Procedural nature of scenic creativity

The article is devoted to the methodology of the living theatre. Main material of the article is the practice of Saint-Petersburg State Academic Maly Drama Theatre – Theatre of Europe and methodological views artistic director of the theatre Lev Dodin. Lev Dodin’s practice provides rich material for discussion of problems, connected with the crisis of the living theatre, observed recently. In the heart of the problem of the methodology of the living theatre is the question about the ephemerality of dramatic art. Lev Dodin is one of the few directors who understands and practices account of the intrinsic nature of the ephemerality. Evanescence drama theatre is subjective, it is caused by alive character of his material. Material drama theatre is procedural. The study of the procedural nature of stage experience should be the main essence of the stage methodology. Practice by Lev Dodin gives brilliant examples of the decision of this question. The article considers a number of methodological discoveries by Lev Dodin based on a deep understanding of the procedural nature of the drama theatre. Inventions made by Lev Dodin bring clarity in a number of professional issues: the question of the relationship stage of the process and results of stage, the question of the permanence of the stage of the process and the search stage, a technical matter stage improvisation, the question of returning the original meaning of many formulas, opened by Konstantin S. Stanislavsky in his time («I do not believe!», «I – am», «I’m in the given circumstances»), the question of the relationship between life and the stage, the question of the contemporary interpretation of the mechanism of formation of stage action, questions relating to the method of active analysis and the method of etude. The article is based on the books, published in the recent time by Lev Dodin, as well as in the recordings of rehearsals by Lev Dodin, which the author of the article was since 1997 regularly visiting the rehearsals at the Saint-Petersburg State Academic Maly Drama Theatre – Theatre of Europe.