ABSTRACT
I DIVIDE the artistic work of the Moscow Art Theatre into two periods, one from the founding of the Theatre up to 1906, and the other from 1906 up to the present day.
The first period is the continuation of what took place in the Sod-· ety of Art and Literature when the young and expansive emotion of the amateurs reacted to all that was accidental and in fashion and attracted our attention, carried away our feelings and filled our minds. In these researches of ours there was a great deal of lost motion, there was no system, no base from which to work, no leading motives, no order. We would throw ourselves to one side and then to the other, taking with us all that we had found before. Having tasted the new, we included it in our baggage and carried it in the opposite direction towards some other modish path. On the way we lost what we had gained before. Much in it was changed because of incorrect use. But some of the important and necessary things remained in the secret warehouses of the soul or became one with the conquests of our developing technique.
