The deadline for applications for the first Demidov Acting Technique Russian Summer School near Moscow is May 15.
The Summer School will take place in July and will comprise two, 10-day sessions, with participants able to choose to do one or both 10-day training period, with sight seeing organised on rest days.
The Summer School will be taught by Professor Andrei Malaev-Babel, one of the few authorities on and specialists in the practice of the revolutionary Russian acting pedagogue Nikolai Demidov, and Veniamin Filshtinsky, one of Russia’s foremost acting teachers.
About Nikolai Demidov
Nikolai Demidov’s School of Acting – Pedagogy of the Future
Nikolai Demidov’s School of Acting is Russian Theatre’s best-kept secret. Until the first decade of the 21st century, the name of Nikolai Demidov (1884-1953) was known only to a narrow circle of specialists. Several “high-ranking” Stanislavski disciples prevented Demidov’s practices from surfacing for half a century following the master’s death. In Russia today, the Demidov heritage is slowly making its way into the curriculum at some of the country’s top acting conservatories. One of Russia’s foremost contemporary teachers of acting, Professor Veniamin Filshtinsky of the St. Petersburg Theatre Academy, refers to Demidov’s methods as “pedagogy of the future”.
Demidov was one of the three original teachers of the Stanislavski System (Sulerzhitsky-Vakhtangov-Demidov), the first editor of An Actor’s Work and the founding director of the Moscow Art Theatre School. Stanislavski’s close collaborator for 30 years, Demidov went on to disagree with Stanislavski on the use of analysis. Demidov’s School approaches an actor’s process as an indivisible flow of subconscious creativity – from the first steps of training. Moreover, Demidov pioneered non-analytical, organic techniques that enable actors to access and facilitate their intuitive process, as well as the character. The Demidov approach unveiled the secrets of the tragedians, such as Mochalov, Duse and Yermolova. It has proven successful in accessing the higher emotional spheres.
About the work
The Organic Technique is rooted in the culture of creative freedom. As founding director of the Moscow Art Theatre’s School, and one of the three original teachers of the Stanislavski System, Demidov uncovered the professional secrets of the great tragedians, such as Eleonora Duse, Tommaso Salvini and Ira Aldridge. The Demidov Organic Acting Technique puts actors in touch with their own creative individuality by teaching them to recognize and follow their artistic instincts. Improvisational text etudes, at the heart of the technique, stimulate spontaneity and emotional richness in actors, instigating the free flow of subconscious creativity. The Demidov technique is aimed at developing independent actor-creators, capable of generating their own work, and serving as an equal collaborator to the director. The workshop will introduce the participants to the basic principles of the Demidov technique, and to some of its chief cultures, such as freedom, emptiness and creative calm.
About Andrei Malaev-Babel
Trained as a director at Vakhtangov Theater Institute, Moscow, Russia, Andrei Malaev-Babel is the Head of Acting and an Associate Professor of Theatre at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training in Sarasota, Florida. He is a member of the international faculty and board of MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association inNew York City and on the advisory board of Rose Bruford’s Stanislavski Centre. Since 1997, he has served as the Producing Artistic Director for the Stanislavsky Theater Studio (STS), an award-winning company and conservatory in Washington, DC. He was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award as an Outstanding Director for his production of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. He is also the author of The Vakhtangov Sourcebook (Routledge, 2011) and Eugeny Vakhtangov: A Critical Portrait (Routledge, 2012), and has just published for the first time in English, through Routledge, a collection of Demidov’s books in one volume, entitled Nikolai Deminov: Becoming an Actor Creator. Professor Malaev-Babel has been teaching Demidov’s technique exclusively to students at the conservatory in Florida to great acclaim for the past seven years.
Demidov Summer School Dates
The first session will be July 10-20, and the second July 23-August 1.
Fees
Tuition fee per 10 day session: 900 euros.
The tuition discount on a two-session subscription is 10% per participant.
The tuition discount on referrals is 10% per referred participant.
Non-Russian participants will also need a visa for the visit.
Accommodation will be organised and will be extra, but very inexpensive.
For further details about the Russian Summer School, please visit the website: