Adrian Piotrovsky

The illegitimate son of the prominent Polish classicist Tadeusz Stefan Zieliński, Piotrovsky became Zielinski’s pupil and made scholarly translations of classical Greek plays. 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.

Adrian Ivanovich Piotrovsky (Russian: Адриа́н Ива́нович Пиотро́вский ) (20 November [O.S. 8 November] 1898 – 21 November 1937) was a Russian dramaturge, responsible for creating the synopsis for Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet. He was the "acknowledged godfather" of the Workers' Youth Theatre (Teatr Rabochey Molodyozhi: TRAM).

On 6 February 1936 Piotrovsky was attacked in a Pravda editorial, "Balletic Falsehood", for his libretto, written in collaboration with Fyodor Lopukhov, of the ballet The Limpid Stream (with music by Shostakovich). He was arrested by the NKVD in November 1937 and shot in captivity.

Piotrovsky became artistic director of the Leningrad Film Studio. In 1934 he met Prokofiev, and suggested to him the subject of Romeo and Juliet for a ballet. After Prokofiev had drafted an original treatment of the story, it was further worked upon by Piotrovsky and Sergei Radlov.

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). 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. In May 1931 Piotrovsky's play Rule, Britannia was staged with music by Dmitri Shostakovich.

By 1919 Piotrovsky was a member of the Petrograd formalist group OPOJAZ, and he wrote and directed plays at the People's Comedy Theatre (Teatr Narodnoy Komedii). In spite of his interest in popular and street theatre, he also displayed certain elitist tendencies, arguing in an article entitled "Dictatorship," published in October 1920, that state control of the arts was necessary, since otherwise the arts would become prey to both the "petty shopkeeper" and the "man on the street."