[27] Proletkul't (Tver), no. 3/4 (1919), pp. 22–25, 28–29; Zhizn' iskusstv , no. 3 (1918), pp. 29–31; and Griadushchee , no. 5 (1918), p. 12; no. 9 (1918), pp. 17–18; no. 7/8 (1919), pp. 25–27.
― 133 ―
Proletkult's repertoire consisted of works by these authors and also included one by Cervantes. In 1918 a small village organization in Tambov province reported proudly that it had just put on its first production of Ostrovsky plays.[28]
For those who were interested in founding a new proletarian theater this reliance on an older repertoire was disappointing. However, even the most iconoclastic experts acknowledged that Proletkultists needed to know and appreciate some of the classics. Platon Kerzhentsev, whose influential book Creative Theater (Tvorcheskii teatr ) went through five editions from 1918 to 1923, insisted that proletarian theaters should eschew prerevolutionary work as much as possible.[29] But because new plays were in short supply, he also drew up lists of acceptable classic works.[30] One list, compiled for the Moscow soviet theater commission, included plays by Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and Schiller.[31]
Proletkult music studios tried to give their members a broad education. Some of Russia's finest musicians taught in the Proletkult, including Reinhold Glière in Petrograd, Grigorii Liubimov and Arsenii Avraamov in Moscow, and Dmitrii Vasilev-Buglai in Tambov.[32] Even the small town of Belev had two instructors who had formerly taught violin and voice at the Petrograd conservatory.[33] Local groups gave classes in musical theory, solo singing, and composition, along with
[28] On Polekova see a 1920 questionnaire, TsGALI f. 1230, op. 1, d. 117, l. 51; and on Tambov see "Khronika Proletkul'ta," Proletarskaia kul'tura , no. 9/10 (1919), p. 59; no. 15/16 (1920), pp. 81–82.
[29] P. M. Kerzhentsev, Tvorcheskii teatr , (Moscow, 1918), pp. 77–82, 95–110; and idem, Revoliutsiia i teatr (Moscow, 1918), pp. 34–36.
[30] Kerzhentsev, Revoliutsiia i teatr , p. 48; and Protokoly pervoi konferentsii , pp. 45–46, 122.
[31] "Spisok p'es, rekomendovannykh Moskovskoi repertuarnoi komissiei," Tsentral'nyi Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv RSFSR [henceforth cited as TsGA RSFSR] f. 2306, op. 2, d. 357, ll. 38–38 ob. For provincial lists see Zori , no. 1 (1918), pp. 17–18 and TsGALI f. 1230, op. 1, d. 1279, ll. 24–24 ob.