Production of comic theater by soviet students
One of the most striking features of the period following 1953 is the effervescence of all kind of amateur theatrical activities. On the one hand, the authorities considered it worthwhile that non professionals should approach the "Art": they approved both of the educational influence of art, and of the fact that it could ensure the "propaganda of the soviet way of life" and provide the whole country with a network of low cost cultural service. On the other hand, these theatrical activities arose a growing interest from below. Among this cultural field, student amateur activities were a special and distinct compound. They had their own specific institutional framework, repertoire, and audience. Just like the others during the post-stalinist period, they expanded their activities : their old field of action was broadened, new kinds of acting were experimented (such as the KVN since 1961). Humour structured the whole student's amateur theatrical production. A large part of it, such as "kapustniks" and their derivates such as STEMs, KVN, "agitbrygada's" performances and student opera were thought as essentially ironical, satirical productions. The presentation focuses on the production and the reception process of self-made theatre student performances and on the diversity of humour proceedings. First we identify the different kinds of student performance, their aims, audience and esthetical means. On the base of interviews and groups' private documents, we analyse how and for which reasons some groups would choose humoristic genres, and how this choice would influence the group's aesthetics and induced connections to different professional networks. Then, we describe, on the ground of various examples, how the limits of the humour were negotiated between the groups and the institutions managing them. In our last point we highlight the paths of circulation of humour patterns and try to analyse the perception mechanisms which would give birth to a particular and limited kind of community including both the performers and their audience.