Inga Romantsova, with her first degree as a graduate of the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in St Petersburg, was trained as an actor by the legendary Larisa Malevannaya in theatre and film. Inga continued as an academic in the field of teaching acting skills. Theatre is a traditionally strong area of ​​art in which Russia has become accustomed to being successful. Inga created systemised training, using the acting techniques of Russian Theatre practitioners, to promote it to the best of her abilities as a professional actor and academic researcher.

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Exert of History of Russian Theatre

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Russia is famed for its classical music, ballet and drama, which have a long and rich history and an ongoing influence on world culture. The beginning of 20th Century in Russia produced many practitioners and theorists who would influence the development of world theatre for generations of the empire in 1917. The revolutionary changes were paralleled in the theatrical world by artists such as Evreinov, Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Tairov; and Vakhtangov and Michael Chekhov who were working on the theatre of extremes and contributed to the richness of acting techniques, which are still regarded as one of the most diverse and detailed approaches to the acting skills studies.

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Among them, Stanislavski’s ‘Method of Physical Actions’, Meyerhold’s ‘Biomechanics’, and Michael Chekhov’s ‘Psychological Gesture’ are widely used, while Evreinov’s unique ‘Monodrama’ and Tairov’s ‘Musical Athmosphere’ remained relatively obscure. In fact, the Russian theatre school - or as it is also called the "experience school" - is unique in its way and is still one of the leading theatres in the world.

 

Later, during the Soviet regime, the Russian system of teaching actors and directors was supplemented by new outstanding figures in the field of theory and practice of acting; for example, Dodin and Tovstonogov. They re-thought and extended Stanislavsky and other practitioners' so-called systematic practices which, without a doubt, brought acting in the country to a new level.

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The history of schools of acting in Russia is several centuries old, and the teaching of acting skills has very deep historical roots. Russian theatrical art, originating in the cleavers on the one hand and in the French theatre school on the other hand, went through a series of transformations, as a result of which Russian theatrical creativity gained its face and occupied one of the leading places among the strongest theatrical traditions of the world.

 

A permanent theatre school of acting skills appeared in Russia in the first half of the 18th century, and it was a dance school. The first theatrical school including in its curriculum subjects aimed at the education of a dramatic artist appeared at the end of the 18th century and 20 years later, in 1809, was transformed into a theatrical school, known today as the Theater School of M. Schepkin.

In the 19th century, the Russian theatre was already quite different from its parent, the French theater. The natural inclination of the Russian actor - to attention, first of all, to the hero's inner life, to his psychological states, and a kind of realism - gave rise to a number of great Russian artists of the 19th century, and is in fact the ancestor of today's Russian theatre school.

 

The great reformers of the theater - Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko - are arguably fathers to the "foundations of acting". They combined  the talents of a dramatic artist, director, teacher and theoretician of theatrical art and systemised their teachings. Late in life  Stanislavski was able to create a "Method of Physical Actions” - "Action Analysis" a training system for the actor - director, which is still used throughout the world to prepare future artists.

 

The Elements of each system:

STANISLAVSKI: Attention, attitude, assessment of fact, proposed circumstances, scenic action, task

MEYERHOLD: Biomechanics, Comedy Del Art, Grotesque

MICHAEL CHEKHOV: Higher imagination, logic of scenic action, improvisation, principles of transformation, the grain of the stage image, genre and style

VAKHTANGOV : Masks, Atmosphere, physical well-being

EVREINOV : Monodrama, theatre of satire, theatre-therapy

TAIROV : Atmosphere, rhythm, musicality

DODIN, KOROGODSKY: Contra-Action and obstacles, subtext, etudes and theatre for young people

TOVSONOGOV: An Active Analysis, collaboration between actor and director