GITIS

Russian Institute of Theater Arts - GITIS - Russian higher educational institution. The largest theater university in Europe and one of the large in the world. Founded in 1878, located in Moscow.

History

On October 22, 1878, under the patronage of the Society of Lovers of Musical and Dramatic Art in Moscow, the Russian pianist Pyotr Adamovich Shostakovsky opened the School of Music and Drama for visitors. In 1883, the Society of Amateurs was renamed the Moscow Philharmonic Society, whose director, P. A. Shostakovsky, transferred his school to its jurisdiction. In 1886, the school, renamed the School of Music and Drama, was equated with conservatories

In 1902, the school moved to a mansion in Maly Kislovsky Lane, where the main building of GITIS is still located.

In 1918, the Music and Drama School was renamed the Music and Drama Institute, in 1919 - the State Institute of Musical Drama, and on September 17, 1922, after merging with the State Higher Theater Workshops under the direction of Vsevolod Meyerhold, it was reorganized into the State Institute of Theater Arts - GITIS; Meyerhold created a theater under him, which at first was called the GITIS Theater, in 1923 separated from the institute and turned into the Meyerhold Theater.

The Institute united 9 independent "production workshops", each had its own master, while the creative positions of the masters could be diametrically opposed; very soon artificially united workshops began to withdraw from the institute.

The lack of elaboration of curricula and programs led to the fact that in the 1925/26 academic year GITIS was transferred to the position of a technical school (keeping the 4-year term of study) and became known as the Central College of Theater Arts (CETETIS), which included three departments: drama, musical drama (opera) and club directing. In 1930, the directing-pedagogical, directorial and theater studies faculties were formed.

In 1931, as a result of the merger of several educational institutions, the Educational and Theater Combine (“Teavuz”) was formed, which in January 1934 was named after Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky. Finally, in July 1935, the Theater Combine was once again reorganized and since then, for more than half a century, it has been called the State Institute of Theater Arts named after Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky. Initially, there were three faculties in GITIS: directing, acting and director; the theater department, which was closed during the reorganization, was restored in 1937, the director's department, on the contrary, was liquidated by 1939.

During the Great Patriotic War, GITIS was evacuated to Saratov, the rector of the institute at that time was Iosif Moiseevich Raevsky.

In 1943-1948, GITIS was headed by Stefan Mokulsky, who was dismissed in early 1949 in the course of the so-called "struggle against cosmopolitanism" - after the publication in Pravda of an article "On an anti-patriotic group of theater critics"; at the same time, many teachers were dismissed from the institute.

On the night of March 28-29, 2013, a fire broke out in the Main Building of GITIS; only the building was damaged, the students were not injured. The fire area was 500 square meters. The fire is believed to have been caused by a short circuit in the attic.