Page:Education and Art in Soviet Russia (1919).djvu/55

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

to organized democracy. Besides, the Section has acted as an information bureau to proletarian organizations which have been seeking the Section's help in obtaining eek for their cultural needs.

The Section has had to pass on whether the living quarters of various individual actors, artists or musicians were subject to requisition or progressive housing; whether permission should be granted to certain members of the theatrical and musical profession regarding the removal of valuables from the safes, and what particular valuables, etc.

Thousands of persons have come to the Section requesting a speedy solution of all these questions.

Still more complex, and consuming still greater time, has been the work connected with the management of the State Theatres. It was necessary to carry out, as quickly as possible, the reorganization in the management of the theatres and determine the composition of theatrical companies for the next season, in order to begin immediate preparations for the next season. The representatives of the Sections had to actively participate in the meetings of the Soviets of the Main and Little theatres and the Dramatic School, meetings of theatre managements, committees on reorganizations; conferences of separate theatrical troops and groups of theatrical workers; to participate in the investigation of means on hand and to prepare the estimates for next year. Not a single day passed without such meetings and it was a rare thing when only one such meeting was held instead of two or three. As a result of this activity a temporary provision for the managing of the Little Theatre has been finally drawn up and accepted; the composition of the theatre agreed upon and organs for its management established. The work in connection with the Main Theatre and the Dramatic School has been almost completed. The Section's activity in organizing the distribution of tickets to the State Theatres among labor bodies in order to throw open these theatres to large sections of democracy—deserves to be mentioned here.

The Soviet Theatre has been receiving special attention from the Section. When this theatre went over to the Art Union of labor organizations, two representatives from the Section joined the theatre's management. Such performance as "The Barber of Seville" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" proved to be events in the theatrical life of Moscow.