Nordic UNIMA Magazine

:by Anna Ivanova-BrashinskayaGlobal WarmingBy Anna Ivanova-Brashinskaya101My «Finnish career» in education began in theearly days of the XXI century when I was invitedto Turku, the fifth largest city in Finland, to lectureon the history of puppet theatre. In all honesty, I havenot even begun to imagine that in Finland, let alone,provincial Finland, there was a puppetry education atall. I guessed that, as all nations whose history is notvery long, the Finns had courses for semi-professionalactors who, in the stiffly-competitive climate, strivedto broaden their skills – even if by venturing into theneighbouring media, such as puppetry. I was wrong asone could be. It turned out I had to teach an intensive 40-hour-long course on the history of just glove (!) puppet,as the students were preparing to start manufacturingPetrushkas. In the St.Petersburg Academy of theDramatic Arts where I was a Puppetry DepartmentChair and history professor at the time instructorscould not afford such a luxury of overlapping practicewith theory. As is usually the case with puppet theoryin general, they went their own, «theoretical» way,coinciding with the practical reality only by way ofaccidents.I faced the Finnish students at the close of their secondyear and they have not heard a word of puppet historyyet. Since I could not be sure that they would in thefuture, I asked, at the end of the «glove» course, ifthey had any questions on other topics. And so, ourconversation drifted towards the Russian puppeteducationmodel.I spoke about Mikhail Korolev, a legendary directorwho, in the St.Petersburg Academy (The LeningradState Institute of Theatre, Music and Film, or LGITMiK,then) had built a puppetry school where puppeteers weretaught long and with narrow specialisation in directing,acting, design, or construction. The future professionalsthere collaborated on various productions that werelater performed in the College Theatre (and weretremendously popular among the general audiences).Upon graduation, the Korolev students would part theirways, go to different cities where they would createnew theatres, while continuing to collaborate throughfestivals, workshops, etc., thus forming a wide circle offriends, supported by critics and audiences alike. TheKorolev school served as a model for other puppetryschools – there are four of them in Russia now. I heardmyself speak in that auditorium and it sounded like Iwas telling a beautiful fairy tale in which a magicianhad built a golden castle overnight. Of course, this wasnot entirely true.2The Korolev puppet school was not the first inEurope (the Prague puppetry department wasestablished in 1952, 7 years prior to the firstclass in Leningrad). In mid-XX century, puppet theatrehad strong aspirations to become, in its modernity,an alternative to the modern art, so there were plentyof courses, seminars and workshops everywhere thatwere awaiting nothing so much as to be centralized andassimilated by the higher education. The movementwent on well into the 1980s: new schools were openedin Berlin (1971), Wroclaw (1972), Bialystok (1975),Minsk (1975), Stuttgart (1983), Charleville-Mezieresand Buenos-Aires (both 1987).The emergence of the specialized puppetry schools wasoften related to the rise of the state puppet theatres inneed of trained specialists of all profiles. No wondernew schools were formed in the places where a strongpuppetry tradition survived through the ages.Thus, in the Soviet Union alone there were over 200state puppet theatres, open to all those new professionalswho could muster more than one puppet technique.The Soviet puppetry schools were in effect servicingthe actual theatrical process, while guaranteeingemployment to their graduates. The Korolev modelturned out to be so strong to have survived the collapseof the state and the whole social system specificallythanks to the strength of the Russian puppetry tradition.It never seizes to amaze foreigners: what the reputationof puppet theatre in Russia must be if the prospectivepuppeteers’ entrance competition is so tough, thelength of the education is 5 years and employment isguaranteed! How improbable this picture may lookoutside of the sheltered Russian system I realized onlyabroad.