Sign-In
Cart
The Actor's Revolution: Art and Politics at the Moscow Kamerny Theatre
Paperback
Literary CriticismTheater History
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Published: Oct 15 2026
Pages: 440
Weight: 2.00
Height: 1.10 Width: 7.00 Depth: 9.90
Language: English
Reclaims the lost history of one of the twentieth century's most innovative theaters
The Moscow Kamerny Theatre created stage worlds of movement, color, and light. Cofounded in 1914 by Alexander Tairov, a Jewish director from Ukraine, and Alisa Koonen, a Moscow-born actress from an immigrant family, the company celebrated the actor's virtuosic inventiveness during an era when most theaters imitated daily life or prioritized the autocratic director's vision. By the 1920s, it had become the most famous Soviet theater in the world, renowned for its actors' acrobatic grace, its bold collaborations with avant-garde artists, and its revolutionary redefinition of what theater can be. But the accusations of Soviet disloyalty that were used to destroy the Kamerny during Stalin's post-World War II antisemitic purge have rendered it little known outside Russia today and frequently misunderstood even there.
The Actor's Revolution vividly reclaims this lost history by reconstructing the theater's most illustrious premieres, analyzing them within the turbulent artistic and political context of the early Soviet era. Drawing on a decade of archival research, Dassia N. Posner restores Tairov's legacy as one of history's most significant directors and celebrates Koonen's liberatory creative expressiveness as a vital alternative to Konstantin Stanislavsky's better-known acting system. Building on rich archival sources, from unpublished memoirs to vibrant scenic and costume designs, this timely volume grapples with the entangled histories of art, politics, and erasure and celebrates the radical power of human creativity under--and in spite of--totalitarianism.
Also in
Theater History
History Hiding Around Broadway: Backstage Lore, Secrets & Surprises from New York's Famed Theater District
Dvornik, Teale
Hardcover
The Dream Factory: London's First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare
Swift, Daniel
Hardcover
Shakespeare's Margaret: The Dramatic Life of a Warrior Queen
Stern, Scott W.
O'Malley, Charles
Hardcover
Houdini's Library: Inside the Spellbinding Collections of the Great Illusionist
Colleary, Eric
Hardcover
The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition
Landau, Tina
Bogart, Anne
Paperback
Shakespeare's World: Seeing the Plays Through Elizabethan Eyes
Krausnick, Dennis
Lubarr, Josh
Goodheart, Rebecca
Paperback
Champions for the Arts: Lessons and Successful Strategies for Engaging Diverse Audiences
Walker-Kuhne, Donna
Paperback
Staging Blackface in Canada: Public Amusements, Variety Shows, and Racial Acts in an Age of Imitation, 1898-1919
Thompson, Cheryl
Paperback
Scream! Bleed! Take Off Your Clothes!: Stuart Gordon and Chicago's Organic Theater Company
Rinnert, Jim
Griswold, Mary
Heard, Cordis
Hardcover
Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park with George
Lapine, James
Paperback
Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive
Bainbridge, Danielle
Paperback
Theatre/Theory/Theatre: The Major Critical Texts from Aristotle and Zeami to Soyinka and Havel
Gerould, Daniel
Paperback
The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War
Shapiro, James
Hardcover
Playing to the Gods: Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, and the Rivalry That Changed Acting Forever
Rader, Peter
Paperback
The Bird Cage Theater: The Curtain Rises on Tombstone, Arizona's National Treasure
Mihaljevich, Michael Paul
Hardcover
Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Every Told
Turan, Kenneth
Papp, Joseph
Paperback
Playhouse to Powerhouse: Locating Black Power Women and their Movement in the Black Theatre
Goldmann, Kerry
Paperback
Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Gefter, Philip
Hardcover
Genos Dikanikon: Amateur and Professional Speech in the Courtrooms of Classical Athens
Bers, Victor
Paperback
Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Gefter, Philip
Paperback
Undesirability and Her Sisters: Black Women's Visual Work and the Ethics of Representation
Barber, Tiffany E.
Paperback
Moment Work: Tectonic Theater Project's Process of Devising Theater
Kaufman, Moises
Pitts McAdams, Barbara
Paperback
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Nineteenth-Century America: Discourse and Criticism
Rowland, Herbert
Hardcover
The Second City: The Essentially Accurate History
Patinkin, Sheldon
Kozak, Liz
City, The Second
Hardcover
Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater
Vollmann, William T.
Paperback
Chasing the Sun: Staging Black Life and Belonging in California's Bay Area
Thompson, Wendy M.
Paperback
Listening for America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim
Kapilow, Rob
Hardcover
Something Wonderful Right Away: The Birth of Second City--America's Greatest Comedy Theater
Sweet, Jeffrey
Paperback
Les Misérables: The Story So Far of the World's Longest Running Musical
Nightingale, Benedict
Wolf, Matt
Palmer, Martyn
Hardcover
Political Stages: Toronto Gay Theatre from Criminalization to Queer Protest
Halferty, J. Paul
Paperback
Playhouse to Powerhouse: Locating Black Power Women and their Movement in the Black Theatre
Goldmann, Kerry
Hardcover
The Dream Factory: London's First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare
Swift, Daniel
Paperback
Currencies of Cruelty: Slavery, Freak Shows, and the Performance Archive
Bainbridge, Danielle
Hardcover
Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts
Horowitz, Joseph
Paperback
Collaboration in Theatre: A Practical Guide for Designers and Directors
Roznowski, Rob
Domer, K.
Paperback
Japanese No Masks: With 300 Illustrations of Authentic Historical Examples
Perzynski, Friedrich
Paperback
Mediatic Shakespeare: The Dynamics of Orality, Script and Print in the Plays and Poems
Cavell, Richard
Hardcover
Boom Chicago Presents the 30 Most Important Years in Dutch History
Rosenfeld, Pep
Moskos, Andrew
Hardcover
Up Your Ass: Or from the Cradle to the Boat or the Big Suck or Up from the Slime
Solanas, Valerie
Paperback
Sistren Theatre Collective and the Politics of Space in Jamaica: Woman Talawa
Smith, Karina
Hardcover
The Long Revolution: Sixty Years on the Frontlines of a New American Theater
Fichandler, Zelda
Paperback
The Untold Stories of Broadway: Tales from the World's Most Famous Theaters
Tepper, Jennifer Ashley
Paperback
A History of Leadville Theater: Opera Houses, Variety Acts and Burlesque Shows
Scanlon, Gretchen
Hardcover
Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production
Robin, Natalie
Clements Cotton, Brídín
Paperback
Pioneering Theatre-in-the-Round: The Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, 1962-1986
Walker, Rachel
Hardcover
Artistic Collaboration, Exile, and Brecht: A New Intellectual History, 1900-1950
Hollander, Katherine
Hardcover
New York Theatre Walks: Seven Historical Tours from Times Square to Greenwich Village and Beyond
Kissel, Howard
Paperback
A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge
Carey, John
Hajdu, David
Paperback
Theatergeschichte Osterreichs / Theatergeschichte Vorarlbergs. Von Den Anfangen Bis Zum Beginn Des 20. Jahrhunderts
Fuhrich, Fritz
Paperback
Shakespeare's Compassion: Emotion and the Classics on the Early Modern Stage
Refskou, Anne Sophie
Hardcover
The Stage of Her Life: Conversations with Actress Lea Koenig on Theater and Her Life
Goldberg, Yaniv Shimon
Paperback
The Shadow of the Empress: Fairy-Tale Opera and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy
Wolff, Larry
Paperback
100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater
Ruhl, Sarah
Paperback