“I, for one, find the work in our theatres at present pitiful and terrifying. Where men of art once searched, made mistakes, experimented and found new ways to create productions, some of which were bad and others magnificent, now there is nothing but a depressing, well-meaning, shockingly mediocre and devastating lack of talent. Was this your aim? If so you have committed a horrible deed. In your effort to eradicate Formalism, you have destroyed art.”
Vsevolod Meyerhold, Speech to Actors’ House, June 13, 1937