G. A. Tovstonogov and “And Quiet Flows the Don”

Abstract

G. A. Tovstonogov, an outstanding director of the second half of the 20th century, will always stimulate a keen interest of theorists, historians, directors, teachers, and anyone who is fascinated by theater. The author was encouraged to write this article by the book “Georgy Tovstonogov rehearses “Quiet Don”, which was published in 2010 (recorded by his trainee M. E. Karnaukhova). The article analyses some features of how Tovstonogov worked on this performance, namely introducing a Chorus into the performance as one of its leading characters, completion of the text and shift of the episodes that had been implemented in the course of work. The work on performance of “Quiet Don” had not been finished by the beginning of rehearsals that, on the one hand, resulted in some difficulties, but, on the other hand, promoted collaboration between the actors. The key compositional principle was intertwound scenes of the past and present. At the Arts Council E. Kochergin, an artist, noted that the idea to introduce these flows created an epic tone. Even a brief analysis of the rehearsal period of the play “Quiet Don”, presented in this article, can help to trace an origin of the performance “Quiet Don” and to shed light on extensive materials on Tovstonogov’s creative works.

Keywords:

creative works by G. A. Tovstonogov, performance “And Quiet Flows The Don”, analysis of the rehearsal process