If you have not read Habima, you must. You should. I'm referring to the book by Raikin Ben-Ari. Harold Clurman writes in the introduction to the book "It is no exaggeration to say the story is inspiring." Completely true, especially the first few chapters.
Habima is the National Theatre of Israel, located now in Tel Aviv - but this is the story of its beginnings, in Moscow, around the time of the revolution, 1917. It has been many years since I first read it, but is one of perhaps three books that makes me want to dedicate every fiber of my being to the cause of creating an art theatre. For those not quite that inclined, just the sense of you, your friends, your talents, your ideas, huddled together or working on the stage, full of innocence and hope, creating, anticipating - these are memories we all have - and dreams some still have - and dreams some are just finding - young and old.
Every artist wants their home - their artistic home. In this story of Habima, Ben-Ari recounts the groups work, their meeting and collaborations with Vahktangov, Birman, Michael Chekhov, and Stanislavsky himself, as they try to establish a specific theatre, a home for Jewish theatre artist in Russia, performing the plays in Hebrew. All odds are against them - but their love and pride of their heritage, their artistic aspirations and their dedication to one another sees them through.
While on the subject of Russian Theatre I received a new book that ranks right up there with Raikin Ben-Ari's glorious work -- "Beyond Rehearsal" by Anatoly Efros. Efros was considered to be the heir of Stanislavsky and in many ways Vakhtangov during the 1960's-1980's. I have only seen a couple of his productions on videotape and they were truly stunning; a mix of intense inner life with a theatrical freedom and risk that was enthralling. He was the premier directing artist in Russia during his life although, sadly, due to several factors, he never had his own "theatre family" or what Harold Clurman would have called a "true" or "real" theatre. "Beyond Rehearsal" is the third in a series of books by Efros. The first two are "The Joy of Rehearsal" and "The Craft of Rehearsal". These books are written in the style of an artistic diary, not unlike Stanislavsky's own famous and largely unknown "Notebooks". The wealth of information, insight, craft, intelligence and imagination in these books is awe-inspiring. Efros' profound understanding of the process of creating theatre is second to none and his depiction of a life in the theatre is so painfully true.
ReplyDeleteHe was the leading student of the legendary Maria Knebel -- the Lee Strasberg of the Russian Stanislavsky tradition. All of his books talk about Knebel as she was one of the crucial links between Stanislavsky and our ability to understand his work. Efros writes:
"The most patient and talented teacher I ever knew was Maria Knebel....when I studied with her at GITIS, and when all of us literally ran to her classes -- what a radiant talent we saw!... It was the radiance of accuracy, the radiance of instantaneous response, instantaneous understanding of someone else's mistakes, and mainly -- her sparkling and dazzling analysis! Analysis of scenes and analysis of improvisations! Analysis of nature! Her analysis was descriptive and ingenious, cultured to the highest degree - simple. And unusually infectious. That is why eveyone was obsessed with the Etude Method [active analysis] that Knebel showed us."
There are very few people who can write about the nature of what a theatre is as Rainkin Ben-Ari and Anatoly Efros could. They were a very rare breed indeed.
Awesome! I only recently finished The Craft of Rehearsal. I can't wait to get and read this next one.
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