The school theatre as a place of cultural learning: the case of Soviet Latvia (1960s–1980s)

Abstract

The goal of this article is to reveal how through school theatre activities under authoritarian rule, changes took place in pupil knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviour regarding culture, namely, how the process of cultural learning occurs. I use a historical case study, specifically the case of the Valmiera School Theatre, which was the leading theatre group, not only in Soviet Latvia, but also in the entire Soviet Union. My primary sources are eight unstructured interviews, 20 published memoirs, articles in the press, theatre programmes, and photographs. One part of Soviet pedagogy was aesthetic upbringing, which was implemented through state-funded collectives, including school theatre groups. By participating in theatre activities, students gained knowledge of cultural heritage (literature, theatre, art, etc.), the ability to perform and acquire skills in other practical fields, and developed an appreciation of culture as a value. I argue that cultural learning through theatre was demonstrated by the fact that the students transferred their knowledge, skills, and attitudes to a new context, namely, their places of work and public cultural activities (e.g. amateur theatres). This case study also reveals the specific role of school theatre in the process of cultural learning, as well as some sensitive issues in the relationship between knowledge-orientated or formal educational environments, and the informal creativity of school theatre.

Keywords:

• School theatre
• cultural learning
• Latvia

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the graduates of Valmiera Viesturs Secondary School, particularly teacher Māris Lapsiņš, for their time and support in the completion of my research.

Notes

¹ Kevin Myers and Ian Grosvenor, “Cultural Learning and Historical Memory: A Research Agenda,” Encounters/Encuentros/Rencontres on Education 15 (2014): 4.

² Kirsten Hastrup, “Theatre as a Site of Passage,” in Ritual, Performance, Media, ed. Felicia Hughes-Freeland (London: Routledge, 1998), 31.

³ Jerry Wellington, Secondary Education: The Key Concepts (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), 132.

⁴ Myers and Grosvenor, “Cultural Learning and Historical Memory: A Research Agenda,” 5.

⁵ Valmiera (Wolmar in German) is located 110 km from the capital city Riga and 50 km from the Estonian border. Valmiera is first mentioned in mediaeval chronicles in 1213, and throughout the centuries it was one of the cultural and educational centres of Latvia. A Latvian theatre group already operated here at the end of the nineteenth century. During the Soviet era, the population of Valmiera was around 20,000–30,000 people.

⁶ “Panorāma” [Panorama], Dzimtenes Balss [Voice of the homeland], February 16, 1978; Velga Ernstreite, “‘Sprīdītis’ iziet pasaulē” [“Sprīdītis” goes out into the world], Zvaigzne [Star], January 5, 1978.

⁷ Kim Etherington, “Reflexivity: Using Our ‘Selves’ in Narrative Research,” in Narrative Research on Learning: Comparative and International Perspectives, ed. Sheila Trahar (Didcot: Symposium Books, 2009), 77, 82.

⁸ Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison, Research Methods in Education (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), 355, 361–72.

⁹ Māris Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē [“Sprīdītis” in the happy land] (Valmiera: SIA “Valmieras tipogrāfija LAPA”, 2015).

¹⁰ Tatjana Iljina, Pedagogija [Pedagogy] (Riga: Zvaigzne, 1971), 43–180.

¹¹ Ibid., 147.

¹² Rasa Jautakyte, Ene Mägi, Žermena Vazne and Dzintra Grundmane, “Extracurricular Activities,” in History of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences in the Baltic Countries from 1940 to 1990: An Overview, ed. Iveta Ķestere and Aīda Krūze (Riga: Raka, 2013), 98–111.

¹³ Ken Jones, Education in Britain 1944 to the Present (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012), 57–66.

¹⁴ “Par partijas ideoloģiskā darba kārtējiem uzdevumiem. PSKP CK Plēnuma 1963. gada 21. jūnijā lēmums sakarā ar PSKP CK sekretāra b. L. Iļjičova referātu” [About the party’s current tasks for ideological work. Soviet Union Communist Party Central Committee Decision of 21 June 1963 Regarding the Report by CPSU CC Secretary Comrade L.Iljicov], Cīņa [Struggle], June 22, 1963.

¹⁵ “Postanovlenije bjuro CK KPSS po RSFSR ot 22 avgusta 1963 goda ‘O sostojaniji i merah po ulucseniju esteticeskovo vospitanija ucascihsja obsceobrazovatelnih skol RSFSR’” [Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Communist Party Central Committee Decision, 22 August 1963 “On the situation of aesthetic upbringing in RSFSR general education schools and possibilities for improvement”], Ucitelskaja gazeta [Teacher newspaper], September 10, 1963; V. Jansons, LKP CK Ideoloģiskās nodaļas zinātnes un mācību iestāžu sektora vadītajs [LCO CC Head of the Ideological department for education and science institutions], “Augstu komunistisko idejiskumu” [High communist ideals], Cīņa, May 17, 1963.

¹⁶ F. G. Panacin, M. N. Kolmakova and Z. I. Ravkin, eds., Ocerki istorii skoli i pedagogiceskoj mislji narodov SSSR, 1961 – 1986gg [Essays on the history of school and pedagogical thought of the nations of the USSR] (Moscow: Pedagogika, 1987), 298.

¹⁷ Dikļi – a hamlet that developed around Dikļi manor, located 20 km from Valmiera and 122 km from Riga.

¹⁸ Austra Avotiņa, et al. Latvijas kultūras vēsture [History of Latvian culture] (Riga: Zvaigzne ABC, 2003), 163.

¹⁹ Gunta Strautmane, ed., Dialogā ar vēsturi. Pētera Krupņikova dzīvesstāsts [Dialogue with history. Life story of Pēteris Krupņikovs] (Riga: Zinātne, 2015), 109.

²⁰ Andris Kadeģis, Izrakteņi. Atmiņas un liecības. XX gadsimts [Fossils. Memories and evidence. XX century] (Riga: Dienas Grāmata, 2011), 89–90.

²¹ The origins of school theatre are considered to be found in the Middle Ages, since the twelfth century, when dramas in Greek and Latin were put on by students in town squares. It is quite possible that the Riga Cathedral School, founded in 1211, also performed such plays. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Protestant school dramas in German language became popular in Germany. German culture dominated on Latvian territory, resulting in performances by Riga Cathedral School students, such as the 1527 performance of Burkard Waldis’s play Der Verlorene Sohn. Discussions on the role of theatre in education continued in Europe during the course of the next centuries – the classics were too difficult for pupils and more modern plays were considered frivolous. Play performances were replaced with readings of the scripts. School theatre gained an important role during the late nineteenth century with the growth of the Progressive Education movement and entered Latvian schools at the beginning of the twentieth century. (Ojārs Zanders, Gadsimtu silueti Rīgas bruģakmeņos [Century outlines on the cobblestones of Riga] (Rīga: Jumava, 2002), 60; Tanja Klepacki, Bildungsprozesse im Schultheater. Eine ethnographische Studie (Münster: Waxmann, 2016), 12–21).

²² “Skolas teātris” [School theatre], Dzimtenes Vēstnesis [Homeland Herald], September 24, 1916.

²³ P. Gailītis, “Skolu teātri un sarīkojumi” [School theatres and social events], Izglītības Ministrijas Mēnešraksts [Ministry of Education Monthly] 4 (1936): 359–66.

²⁴ Madeline Duntley, “Observing Meaning: Ritual Criticism, Interpretation, and Anthropological Fieldwork,” in Celebrations of Identity: Multiple Voices in American Ritual Performance, ed. Pamela R. Frese (Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1993), 1.

²⁵ Richard Rose, Understanding Post-Communist Transformation: A Bottom Up Approach (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009), 13.

²⁶ Valdis Rūja, “Jaunatnes sarīkojums” [Youth event], Padomju Jaunatne [Soviet Youth], November, 12, 1946; J. Sars, “Skolēnu sarīkojumā [At a pupil event],” Padomju Jaunatne, April 18, 1946.

²⁷ Peter Abbs, Against the Flow: Education, the Arts and Postmodern Culture (New York: Routledge Falmer, 2003), 50.

²⁸ Philip Taylor, The Drama Classroom: Action, Reflection, Transformation (London: Routledge Falmer, 2000), 5.

²⁹ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

³⁰ R. Pīlādze, “Septiņi skolas teātri” [Seven school theatres], Padomju Jaunatne, January 5, 1971.

³¹ Ausma Stūrīte, “Skolēnu pašdarbības skates fināls” [School amateur theatre competition finals], Cīņa [Fight], January 13, 1971, quoted in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē [“Sprīdītis” in the happy land], 46.

³² The name “secondary school” in Soviet Latvia denoted schools that combined the first eight grades of basic education and an additional three grades of secondary education.

³³ Respecting the family’s wishes for privacy, I did not name this director in my paper. In short, he was born in independent Latvia in Riga in 1935 to an officer in the Latvian army and a homemaker. The director’s father was deported to Siberia by Soviet authorities in 1940, from where he returned to Latvia at the end of the 1950s, but no longer lived with his family. The director was raised by his mother and her sisters in very dire circumstances. He graduated from the Faculty of History at Latvia State University. During his university years, he was a leading figure in the university theatre, where he met his wife. Two sons were raised in their family and one of them became a professional actor. He spent his entire working career teaching history in Valmiera and died in 1999 at the age of 64.

³⁴ Margarita Slūka, “Manas atmiņas par skolas teātra gadiem – vislabākās” [My memories of the years spent in the school theatre – the best] in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 18.

³⁵ Konstatin Stanislavsky (1863–1938) was a renowned Soviet Russian actor and director. The main idea of his method was that the actor must embrace and connect with the character and display genuine emotions when portraying the role.

³⁶ As we know from many examples related to pedagogical experiments, faithful women have always inspired reformers (for example, Ovide Decroly and John Dewey).

³⁷ In 1959 in the Latvian SSR, of the workers in the field of education, science, and the arts, 74.9% were women and only 25.1% were men. See Itogi vsesojuznoi perepisi naselenija 1959 goda. Latvijskaja SSR [Soviet Union 1959 Census Results. Latvian SSR] (Moskva: Gosstatizdat CSU SSSR, 1963), 37.

³⁸ Interview no. 3, May 17, 2015.

³⁹ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015 and Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

⁴⁰ Taylor, The Drama Classroom, 12.

⁴¹ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

⁴² Slūka, “Manas atmiņas par skolas teātra gadiem – vislabākās” 17.

⁴³ Interview no. 3, May 17, 2015.

⁴⁴ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

⁴⁵ Sweeping the stage was mentioned by several respondents, and this scene also appears in the cinema magazine “Pionieris” [Pioneer], 1983, no. 1, Collection of the Latvian State Archive of Audiovisual Documents.

⁴⁶ Interview no. 1, May 10, 2015.

⁴⁷ Jogita Sīpola, “Teātris ir viens liels noslēpums” [Theatre is one big secret], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 133.

⁴⁸ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

⁴⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰ Interview no. 4, May 19, 2015.

⁵¹ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

⁵² Interview no. 4, May 19, 2015.

⁵³ A. Upeniece-Skudra, “Varbūt uz Valmieru …” [Maybe to Valmiera …], Padomju Jaunatne, June 10, 1975.

⁵⁴ Interview no. 1, May 10, 2015.

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

⁵⁷ Laimonis Līdaka, “Mēs jutāmies kā mākslinieki” [We felt like professional artists], “Piecas no piektās teātra klases atmiņu stundā pie tējas tases” [Five from the fifth theatre class – reminiscing with a cup of tea], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 79, 165.

⁵⁸ Baiba Sipeniece-Gavare, “Veiksmīgāku dzīves startu es nevaru iedomāties” [I can’t imagine a more successful start to life], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 192.

⁵⁹ Interview no. 8, June 5, 2015.

⁶⁰ Interview no. 3, May 17, 2015.

⁶¹ Rasma Legzdiņa, “Mēs visi jutāmies piederīgi šim teātrim” [We all felt a sense of belonging to this theatre], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 26.

⁶² Interview no. 1, May 10, 2015.

⁶³ Interview no. 4, May 19, 2015.

⁶⁴ Interview no. 8, June 5, 2015.

⁶⁵ Sipeniece-Gavare, “Veiksmīgāku dzīves startu es nevaru iedomāties”, 195.

⁶⁶ Ingūna Vācmane, “Skatuve mums bija kā brīnums” [The stage was like a wonder to us], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 136.

⁶⁷ Work on kolkhozes was an obligatory activity in the summer months for students during the Soviet era.

⁶⁸ “Piecas no piektās teātra klases atmiņu stundā pie tējas tases”, 172.

⁶⁹ Ibid., 175.

⁷⁰ Legzdiņa, “Mēs visi jutāmies piederīgi šim teātrim”, 26.

⁷¹ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

⁷² Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

⁷³ Slūka, “Manas atmiņas par skolas teātra gadiem – vislabākās”, Olmane, “Mums viņš bija VISS” [For us, he was everything], Tālivaldis Lasmanis, “Man bija milzīga vēlēšanās būt teātrī” [I had a great desire to be in the theatre], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 19, 60, 110.

⁷⁴ From 1968 until 1988, 31 significant articles about the Valmiera School Theatre were published in the Soviet Latvian press.

⁷⁵ Elga Olmane, “Mums viņš bija VISS” [For Us, He Was EVERYTHING], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 61.

⁷⁶ Interview no. 4, May 19, 2015.

⁷⁷ Interview no. 7, June 2, 2015.

⁷⁸ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

⁷⁹ Interview no. 4, May 19, 2015.

⁸⁰ Christmas as a religious holiday was forbidden in the Soviet Union.

⁸¹ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

⁸² Maija Mežka, “Eju, eju pasaulē …” [I go into the world], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 139.

⁸³ Legzdiņa, “Mēs visi jutāmies piederīgi šim teātrim” [We All Felt a Sense of Belonging to this Theatre], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē [“Sprīdītis” in The Happy Land], 27.

⁸⁴ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

⁸⁵ L. Kanskis, “Kursi skolu režisoriem” [Courses for school theatre directors], Cīņa, August 11, 1970.

⁸⁶ Maija Deguna, “Skolēnu teātris ‘Sprīdītis’ – mana dzīves skola” [School theatre “sprīdītis” – my school of life] in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 55.

⁸⁷ Daina Bleiere, Eiropa ārpus Eiropas ... Dzīve Latvijas PSRS [Europe outside of Europe ... life in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic] (Rīga: LU Akadēmiskais apgāds, 2015), 122.

⁸⁸ Laima Drande, “Dzīvē noderīgo iemācījos Viesturskolas teātrī” [The most important things in life I learned in Viesturschool theatre], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 152.

⁸⁹ Sipeniece-Gavare, “Veiksmīgāku dzīves stratu es nevaru iedomāties”, 195.

⁹⁰ Drande, “Dzīvē noderīgo iemācījos Viesturskolas teātrī”, 152.

⁹¹ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

⁹² Interview no. 4, May 19, 2015.

⁹³ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

⁹⁴ Interview no. 1, May 10, 2015.

⁹⁵ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

⁹⁶ Anita Vīksna, “Mans laiks Viesturskolā un skolas teātrī” [My Time in Viesturschool and the School Theatre], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 14.

⁹⁷ The director staged performances up to the very last moment of his life in 1999 and had already prepared a successor for his work – a 1982 theatre class graduate. The new director worked in Valmiera for 15 years and has now become the “old” director, because now he is assisted by a younger colleague. Students are enrolled in the theatre class every year, the number of actors has grown considerably, and they continue to stage several performances a year. In 2015, the eightieth anniversary of the director’s birth was widely celebrated in the Valmiera school.

⁹⁸ Title of articles in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē.

⁹⁹ Interview no. 1, May 10, 2015; “Piecas no piektās teātra klases atmiņu stundā pie tējas tases”, 171.

¹⁰⁰ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

¹⁰¹ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

¹⁰² Interview no. 3, May 17, 2015.

¹⁰³ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

¹⁰⁴ See Andrejs Plakans, The Concise History of The Baltic States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 374, 380.

¹⁰⁵ Pāri jumta korei. Programma [Above the gable. Playbill] (Valmiera: 1970).

¹⁰⁶ The complete list of performances can be found in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 353–9.

¹⁰⁷ Interview no. 6, March 3, 2015.

¹⁰⁸ Interview no. 2, May 11, 2015.

¹⁰⁹ Ibid.

¹¹⁰ Interview no. 8, June 5, 2015.

¹¹¹ Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 353–6.

¹¹² Interview no. 1, May 10, 2015; interview no. 3, May 17, 2015.

¹¹³ Maija Mežka, “Eju, eju pasaulē …”, 138.

¹¹⁴ Drande, “Dzīvē noderīgo iemācījos Viesturskolas teātrī”, 153.

¹¹⁵ Zane Radzobe, “‘Degošais akmens’, intervija ar scenogrāfu Andri Freibergu” [“Burning Stone”, interview with stage designer Andris Freibergs], Māksla Plus [Art plus] 2 (2010), quoted in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 142.

¹¹⁶ Interview no. 4, May 19, 2015.

¹¹⁷ Slūka, “Manas atmiņas par skolas teātra gadiem – vislabākās”, 19.

¹¹⁸ Anita Valmiera, “Trīs nozīmīgi gadi pasaules paplašināšanā” [Three significant years in expanding the world], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 29.

¹¹⁹ “Piecas no piektās teātra klases atmiņu stundā pie tējas tases”, 169.

¹²⁰ Interview no. 7, June 2, 2015.

¹²¹ For more on the modern school as a business, as opposed to a cultural institution, see Günther Böhme, Kultur un pädagogische Reform. Zur Aktualitäteiner humanistischen Bildung (Idstein: Schulz-Kirchner Verlag, 2008), 50–1.

¹²² Charles A. O’Reilly and Jennifer A. Chatman, “Culture as Social Control: Corporations, Cults, and Commitment,” Research in Organization Behavior 18 (1996): 160.

¹²³ Interview no. 3, May 17, 2015.

¹²⁴ Jerome Bruner, “Tenets to Understand a Cultural Perspective of Learning,” in Teaching, Learning and the Curriculum in Secondary Schools, ed. Bob Moon, Ann Shelton Mayers and Steven Hutchinson (London: Routledge Falmer, 2007), 19.

¹²⁵ Here, similarities can be found with Grosvenor and Pataki’s descriptions of alternative creative learning spaces – arts and craft colonies and experimental schools. See Ian Grosvenor and Gyöngyver Pataki, “Learning through Culture: Seeking ‘Critical Case Studies of Possibilities’ in the History of Education,” Paedagogica Historica.doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2016.1264981

¹²⁶ See Maria Mälksoo, “Introduction,” in Historical Memory Versus Communist Identity. Proceedings of the Conference “The Shaping of Identity and Personality under Communist Rule: History in the Service of Totalitarian Regimes in Eastern Europe,” Tallinn, 9–10 June 2011, ed. Meelis Saueauk (Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2014), 13.

¹²⁷ Zane Bēķe, “‘Sprīdītis’ – īpaša kvalitātes zīme visam mūžam” [“Sprīdītis” – a life-long symbol of quality], in Lapsiņš, ed., “Sprīdītis” laimīgajā zemē, 156.

¹²⁸ Sipeniece-Gavare, “Veiksmīgāku dzīves stratu es nevaru iedomāties”, 197.

¹²⁹ Interview no. 5, May 20, 2015.

¹³⁰ Sipeniece-Gavare, “Veiksmīgāku dzīves stratu es nevaru iedomāties”, 200.

¹³¹ “Piecas no piektās teātra klases atmiņu stundā pie tējas tases”, 177.

¹³² Interview no. 3, May 17, 2015.

¹³³ Slūka, “Manas atmiņas par skolas teātra gadiem – vislabākās”, 18.

¹³⁴ Peter Brinson, Dance as Education: Towards a National Dance Culture (London: Routledge Falmer, 1991), 57–8.

¹³⁵ Bruner, “Tenets to Understand a Cultural Perspective of Learning,” 13.

¹³⁶ Grosvenor and Pataki, “Learning through Culture: Seeking ‘Critical Case Studies of Possibilities’ in the History of Education,” 9.

¹³⁷ Ibid.

¹³⁸ Joe Winston, Drama, Narrative, and Moral Education: Exploring Traditional Tales in the Primary Years (London: Falmer Press, 1998), 8.

¹³⁹ Lasmanis, “Man bija milzīga vēlēšanās būt teātrī”, 112.

¹⁴⁰ Abbs, Against the Flow, 55.

¹⁴¹ Tanja Klepacki, Bildungsprozesse im Schultheater. Eine ethnographische Studie (Münster: Waxmann, 2016), 23.

¹⁴² Abbs, Against the Flow, 59.

¹⁴³ O’Reilly and Chatman, “Culture as Social Control: Corporations, Cults, and Commitment,” 163.