“The Teacher. The Torturer. The Savior”. On Russian School of Stage Speech

The discussion about the specifics of teaching stage speech in the traditions of the Russian theatre school was organized by the rector of GITIS G.A.Zaslavsky. It makes possible to assess the actual value of this subject within the general tasks of actor’s and director’s education. The article presents the history of the techniques and psychological practices of studying stage speech (which is aimed at the liberation of a young actor). Separately, the basis of the tasks of a particular creative workshop is determined. It deals with choosing the material when a student is developing a personal speech program and a program of the whole course. The work of nowadays students on classical poetic monologues reveals great potential for their intellectual development. There is estimated an international potential of GITIS stage speech teaching methods along with other Russian theatre universities. It serves to the great interest of students of theatre universities all over the world. Numerous examples of the pedagogical and staging experience of Irina Promptova and her teachers reveal the effectiveness of the synthetic method in the process of teaching the speech culture of both actor and director. The revival of interest in reciting concert programs and storytelling performances opens up a great scope for the implementation of the Russian stage speech the achievements on the social level. One of I.Y.Promtova’s students – Kirill Lyaskovsky (workshop of People’s Artist of the Russian Federation S. I.Yashin) also took part in the discussion.