Introduction / Stefan Aquilina -- Prologue / Platon Kerzhentsev (An extract from Revoliutsiia i teatr, 1918) -- PART I: Aims and Objectives -- 1. 'The Proletariat and Art' / Anatoly Lunacharsky (Proletarskaia kul'tura, 1918) -- 2. 'The Proletariat and Art': Resolutions proposed at the First All-Russian Conference of Proletarian Cultural and Educational Organizations / Alexander Bogdanov (Proletarskaia kul'tura, 1918) -- 3. 'The Proletkult and Soviet Cultural Work' / Anatoly Lunacharsky (Proletarskaia kul'tura, 1919) -- 4. 'Ways Towards a Proletarian Culture' / Alexander Bogdanov (Proletarskaia kul'tura, 1920) -- 5. 'The Proletkult - Organisation of Proletarian Amateur Performance' / Platon Kerzhentsev (Proletarskaia kul'tura,1918) -- 6. 'Craving the Stage' / Nikolai Lvov (Vestnik teatra, 1919) -- 7. 'Socialist Theatre in the Years of the Revolution' / Piotr Kogan (Vestnik teatra, 1919) -- 8. 'No to Theatre Art, but to Celebration' / Adrian Piotrovsky (Zhizn' iskusstva, 1921) -- 9. 'Drama and Mass Performances' / Viktor Shklovsky (Zhizn' iskusstva, 1921) -- PART II: Amateur-Professional Relations -- 10. 'On the Professionalization of the Workers in the Arts' / Fyodor Kalinin (Proletarskaia kul'tura, 1919) -- 11. 'On Professionalism' / Valerian Pletnev (Proletarskaia kul'tura, 1919) -- 12. The Creation of the Proletarian Theatre / Platon Kerzhentsev (Tvorcheskii teatr, 1923) -- PART III: Repertoire Issues -- 13. Repertoire at a Factory Theatre / Alexander Mgebrov (Zhizn' v teatre, 1918) -- 14. 'The Repertoire of the Proletarian Theatre' / Platon Kerzhentsev (Iskusstvo, 1918) -- 15. Notes on Pavel Bessalko's The Bricklayer / Alexander Mgebrov (Zhizn' v teatre, 1918) -- 16. 'Adapt the Plays!' / Platon Kerzhentsev (Vestnik teatra, 1919) -- 17. Garland's Inheritance / Valerian Pletnev (Extract from the play, Act 1, 1923) -- 18. They Tried to Hide, but Ended Up Fathers / Arkhip (Rabochii klub, 1924) -- PART IV: Production Approaches and Examples -- 19. 'After the Holiday' / Platon Kerzhentsev (Iskusstvo, 1918) -- 20. Performances During the Civil War / Alexander Mgebrov (Zhizn' v teatre, 1919) -- 21. Collective Readings / Alexander Mgebrov (Zhizn' v teatre,1918-1919) -- 22. 'Collective Creation in the Theatre' / Platon Kerzhentsev -- (Proletarskaia kul'tura, 1919) -- 23. 'Strife Between the Arts' / Platon Kerzhentsev (Vestnik teatra, 1919) -- 24. 'On Futurism' / Fyodor Kalinin (Proletarskaia kul'tura, 1919) -- 25. 'Creative Play. The Improvisation Method of N. Skarskaia' / Pavel Gaideburov (VO, 1919) -- 26. 'Experiment in the Staging of Émile Verhaeren's Poem Insurrection' / Valentin Smyshlaev (Gorn, 1919) -- 27. The Results of the New Theatre / Platon Kerzhentsev (Tvorcheskii teatr, 1923) -- 28. The Proletarian Actor / Valentin Tikhonovich (O Teatre, 1922) -- 29. 'The Dramatisation of a Living Newspaper' / Moscow Proletkult (Iskusstvo v rabochem klube, 1924) -- 30. 'On Staging Agit-Trials' / Moscow Proletkult (Iskusstvo v rabochem klube, 1924) -- 31. 'Club Stage: Competition of Living Newspapers' / N.N.V (Rabochii i teatr, 1927) -- PART V: Training -- 32. 'On the Work of the Theatre Department of the Moscow Proletkult' / Valentin Smyshlaev (Gorn, 1918) -- 33. Dramatic Laboratories / Platon Kerzhentsev (Tvorcheskii teatr, 1923) -- 34. 'A Unified Studio of the Arts' / Moscow Proletkult (Iskusstvo v rabochem klube, 1924) -- 35. 'On Theatre Work at the Clubs' / Moscow Proletkult (Iskusstvo v rabochem klube, 1924) -- Epilogue : The Construction of Amateur Theatre / Nikolaj Evreinov (Puti razvitiia teatra, 1927)

"This is the first collection of primary sources that addresses the amateur theatre produced by the workers in the first decade after the Russian Revolution. Newly translated from the Russian, the essays capture both theoretical articulations on the scene – by luminaries such as Alexander Bogdanov, Platon Kerzhentsev, Valerian Pletnev, Alexander Mgebrov and Valentin Smyshliaev – and the more fleeting descriptions and first-hand accounts of the productions staged, accounts and voices which are typically harder to capture. The essays tell a story of unabashed optimism in the creativity of the working classes. They speak of the use of theatre to carve a public and political role in the construction of a new world. The sources, however, also exhibit the flipside of the scene, or the sombre difficulties faced by the amateur actors and the incessant calls to raise standards through professional help. The narrative developed is that of an amateur theatre which began as an autonomous and heterogeneous activity but which by the mid-to-late 1920s was transformed into a regulated practice and a space for cultural programming." -- Baksida.

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