The Studio of Theatrical Arts, headed by Sergei Zhenovatch opened in Moscow in 2005. The company consists of Zhenovastvh’s graduate students at the Russian Theatre Academy (GITIS) in Moscow. The theatre constitutes a sort of fusion of the new drama, “the angry generation” of Russian directors that engages in the ideological contention with what is called “modern art”. The Studio came into being as realization of one of the most spectacular initiative of the present day. Not only does it carry on the tradition of the Russian psychological theatre, but instill a new life and the youthful ardor into it. The elevated ethical standards, precision and subtlety of performance style have become the fundamental principles pursued by the company. The company’s repertoire features famous dramas and adaptations of the most complicated prose: Dostoyevsky, Goncharov, Shakespeare, Sholom-Aleihem. The next premier will be Gogol’s The Gamblers. Amazingly, it is the stagings of the classics that have enjoyed highly enthusiastic response of both critics and audiences. For two years on end the company’s productions have been nominated for Russia’s most prestigious theatrical prize – the Golden Mask. It has also come up with prize-winning productions at theatre festivals all across Russia.

In the Spring of 2005 the GITIS theatre was the venue of the festival called quite suggestively “Six Performances in Search of a Theatre”. The program of the festival featured diploma projects of Zhenovach’s students, the director considering himself the disciple and follower of Peter Fomenko. At a press conference that followed shortly the students announced their decision to stay together and set up a studio theatre to be called the Studio of Theatrical Arts.

The springing up of a new theatre is by itself quite and exiting event. But for the past two seasons the enthusiastic response of critics and audiences reflected the hopes the company aroused by the company identification of itself as a family and the “theatre–as-a-home”. Understanding the earnestness of their intentions and appreciating the boldness of the endeavor will require to recall the original meaning of this sacred notion of “theatre-as-a-home”.

The age-long Russian longing for “theatre-as-a-home”, passed on from Stanislavsky to all the founders and practitioners of theatre, has become a kind of genetic code and a sign what can be called genealogy of theatre. After Stanislavsjy the idea of “theatre-as-a-home” as a community of like-minded artists, sharing the same faith, has been time and again springing up in the Russian theatre. It was the idea of cleansing the arts of the corroding effects of bourgeois tastes. The faith in the ethic power of the arts, their ability to act upon a human soul, educate and guide it has always been part and parcel of the Russian theatre. “Theatre-as-a-home” deals with the problems that have confronted more than one generation of Russian public. It shows how the eternal human values are transformed under the impact and in the context of the modernity. The foundation for this home is made out of trust, the ability to hear each other and love, or rather being in love with each other, with the theatre, with one’s educator. The home and the family that lives in it. That was how the Moscow Art Theatre was created and it also holds true for the companies of Benson, Andre Antuan and Jacques Copeau, Lev Dodin. Ten years ago Peter Fomenko and his students founded a studio-theatre.

It is the privilege of the youth to carelessly follow the behest of their hearts, lay aside the requirements of the repertory theatre and conduct uncompromising quest for new languages in theatre. Modeling theatre companies on the characterization principle, keeping the actors to perform elderly characters, box-office orientation in shaping the repertoire – these and other items of the “agreement” between theatre and audience – dissolve the theatre family and ultimately forces theatres to make compromises and concessions. When the Moscow Art Theatre became repertory, the First MAT Studio was created to carry on Stanislavsky’s creative quests.

The philosophic and unhurried discourse, selfless devotion to theatre have today fallen to the lot of willful and established “last men standing”, like Anatoly Vasiliev or Kama Ginkas. They can afford ignoring the violent rhythms and the importunate bustle and of the present day. Sergei Zhenovatch seems to have found balance between these outwardly antagonistic trends. Zhenovatch and his disciples have managed to create a new camaraderie in faith.

Today the Studio’s repertoire features five productions, three of which are based upon extremely complicated Russian philosophic prose, Marienbad, based on the novel by insightful Sholom-Aleihem, and Shakespeare’s As You Like It that was staged by the then student of the Department of Directing Alexander Koruchekov.

This Shakespeare’s comedy lasts full three hours, almost without cuts. The director kept all the incredibly long verbal duels, all the shades of Jeaque’s melancholy, all the scenes with minor characters. The result was a production of a truly Shakespearean magnitude.

Deceptions, practical jokes, flippant love affairs of the young boys, crazy caprices of the girls, inconceivable transformations, escapades – all this is seething and ringing through the nocturnal autumnal forest. That was one of the last comedies written by Shakespeare and the stage is veiled in sadness, or rather premonition of grief. The performance is largely focused on dismal Jeaques who all of sudden shows up in various parts of the forest, making the other characters, who mock him, to stop for a moment and think.

In Marienbad the actors, then the students of the Academy, also decided not to limit themselves to the tangle of loves or to reconstruct the atmosphere of a fashionable resort. Being fully aware of Sholom-Aleihem’s subtle sadness they engaged in a serious discourse about love and fear of losing it. And again the earnestness with inconceivable lightness grew out of the weightless floating fabric of the performance in which the blues sounded as beautiful overtones to the dashing and seemingly cheerful melody of the production.

The diploma project of Zhenovach’s students, The Boys, based on several chapters of The Karamazov Brothers was nominated for the Golden Mask Award. This production was either revered by public or rejected entirely. But no one was disinterested. Even though the attitudes differed radically, this production became a kind of manifesto, first for the students and later for the actors of the Studio. The sentimental motifs in The Boys was leveled by the expression of stoic faith in the possibility of radical transformation of a person’s inner world and in the ultimate triumph of goodness.

The Oblomov Syndrome, based on Goncharov’s novel, was performed very tenderly, like a mother’s lullaby about the growth of a man, his maturation and passing dying away quietly.

The company endeavored to tell a man’s life story a man’s life within a short period of scenic time. Ilia Oblomov is a gentle and good-natured philosopher who in the end of the day appears to be the hero and the martyr of his faith. He suffers losses, bids farewell to his beloved only to carry through years his true nature and the purity of his spirit. It is precisely this cleanness and honesty that fill his seemingly monotonous existence and idleness with meaning and elevated spirituality.

The Studio conceives of a play as a was of imparting meaning to the world around us, the method of giving flesh and blood to the great abstract ideas. Sergei Zhenovach’s recent production of A Family in Decline, based on Nikolai Leskov’s unfinished family chronicle, was nominated for the Golden Mask 2007 award. In contrast to the earlier stagings where a captious critic could find some errors that typify students’ works, this production convincingly demonstrated that Zhenovatch’s former students had become his reliable and perfectly proficient partners. Says Zhenovatch: “The most important thing is to be fully aware of our common purpose in theatre. This is not an abstract metaphor, but the meaning of our lives”. In this production yesterday’s students with total selflessness and perfect professionalism enact the destinies of several generation of a family throughout the 19th century. Without any special make-up or characteristic physical presence gorgeous Maria Shashlova evolves from the young woman in love to maturity and finally to old age. What remains invariable throughout the play is the soul and faith as the fundamental values for the character and for the Studio as a whole. Once again the Studio endeavors to incarnate the human spirit on stage – the effort that has all too often been mocked as a utopia or a theatrical gag and that Stanislavsky was trying to accomplish throughout his “life in theatre”.