Reviews for Pictorial History of Women in America

The average rating for Pictorial History of Women in America based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-11-28 00:00:00 Main Lao p.vii – In most countries of the world their representative theatre is by and large concentrated in a principal or capital city. This is especially true of America (New York), England (London), and France (Paris). Russia is more fortunate; it virtually has two capitals, Moscow and Leningrad. Pushkin Theatre (Alexandrinsky) The Leningrad State Academic Theatre of Drama Named after A. S. Pushkin p.35 – In the immediate post-revolutionary period (1917-1923) the theatre (former Alexandrinsky) presented such classics as The Marriage of Figaro, William Tell, Love and Intrigue, The Doll’s House, and an adaptation of Leonid Andreyev’s The Devil’s Diary. The only play by a Soviet author was Faust and the City by Anatole Lunacharsky (1920). Lunacharsky was fond of taking historical or legendary themes and giving them contemporary significance. In Faust and the City, originally written in 1908, he clearly forecast the course of the Russian Revolution. But on the whole his plays, though produced quite frequently in the early twenties, have not stood the test of time as artistic entities. p.36 – During the next period, 1924-1931, the theatre continued its productions of classics, including Anthony and Cleopatra, Othello, Sardanapalus (Byron), and Oedipus Rex. With these went the first productions of Soviet plays: Poison (Lunacharsky); Virineya (Lydia Seifullina), about the early days of the Revolution in a Siberian village, a play damned in the Stalin era, as was its woman author, only to be rehabilitated in post-Stalin days. In 1937 it was named the State Academic Drama Theatre A.S. Pushkin p.37 – In the later thirties and into the forties the theatre began to concentrate on Soviet plays with historical patriotic themes: Peter I by A.N. Tolstoy, and Marshall Suvorov by Bakhterev and Razumovsky. During the war, the theatre was evacuated to Novosibirsk in Siberia, where it produced patriotic plays such as Alexander Korneichuk’s Front, Konstantin Simonov’s The Russian People, and Leonig Leonov’s Invasion. The Pushkin Theatre returned to Leningrad in the fall of 1944. Gorky Theatre (BDT) The Bolshoi Leningrad State Dramatic Theatre Named after M. Gorky p.51 – The Theatre of Artistic Drama and the Theatre of Tragedy formed the nucleus of the Bolshoi Dramatic Theatre organized by the Theatre and Entertainment Section of the People’s Commissariat of Education. The Bolshoi was headed by M. F. Andreyeva, under the direction of Maxim Gorky and Anatole Lunacharsky. p.52 – The first play of the Bolshoi was Don Carlos by Schiller, produced on February 15, 1919. In the next three years the theatre presented Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, The Robbers (Schiller), The Servant of Two Masters (Goldoni) and a work of Molière. The first production of modern authors included The Destroyer of Jerusalem (produced in 1919) by the Finnish Author Iernfeld, Danton by Marie Levberg, Tsarevich Alexei by Dmitri Merezhkovsky (1920), and To Earth (1921) by Bryusov, the leader of the Symbolists. The general tone in these modern plays was that of pessimism, the danger of the destruction of civilization. The next period, up to 1925, might be called expressionism. In 1937 the theatre had become the State Bolshoi Dramatic Theatre Named after M. Gorky. p.53 – When the war broke out the whole collective was evacuated to the city of Kirov, but in 1943 returned to besieged Leningrad, producing plays during the German blockade, at the same time as its staff worked part time in a front line hospital. In 1956 George Tovstonogov became its chief director. He established himself as the new Stanislavsky of the Soviet theatre. Outstanding were his productions of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot and Gorky’s Smug Citizen. Because it was the post-Stalin era, he was able to put on foreign plays hitherto banned, including Arthur Miller’s The Price, Brecht’s Arturo Ui, and Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple. In the sixties this theatre toured abroad for the first time since the Stalin era and achieved international recognition for its direction and acting. Leningrad Theatre of Comedy p.59 – The Leningrad State Theatre of Comedy in 1935 came under the artistic direction of Nikolai Akimov, who developed the theatre along the lines of Mardjanov and Alexander Rairov, who founded the Free Theatre in 1913. Akimov’s contribution was an “elastic” theatre, where his actors played the range from drama to comedy, farce, fairy tale, Western European classics, Soviet domestic dramas, and so on. It was Akimov’s thesis to train highly qualified Soviet actors, they must pass through every phase of dramatic presentation and play all kinds of parts. The Theatre of Comedy’s wide repertory shows that this was no idle principle: Dinner at Eight (Ferber and Kaufman), Dangerous Corner (a social criticism of the middle class by J. B. Priestley), Son of the People (a Soviet drama by Y. German), and including works from Labiche to Shakespeare. Leningrad Komsomol Theatre The Leningrad Theatre Named after the Leninsky Komsomol p.63 – The Leninsky Komsomol theatres exist in various places, in particular in Leningrad and Moscow. The similarity pf nomenclature is due to the fact that they are named after the Young Communist League, the junior partner of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Theatres that lean towards productions for youth tend to take this name. The Leningrad Komsomol Theatre was founded in 1936 as a result of the merging of the Red Theatre and the TRAM (the Russian abbreviation for the Theatre of Young Workers). The Chief Director until 1940 was V. P. Kozhich, and from 1941-49 M.V. Chezhegov. Its target was youth, under the direction of the Young Communist League. Productions were in a heroic-romantic style – themes of civil duty and honor in a communist society aimed at the education of youth to serve the Party. These included: Field Marshal Kutuzov by Solovyov (1940), The Russian People by Simonov (1942), The Young Guard by Fadeyev (1942), A Story Anout Truth by Margarita Aliger (1946) which received a State Prize, and Popov’s The Family (1950) dedicated to Lenin’s family. Moscow’s Maly Theatre The State Order of Lenin Academic Maly Theatre p.65 – Maly Theatre has been in existence since October 14, 1824. This was the day of the first performance in the present building. As a State Dramatic Troupe, the theatre existed since 1806. Vakhtangov Theatre p.121 – This theatre began its existence in 1914, in Moscow, as another MAT studio for training, but under the leadership of Evgeny Vakhtangov, then an actor of the Moscow Art Theatre. Its first production, in March 1914, was the uninspired The Homestead of the Larins by B. Zartsev, but Macbeth in 1918 starring Vakhtangov was a great artistic success. Since September 1920, the studio was included in the Moscow Art Theatre organization as Studio 3. Moscow Komsomol Theatre The Moscow Theatre Named after the Leninsky Komsomol p.171 – This group was founded on the basis of a Moscow TRAM (Theatre of Young Workers) group in 1928, concentrating on plays and performances for youth. In 1951, with the death of Bersenev, Giatsintova became the chief director. They produced an American play, Street Scene by Elmer Rice in 1959. Then in 1963, Anatoly Efros came from the Central Children’s Theatre to take over. Efros created a new style during the era of de-Stalinization and had great success, particularly with youth, staging new and provocative plays, hitherto unknown on the Russian stage. For example: On the Wedding Day by Victor Rozov, My Poor Marat by A. Arbuzov, One Hundred and Four Pages of Love and A Movie Is Being Shot both by E. Radzinsky, and Brecht’s Three Penny Opera (1966). Efros was severly criticized by the Communist Party for glorifying the “little man” who dreamed of happiness in “living in his own way” in Soviet society. They were not the Communist “positive” heroes that the Party prescribed. p.172 – He was finally removed in 1967 as chief director and transferred to the Moscow Gogol Theatre. Mark Zakharov became head director. Yermolova Theatre The Moscow Theatre Named after M. N. Yermolova p.186 – Yermolova was a great actress of the Maly Theatre, and was as famous in Russia as was Bernhardt in the West. This theatre resulted from the fusion of the actor’s studio named Yermolova under the direction of A. M. Azarin and M.O. Knebel, and the studio of the Vakhtangov Theatre under the leadership of its star actor N.P. Khmelyov. The first director of the Yermolova Tehatre was Khmelyov. Its first productions included Children of the Sun by Gorky in 1937, The Poor Bride by Ostrovsky in 1938, and Storm by Bill-Belotserkovsky in 1939, the last-named one of the first authentic Bolshevik Party plays.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-21 00:00:00 Alvin Manz Jr Not at all the general timeline I was looking for. There is informative writing, but having no timeline and jumping back and forth from king to king makes this read more exhausting than I imagined. Definitely not a good starting resource.