LERA (VALERIJA) BARSHTEIN
Stage design
I studied at the faculty of stage design. It was amazing, as we were given far greater freedom than those who attended, say, the artistic-pedagogical faculty. Those students had to create paintings on Soviet subjects, while we...We had our own program! We learned the stage design of the Commedia dell'arte, the opera, the ballet, and the classics. We could create sketches in any style, even the most unfettered one. Twice a year, we would do practical work in the workshops of various Moscow theaters: the Bolshoy, the Gogol, the Stanislavsky, and the Nemirovich-Danchenko. It was an exhilarating adventure. To this day, whenever I set out to create a new painting, I always imagine how it would look on stage.