Students are observant and mocking of the little things in strange behavior. But even Alpers’ straight and strict spine disciplined our unchecked observation. His calm, measured walk within the walls of the GITIS of those days suppressed foolishness and vanity. From the other teachers from the end of the 40s and the beginning of the 50s, we received knowledge adapted to official ideology. On those subjects, Alpers simply remained silent. He didn’t tell us about Meyerhold – the name “Meyerhold” was then forbidden. But by confluence of circumstances, I had at home B.V. Alpers’ own book, “Theatre of the Social Mask,” and happily, nobody kept me from reading it. The enormity of Meyerhold’s theatrical “galaxies" was given to us through the figure of Alpers as a vague sensation, but to Boris Vladimirovich – it was unmediated reality.
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