After finishing my Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting/Movement in Moscow, Russia as part of the Moscow Art Theatre School/Carnegie Mellon University’s first Russo-American jointly issued degree program, I returned home to Vermont and realized that my home state had been long deprived of perhaps one of the greatest writers of all time—Mikhail Bulgakov. In his short life during the Stalinist regime, Bulgakov was highly censored and yet revered among the Russian people. My professor of theatre history, Anatoly Smeliansky, archivist for the Moscow Art Theatre and Dean of Students at the MAT School, literally wrote the book (Is Comrade Bulgakov Dead?) on Bulgakov. Professor Smeliansky’s extensive lectures on this author intrigued me to venture into his other works. This is where I discovered Heart of a Dog. Bulgakov’s first novella written in 1925. It tells the story of a scroungy mongrel named "Sharik" (the Russian equivalent of "fluffy") who thanks to the skills of a renowned Soviet scientist and the transplanted pituitary gland and testes of a petty criminal, is transformed into a lecherous, vulgar man who spouts Engels and inevitably finds his niche in the bureaucracy as the government official in charge of purging the city of Moscow of cats. This novella was seized by Stalin officials while still in manuscript form and hidden from the world until 1987, when it was smuggled into Germany and published. The novella’s seemingly farcical nature cunningly hides the ferocious satire that hides within. Plans for an adaptation at the Moscow Art Theatre evaporated as the play was deemed "Anti-Soviet Realism." Bulgakov, a student of Stanislavsky and resident writer/actor at the Moscow Art Theatre, always wrote his novels with theatrical adaptations in mind, "to play the piano, one must use both the left and the right hands." Interestingly, one of Bulgakov’s later adapted plays Days of the Turbins became Stalin’s favorite play, even as it portrayed the "White Army" in a favorable light. A testimony to this author’s skill at censor deception.

After living in Moscow and noticing the profound public support for the theatre (more people go to the theatre in Moscow than watch television and film combined), I began to wonder what drew them to the theatre en masse. As I studied at the Stanislavksy/Nemorovich-Danchenko School, I soon learned the answer. The "Systema Stanislavsky." I realized that as Americans, we were led to believe that Stanislavsky’s approach was too simply linked to the "Methods" of Meisner, Adler or Strausberg. In fact, those "Methods" were only parts of a far more interesting whole. An ensemble-based, process-based approach to acting begun by Stanislavsky and later added to by his students Meyerhold, Vakhtangoff and Bulgakov. A process that creates theatrical events that literally run for decades without stagnation (Bulgakov’s Master and the Margarita is still running at the Taganka Theatre after 25 years in repertoire).

Satirizing Soviet Realism, Bulgakov, an actor and writer at the Moscow Art Theatre, wrote this theatrical novella in a style later named by another great Stanislavsky Student—Vselvod Meyerhold—to be "Grotesque." A style where truthfulness remained important, but realism was abandoned and more imaginative stylized ensemble acting was the primary goal. Since Soviet Realism (Gorky) was doctrine under Stalin, this new "grotesque" was considered "counter-revolutionary" and often censored out of existence. Amazingly, an "underground" movement of theatre in Russia kept this style alive, both in education and performance, and only now are all of the elements of Bulgakov’s writing style and Meyerhold’s directing style finally coming into light and recognition. Due to the nature of funding in the Russian system, this "grotesque" style was not allowed government funding and so the artists found themselves using minimal yet effective technical theatricals, and concentrated on creating the grotesque through acting and directing and cunning minimalist design elements.

My wish to bring the "grotesque" style of Heart of a Dog through this process in Vermont has succeeded. We have created an ensemble of Vermont actors and a new approach to theatre than they have not experienced before. One which creates a living breathing "grotesque" (truthful and stylized theatre), with minimalist yet effective and exciting lighting, set, costume and sound design. In effect, we achieve this "grotesque" the Russian way—with a focused concentration on acting and imaginative minimalist design. Engaging in a process that allows for changes from performance to performance, and allows the artists involved to peer into the artistic world of an era very different from our own, and more importantly, one that brought and continues to bring an entire nation to view an art form many in this country say is a dying one—the theatre. This minimalist approach we are using at this "black box" space, enables the actors to "fill" the piece from a process that creates fantastical from within, with the aid of the necessary efficient  design (and may I say a special bravo to our sound designer, Dan Mazur), instead of the opposite.

I believe that my extensive and ongoing studies with my Russian professors, my experience with Russian theatre, and my extensive training and experience in American theatre, places me in exactly the right place and time to begin to expose actors and audiences from my home to that which I have learned. I choose Heart of a Dog since this was Bulgakov’s first novella, as a jumping off point. To begin to expose Vermont audiences and actors to an author and an acting style that arose out of the deep censorship of the Stalinist era. One that is quickly achieving "classic" connotations in the rewritten history books.

To achieve this goal, I have assembled an incredibly talented and experienced array of Vermont actors and a wonderfully gifted sound designer, Dan Mazur.   The entire crew thrives in the "minimalist" approach and I am thrilled to see a dream realized on stage.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!