<i> GLASNOST </i> MOVES INTO SOVIET THEATER

“The theater has re-established its status as a focal point for the discussion of the most sensitive matters, a pulpit from which the most vital issues may be raised.”

Sounds like a quote from the Mark Taper Forum’s re-dedication ceremony. In fact, it’s a quote from Russian theater critic Mikhail Schvidkoi, speaking about changes in Soviet theater during the Gorbachev era.

Writing in London Theatre Record, Schvidkoi cites a number of new Russian plays that criticize the rubber-stamp routines of Soviet society and call for a more open approach to dealing with human and national problems.

The Moscow Art Theatre’s “The Silver Wedding” is “an attempt to discover why . . . normal, decent, hard-working people become bureaucrats.” “Speak Out” at the Yermolava Theatre examines “the most sensitive aspects of relationships between the people and the party leaders.”

The Rustaveli Theatre’s “Concerto for Two Violins and Oriental Instruments” has two government officials literally wrestling to be in charge of the same office, while its walls come down around their ears.

Schvidkoi also reports a practical step in freeing Soviet theater from the bureaucrats. For the next two years, 70 theaters around the country will be allowed to spend their annual subsidy “at their own discretion,” without clearing everything first with Moscow.

Except, we presume, their choice of plays.

LONG WEEKEND: It’s all over but the post-mortems at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s annual Humana Festival of New American Plays.

The Associated Press’ Michael Kuchwara thought the festival had “recovered some of the momentum lost in the last two years. There were fewer clinkers, plays that make you want to dash from the theater five minutes after the house lights go down.”

The New York Times’ Mel Gussow saw one too many junk-filled sets, but felt that “there were moments . . . that reminded one of the residual vitality of the American theater.”

Both Kuchwara and Gussow particularly liked “Elaine’s Daughter,” written by Los Angeles-based playwright Mayo Simon and staged by Jules Aaron of CalArts. Gussow called it “the brightest play of the weekend” and Kuchwara called it “funny and rueful.”

It’s about a California widow (Marilyn Rockafellow) who thinks that a woman’s first job is to please her man, and the widow’s daughter (Jill Holden), who couldn’t agree less.

Nothing there that needs to be cleared.

ON THE MOVE: Russell Vandenbroucke, who spent seven years as literary manager of the Mark Taper Forum, is leaving the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis to become artistic director of Chicago’s Northlight Theatre. . . . Craig Lucas’ and Craig Carnelia’s “Three Postcards” will open May 14 at Playwrights Horizons in New York, with all of the people who played it at South Coast Repertory.

IN QUOTES: Frank Langella, to David Galligan in Drama-Logue: “I’m against the idea that anybody can act. Anybody can behave , and several people can behave interestingly enough to convince you or fool you for awhile that they’re actors. But they’re not.”