Sergei Nadporozhsky, Natalya Tenyakova, Vladimir Tykke studied here in the acting group. But L. A. Dodin completed his studies a year later than his classmates in the directing department at the Zone workshop.
In 1967, Lev Dodin began teaching acting and directing at LGITMiK, and trained more than one generation of actors and directors.
Staged performances on Small stage BDT - Oleg Borisov's one-man show "The Meek" based on the story by F. M. Dostoevsky (1981) and at the Moscow Art Theater - "The Golovlev Gentlemen" based on the novel by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin with Innokenty Smoktunovsky (1984), "The Meek" with Oleg Borisov (1985 ).
In 1975, Lev Dodin’s collaboration with the Maly Drama Theater began with the production of the play “The Robber” based on the play by K. Chapek. Since 1983 he has been the artistic director of the theater, and since 2002 the director.
Family
Productions
Leningrad Youth Theater- - “Our Circus” Composition and production by Z. Korogodsky, L. Dodin, V. M. Filshtinsky. Artist Z. Arshakuni
- - “Ours, only ours...” Composition and production by Z. Korogodsky, Dodin, V. Filshtinsky. Artist M. Azizyan
- - “Tales of Chukovsky” (“Our Chukovsky”). Composition and production by Z. Korogodsky, Dodin, V. Filyshtinsky. Artists Z. Arshakuni, N. Polyakova, A. E. Poraj-Koshits, V. Solovyova (under the direction of N. Ivanova)
- - « Open lesson" Composition and production by Z. Korogodsky, Dodin, V. Filshtinsky. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
- - “What would you choose?..” A. Kurgatnikova. Artist M. Smirnov
- - “The Robber” by K. Capek. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
- - "The Rose Tattoo" by T. Williams. Design by M. Kataev, costumes by I. Gabay
- - “Appointment” by A. Volodin. Artist M. Kitaev
- - “Live and Remember” based on the story by V. Rasputin
- - “Home” based on the novel by F. Abramov. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
- - “Bench” by A. Gelman. Directed by E. Arie. Artist D. A. Krymov
- - “Brothers and Sisters” based on F. Abramov’s trilogy “Pryasliny”. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
- - “Lord of the Flies” based on the novel by W. Golding. Artist D. L. Borovsky
- - “Towards the Sun” based on one-act plays by A. Volodin. Artist M. Kitaev
- - “Stars in the morning sky” A. Galina. Directed by T. Shestakova. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits (artistic director of the production)
- - “The Old Man” based on the novel by Yu. Trifonov. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
- - “Returned Pages” (literary evening). Staged by Dodin. Directed by V. Galendeev. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
- 1990 - “Gaudeamus” based on the story “Stroibat” by S. Kaledin. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
- 1991 - “Demons” by F. M. Dostoevsky. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
- 1992 - “The Broken Jug” by G. von Kleist. Directed by V. Filshtinsky. Design by A. Orlov, costumes by O. Savarenskaya (artistic director of the production)
- 1994 - “Love under the Elms” by Yu. O’Neill. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
- 1994 - “The Cherry Orchard” by A.P. Chekhov. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay
- 1994 - “Claustrophobia” based on modern Russian prose. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
- 1997 - “A Play Without a Title” by A.P. Chekhov. Design by A. E. Porai-Koshits, costumes by I. Tsvetkova
- 1999 - “Chevengur” by A.P. Platonov. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
- 2000 - “Molly Sweeney” by B. Friel. Artist D. L. Borovsky
- 2001 - “The Seagull” by A.P. Chekhov. Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits
- 2002 - “Moscow Choir” by L. Petrushevskaya (artistic director of the production
- 2003 - “Uncle Vanya” by A.P. Chekhov. Artist D. L. Borovsky
- 2006 - “King Lear” by W. Shakespeare. Artist D. L. Borovsky
- 2007 - “Life and Fate” based on V. S. Grossman, dramatization by L. Dodin.
- 2007 - " Warsaw Melody» L. Zorina (artistic director of the production) Scenography idea by D. L. Borovsky; Artist A. E. Porai-Koshits.
- 2008 - “Long Journey Into Night” by Yu. O’Neill
- 2008 - “Love’s Labour’s Lost” by W. Shakespeare
- 2009 - “Lord of the Flies” by W. Golding. Scenography and costumes D. L. Borovsky; implementation of scenography by A. E. Poraj-Koshits.
- 2009 - “A Beautiful Sunday for a Broken Heart” by T. Williams. Artist Alexander Borovsky.
- 2010 - “Three Sisters” by A.P. Chekhov.
- - “Portrait with Rain” based on the film script by A. Volodin. Artist A. Borovsky
- - “Cunning and Love” by F. Schiller. Artist A. Borovsky
- - “Enemy of the People” by G. Ibsen
- - “The Cherry Orchard” by A. P. Chekhov
- - “Rose Bernd” by G. Hauptmann. Artist L. Mikhailov. - Leningrad Regional Drama and Comedy Theater.
- - “Minor” by D. Fonvizin. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay. - Leningrad Regional Drama and Comedy Theater.
- - “Continuation of Don Juan” by E. Radzinsky. Design by M. Kitaev, costumes by O. Savarenskaya. - Leningrad Comedy Theater.
- - “Meek” according to F. M. Dostoevsky. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay. - Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater named after. M. Gorky.
- - “Gentlemen Golovlevs” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay. Moscow Art Theater named after. M. Gorky.
- - “Meek” according to F. M. Dostoevsky. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay. - Moscow Art Theater named after. M. Gorky
- 1986 - “Bankrupt” (“Our people - we will be numbered!”) by A. N. Ostrovsky. Design by E. Kochergin, costumes by I. Gabay. - National Theatre, Helsinki, Finland.
- 1995 - “Electra” by R. Strauss. Conductor K. Abbado. Artist D. L. Borovsky. - Salzburg Easter festival.
- 1996 - “Electra” by R. Strauss. Conductor K. Abbado. Artist D. L. Borovsky. - Teatro Communale, Florence Musical May.
- 1998 - “Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district"D. D. Shostakovich. Conductor S. Bychkov. Artist D. L. Borovsky. - Teatro Communale, Florence Musical May.
- 1998 - “The Queen of Spades” by P. I. Tchaikovsky. Conductor S. Bychkov. Artist D. L. Borovsky. - Dutch Opera (Stopera), Amsterdam. "Love Under the Elms"
Confession
- Honored Artist of the RSFSR ()
- People's Artist of the Russian Federation (October 26, 1993) - for great achievements in the field of theatrical art
- USSR State Prize (1986) - for the performances “Home” and “Brothers and Sisters” based on the works of F. A. Abramov at the Maly Drama Theater
- State Prize of the Russian Federation (1992) - for the play “We are given young years for fun” based on S. Kaledin’s story “Stroybat” at the Maly Drama Theater, St. Petersburg
- State Prize Russian Federation(2002) - for the performance of the Academic Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe "Moscow Choir"
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (March 24, 2009) - for his great contribution to the development of domestic theatrical art and many years of creative activity
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (May 9, 2004) - for his great contribution to the development of theatrical art
- Order of Honor (February 3, 2015) - for great services in the development of national culture and art, television and radio broadcasting, the press and many years of fruitful activity
- Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art 2000
- Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1994) - for his enormous contribution to the cooperation of Russian and French cultures
- Georgy Tovstonogov Prize (2002)
- Honorary Doctor of St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise (2006)
- Award of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia “Person of the Year” (2007)
- Honorary Member Russian Academy of Arts
- Honorary President of the Union of European Theaters (2012)
- Theater Award"Golden Spotlight" (2013),
- Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of culture (2014) for the creation of the play “Cunning and Love” based on the tragedy of F. Schiller
- State Prize of the Russian Federation for 2015 in the field of literature and art ()
Books
- Dodin L. A. A journey without end. Immersion in worlds. "Three Sisters" St. Petersburg: “Baltic Seasons”, 2011. 408 p. ISBN 978-5-903368-59-4
- Dodin L. A. A journey without end. Immersion in worlds. Chekhov. St. Petersburg: “Baltic Seasons”, 2010. ISBN 978-5-903368-45-7
- Dodin L. A. A journey without end. Immersion in worlds. St. Petersburg: “Baltic Seasons”, 2009. 432 pp., 48 ILL. ISBN 978-5-903368-28-0
- Dodin L. A. A journey without end. Dialogues with the world. St. Petersburg: Baltic Seasons, 2009. 546 p. ISBN 978-5-903368-19-8
- Dodin L. A. Rehearsals of a play without a title. St. Petersburg: Baltic Seasons, 2004. 480 pp. ISBN 5-902675-01-4
- Lev Dodin Journey Without End. Reflections and Memoirs. Platonov Observed: Rehearsal Notes / Foreword by Peter Brook. London: Tantalus Books, 2005.
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Notes
Links
- on the website of the Maly Drama Theater.
Excerpt characterizing Dodin, Lev Abramovich
Staggering on their long skinny legs, in a flowing robe, this madman ran quickly, not taking his eyes off Rostopchin, shouting something to him in a hoarse voice and making signs for him to stop. Overgrown with uneven tufts of beard, the gloomy and solemn face of the madman was thin and yellow. His black agate pupils ran low and anxiously over the saffron yellow whites.- Stop! Stop! I speak! - he screamed shrilly and again, breathlessly, shouted something with impressive intonations and gestures.
He caught up with the carriage and ran alongside it.
- They killed me three times, three times I rose from the dead. They stoned me, crucified me... I will rise... I will rise... I will rise. They tore my body apart. The kingdom of God will be destroyed... I will destroy it three times and build it up three times,” he shouted, raising his voice more and more. Count Rastopchin suddenly turned pale, just as he had turned pale when the crowd rushed at Vereshchagin. He turned away.
- Let's go... let's go quickly! - he shouted at the coachman in a trembling voice.
The carriage rushed at all the horses' feet; but for a long time behind him, Count Rastopchin heard a distant, insane, desperate cry, and before his eyes he saw one surprised, frightened, bloody face of a traitor in a fur sheepskin coat.
No matter how fresh this memory was, Rostopchin now felt that it had cut deep into his heart, to the point of bleeding. He now clearly felt that the bloody trace of this memory would never heal, but that, on the contrary, the further, the more evil, the more painful this terrible memory would live in his heart for the rest of his life. He heard, it seemed to him now, the sounds of his words:
“Cut him, you will answer me with your head!” - “Why did I say these words! Somehow I accidentally said... I could not have said them (he thought): then nothing would have happened.” He saw the frightened and then suddenly hardened face of the dragoon who struck and the look of silent, timid reproach that this boy in a fox sheepskin coat threw at him... “But I didn’t do it for myself. I should have done this. La plebe, le traitre... le bien publique”, [Mob, villain... public good.] - he thought.
The army was still crowded at the Yauzsky Bridge. It was hot. Kutuzov, frowning and despondent, was sitting on a bench near the bridge and playing with a whip in the sand, when a carriage noisily galloped up to him. A man in a general's uniform, in a hat with a plume, with people running around, either angry or with frightened eyes went up to Kutuzov and began telling him something in French. It was Count Rastopchin. He told Kutuzov that he came here because Moscow and the capital no longer exist and there is only one army.
“It would have been different if your lordship had not told me that you would not surrender Moscow without fighting: all this would not have happened!” - he said.
Kutuzov looked at Rastopchin and, as if not understanding the meaning of the words addressed to him, carefully tried to read something special written at that moment on the face of the person speaking to him. Rastopchin, embarrassed, fell silent. Kutuzov shook his head slightly and, without taking his searching gaze off Rastopchin’s face, said quietly:
– Yes, I will not give up Moscow without giving a battle.
Was Kutuzov thinking about something completely different when he said these words, or did he say them on purpose, knowing their meaninglessness, but Count Rostopchin did not answer anything and hastily walked away from Kutuzov. And a strange thing! The commander-in-chief of Moscow, the proud Count Rostopchin, taking a whip in his hands, approached the bridge and began to disperse the crowded carts with a shout.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Murat's troops entered Moscow. A detachment of Wirtemberg hussars rode ahead, and the Neapolitan king himself rode behind on horseback with a large retinue.
Near the middle of the Arbat, near St. Nicholas the Revealed, Murat stopped, awaiting news from the advance detachment about the situation of the city fortress “le Kremlin”.
A small group of people from the residents remaining in Moscow gathered around Murat. Everyone looked with timid bewilderment at the strange, long-haired boss adorned with feathers and gold.
- Well, is this their king himself? Nothing! – quiet voices were heard.
The translator approached a group of people.
“Take off your hat... take off your hat,” they said in the crowd, turning to each other. The translator turned to one old janitor and asked how far it was from the Kremlin? The janitor, listening in bewilderment to the alien Polish accent and not recognizing the sounds of the translator's dialect as Russian speech, did not understand what was being said to him and hid behind others.
Murat moved towards the translator and ordered to ask where the Russian troops were. One of the Russian people understood what was being asked of him, and several voices suddenly began to answer the translator. A French officer from the advance detachment rode up to Murat and reported that the gates to the fortress were sealed and that there was probably an ambush there.
“Okay,” said Murat and, turning to one of the gentlemen of his retinue, he ordered four light guns to be brought forward and fired at the gate.
The artillery came out at a trot from behind the column following Murat and rode along the Arbat. Having descended to the end of Vzdvizhenka, the artillery stopped and lined up in the square. Several French officers controlled the cannons, positioning them, and looked into the Kremlin through a telescope.
The bell for Vespers was heard in the Kremlin, and this ringing confused the French. They assumed it was a call to arms. Several infantry soldiers ran to the Kutafyevsky Gate. There were logs and planks at the gate. Two rifle shots rang out from under the gate as soon as the officer and his team began to run up to them. The general standing at the cannons shouted command words to the officer, and the officer and the soldiers ran back.
Three more shots were heard from the gate.
One shot hit a French soldier in the leg, and a strange cry of a few voices was heard from behind the shields. On the faces of the French general, officers and soldiers at the same time, as if on command, the previous expression of gaiety and calm was replaced by a stubborn, concentrated expression of readiness to fight and suffer. For all of them, from the marshal to the last soldier, this place was not Vzdvizhenka, Mokhovaya, Kutafya and Trinity Gate, but this was a new area of a new field, probably a bloody battle. And everyone prepared for this battle. The screams from the gate died down. The guns were deployed. The artillerymen blew off the burnt blazers. The officer commanded “feu!” [fallen!], and two whistling sounds of tins were heard one after another. Grapeshot bullets crackled against the stone of the gate, logs and shields; and two clouds of smoke wavered in the square.
A few moments after the rolling of shots across the stone Kremlin died down, a strange sound was heard above the heads of the French. A huge flock of jackdaws rose above the walls and, cawing and rustling with thousands of wings, circled in the air. Along with this sound, a lonely human cry was heard at the gate, and from behind the smoke the figure of a man without a hat, in a caftan, appeared. Holding a gun, he aimed at the French. Feu! - the artillery officer repeated, and at the same time one rifle and two cannon shots were heard. The smoke closed the gate again.
Nothing else moved behind the shields, and the French infantry soldiers and officers went to the gate. There were three wounded and four dead people lying at the gate. Two people in caftans were running away from below, along the walls, towards Znamenka.
“Enlevez moi ca, [Take it away,” said the officer, pointing to the logs and corpses; and the French, having finished off the wounded, threw the corpses down beyond the fence. No one knew who these people were. “Enlevez moi ca,” it was only said about them, and they were thrown away and cleaned up later so that they wouldn’t stink. Thiers alone dedicated several eloquent lines to their memory: “Ces miserables avaient envahi la citadelle sacree, s"etaient empares des fusils de l"arsenal, et tiraient (ces miserables) sur les Francais. On en sabra quelques "uns et on purgea le Kremlin de leur presence. [These unfortunates filled the sacred fortress, took possession of the guns of the arsenal and shot at the French. Some of them were cut down with sabers, and cleared the Kremlin of their presence.]
Murat was informed that the path had been cleared. The French entered the gates and began to camp on Senate Square. The soldiers threw chairs out of the Senate windows into the square and laid out fires.
Other detachments passed through the Kremlin and were stationed along Maroseyka, Lubyanka, and Pokrovka. Still others were located along Vzdvizhenka, Znamenka, Nikolskaya, Tverskaya. Everywhere, not finding owners, the French settled not as in apartments in the city, but as in a camp located in the city.
Although ragged, hungry, exhausted and reduced to 1/3 of their previous strength, the French soldiers entered Moscow in orderly order. It was an exhausted, exhausted, but still fighting and formidable army. But it was an army only until the minute the soldiers of this army went to their apartments. As soon as the people of the regiments began to disperse to empty and rich houses, the army was destroyed forever and neither residents nor soldiers were formed, but something in between, called marauders. When, five weeks later, the same people left Moscow, they no longer constituted an army. It was a crowd of marauders, each of whom carried or carried with him a bunch of things that seemed valuable and necessary to him. The goal of each of these people when leaving Moscow was not, as before, to conquer, but only to retain what they had acquired. Like that monkey who, having put his hand into the narrow neck of a jug and grabbed a handful of nuts, does not unclench his fist so as not to lose what he has grabbed, and thereby destroys himself, the French, when leaving Moscow, obviously had to die due to the fact that they were dragging with the loot, but it was as impossible for him to throw away this loot as it is impossible for a monkey to unclench a handful of nuts. Ten minutes after each French regiment entered some quarter of Moscow, not a single soldier or officer remained. In the windows of the houses people in greatcoats and boots could be seen walking around the rooms laughing; in the cellars and basements the same people managed the provisions; in the courtyards the same people unlocked or beat down the gates of barns and stables; they laid fires in the kitchens, baked, kneaded and cooked with their hands rolled up, scared, made them laugh and caressed women and children. And there were many of these people everywhere, in shops and in homes; but the army was no longer there.
On the same day, order after order was given by the French commanders to prohibit troops from dispersing throughout the city, to strictly prohibit violence against residents and looting, and to make a general roll call that same evening; but, despite any measures. the people who had previously made up the army dispersed throughout the rich, empty city, abundant in amenities and supplies. Just as a hungry herd walks in a heap across a bare field, but immediately scatters uncontrollably as soon as it attacks rich pastures, so the army scattered uncontrollably throughout the rich city.
There were no inhabitants in Moscow, and the soldiers, like water into sand, were sucked into it and, like an unstoppable star, spread out in all directions from the Kremlin, which they entered first of all. The cavalry soldiers, entering a merchant's house abandoned with all its goods and finding stalls not only for their horses, but also extra ones, still went nearby to occupy another house, which seemed better to them. Many occupied several houses, writing in chalk who occupied it, and arguing and even fighting with other teams. Before they could fit in, the soldiers ran outside to inspect the city and, hearing that everything had been abandoned, rushed to where they could take away valuables for nothing. The commanders went to stop the soldiers and themselves unwittingly became involved in the same actions. In Carriage Row there were shops with carriages, and the generals crowded there, choosing carriages and carriages for themselves. The remaining residents invited their leaders to their place, hoping to thereby protect themselves from robbery. There was an abyss of wealth, and there was no end in sight; everywhere, around the place that the French occupied, there were still unexplored, unoccupied places, in which, as it seemed to the French, there was even more wealth. And Moscow sucked them in further and further. Just as when water pours onto dry land, water and dry land disappear; in the same way, due to the fact that a hungry army entered an abundant, empty city, the army was destroyed, and the abundant city was destroyed; and there was dirt, fires and looting.
The French attributed the fire of Moscow to au patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine [to Rastopchin's wild patriotism]; Russians – to the fanaticism of the French. In essence, there were no reasons for the fire of Moscow in the sense that this fire could be attributed to the responsibility of one or more persons. Moscow burned down due to the fact that it was placed in such conditions under which every wooden city should burn down, regardless of whether the city had one hundred and thirty bad fire pipes or not. Moscow had to burn down due to the fact that the inhabitants left it, and just as inevitably as a pile of shavings should catch fire, on which sparks of fire would rain down for several days. A wooden city, in which there are fires almost every day in the summer under the residents of the house owners and under the police, cannot help but burn down when there are no inhabitants in it, but live troops smoking pipes, making fires on Senate Square from Senate chairs and cooking themselves two once a day. Worth in peacetime troops settle into quarters in villages in a known area, and the number of fires in this area immediately increases. To what extent should the probability of fires increase in an empty wooden city in which an alien army is stationed? Le patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine and the fanaticism of the French are not to blame for anything here. Moscow caught fire from pipes, from kitchens, from fires, from the sloppiness of enemy soldiers and residents - not the owners of the houses. If there were arson (which is very doubtful, because there was no reason for anyone to set fire, and, in any case, it was troublesome and dangerous), then the arson cannot be taken as the cause, since without the arson it would have been the same.
No matter how flattering it was for the French to blame the atrocity of Rostopchin and for the Russians to blame the villain Bonaparte or then to place the heroic torch in the hands of their people, one cannot help but see that there could not have been such a direct cause of the fire, because Moscow had to burn, just as every village and factory had to burn , every house from which the owners will come out and into which strangers will be allowed to run the house and cook their own porridge. Moscow was burned by its inhabitants, it’s true; but not by those residents who remained in it, but by those who left it. Moscow, occupied by the enemy, did not remain intact, like Berlin, Vienna and other cities, only due to the fact that its inhabitants did not offer bread, salt and keys to the French, but left it.
The influx of Frenchmen, spreading like a star across Moscow on the day of September 2, reached the block in which Pierre now lived only in the evening.
After the last two days, spent alone and unusually, Pierre was in a state close to madness. His whole being was taken over by one persistent thought. He himself did not know how and when, but this thought now took possession of him so that he did not remember anything from the past, did not understand anything from the present; and everything that he saw and heard happened before him as in a dream.
Pierre left his home only to get rid of the complex tangle of life's demands that gripped him, and which he, in his then state, was able to unravel. He went to Joseph Alekseevich’s apartment under the pretext of sorting through the books and papers of the deceased only because he was looking for peace from the anxiety of life - and with the memory of Joseph Alekseevich, a world of eternal, calm and solemn thoughts was associated in his soul, completely opposite to the anxious confusion in which he felt himself being drawn in. He was looking for a quiet refuge and really found it in the office of Joseph Alekseevich. When, in the dead silence of the office, he sat down, leaning on his hands, over the dusty desk of the deceased, in his imagination, calmly and significantly, one after another, the memories of the last days began to appear, especially the Battle of Borodino and that indefinable feeling for him of his insignificance and falsity in comparison with the truth, simplicity and strength of that category of people who were imprinted on his soul under the name they. When Gerasim woke him from his reverie, the thought occurred to Pierre that he would take part in the supposed - as he knew - popular defense of Moscow. And for this purpose, he immediately asked Gerasim to get him a caftan and a pistol and announced to him his intention, hiding his name, to stay in the house of Joseph Alekseevich. Then, during the first solitary and idle day (Pierre tried several times and could not stop his attention on the Masonic manuscripts), he vaguely imagined several times the previously thought about the cabalistic meaning of his name in connection with the name of Bonaparte; but this thought that he, l "Russe Besuhof, was destined to put a limit to the power of the beast, came to him only as one of the dreams that run through his imagination for no reason and without a trace.
When, having bought a caftan (with the sole purpose of participating in the people's defense of Moscow), Pierre met the Rostovs and Natasha said to him: “Are you staying? Oh, how good it is!” – the thought flashed through his head that it would really be good, even if they took Moscow, for him to stay in it and fulfill what was predetermined for him.
Lev Abramovich Dodin. Born on May 14, 1944 in Stalinsk (now Novokuznetsk), Kemerovo region. Soviet and Russian theater director, screenwriter, teacher. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1986). People's Artist Russian Federation (1993). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1986) and Russia (1992, 2002, 2015).
Brother - David Dodin, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Niece - Dina Dodina, deputy artistic director Academic Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe.
From a family of native St. Petersburgers. In Stalinsk, where he was born, his family was evacuated.
After the end of the war in 1945, the family returned to Leningrad, where he grew up.
WITH early years Leo was passionate about the theater. His classmate was, with whom they attended the Theater of Youth Creativity (YUT) at the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers under the direction of Matvey Dubrovin.
After graduating from school in 1961, Dodin entered the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography. At first he studied in an acting group, where his classmates were Olga Antonova, Viktor Kostetsky, Natalya Tenyakova, Vladimir Tykke, Leonid Mozgovoy, Sergei Nadporozhsky and other future stars of Russian theater and cinema. However, he graduated from LGITMiK in 1966 at the directing department in the Zone workshop.
In the same 1966, Lev Dodin made his debut as a director with the teleplay “First Love” based on the story by I.S. Turgenev.
He worked at the Leningrad Youth Theater, staged the following plays: “Our Circus”; “Ours, only ours...”; “Tales of Chukovsky” (“Our Chukovsky”); “Open Lesson” - all in the work of Zinovy Korogodsky; “What would you choose?..” A. Kurgatnikova.
Started teaching in 1967 acting and directing at LGITMiK, trained more than one generation of actors and directors, professor, headed the department of directing at SPGATI. Lev Dodin developed his own own method training for theater directors. He said: “I would like to be able to convey to those who came to study directing a number of technological skills and immutable laws. Literary composition, spatial composition, musical composition, the law of counterpoint - usually directors are not taught this. I introduced these subjects in my course. Meyerhold once promised that he would write a textbook on directing, which would be very short and all based on music theory. This is correct, because real theater is always piece of music, regardless of whether there is music in it or not... Theater is a man-made craft. And, as in other crafts, experience here is passed on from generation to generation, from master to student."
In 1975-1979 he worked at the Drama and Comedy Theater on Liteiny, staged the plays “The Minor” by D. I. Fonvizin, “Rosa Berndt” by G. Hauptmann and others.
He staged performances on the Small Stage of the Bolshoi Drama Theater - the one-man show "The Meek" based on the story by F. M. Dostoevsky (1981) and at the Moscow Art Theater - "The Golovlevs" based on the novel by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1984), "The Meek" with Oleg Borisov ( 1985).
In 1975, Lev Dodin’s collaboration with the Maly Drama Theater began with the production of the play “The Robber” based on the play by K. Chapek. Since 1983 he has been the artistic director of the theater, and since 2002 the director.
Productions by Lev Dodin at the Maly Drama Theater:
“The Robber” by K. Capek;
"The Rose Tattoo" by T. Williams;
“Appointment” by A. Volodin;
“Live and Remember” based on the story by V. Rasputin;
“Home” based on the novel by F. Abramov;
“Bench” by A. Gelman. Directed by E. Arie;
“Brothers and Sisters” based on F. Abramov’s trilogy “Pryasliny”;
“Lord of the Flies” based on the novel by W. Golding;
“Towards the Sun” based on one-act plays by A. Volodin;
“Stars in the morning sky” A. Galina. Director T. Shestakova;
“The Old Man” based on the novel by Yu. Trifonov;
“Returned Pages” (literary evening);
“Gaudeamus” based on the story “Stroibat” by S. Kaledin;
“Demons” by F. M. Dostoevsky;
“The Broken Jug” by G. von Kleist;
“Love Under the Elms” by Y. O’Neill;
“The Cherry Orchard” by A.P. Chekhov;
“Claustrophobia” based on modern Russian prose;
“A Play Without a Title” by A. P. Chekhov;
“Chevengur” according to A.P. Platonov;
"Molly Sweeney" by B. Friel;
“The Seagull” by A.P. Chekhov;
“Moscow Choir” by L. Petrushevskaya;
“Uncle Vanya” by A.P. Chekhov;
"King Lear" by W. Shakespeare;
“Life and Fate” according to V. S. Grossman;
“Warsaw Melody” by L. Zorin;
"Long Journey into the Night";
“Love's Labour's Lost” by W. Shakespeare;
“Lord of the Flies” by W. Golding;
A Beautiful Sunday for a Broken Heart by T. Williams;
“Three Sisters” by A.P. Chekhov;
“Portrait with Rain” based on the screenplay by A. Volodin;
“Cunning and Love” by F. Schiller;
“Enemy of the People” by G. Ibsen;
“The Cherry Orchard” by A.P. Chekhov.
After a tour in England in 1988, the Maly Drama Theater (for the play “Stars in the Morning Sky”) was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award.
In 1992, Lev Dodin and the theater he led were invited to join the Union of European Theaters, and in September 1998, the Maly Drama Theater received the status of “Theater of Europe” - the third, after the Odeon Theater in Paris and the Piccolo Theater by Giorgio Strehler.
Lev Dodin's performances were performed in almost thirty countries around the world, including the USA, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, Israel, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Finland, Poland, Romania, Norway, Portugal, Canada, Holland, Austria, Yugoslavia, New Zealand, Belgium, Hungary.
In the fall of 1999, a festival of performances by Dodin was held in Italy.
The performance "Gaudeamus" was awarded the UBU Prize in Italy, the Laurence Olivier Certificate in England, the Prize for best performance on foreign language in France.
He staged performances abroad: “Electra” by R. Strauss (Salzburg Easter Festival and Teatro Communale as part of the Florence Musical May); “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by D.D. Shostakovich (Teatro Communale, Florence Musical May): “The Queen of Spades” by P.I. Tchaikovsky (Netherlands Opera (Stopera), Amsterdam).
The author of a number of books in which he talks about the secrets of theatrical art and directing - “Rehearsals for a play without a title”, “Dialogues with the world”, “Immersion in worlds”. In the books, the director shares the secrets of working on performances, interacting with actors, and describes rehearsal process.
Dodin said about his creative credo: “A constant striving for perfection with the awareness that it is unattainable. And a constant lively response to what is happening in life, and to what is happening to you. Knowledge of life is not mental, not at the level of theory, but through personal experience and imagination."
"Directing is a race for long distance. More than a marathon. It requires powerful life training - you need to lead a large group of artists somewhere, lead the theater as a whole, all the employees, spend a lot of money making decisions,” noted Lev Dodin.
Personal life of Lev Dodin:
Was married twice. No children.
First wife - Soviet and Russian actress theater and cinema, People's Artist of Russia. They were classmates at LGITMiK. The marriage quickly fell apart due to the fact that Natalya Tenyakova began a relationship with. As Tenyakova said, having fallen in love with Yursky, she honestly told Dodin about it: “When I realized what had hit me, I came and honestly admitted to Leva: “I’m sorry, but I fell in love.” He turned pale and asked: “God, with whom?” » I answered: “To Sergei Yursky.”
Second wife - Soviet and Russian theater and film actress, People's Artist of Russia.
Filmography of Lev Dodin:
1974 - God is somewhere in the crow... (documentary) - teacher (uncredited)
1990 - Lev Dodin. His Brothers and Sisters (documentary)
2006 - Zinovy Korogodsky. Return (documentary)
2007 - Cultural layer. Khochinsky and Shuranova (documentary)
2009 - Blue sea...white steamer...Valeria Gavrilin (documentary)
2009 - St. Petersburg. Contemporaries. Lev Dodin (documentary)
2009 - Leningrad stories. The Korogodsky case (documentary)
2010 - Life on the stage of your destiny (documentary)
2012 - Actor's Roulette. Yuri Kamorny (documentary)
Directed by Lev Dodin:
1965 - Ships in Lissa (film-play)
1966 - First love (film-play)
1982 - House (film-play)
1983 - Oh, these stars... (film-play)
1987 - Meek (film-play)
1989 - Stars in the morning sky (film-play)
2008 - Demons (film-play)
2009 - Chevengur (film-play)
2009 - Untitled play (film-play)
2009 - Moscow Choir (film-play)
Scripts by Lev Dodin:
2008 - Demons (film-play)
2016 - Life and Fate (film-play)
Bibliography of Lev Dodin:
2004 - Rehearsals for an untitled play
2005 - Journey Without End. Reflections and Memoirs. Platonov Observed: Rehearsal Notes
2009 - A journey without end. Immersion in worlds
2009 - A journey without end. Dialogues with the world
2010 - A journey without end. Immersion in worlds. Chekhov
2011 - A journey without end. Immersion in worlds. "Three Sisters"
2016 - Immersion in worlds. " Cherry Orchard»
Awards and titles of Lev Dodin:
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1986);
- People's Artist of the Russian Federation (October 26, 1993) - for great achievements in the field of theatrical art;
- USSR State Prize (1986) - for the performances “Home” and “Brothers and Sisters” based on the works of F. A. Abramov at the Maly Drama Theater;
- State Prize of the Russian Federation (1992) - for the play “We are given young years for fun” based on S. Kaledin’s story “Stroibat” at the Maly Drama Theater, St. Petersburg;
- State Prize of the Russian Federation (2002) - for the performance of the Academic Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe “Moscow Choir”;
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (March 24, 2009) - for his great contribution to the development of domestic theatrical art and many years of creative activity;
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (May 9, 2004) - for his great contribution to the development of theatrical art;
- Order of Honor (February 3, 2015) - for great merits in the development of national culture and art, television and radio broadcasting, the press and many years of fruitful activity;
- Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art 2000;
- Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1994) - for his enormous contribution to the cooperation of Russian and French cultures;
- Commander of the Order of the Star of Italy (Italy, December 12, 2016);
- European Theater Award (2000);
- Georgy Tovstonogov Prize (2002);
- Honorary Doctor of St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise (2006);
- Award of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia “Person of the Year” (2007);
- Honorary Member Russian Academy arts;
- Honorary President of the Union of European Theaters (2012);
- Theater Award “Golden Sofit” (2013);
- Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of culture (2014) for the creation of the play “Cunning and Love” based on the tragedy of F. Schiller;
- State Prize of the Russian Federation for 2015 in the field of literature and art (2016)
Lev Dodin not only directs the St. Petersburg MDT, which bears the title of Theater of Europe, but he has also been the head of the directing department at SPGATI for more than 20 years and during this time he has completed two directing courses. The result was strange. None of the directors released in 1994 even came close to the level of the teacher. And the master did not sign director’s diplomas at all for the 2007 graduates. Theater. I decided to ask Lev Dodin whether it was possible to teach directing at all and whether it was worth trying.
JZ: There are rumors that you were disappointed in the opportunity to teach directing and decided to abandon the set of directing courses altogether. How true is this?
LD: This was probably said in the hearts. But I think that it is literally impossible to teach directing; you can try to learn directing. IN in this case It depends on the student, perhaps even more than on the master. Because at the heart of directing—I’m afraid to say “art”—is a personal beginning. Everything is measured by the scale of the individual. Another thing is that, as it seems to me rightly, Kama Ginkas noted in his interview with Izvestia, a literate petty person is better than an illiterate petty person. I would like to be able to convey to those who come to study directing a number of technological skills and immutable laws. Literary composition, spatial composition, musical composition, the law of counterpoint - usually directors are not taught this. I introduced these subjects in my course. Meyerhold once promised that he would write a textbook on directing, which would be very short and all based on music theory. This is correct, because real theater is always a musical work, regardless of whether there is music in it or not. You can also try to teach the laws arising from Stanislavsky’s system. Of course, “Stanislavsky’s system” in this case is a conditional definition, because his literal instructions are obviously outdated, and then, he did not always express them successfully, using the formulas of his time. So it’s quite difficult to read “An Actor’s Work on Oneself” today, as opposed to “My Life in Art.” But besides “My Life in Art” you can read Stanislavsky’s artistic notes and his diaries. This is an amazing lesson because Stanislavsky constantly analyzes his technology and complains about its imperfections. Boris Vulfovich Zon told us that when the book “My Life in Art” was published, one of the not very gifted artists exclaimed with satisfaction: “So K.S. claims that he was a bad artist!” Stanislavski really brings to every role he plays huge amount reproaches. But Boris Vulfovich, who found Stanislavsky on stage, claimed that he was just an amazing artist. Both the same Salieri, whom he curses, and the same Othello were brilliantly played by him. It’s just that Stanislavsky always dreamed of achieving perfection. Perhaps this quality is the main thing in what we call the “Stanislavsky system”.
JZ: Perfectionism?
LD: Constantly striving for perfection while realizing that it is unattainable. And a constant live response to what is happening in life, and to what is happening to you. Knowledge of life is not mental, not at the level of theory, but through personal experience and imagination. You can try to teach this too. But this will only make sense if the student is a person with a great personal beginning. I have often encountered brilliant young people who initially promised a lot, but then quickly burned out. Directing is a long-distance race. More than a marathon. It requires powerful life training - you need to lead a large group of artists somewhere, lead the theater as a whole, all the employees, spend a lot of money making decisions... I remember when I was young it was simply killing me what I had to say, do this or that way, and the amount that will be spent depends on this. So the first successes should not deceive. Brook got off to a great start and for many years Strehler continued powerfully, saying the same thing. That's why they are great. But many who started next to them stopped very quickly. A person puts on his first performance at approximately 25 years old, that is, he expresses the experience of 25 years of his life, and the next performance is usually released no later than a year later - that is, the new experience is only a year old. And it all depends on the intensity with which the director is able to refresh and enrich this experience and how interested he is in receiving impressions.
JZ: What kind of impressions should he strive to get?
LD: First of all, these should be experiences that raise the level of culture. When we started the directing course, I tried to introduce all those subjects that I was not taught and the lack of which I had felt all my life. In general, I am sure that directing education is not an institute, an institute is only the first step, apprenticeship has always played a huge role. Theater is a man-made craft. And, as in other crafts, experience here is passed on from generation to generation, from master to student. That's how it was with artists early Renaissance- when belonging to a particular workshop determined a lot in the artist’s fate. Then he became independent, but staying in the workshop, where he was already semi-independent, but continued to work next to the master, is, it seems to me, a wonderful stage, which today is practically erased from the theatrical experience.
ZhZ: Well, the very model of a theater led by a master is becoming a thing of the past.
LD: And at the same time there are a lot of theaters, and a lot of performances are staged. Young directors are in demand. And therefore the need to gain experience, intelligence and artistic impressions does not mean too much. Reviews are published for any performance, one of them will always be laudatory - and this is precisely what is important for the director, all the rest can be explained by the fact that the authors are stupid or biased. There is also enough money for fees for everyone. So you can calmly move on to the next performance. In my time, the problem was exactly the opposite: it was difficult for a young director to break through, because directing was considered an ideological profession. For the most part, I remember my young years in the theater without joy, but I am grateful to fate for giving me the opportunity to work for quite a long time as a second director at the Youth Theater, learning a lot from Zinovy Yakovlevich Korogodsky. Including what not to do. That is, my, so to speak, professional and moral position was also formed there. This is a very important issue for a director, because our profession is not only about self-expression, like an artist or composer. In the theater, colors are the artists, they are the objects and subjects of the director's influence. You must be able to behave with dignity, be at least as high as they are, and at the same time be sure to lead them somewhere. It is not for nothing that the director is compared to a captain who leads a ship and tells the crew that we are going on the right course, although he is not at all sure that there will be land there. It doesn’t matter that Columbus was looking for a shortcut to India, but discovered America. It is important that he sailed to some shores and kept the crew believing that they were sailing to the right place. The fact that you can discover something unexpected along the way is wonderful and joyful, but the most important thing is to try to swim and search. It seems to me that the biggest problem in today's directing is, oddly enough, ossification within certain taste boundaries, which are not supported by either culture or bright life experience, but represent a kind of reality in which everything is turned upside down and for this reason alone has the right to exist. And it also seems to me that both critics and the older generation of directors, seeing all this, are afraid to say that the king has no clothes, they are afraid of being in the minority, of being accused of stupidity and senile grumbling. They seem to succumb to a strange belief that if everything is turned upside down, it means it’s necessary and it means something, but in fact it’s just a sign of complete unpreparedness and inability. The fact that such inability is becoming more and more common throughout Europe today is the crisis of the theater. The fact that today the theater of high literature is increasingly disappearing into oblivion and being replaced by visual actions speaks of some of our savagery. Because it was the archaic that was visual in its manifestations: the savage danced some kind of dance before and after the hunt, because at that time he could not yet express himself even with the help of drawings, not to mention writing. And now we often return to this archaic, if not super-savagery. At the same time, any modern theatrical, so to speak, “dance”, which in fact has no meaning, finds an explanation, because anything can be explained. And this situation, of course, greatly influences the growth of incivility in the theater.
JZ: But visual theater is not necessarily synonymous with cultureless theatre?
LD: Not necessarily. Pina Bausch, for example, had a wonderful visual theater, but it was created in an era when there was also a very powerful theater nearby great literature, but today there is less and less of this theater, it is almost no longer in demand - by criticism, in any case. He is in great demand among the audience: we travel a lot around the world and in Russia - and we see that from the world's capitals to the outskirts, the audience responds extremely keenly to the live theater of great literature. Look what happened in Paris at “Demons” - a nine-hour performance in a foreign language. The viewer craves this kind of art, because it is the only one that gives him the opportunity to collectively empathize with something and, even if only for a moment, to get out of his loneliness, to hear that someone is suffering no less than he is, because great literature is a description of the suffering of humanity.
ZhZ: So, in your opinion, images will never be able to perform such a function?
LD: I don’t think they can. Again, the value of an image depends on how deep a thought it expresses. We often see interesting images and metaphors that express a very primitive thought. You can imagine a very metaphorical “Hamlet”, but if in it Hamlet is a priori good, and Claudius is a priori bad, then the metaphors will not tell me anything new. And there is a lot of such theater - supposedly metaphorical. He imitates the works of the masters of metaphorical theater, which contains very important new meanings. For example, in Nyakrosius’s “Hamlet” there are discoveries related to the ghost of his father, there is his final cry of despair, because he understands that he has given birth to another murder and caused the death of his own son. When intellectual and sensory discovery takes place, metaphor gives a lot. But today we most often come across an imitation of metaphor when it either expresses flat thoughts or does not contain any thoughts at all. Such a director usually lets the artists do what they want - in best case scenario He will spread them apart so that they don’t collide.
ZhZ: Not long ago, your student Dmitry Volkostrelov, who did not receive a directing diploma, staged the play “The Locked Door” based on the play by Pavel Pryazhko. So, there is a very clearly expressed idea that imitation is a diagnosis modern society. Imitation of everything: activities, feelings, life as such.
LD: Yes, I heard that it was an interesting performance, but I haven’t seen it yet. Is this a youth show?
ZhZ: All your students work there - Volkostrelova’s classmates: Alena Starostina, Ivan Nikolaev, Pavel Chinarev, Dmitry Lugovkin and others. They continue to stick together - and obviously understand each other.
LD: Thank God. I'm glad. I think that the idea you are talking about is not without meaning. Stanislavsky makes a very sharp distinction between the concepts of “rhythm” and “tempo”. This is why the concept of “tempo rhythm” arises. Often the tempo can be very fast, but the rhythm is zero. And vice versa, the tempo can be very slow, but the rhythm - that is, the tension of spiritual life, the heartbeat - can be very high. I don’t want to seem like a false patriot from St. Petersburg, but I once worked for two years in Moscow, which I always loved very much, and still love, and suddenly I discovered that there was a frantic pace of life with a very low rhythm. Moreover, this can only be understood from the inside, because on the outside everything seems to be actively living, moving, arguing with each other. But it turned out that internally everything stood still. This is a problem in today's culture in general - when social issues replace artistic issues. For example, in England (or in France - it doesn’t matter) it is much easier to get a grant for a play where two Africans, two Japanese and two Jews are involved than for a play where all the English are involved and they are staging Shakespeare or Chekhov.
ZhZ: There are other criteria: film directors, for example, assure that it is quite easy to get money from producers if you convince them that you are going to make an arthouse film.
LD: But, you must admit, it’s quite strange to consciously say that I’m making an arthouse. I do what I do. I'm learning something. What this will lead to is unpredictable. As you know, the smell of a rose is described in a thousand ways. To find a new one, there are two options: either find out these thousand ways and find the thousand and first, or don’t know any of them and accidentally blurt out something hitherto unseen. I think the second trend is now greatly suppressing the first.
ZhZ: Lev Abramovich, does it follow from what you just said that directors should be trained in the theater of words - and if they can professionally perform this, relatively speaking, traditional work, then they can then calmly go looking for something else, new?
LD: I would say not to the theater of words, but to the theater of great literature, of great themes. After all, it is not for nothing that literature has been created for centuries and it is not for nothing that it has presented the world with so many titans of thought. Today I have the honor to be a member of the Big Book jury. Dmitry Bykov's book about Pasternak and Pavel Basinsky's book about Leo Tolstoy win almost in a row. It seems that these are not modern figures that are very difficult to analyze from the perspective of today's life. But due to the fact that there is a powerful hero, his personality elevates the authors themselves. I would even say so: there are three hypostases Bolshoi Theater- great literature, big painting and great music. That's why we need to study. The very need to learn already indicates the presence of a personal beginning. A petty personality is usually satisfied with himself. He who is not satisfied with himself, who understands that there is a world around him that he does not know, is ready to be an apprentice, to be second. After all, in essence, discipleship occurs throughout one’s life. Like Tsvetaeva: “The hour of apprenticeship, it is solemnly inevitable in everyone’s life.”
ZhZ: Why did your students upset you so much that you even decided to abandon the idea of training directors?
LD: No, I didn’t decide to refuse. I'm even thinking about next year take a directing course. Because both one and the other generation of my graduates have now discovered some shortcomings that I could not foresee.
JZ: Are these generational shortcomings?
LD: No, personal. As a result, it turned out that it was personal. Because people very quickly learn external things and technology, but find the internal with great difficulty. Even Tovstonogov, who knew how to teach directors, said this. In each course he had several notable figures, and today his students still determine much in modern theater. But Tovstonogov also complained to me several times that he could not go to the performances of his students, because he never expected that he would grow up like this. Maybe sometimes he was wrong - indeed, a student is important only when he refutes the teacher in something. My teacher Boris Vulfovich Zon also never went to performances with the participation of his famous students. And I understand what he was afraid of: losing the energy of delusion - he thinks that he has learned, and then he will see the devil. Once he did go, because it was a personal invitation - the artist Leonid Dyachkov made an independent performance based on “ Dead souls" The next day, I remember, Boris Vulfovich came to the audience shocked. “It turns out that's a good thing,” he said. “I never expected it.” This healthy skepticism of a teacher is extremely necessary, I miss it.
JZ: Do you like your students?
LD: I like the actors. Yes, and directors are developing. We just have to wait. So you say, Dima Volkostrelov staged a good performance. All five years he aspired to directing - although during the course he did not really show himself as a director, but he studied diligently, this is true. And I'm glad if it grows now. I am happy about any success of my students.
ZhZ: Dima, unlike many young directors, regularly visits the library.
LD: This is exactly what, it seems to me, they have learned - to read books: about life and about art. This in itself is not so little, but I want more.
ZhZ: Did your two directing courses differ in principles or forms of training?
LD: The first course was acting and directing: we first recruited a group of directors of 9 people, and the next year we recruited artists, and this last course was acting and directing, that is, all the students were recruited at the same time and studied for five years, but some of them applied for directing. And here it’s interesting: in the course where they recruited directors first and then actors, the artists turned out to be the somewhat injured party, because a lot of effort was devoted to the directors and there was such a connecting link between me and the student actors - the directing course. As a result, the actors, it seems to me, have lost something. But in the acting and directing course, those who tried to learn directing lost a lot, because I didn’t work with them much, I thought that if they understood everything that we do with the artists when writing a play, then they will, willy-nilly, learn something . This is how I studied with Boris Vulfovich Zon: he didn’t teach me a single lesson on directing. I entered an acting course, from the first year I began to do independent tests, and somewhere at the end of the second, Boris Vulfovich transferred me to the directing department. I was, of course, happy that I had a whole acting course at my disposal: I could try anything with them and assist Boris Vulfovich in graduation performances. But Boris Vulfovich was very ironic about the director’s profession, oddly enough. After all, he himself was at one time a brilliant director, but he believed so much in the art of acting according to Stanislavsky that he considered directing to be deeply secondary. He consoled my mother, telling her about me: “Well, if he doesn’t succeed with directing, artistic reading he can always study.”
ZhZ: I understand correctly that from latest issue You didn’t give anyone a director’s diploma?
LD: We issued a diploma to Sergei Shchipitsin after he staged three performances. But everyone has the right to receive it. Here, Lena Solomonova is showing directorial inclinations, and I would like to somehow help her advance.
JZ: Are there any works of your first graduate directors that impress you?
LD: Well, for example, I see how Igor Konyaev is growing - yes, in fact, he has already grown. He very energetically strove to direct, was very hard-working - Igor wrote huge term papers. We were then working on “A Play Without a Title,” and the students had a task: to find materials about the life of a landowner, the life of an estate late XIX century. So Konyaev wrote an entire dissertation. He is a very meticulous person. Now he heads the Russian Theater in Riga, and I think this is fair. I am pleased with how Oleg Dmitriev is growing: he happily, it seems to me, combines his acting growth (he played many serious roles on stage) with his directorial growth. Oleg founded his small theater, which does not prevent him from working at MDT. Oleg Dmitriev has certain tastes, artistic preferences, he is very educated - and, like Konyaev, hardworking and pedantic. It seems to me that from performance to performance this brings more and more fruit. I am very interested in the development of Yura Kordonsky, who has already become a full-time professor (and this is a very serious position) at Stanford University, in my opinion. Yuri stages performances all over the world, in Romania they simply carry him in their arms. But at the same time he remained a very soft, subtle and outwardly discreet person. Yura worked very interestingly with us on “The House of Bernarda Alba.” So you just have to be able to wait - the director's talent manifests itself gradually.
Lev Dodin is a St. Petersburg theater director who trained artists and directors whose names are today known throughout Russia. Lev Abramovich teaches at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, gives master classes in foreign theater schools and is a member of the jury of theatrical and literary prizes.
The artistic director of the Maly Drama Theater in St. Petersburg is the winner of many prestigious Russian and foreign awards in the field of art, winner of the Golden Mask and Golden Soffit awards.
Childhood and youth
Lev Abramovich Dodin was born on May 14, 1944 in the city of Stalinsk, which is now called Novokuznetsk. There the boy's parents waited out the evacuation from Leningrad during the difficult times of the siege. When the war was over, the residents of the city returned to their homes, and with them the Dodin family.
Little Lev was interested in theater from his youth. He often went to children's and then youth productions on St. Petersburg stages. As a schoolboy, he studied at the Theater of Youth Creativity, organized at the Palace of Pioneers. It was at this time that the boy realized that he wanted to connect his life with theater. The first knowledge about the theater was given to Lev by the head of the circle, Matvey Dubrovin. After graduating from school, Dodin knew exactly what he wanted to become.
In 1961, he entered the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography, becoming a student of Boris Zone. Classmates young man turned out to be Leonid Mozgovoy, Sergei Nadporozhsky and other artists who in the future became famous theater figures.
Dodin studied acting, but graduated a year later, as at the same time he mastered the profession of director. Having received his diploma in 1966, a year later the newly minted director taught acting and the basics of directing to students at his alma mater.
Theater
Lev Dodin's directorial debut took place in 1966. A recent graduate directed the television play “First Love” based on the story. Then he was offered a job at the Theater for Young Spectators in Leningrad. In 1973, the premiere of the play "Our People - Let's Number" took place. Within the walls of the Youth Theater, Dodin collaborated with director Zinovy Korogodsky, adopting his experience and approach to working with actors.
After some time, at the Liteiny Theater he produced the productions “The Minor” and “Rosa Berndt”. In 1975, the Maly Drama Theater appeared in the life of Lev Dodin, with which the biography of the director will be connected in the future.
The first performance within the walls of the theater, which became the director’s home, was “The Robber” based on the work. The troupe was then involved in work on the productions “The Appointment” and “The Rose Tattoo”. A premiere that made it possible to talk about Dodin as one of best directors modernity, became the play “Home” based on the novel. In 1983, Lev Abramovich accepted the post of artistic director of MDT and has held it ever since.
The first production in his new role was the play “Brothers and Sisters”. This is a project with a difficult fate, which made its way onto the stage through the thorns of censorship and became indicative of the concept of “Dodin’s method.” Artistic trends and the tools inherent in the director’s creative style were formed during this period. The director's performances leave few people indifferent, and thanks to his school, more than one MDT artist has gained all-Russian fame.
Dodin's method is being studied by theater experts. Critics conclude that the word plays a major role in the master’s productions, and with its help, what is described on stage acquires global significance. Monologues and dialogues in the director’s performances are extremely important, and he himself creates his works as a single whole, in which everything is interconnected and there are justified cause-and-effect relationships.
Lev Dodin promotes the concept of a theater-house, in which all participants creative process work together, creating a common project as artists and creators. Dodin does not attend screenings of performances free seats. Tickets for productions are sold out regardless of age.
Directing the Maly Drama Theater for many decades, Lev Abramovich Dodin staged on its stage the plays “Stars in the Morning Sky”, “Gaudeamus”, “Lord of the Flies”, “Brothers and Sisters”, “Demons”, “King Lear”, “Insidiousness and love”, “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, “Life and Fate” and others. The master pays great attention classical repertoire and often turns to works. The MDT hosts “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “The Cherry Orchard”, “A Play Without a Title”, which invariably attracts fans of the works of Dodin and Chekhov.
Lev Dodin is not known for his gentleness when working with actors. He is demanding and expects complete trust and understanding in joint work. Among famous artists his theater and students - Pyotr Semak, Igor Konyaev, Leonid Alimov, Andrey Rostovsky and others. The Dodin school became the talk of the town in St. Petersburg and other theater cities in Russia.
In 1992, MDT became part of the Union of European Theaters and since 1998 received the name Maly Drama Theater of Europe. In this status, he was third after the Parisian Odeon and Strehler’s Piccolo in Milan. In 2002, Lev Dodin became director of MDT. His name is known today in Europe, and the director is a representative of modern Russian theatrical art. The director regularly gives master classes abroad, collaborates with foreign theaters and is a jury member at various competitions and awards.
Now Lev Dodin is the author of several dozen opera and dramatic performances performed on stages around the world. The director staged “Bankrupt” at the Finnish National Theatre, and at the Moscow Art Theater he produced “Salome” and “Electra”, “The Meek” and “The Golovlev Lords”. Main musical performances he produced in collaboration with James Conlon and Claudio Abbado, the greatest conductors of our time.
The creative achievements and successes of the theater figure were awarded state prizes of the USSR and the Russian Federation, as well as the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation.
Books
Lev Abramovich shares his perception of theatrical art, the concept of the director's method and his approach to working with works in author's books. In 2004, he published the work “Rehearsals of a Play Without a Title,” which tells the story of a laboratory in which work is being carried out on a future production. This is a rehearsal recording showing how the text takes on a visual form on stage.
The book “Dialogues with the World” of the “Journey Without End” series talks about the development and problems modern culture and theater. She combined conversations with colleagues, descriptions of master classes and laboratories, interviews and a unique narrative about the life of MDT from 1984 to 2008, as well as recordings of rehearsals.
The second book, continuing the cycle, is called “Immersion in Worlds” and has a similar focus. It contains recordings of rehearsals for 3 program productions of the theatre: “Demons”, “Gaudeamus” and “Chevengur”. The subsequent books in the series have a similar concept and describe the work on the performance, interaction with the artists, analysis of the literary basis of the productions, the rehearsal process and the passage of material with the performers.
Personal life
Lev Abramovich does not talk about relationships with colleagues, partners creative projects, friends and relatives. Some share this information about Dodin in interviews, but the director’s personal life remains in the shadows. It is known that the director was married to actress Natalya Tenyakova, but the marriage broke up.
Today Lev Dodin is married to MDT theater artist Tatyana Shestakova. Their relationship is not always easy, but the couple has been married for quite a long time. The director's wife also does not talk about family relationships. There are no children in their union. Published on the Internet rare photos, which depict the creative couple.
Lev Dodin now
Lev Abramovich Dodin continues his directorial and pedagogical activity. MDT regularly produces new productions, and its director participates in open master classes and becomes a guest on programs about culture and art.
Theater productions
- 1980 – “Home”
- 1985 – “Brothers and Sisters”
- 1987 – “Stars in the morning sky”
- 1990 – “Gaudeamus”
- 1997 – “A Play Without a Title”
- 2001 – “The Seagull”
- 2003 – “Uncle Vanya”
- 2006 – “King Lear”
- 2007 – “Life and Fate”
- 2008 – “Love’s Labour’s Lost”
- 2009 – “Lord of the Flies”
- 2010 – “Three Sisters”
- 2014 – “The Cherry Orchard”
- 2017 – “Hamlet”
Bibliography
- 2004 – “Rehearsals for “A Play Without a Title”
- 2005 – “Journey Without End. Reflections and Memoirs. Platonov"
- 2009 – “A journey without end. Dialogues with the world"
- 2009 – “A journey without end. Immersion in worlds"
- 2010 – “A journey without end. Immersion in worlds. Chekhov"
- 2011 – “A journey without end. Immersion in worlds. "Three Sisters"
- 2016 – “Immersion in worlds. "The Cherry Orchard"