Russian Culture Abroad: Exhibition “Stanislavsky: In Search of the Blue Bird”, marking the 160th anniversary of the director, opens in Belgrade

The exhibition Stanislavsky: In Search of the Blue Bird opens in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade, on January 17, 2023, marking the 160th anniversary since the birth of the great Russian theatrical figure. The partners of the first joint project of the Bakhrushin Museum and Rossotrudnichestvo are the Russian House in Belgrade, the Museum of Theatrical Arts of Serbia, and the Russian Research Institute in Belgrade.

The great reformer of theatre built his system already in the early 20th century and perfected it until his last days, when he was rehearsing Molière’s Tartuffe at home. In the 21st century, it still remains to be the best acting system and classification of the principles of acting.

The project not only presents the famous production of the director based on the play of Maurice Maeterlinck at the Moscow Art Theatre. Visitors to the exhibition will also have an opportunity to see unique materials from the collections of the Bakhrushin Theatre Museum and the Museum of Theatrical Arts of Serbia: playbills, posters and programs, cartoons and caricatures, photographs of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Ivan Moskvin, Olga Knipper-Chekhova, Vasily Kachalov, Mikhail Chekhov, and other artists of the MAT. The items stored in the Bakhrushin Museum and related to the MAT include sketches of costumes and sets, created by famous artists of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, models, photographs.

The exposition showcases digital images of sketches by Korovin, Nivinsky, Roerich, Benois, Kustodiev, Sapunov, Yegorov, and other famous artists for such iconic performances of the Art Theatre as The Blue Bird, The Seagull, The Lower Depths, The Tsar’s Bride, The Snow Maiden, Pazukhin’s Death, The Spendthrift, The White Guard, Hamlet, Peer Gynt, and others.

Rare documentary footage capturing Stanislavsky and his students at rehearsals, including the last performances of the master of Tartuffe, will also be shown at the exhibition. In addition, there will be demonstrated fragments of the movie-play The Lower Depths and episodes of the documentary About Our Theathre.

The exhibition will run in Belgrade from January 17 until February 15, 2023, and then from March 1-31 it will be available to the visitors of the National Museum in Kragujevac.