SOVIET RUSSIA SAID TO NEED MORE THEATRES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6843, 22 February 1929, Page 7

SOVIET RUSSIA SAID TO NEED MORE THEATRES

HEAD OF ART DEPARTMENT SAYS PROVINCIAL HOUSE 3 ARE LACKING.

MOSCOW, Jan. 15.

Above the entranco to tho Moscow State Opera House is written the slogan*. “Art for the Toilers.’’ And at the opera performances ono finds visual evidence that this idea, to some oxtent at least, is being carried into practice. The pre-revolutionary Russian opera was one of the most strictly fashionable functions in tho world; the spectator felt out of place if he did not wear a dress suit. Now tho situation is quito reversed; tho plain worker’s blouse or the woman witu a shawl over her head instead of an elaborate coiffure are familiar sights in the opera house of the present day. In an effort to find out just what practical steps are being taken to bring art into the lives of the masses of the people a correspondent of an overseas paper interviewed A. I. Sviderskv head of the Glaviskusstvo, or art department of tho Commissariat for Education, which exercises supervision over theatres, museums and other places of amusement and instruction. Mr. Sviderslcy declared that more and larger theatres, were needed ito cope with tho increasing audiences ‘of the present time. Mr. Svidersky emphasised the need for developing the Russian provincial theatres. Of the 260 cities and towns with a population of moro than 5000, 180 possess theatres; but half of these are unsuitable in size and equipment for any very ambitious performances. Besides trying to accommodate moro spectators at the regular theatres, the Glaviskusstvo helps to organise performances of operas, plays and concerts in the larger workers ’ clubs, which are located in factory districts. Interpretive lectures are given, with a view to making these performances more educational in character. A new typo of theatre called the Tram (the abbreviation for Theatre of Working-Class Youth) has come into existence; it recruits its actors from the factory bench and specialises in

plays dealing with working-class life. There are also 20,000 dramatic circles in the villages and an institution called the House of Polenov has been created to help these village dramatic circles with stage aecessoiies and decorations. Mr. Svidcrsky declared that the Soviet Government makes every effort to preserve both the buildings and the cultural achievements of the old Bussi an theatres. The greater part of the sums allotted in the form of subsidies go for the maintenance of the Moscow and Leningrad operas.