Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, Russia

The first Acting Class in Russia was founded in 1779 at the Emperor's Theatre in St.Petersburg and now it turned to become the largest professional theatre school in Europe with number of faculty over 330, support staff over 230, and over 1480 students. 

There are seven academic departments, namely the Department of Acting and Directing, the Department of Musical and Variety Arts, the Department of Puppetry, the Department of Stage Design and Drama Technology, the Department of Drama, the Department of Production and the Department of Stage Production. The Institute provides degree education for all theatre professionals: playwrights, directors, actors, set-designers, costume designers, stage engineers, theatre researchers, producers. Education is offered for several kinds of performing arts – for drama, for musical theatre, for puppetry, for television and film. Levels of education: bachelors, masters, integrated masters (specialists), PhD program. Education is arranged in studios (constant students cast for the period of education). International students are accepted.

Each studio at Dept. of Acting and Directing present several group productions on two stages of Student theatre open to city public (main stage for 450 seats, smaller stage for 90 seats) and also in own rehearsal hall that is given to each studio. Acting education is mainly based on sufficiently updated version of Stanislavsky method that applies to physicality and to imagination of the actor. Style of training relies on the improvisational techniques –"method of etudes", techniques of spontaneity, "game structures" etc.