Adrian Ivanovich Piotrovsky (Russian: Адриа́н Ива́нович Пиотро́вский) (20 November [O.S. 8 November] 1898 – 1938) was a Russian dramaturge, responsible for creating the synopsis for Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. He was the "acknowledged godfather" of the Theatre of Working Youth (Teatr Rabochey Molodyozhi: TRAM).[1]
The illegitimate son of the classicist Faddei F. Zielinski, Piotrovsky became Zielinski’s pupil and made scholarly translations of classical Greek plays.[2] He was strongly influenced by Zielinski’s campaign to revive open-air Greek theatre, which would directly inspire Piotrovsky’s involvement in street theatre in the years following the October Revolution.
Piotrovsky also became a pupil and disciple of the theatre director Meyerhold,[3] and for a while worked with Meyerhold in the Theatrical department of Narkompros (the Commissariat of Enlightenment under the leadership of Lunacharsky), teaching classes in Meyerhold’s "Courses in the Mastery of Staging";[4] but by the 1920s he had distanced himself from Meyerhold’s theatre.[3] By this time he had become a close friend and colleague of the theatre director Sergei Radlov (who was also a disciple of Zielinski’s), and in 1919 their first collaborative project, The Battle of Salamis (a play intended for schoolchildren), was staged under Radlov’s direction.[5]
By 1919 Piotrovsky was a member of the Petrograd Formalist group OPOYaZ,[6], and he wrote and directed plays at the People’s Comedy Theatre (Teatr narodnoy komedii).[7] His essentially elitist creed was made clear in his article "Dictatorship", published in October 1920: in this he argued for the necessity of state control of the arts, as otherwise the arts would become prey to both the "petty shopkeeper" and the "man on the street".[8]
He taught in the Division for the History and Theory of the Theatre (founded in 1920) at the State Institute for the History of the Arts (GIII).[9] He was closely associated with TRAM, acting as its principle ideologue. By 1930 the theatre was under attack, accused of "formalism" by its critics from among journalists and rival proletarian organizations.[10] In May 1931 his play Rule, Britannia was staged with music by Shostakovich.[10]
He became artistic director of the Leningrad Film Studio.[11] In 1934 he met Prokofiev, and suggested to him the subject of Romeo and Juliet for a ballet.[12] After Prokofiev had drafted an original treatment of the story, it was further worked upon by Piotrovsky and Radlov.[13]
On 6 February 1936 he was attacked in a Pravda editorial, "Balletic Falsehood", for his libretto, written in collaboration with F Lopukhov, of the ballet The Limpid Stream (with music by Shostakovich).[14] He was arrested by the NKVD in 1938 and died in captivity.[15]