Metaphor to Direct: The History of Russian New Drama

On this episode, Nick speaks with Susanna Weygandt a scholar studying performance theories of Russian and East European theater. She discusses the work of Anatoly Vasiliev, famed Russian theater director for the Moscow School of Dramatic Arts. Thanks for listening! ABOUT THE GUEST: Elena Susanna Weygandt analyzes and documents performance theories indigenous to Russia and East Europe that have not yet been documented. She draws on methods of interview and ethnography as well as digital display in her research on contemporary topics. In her soon-to-be published book with the University of Wisconsin Press, From Metaphor to Direct Speech: Drama and Performance Theory in Contemporary Russia, she identifies the main writers and performance theories of the vibrant movement, Novaia Drama, and situates this pioneering literature in the contemporary Russian literary canon, the Performance Studies field, and within Post-Soviet studies.  The New Dramatists assert that it is precisely in the theatre, with its inherent form of critique and reflection provided by the stage, where the contemporary moment of the present can be held at arm's length away, which creates enough of a distance from the present for a historical perspective about it to emerge. This research has shaped her into a scholar and teacher of visual language, the body, feminist art, gender, exhibition on digital platforms, and all genres of documentary and realism in Russian and East European literature. Her publications on these topics of cultural history in Russia and East Europe from 1953 to the present appear in The Russian Review, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, TDR: The Drama Review, Apparatus: Film, Media, and Digital Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, and in a co-edited anthology published by Columbia UP. She received her training in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Princeton (PhD 2015; Graduate Certificate in History of Science 2015). At Sewanee: The University of the South she teaches all levels of Russian in the Russian Department and her joint affiliation in the Humanities Program. https://new.sewanee.edu/programs-of-study/russian/faculty-staff/susanna-weygandt/ If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please email [email protected] and we will be in touch! PRODUCTION CREDITSAssistant EP: Misha Simanovskyy (@MSimanovskyy)Associate Producer: Cullan Bendig (@cullanwithana)Associate Producer: Eliza FisherAssistant Producer: Taylor HelmcampAssistant Producer/Videographer: Basil FedunSocial Media Manager: Faith VanVleetHost/Supervising Producer: Nicholas Pierce Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by Beat Mekanik, Crowander, Dlay) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (@M_S_Daniel) www.msdaniel.com