ABSTRACT
A great store of creative energy had accumulated which could not be released in architecture because there was no building. This energy found its release in the theatre. Originally the painters found satisfaction in the theatre because it afforded opportunities for painting decorative canvases on a large scale and having them enriched by the effects of artificial light. Examples were the stage settings of Lentulov, Fedotov, and others, but this did not satisfy them for long. Soon the painters themselves began, in accordance with the evolution of painting, to push forward threedimensional, spatial ideas of decoration. The painter on the stage progressed toward architecture…
The basic principles of the artists in creating the décor were as follows: Firstly: the scenic, acrobatic movements of the actors modify the apparatus of the play. Secondly: the apparatus, which is itself modified as a result of its mechanical construction, conditions the movements of the actors which are deduced from this. Thirdly: these factors simultaneously give to the whole structure the illusion of reality. An attempt was made to transfer the theatre from its enclosed space out into the street. In Petersburg and other towns the architectural features of the town were supplemented by means of specially erected buildings and used for the magnificent staging of open-air plays, which were attended by thousands upon thousands of people.
