Russian State Institute of Performing Arts

The college was originally founded in 1779 at the Emperor's Theatre in St Petersburg, and is the oldest theatre school in Russia.{{cite book | last1=Smorodinskaja | first1=Tatiana Ė. | last2=Evans-Romaine | first2=Karen | last3=Goscilo | first3=Helena | title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture | publisher=Routledge | series=Contemporary cultures | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-415-32094-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zf6tJnMjbi4C | access-date=18 August 2022 | page=5}} Over the course of its history, the institute has been reorganised and renamed several times.

A growing theatre school assimilated the St Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy, along with several independent theatre classes and schools in the city. One of the most notable was the School of Acting (or Acting Skills School, or School of Theatrical Skills) which had been founded in 1918.{{cite book | last1=Nagy | first1=P. | last2=Rouyer | first2=P. | last3=Rubin | first3=D. | title=World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Volume 1: Europe | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-136-40289-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fDaAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA735 | access-date=18 August 2022 | page=735}} Leonid Sergeevich Vivian was appointed professor at the school in 1940 and from 1957 was head of the acting department. He was later awarded the Order of Lenin and a number of other medals and awards.{{cite web | title=Viven, Leonid Sergeevich | website=TheFreeDictionary.com | date=1 August 1966 | url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Viven%2c+Leonid+Sergeevich | access-date=18 August 2022| quote=From The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). }}{{cite web | title=Vivien Leonid Sergeevich | website=Лимузин Ельцина выставлен на продажу - Знаменитости | url=https://persona.rin.ru/eng/view/f/0/35698/vivien-leonid-sergeevich | access-date=18 August 2022}}

After World War II, the institute (then named Leningrad Ostrovsky Institute of the Theatre or variant translation) was headed by Yuri Slonimsky (1902-1978{{cite journal | last=Cohen | first=Selma Jeanne | title=Yuri Slonimsky (1902-1978) | journal=Dance Chronicle | publisher=Taylor & Francis | volume=2 | issue=2 | year=1978 | issn=0147-2526 | jstor=1567478 | pages=148–156 | doi=10.1080/01472527808568727 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567478 | access-date=19 August 2022}}), followed in 1951 by Vera Krasovskaya (who had studied there since 1946),{{cite web | title=Vera Krasovskaya, 83, historian and critic of the Russian Ballet | website=New York Times | date=21 August 1999 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/21/arts/vera-krasovskaya-83-historian-and-critic-of-the-russian-ballet.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421085554/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/21/arts/vera-krasovskaya-83-historian-and-critic-of-the-russian-ballet.html | archive-date=21 April 2021 | url-status=dead | access-date=19 August 2022}} then Galina Dobrovolskaya.{{cite book| title =The International Encyclopedia of Dance| editor = Cohen, Selma Jeanne|publisher= Oxford University Press| series= Oxford Reference| chapter= Russia| first2=Elena G.| last2= Federenko |first1=Galina |last1= Inozemtseva |date=2005 }}

In 1958 the State Research Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography was created.{{cite book | last=Jaffé | first=D. | title=Historical Dictionary of Russian Music | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | series=Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-5381-3008-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fmBVEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA270 | access-date=18 August 2022 | page=270}}

The School of Acting was absorbed in 1961, and in 1962 the Leningrad (State) Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography (LGITMiK) was created, after the merging of the Ostrovsky Leningrad Theatre Institute (named after A. N. Ostrovsky and also known as the A. N. Ostrovsky Leningrad State Theatre Institute) and the Leningrad Institute of Art History. The former research institute was deprived of its autonomy and became a department of the new institute, with the vlue of its music collection apparently overlooked.

In 1993 it was renamed to St Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy. English translations of past names have varied, and include St Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy,{{cite web | title=About us |website= Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (Главная - Российский государственный институт сценических искусств) | date=6 January 2019 | url=http://www.rgisi.ru/en/ | access-date=18 August 2022}} St Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy,{{cite web | title=St-Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy | website=Theatre Union of Russia (RTLB) | url=http://www.rtlb.ru/page.php?id=136 | access-date=18 August 2022}} St Petersburg Academy of Theatre Arts, St Petersburg Theatre College, and Leningrad Theatre Institute.{{cite book| title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095853488| chapter=Kama Ginkas|via=Oxford Reference| date=2003|editor=Kennedy, Dennis. |publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 9780191727818| doi=10.1093/acref/9780198601746.001.0001 | access-date=18 August 2022}}

Its style of instruction has also changed: from the classical theatre in the "Emperor's Theatre School" to workshops under renowned stage director Vsevolod Meyerhold in the 1910s and 1920s, through to its current approach.

Well-known actor Georgiy Zhzhonov trained as an actor at the school (variously referred to as "Leningrad Theatrical School" and "Leningrad State Theatre College" in the sources) under director Sergei Gerasimov in the 1930s,{{cite web | title=Georgiy Zhzhonov's Russian Cross| first=Svetlana |last=Khokhryakova | website=ФОНД РУССКИЙ МИР |date=21 March 2015| url=https://russkiymir.ru/en/publications/188298/ | access-date=18 August 2022}} graduating in 1935.{{cite web | title=Georgiy Zhzhonov Soviet and Russian theatre and film actor |website=Russia-InfoCentre | url=http://russia-ic.com/people/general/z/705 | language=la | access-date=18 August 2022}}

The institute occupies historic buildings built in the early 20th century. Its main building, a three-storey building at 34 Mokhovaya Street, is an example of modern architecture.

The building was constructed between 1902 and 1904 by {{ill|Jules-Louis-Auguste Benois|ru|Бенуа, Юлий Юльевич}} and {{ill|Aleksandr Vladovsky|ru|Владовский, Александр Игнатьевич}}, and became the home of N. V. Bezobrazova, wife of Russian general {{ill|Vladimir Mikhailovich Bezobrazov|ru|Безобразов, Владимир Михайлович}}. In 1922, after the Russian Revolution, the building was given to the Bryantsev Youth Theatre, and in 1962 to LGITMiK.{{cite web |language = ru |url = http://www.sobaka.ru/city/city/100268 |title = Реставрацию главного корпуса РГИСИ на Моховой улице в Петербурге проведут до 2024 года|trans-title=Russian State Institute of Performing Arts Main Building to be restored in 2024 |publisher = Sobaka.ru |date = 2019-11-27 |accessdate = 2020-01-29}}{{cite web |language = ru |url = https://tass.ru/kultura/7212839 |title = Конкурс на реставрацию комплекса РГИСИ в Петербурге объявят в 2020 году|trans-title=Restoration Tender on RSIPA Main Building to Open in 2020 |publisher = TASS |date = 2019-11-27 |accessdate = 2020-01-29}}

It is the largest professional theatre school in Europe, with faculty numbering more than 330, around 230 support staff, and over 1550 students.{{cite web | website=E:UTSA – Europe: Union of Theatre Schools and Academies | title=Russia – St. Petersburg | url=https://eutsa.eu/member/russia-st-petersburg/?cookies=ok | access-date=18 August 2022}} The institute teaches along similar lines as the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow.

Along with instruction in traditional classical theatre, the school employs the Stanislavsky method in its teaching, along with Meyerhold's principles of "biomechanics", and elements of the teachings of Nikolai Demidov, Mikhail Butkevich, and Michael Chekhov.

It offers BA, MA, and doctorate level as well as non-degree courses, and provides instruction in directing, acting, set design, тесhnology, theatre studies, production,{{cite web | title=Education |website= Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (Главная - Российский государственный институт сценических искусств) | url=http://www.rgisi.ru/en/education/ | access-date=18 August 2022}} criticism and theatre management. It covers a range of performing arts: drama, musical theatre, puppetry, variety shows, and television.

The institute also hosts various international festivals, conferences and competitions, as well as student and teacher exchange programs.

• Alexander Meiselman (1900–1938), taught theatre history until being arrested in 1937
• Professor Anatoly Altschuller (1922–1996) was a theatre historian. He attended the Ostrovsky Theatre Institute after World War II and graduated in 1948, returning as a research fellow in 1954.{{cite book | last1=Leach | first1=R. | last2=Borovsky | first2=V. | last3=Davies | first3=A. | title=A History of Russian Theatre | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1999 | isbn=978-0-521-43220-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=93kbnItM9_AC&pg=PR11 | access-date=18 August 2022 | page=11}}
• Edward Rozinsky, theatre director, choreographer, playwright, and physical theatre specialist, taught mime and acting at the Leningrad Institute of Theatre, Music, and Cinematography before moving to the United States.{{cite web | title=Essential Stage Fencing: Training Manual for Actors, by Rozinsky, Edward [blurb] | website=amazon.com.au | date=16 August 2022 | url=https://www.amazon.com.au/Essential-Stage-Fencing-Training-Manual/dp/B08YQR61VD | access-date=18 August 2022}}
• Arkady Katsman, taught in the 1970s{{cite web | title=Valery Kukhareshin | website=Mariinsky Theatre | url=https://www.mariinsky-theatre.com/personm.php?type=personnel&person=Valery__Kukhareshin | access-date=18 August 2022}}
• Lev Dolin

{{Reflist}}

• Stanislavsky in Practice: Actor Training in Post-Soviet Russia by Vreneli Farber (New York: Peter Lang, 2008), {{ISBN|978-1-4331-0315-5}}

{{Portal|Theatre}}

• {{official|http://www.rgisi.ru/en/}}

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Category:1779 establishments in the Russian Empire

Category:Universities in Saint Petersburg

Category:Drama schools in Russia