Vsevold Meyerhold

Meyerhold was a Russian actor and director who formulated the system of Biomechanics.
" It's very important in biomechanics that you're working with very simple things, very simple movements.  You put them together and you can make something very complicated.  But they are, in essence, simple. "( Levinski, 1995)
RESOURCES

BOOKS:
Brestoff, R.(1995) The Great Acting Teachers and their Methods, A Smith and Kraus Book, USA. ​
Pitiches, J. (2003) Vsevold Meyerhold, London: Routledge
Schmidt, P.(ed) (1996) Meyerhold at Work, New York: Applause

WEBSITES:

Meyerhold - Theatre Links

Meyerhold - Wikipedia overview

Meyerhold - Actor Training

Free online course on Biomechanics through Future Learn and University of Leeds - I have done it and found it really worth while.
Basic Skills of Biomechanics
  • Precision - based on the development level of precision.  He looked to the practice of circus performers and acrobats who depend on it for their own safety.
  • Balance - A balanced actor is a confident actor and a confident actor is someone who wants to share their talents with the audience.
  • Coordination _ You need to mater your own individual moving parts.  from a group perspective your individual movements need to operate in harmony with the rest of the ensemble. 
  • Efficiency - Never waster energy on stage.
  • Rhythm - Rhythm was the glue that held everything together.  He used a tripartite rhythm made up of three parts: otkaz -preparation; posil - action; and tochka - end point.
  • Expressiveness - is the means by which the actor communicates with the audience.
  • Responsiveness - An actor needs to be permanently switched on or responsive to what is happening to you.
  • Playfulness and Discipline _ two sides of the same coin, in a delicate balance with one another.

Meyerhold and Design
  • the movement of individual performers
  • the physical relationship between the characters
  • the composition of any grouping or sub-groupings
  • the atmosphere of a particular scene

Theatricalising the Grotesque 
  • Stylisation
  • Restrictions
  • Double narrative
  • Montage
  • Charaterisation
  • Use of props
  • The grotesque
  • Active and passive

(Pitches: 2003) 

Meyerhold Theatre and Biomechanics- Screener- Contempary Arts Media Film - Via Youtube

Influence of Charlie Chaplin

Meyerhold believed that Chaplin naturally embodied the principles of biomechanics. Meyerhold called Chaplin's film - Modern Times(1936) a "monumental canvas".  Watch for Chaplin's link to Meyerhold.


  • use of monatage as a director
  • careful exposure to the hierachies in the workplace
  • timing and rtyhmical awareness of the work on the conveyer belt
  • use of mask
  • intergration of music and action
  • physical precision, balance and expressiveness
  • punctuation of the action with stillness. 

(Prtiches:2003)
Etudes
These are the physical training to help an actor.  Meyerhold believed and actor should train like a musician and the etudes were the "practicing" the body needed to do to fine tune the instrument. The first two are solo etudes and the other three are duos.
  1. Throwing the stones
  2. Shooting the Bow
  3. The Slap
  4. The Stab with the Dagger
  5. The Leap to the Chest

Gogol's Inspector General

Gogol's Inspector General is a key production to understand and visualise how Meyerhold applied his techniques to stage.  in Pritches(2003) their is a detail analysis it.  Well worth a read.