Biomechanics and Constructivism (theatre movements)

Brockett, Oscar G. "The Theatre in Europe and America Between the Wars." Ch. 17 of History of the Theatre. 3rd edn. Boston: Allyn, 1977.

See the cited chapter of this standard reference for its discussion of biomechanics and constructivism. Biomechanics is the theory of Vsevelod Meyerhold (a.k.a. Karl Theodore Kasimir Meyerhold), who attempted to find an acting style "appropriate to the machine age" (524) and to actors seen as machines. Constructivism is a term appropriated from the visual arts, esp. sculpture; in Meyerhold's approach, it refers to the creation of a space that will be "'a machine for acting'" (Brockett 525; see illus. on 524: set from Meyerhold's production of The Magnificent Cuckold). For the influence on Meyerhold of Frederick W. Taylor, see Brockett and Robert R. Findlay, Century of Innovation: A History of European and American Theatre and Drama Since 1870 (1973).