Profession: theatre director

Meyerhold’s significance as a pioneering theatre director, silenced and executed under Stalin, is equal to Brecht’s or Stanislavski’s. He studied with the influential Stanislavski, then rejected his methods, though finally was asked by the ailing director to lead his company. Mayakovsky wrote for his friend and collaborator Meyerhold; Rodchenko, Rosanova, Lissitzky and Malevich designed for him, Shklovsky was among his circle in Berlin, and Eisenstein one of his students (hiding Meyerhold’s archive after his death). The young Shostakovich lived in his flat for some months; when a fire broke out, Meyerhold rescued the composer’s manuscripts before anything of his own.

Piscator (even before Brecht) evolved socio-politically-engaged ‘epic theatre’; his radical approaches to staging have been massively influential. He was Brecht’s mentor, colleague and friend. Gropius designed a theatre for him; Heartfield, Grosz and Moholy-Nagy designed sets. Huelsenbeck, Eisler and Weill were friends both in Berlin and in New York (where Brando, Williams, Malina and Belafonte were among his students). Mann, Ruttmann, Pabst, Lenya, Toller, Meisel, Nono, Hochhuth, Warren and Weiss were among his many collaborators. He went to meet Reinhardt in Salzburg, while Craig bore Goebbels’ plea to him in Moscow.

Malina was Beck’s marriage partner, and co-founder of the influential Living Theater. Agee, Cage and Cunningham helped them set up the company, Cage and Cunningham helping them find premises. Ginsberg, friend and soul-mate, gave Beck a manuscript to sell to fund one of his court battles. Virilio joined him in taking over Barrault’s Odéon theatre during the 1968 Paris événements (leading to Barrault himself being sacked for taking the students’ side).