Andrei Droznin

Andrei Droznin is a Russian theatre director and movement coach. He is perhaps best known for his stage movement technique that has become an essential part of theatre training programs throughout the world [http://moscowart.org/theater/faculty.html] [http://www.amrep.org/iatt/droznin.html] [http://nti.conncoll.edu/mats0301.htm] .

Career

Andrei Droznin started his career in theatre in the 1960s. He was among the founding members of the Tabakov Studio in Moscow, the Stanislavsky Summer School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is the founding member of the International Stage Movement Center.

Droznin has directed movement in more than 160 theatre productions and movies worldwide and has taught, directed and conducted seminars in dozens of countries. Mr. Droznin is the only Russian member of the Grotowski Council in Wroclav, Poland. He is the Master Teacher of Movement at the Vakhtangov Theatre.

In 1998, Mr. Droznin received the title of the Distinguished Artsmaker of Russia.

Droznin Method

Droznin is perhaps best known for his unique system of training that combines V. E. Meyerhold's biomechanics and Stanislavski's 'system'.

Droznin's method incorporates a large amount of difficult movements and exercises. Droznin has stated that the goal of his work is not to simply teach students "stage tricks" but "to make connection between body and mind, body and soul, so when they feel something, they will immediately express themselves." [http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/08.22/20-theater.html] .

Droznin has also described his method as "living movement" which is "stage movement that blurs the boundaries between dance, mime, and vernacular gesture," which in turn allows the audience to identify with the performance on a much stronger arm [http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/09/perlmeter09.shtml] .

Quotations

* "If I ask a student to close their eyes and lift their arm above their head, and I ask them if it is straight above, if they are sure that it's vertical, they don't feel the difference between vertical and horizontal. A man cannot feel his own body- and you cannot speak of any expressiveness without this. With a body that cannot feel."

* "The point is not to move better but to express better… expressivity has many steps...because we are stuck in cages, based in fear, that block us."

* "I'm training future actors and their work is to go to the stage and tell the audience something. For me the communicative ability of the actor is the first quality he or she should possess. Then there is the moral nature- I don't usually talk about this. For something to be in a very bright, sophisticated form, at all stages of forming this future brilliant event, a trace of this special quality should already exist. We want to train an expressive actor to communicate something to another person but already starting at a physical level we must think about how to form the training so that the actor will move towards expressiveness… to find something behind the words, behind the exercises."

External links

* [http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/08.22/20-theater.html "From Russia with love and dedication..." by Ken Gewertz (Harvard Gazette)]
* [http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/09/perlmeter09.shtml "Infectious Plasticity:The Scenic Movement of Andrei Droznin" by Rachel Perlmeter (Toronto Slavic Quarterly)]