The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-12-31
USSR THEATRES ARE
FOR THE WORKERS
Makes You Feel the World Is Young and Art
Is Just Beginning"

around them are all plain working
people. None of the be-jeweled
luxury here that is Haunted in the
faces of the starving unemployed
when the American opera season
opens. No stupid rich people COM
ing to sleep through the opera so
that their pictures may appear in
the rotogravure or their gowns be
mentioned in the society columns
of the papers. The Moscow grand
opera-acclairned even by capitalist
press correspondents as among the
most gorgeously produced in the
worlds all for the workers. And
they respond to good music and
fine acting as no capitalist audi
ence has ever done.
A VISIT to the Meyerhold The
n atre in Moscow will make you
feel the world is young and art
is just beginning. All conventions
Of the capitalist stage have been
scrapped or must pass the severeSt
tests to prove they are worth re-
tanning. You have a feeling that
anything may be tried out to see
if it will produce interesting re-
suits. And the audience, nearly
all of whom are workers, are made
to share in the common endeavor
to build up a new proletarian stage
technique that will surpasS any
thing the capitalist class has
known.
In the show we saw, the audi
ence is taken into confidence right
from the start. The director is on
the stage in his ordinary clothes,
mingIing with the actors. The first
two acts are in the nature of
burlesk, and he kids with the au-
dience about what they see on the
stage. You get so intimate that
you almost feel like shouting back,
That's a. good one" or That's
not so hot" from time to time.
SATIRIZE BOURGEOIS
TENDENCIES
The burlesk is directed against
bourgeois affectations still persist
ing on the Soviet stage. They are
swept away by a rush of sailors OF
the Red Navy. Let us show you
some real life in the Red Navy to-
day. they shout, as they clear the
stage of tawdry capitalist trim
mings. They bring on new seem
cry themselves and start a serious
play of navy life, for the audience
to judge whether they don't like
it much better than the sort OF
show they have seen burlesked.
Curtains are not dropped in this
show while scenes are being
changed. You not only share with
the actors their emotions, but you
come to understand some Of their
technical problems as well. There
are many novel and daring expert
ments in presentation. For in
stance, moving pictures are shot
right onto the stage at certain
points to carry US quickly TO a new
scene of action.
Anything new that may produce
a good effect is worth trying out,
and If the workers don't like it.,
we and they will work out some
thing better next time. That :
the spirit at this Soviet theatre.
No deadly fear here-as in capt.
alist Anerica-that show will be
a box-ofhce failure unless it is
along conventional lines and con-
tainS all the old sure-fire cliches
that have brought in the dough
before.
THE lid has been taken off the
i artistic life of a whole people,
YOU feel when you catch a glimpse
of developing Soviet culture.
Millions Of workers and peasants
not only have the opportunity to
attend theatres, movies, operas, etc.
for the first time in their lives,
but they are free to take part in
building up new art and culture
that will express and aid their
struggles and enrich their whole
lives.
Just as the Soviet workers have
won the factories through their
revolution, so too they won the
theatre and all the cultural equip
ment of the country. 1t is theirs
to do with 1t what they will and
can. And the possibilities are end
less.
In the United States grand opera
belongs to millionaires like Samuel
insult Cor did till recently, Otto
Kahn and other capitalists. 1t is
enjoyed in comfort only by the
rich. Workers, if they go at all,
can afford only the worst seats
The moving picture industry be-
longs to another handful OF mil
ioaaires, who dictate the endless
stupidities and fulsome propaganda
that millions must swallow If they
want any entertainment at all
The theatre too Is money-making
proposition, reserved because OF its
expenses almost exclusively for the
middle class.
Only In a Soviet America can
the millions Of workers and the
producers of the countryside win q
cultural life that they can them
selves control and build.
"RELIGION IN u. S. s. r."