Nikolai Volkonsky – the director of radio drama

The article deals with the creative biography of Nikolay Volkonsky and his influence on development of the radio theatre directing school in Soviet Union. Main stages of Volkonsky formation as a radio director are outlined. At the very early productions by Nikolai Volkonsky, some techniques are outlined, which soon become canon for the radio theatre. In these first national radio performances Evening with Maria Volkonskaya and Lulli the Musician, Volkonsky uses new sound directing methods that were innovative for broadcasting of that time. They at transforming the time and space of the stage action, presenting the characters through their speech pecularities. Under the leadership of Nikolai Volkonsky, Osip Abdulov and Erast Garin start their work at the radio. They subsequently will be known as the masters of the microphone. There are numerous productions by Nikolai Volkonsky on the radio. The author of the article has selected three performances that can help to create the most complete picture of the creative individuality of the director. These are the radio play The Plant based on the novel by Camille Lemonnier, the radio composition Journey through Japan based on the essays by Gregory Gausner and the monumental pathetic oratorio The Nine Hundred and Fifth Year based on the poem by Boris Pasternak. The early years of the soviet radio drama are revealing the common processes in developing of art radio programs when this new unexplored field of creative representation of reality has stood at the forefront of the cultural process. The pioneers of the radio theatre innovatively solved creative tasks by their own experience, gradually asserting the main principles of radio performance. Thus it soon became an independent art direction, important in the process of theatre transformation in the twentieth century and in the genre evolution of national art broadcasting.