Yana Meerzon
My research interests are in drama and performance theory, theatre of exile, and cultural and interdisciplinary studies.
Subjects: History, Media and Cultural Studies
Biography
Dr. Yana Meerzon is an Associate Professor, Department of Theatre, University of Ottawa. Her research interests are in drama and performance theory, practical dramaturgy and adaptation, theatre semiotics and communication, theatre of exile, and cultural and interdisciplinary studies. She has completed a study on Michael Chekhov's acting theory and pedagogy, A Path of the Character: Michael Chekhov's Inspired Acting and Theatre Semiotics, in 2005. Her research project “Theatricality and Exile” has been sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Her manuscript Performing Exile – Performing Self: Drama, Theatre, Film is published by Palgrave, 2012. She has co-edited two books on a similar subject: Performance, Exile and ‘America’ (with Dr. Silvija Jestrovic, Warwick University) Palgrave, 2009; and Adapting Chekhov: The Text and Its Mutations (with Dr. J. Douglas Clayton, University of Ottawa) Routledge, 2012. Her most recent publications include: History, Memory, Performance (co-edited with Dr. David Dean and Kathryn Prince) Palgrave 2015; and recently published (summer 2015) Routledge Companion to Michael Chekhov, co-edited with Marie-Christine Autant-Mathieu. Her articles appeared in New England Theatre Journal, Slavic and East European Journal, Semiotica, Modern Drama, Theatre Research in Canada, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Canadian Theatre Review, and L'Annuaire théâtral.Education
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Ph.D. University of Toronto, 2003
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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My research interests and methodologies reflect my personal and professional biography.
A native speaker of Russian and a former citizen of Soviet Russia, today I work in the bilingual environment of University of Ottawa in Canada, in three languages: English, French, and Russian. This linguistic diversity informs my professional interests marked by theatrical and scholarly traditions of my home and adopted countries. During my academic career, I have been studying the work of Michael Chekhov and historical avant-garde; I looked at the issues of theatricality and exile and intercultural performance theory, with more recent focus on Canadian theatre and immigration; trained theatre semiotician I am also interested in new methodologies of drama and performance analysis today. Fostering research in the fields of diasporic studies, exile, and immigration as these social, economic, cultural and personal conditions are reflected in literature and performing arts has been my major academic and pedagogical focus for the last decade.
Books
Articles
Taming of the Impulse: On The Wooster Group’s Acting Techniques and Methodologie
Published: Dec 17, 2013 by Theatre, Dance and Performance Training
Authors: Meerzon, Yana
The Americanavant-garde theatre companyTheWoosterGroup’s and its artistic director Liz LeCompte’s desire to create a new system of performative devices that could liberate the actor from the necessity to ‘feel’, ‘sympathise’, or ‘transform into a character’ on stage can be traced back to Stanislavsky’s preoccupation to stage the actor’s Self within the designed scoreofphysical actions and impulses.
News
The Routledge Companion to Michael Chekhov
By: Yana Meerzon
The Routledge Companion to Michael Chekhov
The Routledge Companion to Michael Chekhov brings together Chekhov specialists from around the world - theatre practitioners, theorists, historians and archivists – to provide an astonishingly comprehensive assessment of his life, work and legacy.
This volume aims to connect East and West; theatre theory and practice. It reconsiders the history of Chekhov’s acting method, directing and pedagogy, using the archival documents found across the globe: in Russia, England, America, Germany, Lithuania and Switzerland. It presents Chekhov’s legacy and ideas in the framework of interdisciplinary theatre practices and theories, as well as at the crossroads of cultures, in the context of his forays into such areas as Western mime and Asian cosmology.
This remarkable Companion, thoughtfully edited by two leading Chekhov scholars, will prove invaluable to students and scholars of theatre, theatre practitioners and theoreticians, and specialists in Slavic and transcultural studies.
Marie-Christine Autant-Mathieu is Director of Research at the National Center For Scientific Research, and Assistant-Director of Sorbonne-CNRS Institute EUR’ORBEM. She is an historian of theatre and specialist in Russian and Soviet theatre.
Yana Meerzon is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre, University of Ottawa. Her book publications include Adapting Chekhov: The Text and Its Mutations, co-edited with Professor J. Douglas Clayton, University of Ottawa (Routlegde, 2012).