United States Culture Ussr

Government disapproval brings its own reward, particularly for writers. Ask Vaclav Havel. Well, don't bother--everybody knows about the dissident playwright turned Czech leader. Ask Alexander Buravsky. When he started writing plays in 1980, the Soviet Ministry of Culture banned his works. Then along came perestroika. Political maverick Boris N. Yeltsin allowed a production, and Buravsky found himself the toast of Moscow with a hit play called "Speak Out."

Government disapproval brings its own reward, particularly for writers. Ask Vaclav Havel. Well, don't bother--everybody knows about the dissident playwright turned Czech leader. Ask Alexander Buravsky. When he started writing plays in 1980, the Soviet Ministry of Culture banned his works. Then along came perestroika. Political maverick Boris N. Yeltsin allowed a production, and Buravsky found himself the toast of Moscow with a hit play called "Speak Out."

South Coast Repertory will offer a staged reading of Alexander Buravsky's "The Russian Teacher," a contemporary Soviet comedy adapted by Keith Reddin, as the first 1990 offering in its continuing NewSCRipt series, theater officials announced Tuesday. The Jan 22. reading on the Mainstage will be directed by SCR's David Emmes, who first saw the play among a handful he scouted in Moscow and in the Georgian city of Tbilisi on a trip to the Soviet Union last April.

South Coast Repertory will offer a staged reading of Alexander Buravsky's "The Russian Teacher," a contemporary Soviet comedy adapted by Keith Reddin, as the first 1990 offering in its continuing NewSCRipt series, theater officials announced Tuesday. The Jan 22. reading on the Mainstage will be directed by SCR's David Emmes, who first saw the play among a handful he scouted in Moscow and in the Georgian city of Tbilisi on a trip to the Soviet Union last April.