This examination of amateur theatres from 1957 to 1971 reveals that members of the educated public beyond the cultural elite were engaged in shaping the cultural landscape to suit their own preferences, if not necessarily state priorities. In their efforts to expand social criticism and stylistic innovation, 'amateur publics', consisting of amateurs and their supporters, invoked the term 'civic spirit' (grazhdanstvennost') to explain artistic heterodoxy as a form of loyal criticism of Soviet society. Amateurs also pursued formal and informal mechanisms to improve troupes' material conditions and status in order to secure permanent sites for those critical views.
© 2008, University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Costanzo, Susan, "Amateur Theatres and Amateur Publics in the Russian Republic, 1958-71." Slavonic and East European Review, 86.2 (2008): 372-394.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/susan_costanzo/1/
© 2008, University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Costanzo, Susan, "Amateur Theatres and Amateur Publics in the Russian Republic, 1958-71." Slavonic and East European Review, 86.2 (2008): 372-394.