Serf Theater
Catherine the Great revered Peter the Great, who was her grandfather-in-law. Though she never met him, she greatly admired him and modeled herself after him. However, she felt that she was a more enlightened ruler and thought Peter had too strong a hold over the nobility of Russia. When she came to power she freed the nobility from their obligation to serve the state, and many nobleman took advantage of this new freedom to return to their country estates, which included serfs who worked the land for them.
Serfs were essentially peasant slaves that lived on the lord’s land (hence the name “landlord”) and took care of the crops and livestock. The landlords depended on the serfs’ labor for income. The serfs were allowed to also tend crops and livestock for themselves for their own survival, but the landlord’s crops came first. The serfs were considered property of the nobles, a.k.a. their “owners”. The more land you owned the more serfs you were allocated. Your wealth and status was measured by how many serfs (also referred to as “souls”) you owned. The serfs stayed with the land. If you sold your land, the serfs were transferred as part of the purchase. Life for a serf was difficult and harsh. Only slightly better than being a slave. Many landlords were cruel and abusive to their serfs.
During this time the nobility found themselves with more free time out on their country estates. Catherine the Great greatly enhanced Russia’s culture, art, architecture, and entertainment. Theater was big, and many of the landlords built private theaters on their estates. Acting, singing or performing of any kind was considered far beneath the aristocracy. They adored the theater, but would never stoop so low as to actually appear onstage themselves. So who would run these theaters and appear onstage? Why the landlords’ serfs of course. They had to do whatever their owners asked of them.
Serfs would be forced to perform, learn lines, sing songs, dance for the pleasure of their landlords and their guests. If any serf showed any talent in any given area they would be forced to develop their talent in that direction. Serf theaters became quite popular and competitive. Landlords would try and outdo each other by having the biggest and best theaters created by famous architects with state-of-the-art features onstage. At one time there were roughly 170 serf theaters in Russia. Some of these privately owned theaters rivaled the royal court theaters, both in size and quality.
Many of the serfs who showed talent in any given area would be trained further. Famous singers, actors, and coaches were brought in from Europe to mold these rough, illiterate field-hands into finely trained performers. But no matter how wonderfully they performed or how famous they became, they still belonged to their owners and could be forced back into the fields to tend sheep the next day.
It was a contradictory existence for the serfs. They were sometimes freed from their menial tasks of farming or cooking and often gained an education they might not have otherwise received, and some of the serfs became genuinely cultivated artists and performers. Yet their lives were also harshly constrained.
Russian country manors were often miniature replicas of the autocratic state, with the lord acting as tsar and presiding over his people with absolute and arbitrary authority.
Women were especially burdened since they often doubled as concubines or staffed private harems. The line separating sex and dance was notoriously thin. For example, Prince Yusupov liked his female serfs to undress onstage at the end of performances and whips and canes were favored props.
If a performer did not perform up to the standards of the landlord, harsh punishment ensued. It was not uncommon to see serf actors chained up backstage during play intermissions after giving a performance that did not please his owner. This may have been a serf who was, up until the week before, only in charge of milking the cows or tending to crops. Some of the private theaters become very surreal fantasylands for the landlords, an opportunity to act out their fantasies with a captive cast.
Serf theaters were very strange and surreal places. But this was the beginning of the realism acting style in Russia, which was the precursor to Stanislavsky's "method acting" that remains popular today.
Serfs were essentially peasant slaves that lived on the lord’s land (hence the name “landlord”) and took care of the crops and livestock. The landlords depended on the serfs’ labor for income. The serfs were allowed to also tend crops and livestock for themselves for their own survival, but the landlord’s crops came first. The serfs were considered property of the nobles, a.k.a. their “owners”. The more land you owned the more serfs you were allocated. Your wealth and status was measured by how many serfs (also referred to as “souls”) you owned. The serfs stayed with the land. If you sold your land, the serfs were transferred as part of the purchase. Life for a serf was difficult and harsh. Only slightly better than being a slave. Many landlords were cruel and abusive to their serfs.
During this time the nobility found themselves with more free time out on their country estates. Catherine the Great greatly enhanced Russia’s culture, art, architecture, and entertainment. Theater was big, and many of the landlords built private theaters on their estates. Acting, singing or performing of any kind was considered far beneath the aristocracy. They adored the theater, but would never stoop so low as to actually appear onstage themselves. So who would run these theaters and appear onstage? Why the landlords’ serfs of course. They had to do whatever their owners asked of them.
Serfs would be forced to perform, learn lines, sing songs, dance for the pleasure of their landlords and their guests. If any serf showed any talent in any given area they would be forced to develop their talent in that direction. Serf theaters became quite popular and competitive. Landlords would try and outdo each other by having the biggest and best theaters created by famous architects with state-of-the-art features onstage. At one time there were roughly 170 serf theaters in Russia. Some of these privately owned theaters rivaled the royal court theaters, both in size and quality.
Many of the serfs who showed talent in any given area would be trained further. Famous singers, actors, and coaches were brought in from Europe to mold these rough, illiterate field-hands into finely trained performers. But no matter how wonderfully they performed or how famous they became, they still belonged to their owners and could be forced back into the fields to tend sheep the next day.
It was a contradictory existence for the serfs. They were sometimes freed from their menial tasks of farming or cooking and often gained an education they might not have otherwise received, and some of the serfs became genuinely cultivated artists and performers. Yet their lives were also harshly constrained.
Russian country manors were often miniature replicas of the autocratic state, with the lord acting as tsar and presiding over his people with absolute and arbitrary authority.
Women were especially burdened since they often doubled as concubines or staffed private harems. The line separating sex and dance was notoriously thin. For example, Prince Yusupov liked his female serfs to undress onstage at the end of performances and whips and canes were favored props.
If a performer did not perform up to the standards of the landlord, harsh punishment ensued. It was not uncommon to see serf actors chained up backstage during play intermissions after giving a performance that did not please his owner. This may have been a serf who was, up until the week before, only in charge of milking the cows or tending to crops. Some of the private theaters become very surreal fantasylands for the landlords, an opportunity to act out their fantasies with a captive cast.
Serf theaters were very strange and surreal places. But this was the beginning of the realism acting style in Russia, which was the precursor to Stanislavsky's "method acting" that remains popular today.