ABSTRACT
This chapter is a brief profile of the internationally renowned director Lev Dodin, who for decades has been the leader of Saint Petersburg’s Maly Drama Theatre. Dodin had several inspirational influences early on, especially his youth theatre teacher, Matvey Dubrovin, who was influenced by Meyerhold; Boris Zon, who had observed Stanislavsky in his final years; Zinovy Korogodsky, who was the leading Leningrad practitioner of the Étude Method; and Maria Knebel herself. Despite excellent performances at theatre school and excited critical responses to his early professional productions at Korogodsky’s theatre, he was soon dismissed by the jealous leader of the theatre. He began co-teaching intensively with Arkady Katsman. With those students, Dodin created an explosive production which landed him the artistic directorship of the Maly Drama Theatre, an out-of-the-way small house which he soon turned into an international destination with a major global touring schedule. The chapter goes into some details about his lengthy and demanding rehearsal and teaching practices; these are necessarily intertwined as most of his Maly company actors went through his eclectic and wildly theatrical training, with hundreds of Études per actor.
