Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on October 28, 2025 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Harriman Institute for a reading and discussion with Oksana Bulgakova. Moderated by Mark Lipovetsky.
Two titans of early twentieth century theater meet in a Baroque castle that once belonged to a Catholic archbishop. Max Reinhardt, a great conjurer of the state, dazzles audiences with breathtaking spectacles—cathedrals turned into theaters, city squared transformed into dreamscapes. His art is pure enchantment, a grand illusion. In star contrast stands Konstantin Stanislavsky, who stripped the stage of artifice, insisting on truth and genuine experience. Both men built private theaters, sustained by the generosity of wealthy patrons. Both would see their worlds upended by revolutions, the loss of artistic independence, and the rising tide of commercial dreams.
Oksana Bulgakova's one-act play belongs to a trilogy exploring Russian and German visions of theater, cinema, and the actor's role amid the political storms of the twentieth century. It unfolds as a dialogue of ghosts: conversations never spoken, questions never answered. What might Reinhardt and Stanislavsky has said to each other, had they lingered on that magic mountain? For whom do they perform? Who truly needs theater? And is theater, in the end, necessary at all?
The reading will be in Russian. The Q&A will be in English and Russian.
